Category Archives: Winston-Salem

Vote for Me!

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I love Smitty's Notes, and Smitty ain't too bad either.  I've had the pleasure of meeting with Smitty on a couple of occasions and I consider him a local treasure.  That's why I think it's a HUGE honor to be selected by his readers as one of Winston-Salem's best.  Unfortunately I've never even made it onto the "also mentioned" category in "Best blogs" which really isn't all that surprising, but it is a bummer.  Here's the thing: Smitty's survey is pure in that he doesn't give you multiple choices.  The entire thing is write-in so if no one writes in "jonlowder.com" I'm not gonna get any love.  Now I'm not saying I think that I'm the best blog around (that title rightfully belongs to Esbee'sLife in Forsyth), but I would l-o-v-e to get a mention in Smitty's results as an also-ran (my Mom will tell you I've never been the most ambitious soul) so please, please, please hop on over to the survey and write in JonLowder.com under Best Blog. 

Obviously I'm not averse to pimping my soul for votes, and honestly if I had a million dollars I'd bribe you to vote for me.  For now I'll just have to beg.  Pretty please?

Cool Winston-Salem Habitat for Humanity Program Involving High School Groups

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I came across this item from a news site in Loudoun County, Virginia and it piqued my interest since that's right down the road from where I lived much of my life before moving to the Winston-Salem area.  Essentially it's a story about 10 high school football players from Park View High School spending a week at the Winston-Salem Habitat for Humanity assisting on some of the houses.  Here are some excerpts:

The Habitat trip began April 5 when the participating players and chaperons departed from Park View. On the drive to Winston-Salem, players were given the opportunity to visit four colleges (Liberty University, Virginia Tech, Winston-Salem State University and Wake Forest University).

After arriving at the Habitat Forsyth office, players were shown their living quarters for the week — a loft above the Habitat Re-Store that featured two large rooms with military-style cots for sleeping, a kitchen, a table tennis room and a living room with a TV and DVD player. Below the loft were bathrooms with showers and a laundry room. While the living facilities were not luxurious, it held an aura of tradition as every group to have volunteered and stayed in the Habitat loft had left a wall mural representing their school.

The Park View football players went through an orientation where they learned a little about the Habitat process and the people for whom the Habitat houses are built. Many players were surprised to learn that Habitat did not simply provide homes for free, but offered financial responsibility classes for homeowners and actually sold the homes at an extremely low price with a no-interest mortgage…

The second day saw the group work on a different project, the Youth United house. Youth United is a volunteer program that was intriguing to the Park View group. Ten high schools in the Winston-Salem area banded together to raise $55,000 to sponsor the building of a Habitat house. They also worked to provide volunteers to help build the home…

Many of the members of the Habitat trip will be returning to the Winston-Salem area this July when they plan to participate in the Wake Forest University Passing Camp. One of the houses the players worked on may be ready to be handed over to a family by July, and the home dedication ceremony could be when the Patriots are in town.

I really like a few things about this story.  First, it's a great way to get kids involved in Habitat projects.  Second, it's a great way for Habitat to get more hands on deck for their projects and get the word out to the next generation about their programs.  Third, it's a great way to introduce the Piedmont Triad to kids from other regions. Fourth, it's a great way for some high school kids to do good while also working on their own futures with visits to universities.  Finally, it can't hurt the local schools' recruiting that they had those kids visiting their campuses (not to mention Wake's football program).

Biggest surprise of the story to me?  The fact that Habitat houses visiting groups in the loft over the Re-Store.  I had no idea.

Go West!

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West Forsyth High School's girls varsity soccer team, currently ranked 14th in North Carolina, was profiled in the Winston-Salem Journal today.  My daughter plays for the JV team and some of her friends are the freshmen varsity starters that are mentioned in the article.  She already realizes that she's going to have to work very hard to crack the varsity lineup next year, but knowing her she won't shrink from the challenge and if she makes it the reward will be that much greater.

Local Shopping: Burn Barrels

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I have lots of yard waste.  In fact after getting our new septic field installed I think I literally have a ton of torn down bushes and small trees that I need to get rid of.  Last weekend I had the kids help me move them to the small wooded area behind our house, but I'm not happy with it because I think I have a rather large brush fire in the making if we get a dry, hot summer.  Thankfully there's a solution at hand.

