City Connections

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Belated weekly schedule

We were only away for a couple of days to my husband's family reunion in Middlefield, Ohio {Nine of the original 13 brothers and sisters}

where we enjoyed visiting with everyone, from the youngest {Grandniece Anna}

to the oldest family members.{Uncle Ralph from California}

but it seems to be taking me forever to catch up on everything. Here's my after-the-fact schedule for the week along with a brief summary of the actions taken at those meetings.

The regular city council briefing was held on Tuesday, July 24 with a wide range of topics being discussed.

* GPD Detectives Richey and Cuthbertson updated us on the growing gang problem in Greensboro. There are over 12 nationally organized gangs here with 236 validated members. Approximately 1/3 of the 28 homicides that occurred here in 2006 being related to gang activity or members, and the four of the last five homicides had gang ties. Current efforts to address the problem include one full time GPD detective assigned to gather intelligence, partnerships with the Guilford County Sheriff's Office and the High Point Police Department. Our School Resource Officers serve as role models and are in a position to do some intervention although the school board has rejected a number of educational initiatives in this area. The Police Neighborhood Resource Officers have been trained in awareness programs as well. Greensboro Parks and Recreation sponsors the Hope Project that provides education and intervention activities.

An inaccurate media reported that the city council had denied the police chief's request for funding for a gang unit in the 2007-08 budget -- that item was deleted from the proposed budget before it ever reached the city council in an effort to reduce the potential four-cent property tax increase that was looming on the horizon at the time. We council members directed the city manager and the police chief to get back to us within the next 30 days with a proposal to reallocate money and/or manpower to address this issue.

* Council members reached tentative agreement on changes to the Urban Investment Guidelines regarding the use of the $10 million economic development bond approved by voters in the November 2006 referendum. Those amendments include a

(1) "Truth in Borrowing" statement that will render an agreement null and void if it turns out the developer already had a client "on the hook" and require full reimbursement to the city of the public funds, and

(2) A requirement for at least one 75-acres site or two 50-acre sites inside the minimum 150-acre requirement to insure that there are larger sites available as was stressed during the bond campaign. This restriction would be removed after five years if the site remains undeveloped.

* There was not agreement on the WORDING of a proposed resolution endorsing the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement with a distinct 3-3-3 split among members who wanted to adopt it as originally worded or some modified version. Even those who opposed the original version made it clear that they support city efforts to improve air quality and decrease energy consumption but have concerns about realistic goals and measurements. The Mayor will work on a compromise resolution to be considered at a later date.

* An update on the Barber Park contamination revealed that outside environmental specialists will need at least 60 days to assess the extent of the danger of the contamination and make recommendations on how best to address it. The park will remain closed during that time -- "better safe than sorry."

* The city council tentatively agreed to provide sponsorship and/or funding (direct or in-kind donation of security and other city support) to three Bicentennial Events (Torch Relay and Opening Ceremony, Downtown Festival, and Parade of Decades), the Nike track and field event at A&T's stadium (a 5-year contract for a total of $185,000), and the Wyndham Championship block party downtown on August 18 featuring the Sleeping Booty Band.

The Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) met on Wednesday, July 25. There were a number of significant actions on the agenda for approval, including

(1) the setting of priorities for the 2009-2015 Transportation Improvement Program (which reaffirmed our support for the High Point Road/Jamestown Bypass project despite the Jamestown Town Council's resolution in opposition to it and added the "68 Connector" and widening of 220 from Horsepen Creek Road to the Haw River),

(2) recommendations for the allocation of our STP-DA funds (adopted as presented), and

(3) endorsing a proposal to declare a roadway in the northeast corner of Guilford County a "scenic byway" (map on page 4).

We received updates on the Jordan Lake Rules (which would be costly and likely ineffective), the NCAMPO conference in Greensboro October 24-26, the latest NC highway death rate statistics (unfortunately rising due to a number of factors, including high speeds), the Wendover sinkhole (NCDOT was instrumental in speeding the pavement repair), and project updates (the Urban Loop construction is still on schedule for the portion from I-40 up to Bryan Boulevard and lagging a bit on the segment connecting I-85 and I-40 with a hoped opening around Thanksgiving).

I attended the HEAT steering committee meeting today, Thursday, July 26 hosted by UNCG in their lovely science building. HEAT has been highly successful although it has the unique challenge of serving seven colleges/universities (most systems serve only one) with a total ridership in its first year of operation of 362,000 rides, an average of 13 rides per eligible student. We reviewed statistics showing which institution's students used it the most, whether those trips were on HEAT or regular GTA routes -- highest usage was by off-campus UNCG students utilizing the shuttles to campus with similar usage expected at A&T this fall with the new shuttle system there. Operating hours have been expanded slightly on some routes to accommodate the demand for longer service.

There was some preliminary discussion of how HEAT will be funded in Year Four of operations when the grant funding will have expired. The worst case scenario projects a $15 per student per semester fee if the colleges/universities have to shoulder 100% of the costs, but potential funding support from other grants and/or state and federal sources could cut that fee in half.

My Friday, July 27 will be spent in Burlington at a NC PTA board meeting and planning session. Even though it can be time-consuming, I enjoy this volunteer work and seeing old friends again as we work on behalf of children -- time well-spent!

Success!

Another win for the Triad! Congratulations to our neighbors in Burlington!

Another rezoning case withdrawn

Councilmembers have received email notification that Attorney Derek Allen is withdrawing the developers' Comprehensive Plan amendment and rezoning requests for items # 23 and 24 (the New Garden Road and Garden Lake Drive proposal) on tomorrow night's city council agenda. That will help shorten our meeting considerably!

Weekly schedule

My too-short summer break comes to a semi-halt this week with two busy "official" days. After a trip to the dentist for my check-up this followed by lunch and bridge for the afternoon, I'll be back into the "meeting mode."

Tuesday, July 17 will begin with a tour of the new Ernie Edwards Learning Center at Bryan Park followed by lunch. Then it's off to the Greensboro Partnership to participate in a survey interview. The most important meeting of the day is of course the 5:30PM city council meeting with a month's worth of accumulated business on the agenda. There are several contested zoning cases (minus one) that will in themselves make for a LONG night.

Hopefully I will get home from that meeting in time to get a bit of sleep because I must be in Raleigh the next morning, Wednesday, July 18 for the second meeting of the Blue Ribbon Charter School Commission. I met my fellow commission members at our first meeting in June, and we are definitely a diverse group with a wide range of opinions and viewpoints. It will be interesting to see what final recommendations we can make with which a majority will be able to agree.

I'll have Thursday to deal with the accumulated veggies in the garden before heading up to Middlefield, Ohio with my husband after work on Friday to attend his weekend family reunion. His sister from Texas, an uncle from California, and an aunt who has been working as the administrator of the Catholic hospital in Karachi, Pakistan will be attending. We are looking forward to visiting with them before heading back here on Monday.

Housing update

Beth McKee-Huger and her hardworking staff and volunteers over at the Greensboro Housing Coalition have shared this newsletter update on housing needs in Greensboro.

Zoning showdown avoided

Per the following email I just received, there's one less controversial rezoning request on the city council agenda for Tuesday night's meeting:

Dear Council Member:

I have given great thought to my pending case regarding the property I have under contract on Regional Road. I believe in the fact that we need to introduce high density residential around our job centers. This site would be an excellent opportunity given the growth of industry in that area; however, I also believe in Greensboro and in my community. With that I mind, I feel it is essential to avoid any possible division over this issue in the community; and for this reason, I have decided to cancel our rezoning request.

It is my intention to change the outdated ways of our current job creation and business development by becoming more involved to effect change. I strongly believe that working together we can move Greensboro forward. Thank you for your ongoing support.

Roy E. Carroll, II

A big loss for the Coliseum

The Greensboro Coliseum lost a big chunk of its history Wednesday with the passing of Carl A. Ellison, Jr. . If you have ever attended events at any of the Coliseum's venues, chances are you encountered Carl and his smiling face at some point as he attended to customer service. Carl was one of my favorite people over there, and he will be sorely missed.