Last week my buddy Fig told me he'd purchased a burn barrel for $10 from Shouse's near the corner of Yadkinville and Reynolda Roads.  "A burn barrel!" I thought.  I don't have space to do an open burn of my big pile of stuff, but I figured I could burn a little every night in a barrel.  Yesterday when I was out in that neck of the woods I stopped by Shouse's to see if they had any more barrels.  Lucky for me they'd just gotten some barrels that had been used to ship molasses, so they used the biggest can opener I've ever seen to cut the top off and loaded the now open barrel in the back of the minivan for me.  Since the inside of the barrel still had some molasses coating it our old minivan smells pretty darn nice right now, and I assume that the first couple of burns are going to make our yard smell like a molasses cookie factory.

Here's Shouse's location via Google Maps:

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Apparently America’s Top Model Search NOT Coming to W-S Journal Newsroom

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In what appears to be an ill-fated attempt to buck up the morale in the Winston-Salem Journal newsroom managing editor Ken Otterbourg had this to say (found in an Arizona Republic article about how reporters are depicted in movies):

"Reporters are always better-looking in movies than in real life," said Ken Otterbourg, the managing editor of theWinston-Salem Journal, in North Carolina. "There's a phrase I use to describe most people who work at newspapers – myself included, all genders – which is 'newsroom pretty,' which is a lower grade of pretty than real-world pretty." 

Oh snap! But let's be fair and share the Big O's other quote in the story:

"In real life," Otterbourg said, "the sort of revelatory scoops on which movies are made rarely happen. It's more of a series of steps and monk's work at a courthouse or the like. And most reporters – even the good investigative ones – tend to have better social skills than the lone wolves of the movies. . . . Being a journalist is about getting people to talk with you, and nobody is obligated to talk to us. You can't do it by being a jerk."

To sum it up: reporters are really friendly, yet homely folks who toil in the bowels of places like the courthouse.

In defense of the Big O I should also point out that in the movies the actors are better looking than whomever they're depicting, whether it be reporters or lawyers.  The most notable exception, of course, would be any film in which Dustin Hoffman was the actor.

Reader Mail re. Medical Facilities in Clemmons

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Got this anonymous email today and thought I'd share to see if anyone's heard about this:

On Monday, April 6, an unnamed Urgent Care provider has announced its intentions to the open a new immediate care clinic in Clemmons, NC, located close to the proposed Novant Hospital location, pending state and local approvals. The clinic will feature the same state-of-the-art technology and equipment including electronic medical kiosks, digital radiology and flat screen televisions. Medical care services will range from school and sports physicals, lab work, x-rays, prescriptions, vaccinations and walk-in medical and urgent.

Last Month, Wake Forest University Medical Center’s physicians group announced plans to build another new $2 million to $3 million multispecialty clinic in Clemmons.

My anonymous emailer's address is "saynotonovant" at a free email service provider, and what I gather is that he (or she) thinks that Novant's proposed hospital will lead to more facilities being built in the area.  I'm also supposing that he thinks one of those facilities is being built by WFU which is also building a hospital in nearby Advance.  If all this is true we'll soon have a veritable health care mecca in Clemmons.

Good Points and Historical Perspective About Revaluation

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One of the things I love about this blog is that I often hear from people with different viewpoints and who really get me thinking with their comments or emails sent in response to something I've posted.  Dwight Defee sent me an email about my Revaluation post from March 29 and I liked it so much I asked his permission to post it here.  He graciously said yes so here it is:

This is response to your post of March 29, 2009.
 
Jon.
   I can’t say that I disagree with you about annual appraisals: However, if that happens you and I had better be prepared for higher tax valuations and higher taxes annually.  Even though annual valuations would reflect more accurate property values, who’s going to pay for the additional cost associated with such an accelerated project?  We will, of course, because we are property owners and we are asking for additional services provided by the County Tax Assessor. In North Carolina, Counties are considered a political subdivision of the State.  The State requires Counties to revalue Property every eight years but permits more frequent valuations. 
   Quite a number of years ago ( I was a county employee at the time) the Tax assessor, Harvey Pardue, recommended that the County move from an eight year valuation cycle to a four year valuation cycle.  He was hailed as a hero by the Utilities and Business communities and as a demon by residential property owners. The reason for this, as I understand, is that utility and business property was valued annually and residential property was valued every eight years. Since this was a period of growth for our County, Utilities and Businesses were clearly paying more than their “fair share” of the tax burden.  When Harvey retired, his assistant, Jack Sprinkle, continued the quadrennial valuation schedule but was able to reduce costs with technological advances.  After Jack’s retirement, Pete Roda took the reins as Tax Assessor/Collector and in my opinion has done a good job.  As a former associate of Harvey, Jack, and Pete, I say unequivocally that I have the utmost respect and admiration for the job that they performed for the County.
   Now if you can convince the County Commissioners to provide for annual valuations, I’m sure Pete can handle the job…BUT…you and I had better be ready to help foot the bill for more employees (think salary & benefits), more space and equipment (think office space, desk, computer, etc), Transportation (some of these people have to visit property sites across the County), and other employee expenses that I can’t enumerate at this time.
    Sorry to be so verbose but I needed to respond to a person quick to criticize professionals employed by public entities which are governed by officials elected by the likes of you and I.
 