My condolences to both families -- his wife, children and relatives as well as his co-workers at the Greensboro Coliseum.

UPDATE:
I attended the family gathering at the War Memorial Auditorium after the funeral service on Saturday where numerous family members and co-workers shared their heartfelt thoughts about "Mr. Carl" --

* His wife Ann who reminisced about meeting Carl on a blind double-date on a May evening where they were partnered with another person but fell for each other and were married in August of that same year.

* Coliseum Director Matt Brown who marveled at Carl's ability to soothe an upset patron and turn them into a Coliseum fan forever.

* Numerous colleagues at the Coliseum whom Carl had mentored and worked with, one of whom marvelled at his friendly demeanor saying "Even when he chewed your A** out, you walked away thinking, Gee, I REALLY like that man! "

* A former Greensboro police officer, who met Carl for the first time as a police reserve, and upon seeing this 150 pound, 5-foot-2-inches tall man with a too-large hat covering his ears and his gun placed incorrectly on the front of his belt instead of the side, said to him, "You must be Barney Fife!" Carl recruited this same man, now a successful businessman, to work as a $6/hour usher at the Coliseum in his spare time.

The absolute love and genuine respect for Carl Ellison was quite evident at that Saturday gathering, and I came away even more grateful I have had the opportunity to know this very special person.

In the race

In case you didn't see it, I filed for reelection to the District 5 seat yesterday. Time to get busy!

City council's airport area tour

The Greensboro Partnership in conjunction with officials from Piedmont Triad International Airport hosted a presentation and tour of the airport area on Wednesday morning to highlight the need for sufficient land in the immediate area to accommodate future businesses and industries who need to be located near the airport and/or the opening-in-the-summer-of-2009 FedEx hub. The media has well-documented this field trip, and reporters and photojournalists actually out-numbered the three city councilmembers who took advantage of the opportunity (Mayor Holliday, Mayor Pro Tem Sandra Anderson Groat, and me).

Airport Executive Director Ted Johnson gave an overview of the airport and its development over the years. Having grown from an original size of 700 acres to its current 4,000 acres, the "campus" is now restricted by existing businesses, residences, and/or the railroad, with future expansion opportunities limited to areas to the northwest of current facilities. Mr. Johnson stressed that any property owned by the Airport Authority is restricted to aviation-related uses, and the airport has no interest in commercial or residential development on their property saying, "If your office could be located in downtown Greensboro, you don't belong out here at the airport, but if you depend on airport access, we want you here."

He also reviewed the progress of the extensive transportation improvements in the area (the complicated "spaghetti-bowl" interchange for Bryan Boulevard-Old Oak Ridge Road -airport terminal access should be complete by the summer of 2008) and new runway construction is 50-60% complete "at grade" with the paving contract to be let by the fall. For noise mitigation purposes, the airport will be purchasing all the residences located within the 70 DNL noise cone and mitigating residences in the 65 DNL noise cone with better insulation, storm windows, etc.

Dan Lynch from the Greensboro Economic Development Alliance then reviewed the importance of the airport to our region's economy -- over 4,000 persons currently work on the airport "campus" itself in companies such as Timco and Cessna and will grow even more as FedEx and HondaJet come online. He noted that the airport area is attractive to certain businesses and industries because

1. It is in the center of the regional labor force (and draws employees from all around the Triad).
2. It has easy access to the major interstates (I-40, I-85, and the coming I-73).
3. It has quick access to air shipment (which will expand with the opening of the FedEx hub).

Many businesses needing to locate in this area are noisy (such as trucking terminals) and operate 24/7 and don't want to be located near residential development due to negative impacts and complaints. Greensboro has already lost at least one major new business prospect who was seriously considering the golf course owned by the airport but walked away due to a nearby apartment complex and the potential for more if the rezoning at Regional Road and Caindale Drive were to be approved by the City Council at our meeting next week.

Despite the deceiving appearance of lots of trees and green areas in this area, there are few large tracts of land suitable for large-scale buildings due to the abundance of streams and their accompanying environmental buffering requirements and restrictions. Loss of existing, correctly-zoned large tracts of land would create additional difficulties for our economic development efforts.

Participants then took a bus tour of the airport, traveling on the inner perimeter road to view the FedEx building under construction, the grading of the HondaJet site, and the Timco hangars. We also drove over to the Regional/Caindale intersection to view the property that is the subject of the rezoning request. One does not realize just how large the airport "campus" is until you actually drive in and around it.

The informational tour was certainly worth my time and provided plenty of good information and better insight into the operation and needs of one of our region's major economic development jewels.

Great review for the Natural Science Center

The Salisbury Post highly recommends Greensboro's Natural Science Center!

Weekly schedule

The summer slowdown continues with only two neighborhood watch meetings this week and a Wednesday morning excursion with the Greensboro Economic Development Alliance folks to visit economic development sites in the airport area.

That will leave me plenty of time to deal with my garden along with updating my campaign materials for the coming election -- always plenty to do.

Blues redux

A little over two years ago, I was bemoaning the deluge of green beans from my garden. I had a respite last year due to poor weather conditions and hungry bunnies, but this summer is a different story -- I've process 30+ pints of green beans in the last three days, and my husband warns me more are on the way. But I'm not complaining -- these preserved veggies will be welcome this winter.

On top of all this work, my son Mark has been picking blackberries on the weekend and asking for my assistance in making blackberry jam. We cooked another nine pints of the sweet stuff this afternoon. Yum!

So much for my day of rest!

(Belated) Fun Fourth pictures

Here are some of the pictures I shot of Greensboro's Fun Fourth parade and street scenes.

There were lots of PEOPLE --

The three "Uncle Sams" confer before the beginning of the parade.

Congressman Howard Coble is a regular on the "elected officials" float.

Councilmember Yvonne Johnson is all decked out in patriotic garb.

Uncle Sam (Locke Clifford) mingles with parade watchers.

The "Town Crier" chats with "General Nathanael Greene" after General Greene's eloquent recounting of the Battle of Guilford Courthouse.

"Rachel Caldwell" shares her wit and wisdom with festival attendees in Center City Park.

The streets of downtown were packed with people. (Note the new black marble facade going up on the old Wachovia Building in the background.)

-- on many different modes of TRANSPORTATION.

Center City Park was a big hit (and nice place to cool off in the spray from the fountains).

MANY thanks to Betty Cone and her hard-working army of volunteers who made sure everything was done. And for the first time in several years, Mother Nature cooperated and the fireworks went off at Grimsley Stadium with no interfering thunderstorms. A perfect, fun day for all!

Bittersweet memories, or how it all began

JW writes from the heart about the origins of her (and my) involvement in Greensboro's political scene "way back when."

Promotion

This bodes well for Greensboro!

More PART praise

Good feedback from satisfied PART riders continues!

I have been taking Amtrak to Philadelphia, New York, Montreal, Toronto regularly for years. The only bottlenecks I ever run into are always in the Triad. How do I get to the station? How do I find someone to pick me up? Why does Greensboro have such great connections and Winston-Salem such lousy ones? Anyway you know what I mean.

Why didn't you tell me about the Amtrak connector a long time ago. It's wonderful. I take back every bad thing I ever said about you behind your back.

I only found out about the connector because I asked someone what these new black buses I see around town are. Then I looked you up on the web. Very exciting. I discovered the Amtrak connector as well as the Mt. Airy route, which I would have been very excited to use. I no longer work in Mt. Airy. The word about you did not get out -- at least to me. Probably my story is of no use to you. I just wanted to pass it along so that you would get feedback from at least one customer. I am probably one of the few people who would prefer to use public transportation over private transportation anyway. Thanks for listening.

B. W. in Winston Salem

P.S. How do I get to airport? I fly too.

Campaign 2007

Friday marks the beginning of the 2007 campaign season so it's time to rev up for another city council campaign. Heavens! Two years sure pass quickly!