Dwight Defee
Former Personnel Director
Forsyth County, NC


Here's part of my reply to Dwight that explained a little better (I hope) what I'm thinking when I say that annual revaluations would be better than every four years:

Dwight,
Thanks very much for the email.  I think you make very good points and I have to say that I agree with you. I thought about the extra staff too but I figure that it will be paid for by the extra revenue the county would see.

In retrospect one of my errors is that I came across as thinking that I blame Mr. Roda or the other folks doing the work. I don't. I always assumed that they were working within boindaries set by the
legislature. In other words if they calculate the property values using a formula it is one they've been given and they do the best they can. But that's not how I said it and that's my fault.

I actually think that if the revaluations were done annually it would work out best for everyone, just like I believe that a flat income tax of 10% on everyone without any deductions would be better for everyone and meet the country's needs (but that's a whole other topic).  I also agree with you that we'd have to be prepared to closely watch our commissioners and the tax rates they apply to us.

I want to emphasize what I wrote in that second paragraph: I absolutely agree with Dwight that the assessor is doing his job very well.  As far as I know he doesn't get to decide how or when revaluations are done, he simply makes sure his office carries out their mandate efficiently.  What I'd like to see is that the people who do decide how revaluations are done find a way to do revaluations that are more representative of a properties real current value.  Okay, I'm now off my soapbox.

Revaluation

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The Winston-Salem Journal did a big front page piece in today's paper about Forsyth County's property revaluation.  I've written before about my take on revaluation, but I want to re-emphasize my two main problems with how the county is handling the process:

  • Revaluations should be done annually, not every four years.  One reason for this are that you are more likely to get an accurate reflection of a property's current value, and not a value skewed by a housing market that was hot three years earlier and is significantly cooler now.  Another is that you spread the tax gains (and pain) over time, which is better for both the government and the taxpayer.
  • But given that the county is doing revaluations every four years they should at least come up with a formula that weighs the change in the marketplace.  My understanding is that they are taking the average home sales for a certain area over a set amount of time, which I believe is the five year assessment period.  If your neighborhood had 200 home sales in the first 3 years of the assesment period and home prices were rising, but then only had 50 home sales over the last year of the assessment period while home prices were falling then the average would skew to the higher prices of a rising housing market that no longer exists.  That means your home value will not accurately reflect its current value in the home valuation, but rather an average of its value over the five year period.  What makes that inherently unfair is that you will be stuck with that higher valuation for five years, even if the value continues to decline.

The potential saving grace of the process is that the county commissioners determine our tax rate so they can lower the tax rate in order to lower the tax burden of higher property valuations.  Still, since most people don't trust politicians this is small comfort to most.  

Another point: when the property valuations are low at the beginning of the valuation period and then there's a sharp increase in the property values the county actually misses an opportunity to capture that increase in terms of tax revenue.  If we moved to an annual revaluation they could capture those increases in real time and even if the commissioners lowered the tax rate they would most likely still see an increase in tax revenue, but they would probably have fewer complaints from homeowners because the revaluations would more accurately reflect current values and would thus seem more reasonable.  Also, instead of seeing large changes in value from one revaluation to the next we'd see gradual changes that are easier to swallow.  

Winston-Salem in the Movies

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The New York Times has a very favorable review of Goodbye Solo, an indepedent film that is set in Winston-Salem.  If you take a look at the review on the Times' site you can also view a trailer for the movie.  I did and now I'm thinking I'd really like to go see it at the upcoming RiverRun International Film Festival being held in Winston-Salem from April 22-29, 2009. Goodbye Solo's screening is scheduled for April 25 at 4:00 p.m.