I had been toying with the idea of running for one of the at-large position, but on the sage advice from numerous politicos and council-watchers around town, I'll be filing for the District 5 seat again one day next week. With the voluntary departure of three veteran members (Florence Gatten, Mayor Keith Holliday, and Tom Phillips), there is going to be a definite need for experience and continuity on the new council. With my 16 years on the council, I can help to fill that experienced leadership gap and work with those newly elected councilmembers to keep this city moving onward and upward.

Here we go again!

Voluntary Water Restrictions

While Greensboro's water supply is in relatively good shape, it is wise for us to be careful in the use of this precious commodity. Here is today's press release from Water Resources Department Director Allan Williams --


VOLUNTARY WATER USE REDUCTIONS REQUESTED

The City of Greensboro is asking customers to voluntarily reduce water consumption as provided in Chapter 29.5-6. While this request is for voluntary compliance, all residents and businesses are encouraged to participate in order to help avoid mandatory restrictions should current dry weather patterns continue.

Rainfall recorded for Greensboro is 5 inches less than normal for this date. While reservoirs do not appear exceptionally low, it is only early July and not only rainfall but streamflows into the City’s reservoirs are well below normal. Allan Williams, Director of Water Resources, states “Currently our reservoir levels are considerably better than at this time in 2002 when Greensboro experienced its most difficult water supply management problem since the 1950’s. Current inventory of water is 6.7 billion gallons (85% full) vs. 4.6 billion gallons on this date in 2002 (58% full). Long-term weather forecasts do predict normal rainfall, however, forecasts for the next week or two do not show substantial likelihood of rain. Given these conditions, Greensboro feels it is prudent to request these voluntary restrictions, as have many other water suppliers in the region (some of whom are on mandatory restrictions)."

Greensboro’s Emergency Restriction Plan provides for mandatory restrictions when the water supply drops to 150 days. Conditions currently provide an estimate of 190 days of supply. Over the last several weeks purchase of supplemental water from Reidsville, Burlington, and Winston-Salem has been increased to reduce the demand on the city’s lake reserves. Of the overall average demand for finished water, approximately 40 million gallons per day, about 8 million gallons per day, or 20%, is from these outside sources.

Allan Williams, Director of Water Resources (373-2050) or Steve Drew, Water Supply Manager (373-5855) will be available for interviewing. Lavelle Donnell, Public Education Coordinator (373-4601) will also be available to offer details of water conservation methods citizens and businesses can use.

Transportation update

Now that I have some extra time, I'll try to catch up on some transportation updates from a variety of meetings and discussions over the past couple of weeks.


First of all, I want to publicly state that I respectfully -- but vehemently -- disagree with Mayor Holliday's suggestion that perhaps the improvements to High Point Road/Jamestown Bypass should not be a priority. This roadway is at or above capacity and has needed relief for years from the growing everyday congestion on this busy route between High Point and Greensboro. Traffic counts will increase even more when the interchange with the I-40 urban loop is completed, providing much-needed access to southwest Greensboro citizens and High Point citizens to I-40, not to mention additional rumored development that could soon be occurring in this corridor. Sorry, but I do not subscribe to his theory that "if you ignore a problem, it goes away" -- this is one that is getting worse with every delay. This problem has haunted us for a long time due to routing and funding issues which appear to FINALLY be resolved -- I cannot support in any way "pulling the plug" now that construction is actually included and funded in the TIP!


One of the main reasons the High Point Road construction has waited so long is the lack of state funding. At last week's TAC meeting, Mike Stanley from the NCDOT Program Development Branch tried to explain the very complicated situation regarding state funding for highways and why projects get delayed year after year after year. In a nutshell, rising costs (road construction costs have risen 93% since 2000), little or no growth in funding sources, restricted use of available funds for specific categories and/or earmarked projects (less that 1/2 of the money in the Highway Trust Fund is "programmable" due to various set asides), and ever-growing needs create a very competitive process for a limited amount of dollars. For example, $5 billion (yes, that's a "B") is needed to complete the urban loops around various NC cities, including Greensboro's; at maximum, there is only $250 million available per year for those loops. NCDOT is concentrating more and more of its funding on projects of statewide and/or regional significance, leaving local street improvement needs to the local governments.


Frustration with that reality surfaced at the June 20 RPO (Rural Planning Organization) meeting. One member responded to the issue of planning for the public involvement in setting priorities for the next cycle of TIP development by saying, "Why bother? We never get anything we ask for anyway, so why waste everyone's time and energy in this exercise in futility?"


At the June 26 City Council Briefing Session, GDOT Director Jim Westmoreland shared the sobering news that our local city funding for transportation projects is not in good shape either. Local transportation needs are funded from three major sources: the Powell Bill Capital Fund, the Street and Sidewalk Revolving Capital Fund, and the 2000 voter-approved Transportation Bond Fund.

Greensboro receives +/- $7.4 million per year from the state in the Powell Bill Capital Fund derived from 1.75-cents on each taxed gallon of gasoline; its use is restricted to local streets only. The city allocates it to support operations and resurfacing projects such as roadways, culverts, sidewalks, resurfacing, and engineering and equipment costs.. The 2000-01 accumulated $18+ million fund balance will be depleted during the 2008-09 fiscal year due to continued shifting of operating costs to this fund to avoid additional property tax increases over the last several budget cycles.

One potential recommendation that received support from the city council was to eliminate the culvert participation program that was created in 1975 where the city automatically picked up 60-70% of the cost to construct culverts on new roads. From a quick survey, it appears Greensboro is the only NC city to offer this program which in recent years has been used mainly in residential development. In its place we would factor in those potential costs when considering future business economic development requests.

The Street and Sidewalk Revolving Capital Fund is fed by the $10 per vehicle license tax (50% of which now goes to GTA and 50% to Field Operations) and curb and gutter assessments of $23/linear foot (rate last adjusted in 1999, current recovery rate of project cost at 4-5%). This pot of money which funds roadway and sidewalk construction has been spent down in budget-balancing efforts through the years and according to the city manager's budget message, "There is no longer sufficient fund balance to finance significant projects from this fund."

The $71.5 million for roads, streetscapes, sidewalks and signals approved by voters in the 2000 Transportation Bond has either been spent or programmed into projects that will deplete it in 2011-12. Completed and under design/construction projects include the following:

• MLK Jr. Drive streetscape
• Elm-Eugene Street
• Creekridge Road right-of-way
• East Market Street streetscape (partnership with NCDOT)
• Franklin Boulevard
• Lake Jeanette Road round-a-bout
• Battleground Rail Trail (partner with NCDOT)
• Battleground Avenue design
• West Market Street/College Road intersection (partner with NCDOT)
• West Wendover Avenue (partner with NCDOT)
• Merritt Drive design and right-of-way
• NC 68 improvements (partner with NCDOT)
• Signal system replacement (partner with NCDOT)
• Individual sidewalk projects
• Bellemeade Village (reprogrammed from delayed Church Street streetscape project)
• Center City Park streetscape (reprogrammed from delayed Church Street streetscape project)
• Hilltop Road bridge (an extra $1 million due to the state requiring a bridge installation for water quality protection instead of culvert )

The remaining funds have been programmed for the following projects:

• Creekridge Road
• East Market streetscape
• Florida Street extension
• Lake Jeanette Road
• Battleground Rail Trail
• Merritt Drive
• Horsepen Creek/Fleming Road Connector
• New Garden Road phase II
• Hornaday Road extension over the urban loop (partner with NCDOT)
• Signal system replacement
• Individual sidewalk projects

The $69.5 million in projects ($2 million of the $71.5 is for GTA projects) was matched with $80.6 million in partnerships with NCDOT and federal sources for a total impact of $150 million!

Unfortunately due to the doubling of construction and regulatory costs, several projects identified in the 2000 bond proposal are now unfunded at a cost of $72,570,000. Those include the following:

• Vandalia Road from Elm-Eugene to Pleasant Garden Road
• Church Street from Wendover to Cone
• Church Street streetscape
• Summit Avenue from McKnight Mill to Eckerson
• Battleground intersections at Westridge/New Garden/Brassfield
• Mackay Road from High Point Road to west of Adams Farm
• Stanley Road from Wendover to Hilltop

Other identified but unfunded projects at a total cost of $27 million include the following:

• Elm-Eugene median and sidewalk from Vandalia to JJ Drive
• Cone/Nealtown Road extension
• Battleground/Cone
• West Market Street/College Road
• Various intersection improvements and individual sidewalk projects

A sample of other future needs totalling $153,750,000 include these:

• Alamance Church Road
• Cone Boulevard extension to the eastern urban loop
• Benjamin Parkway/Bryan Boulevard widening
• Battleground Rail Trail phase II to downtown
• Hilltop and Mackay Road railroad grade separations
• various intersection, sidewalk, and trail projects

The grand total of all the unfunded and future needs is a choking $253,320,000, and as noted earlier, "the well is dry." So where do we go from here?

GDOT will be developing a Transportation Action Plan that will review and validate our 10-year transportation needs, establish priorities, and discuss funding options by February 2008. This will include a series of community and civic meetings over the next 2-3 months to gather input. I urge citizens to actively participate in those sessions and help determine what our true needs and priorities are.

Once that is determined, we'll have to figure out where the money is going to come from. OUCH!

Fun Fourth tips

One of my "extra" assignments as a city councilmember is to serve on the Fun Fourth Advisory Committee, working with Betty Cone and her hardworking Grassroots Production staff and hundreds of volunteers to make sure Greensboro citizens (and many from surrounding communities) have a wonderful, safe experience.

Greensboro’s Fun Fourth Festival offers a lot of family fun – and organizers have asked me to share with you a few tidbits to help make your plans successful.

1) Parking – Plenty of free street side and deck parking is available in downtown Greensboro. The actual festival will be located between Lindsay, Summit, Greene and Market streets. You’ll find plenty of free street side parking outside of that area. Additionally, downtown Greensboro offers free parking decks on Bellemeade and Greene streets. The Marriott hotel has a parking deck, but will be charging a fee. The decks on Davie and Church streets will be closed.

2) Fireworks – Thousand of people watch the Greensboro display annually, either from cars, back porches, I-40 or at Grimsley High School. However, July 4 is also a time of year when Mother Nature roars with lightening, thunder and rain. This year, organizers are asking us to listen to radio station 98.7 Simon, WNAA 97.1 or watch WFMY News2 to find out any last minute changes in the 9:30 p.m. show. Organizers really do want to shoot of the fireworks on July 4, if at all possible.

3) Heat – Rarely do we have a cool July 4, so don’t count on one this year either. To help you cool off, this year’s festival is offering Cool Mist Tunnels you can walk through to get a gentle spray of refreshing water on your warm skin. And, there is an oasis in the heart of the event – in Greensboro’s brand new Center City Park. Lush, soft grass. Shade trees. Fountain of cool water. Yes, cool water! And picnic tables are nearby so you can sit down and relax with a tall cool drink.

4) Crowds - Fun Fourth Festival pulls around 90,000 people into downtown annually. However, they’re not all there at one time. Organizers tell me that the number of people actually turns over 5 times throughout the day. That also helps free up parking spaces closer to the festival.

5) Parade – The parade is open to anyone who wants to participate. Organizers try to keep the parade entries balanced, with bands, floats and entertainment interspersed along the way. The City of Greensboro is very proud of our recycling program and our trucks will be included in the parade. Not all cities in North Carolina provide recycling services. They’re important to help keep our city clean, pretty and green!

I hope you, your family and friends all have a super holiday – and come to the festival. For information about the schedule, visit http://www.aroundthepiedmonttriad.com/gsofestivals/.


(Special thanks to Greta Lint, Fun Fourth Publicity, for providing this information.)

Weekly schedule

This week is one of those rare occurrences where I have ABSOLUTELY NO official meetings or appointments unless you want to count my voluntary, optional participation in the Fun Fourth parade and activities.

So how did I spend this first carefree day of "freedom?" Running household errands and shampooing my carpets! Yeah, I know -- get a life!