Summerfi eld Town Council meeting

SUMMERFIELD town council WHAT they voted on, Sept. 14 / MEETING HIGHLIGHTS and HOW they voted:

as reported by CHRIS BURRITT

Mayor Pro Tem Tim Sessoms called the monthly meeting in Summerfield Community Center to order, with council members Lynne W. DeVaney, Teresa W. Perryman and John O’Day present. Mayor BJ Barnes and councilman Reece Walker were absent.

DeVaney offered the invocation, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

“We want to recognize the absence of air conditioning,” Sessoms said, noting the malfunction of the cooling system in the building, which is undergoing renovations, made it “as hot as Hades in here.”

RESOLUTION

Perryman read a resolution praising the contributions of Summerfield historian Gladys Scarlette, who passed away Aug. 7 at age 92.

Scarlette compiled the town’s history in three books and numerous newspaper articles, while contributing to the town’s Historical Committee and the History Committee of Summerfield First Baptist Church, according to the resolution.

The council declared next year’s Founders’ Day celebration will be dedicated in Scarlette’s memory.

Mayor Pro Tem Tim Sessoms and council members Lynne W. DeVaney, Teresa W. Perryman and John O’Day voted on the following items during the Sept. 14 council meeting. Mayor BJ Barnes and councilman Reece Walker were absent. In Summerfield, the mayor votes only to break a tie.  4  0: Authorize students from Northwest Guilford and Northern Guilford high schools to proceed with the next phase of painting a mural on the inside of the pedestrian tunnel under U.S. 220.  4  0: Appoint Loren Sterling as a regular member of the Historical Committee and Kenneth Robinson as an ex-officio member of the committee.

Summerfield Merchants Association (SMA)

is dedicated to supporting our local businesses and community. We meet the first Tuesday of each month, at various member host locations. For more info about SMA, or to be our guest on Tuesday, Oct. 5, email

SummerfieldMerchants@summerfieldmerchant.com www.summerfieldmerchant.com Facebook.com/SummerfieldMerchantsAssociation

Carter Spradling (left) and Jesse Day (middle), planners with Piedmont Triad Regional Council, talk with Oak Ridge Town Council member George McClellan at SMA’s Sept. 7 meeting hosted by PS Communications, publisher of the Northwest Observer. The planners sought feedback from SMA members on Summerfield’s Land Development Plan, which the town hopes will act as a guide for making decisions about the amount, type and pattern of future land development.

Sharing, learning, socializing, contributing … that’s what we’re all about!

PUBLIC SAFETY

Summerfield Fire District. The district reported responding to 126 calls in August; 61 of those were EMSrelated, 26 were fire-related and 39 were for miscellaneous reasons. Firefighters installed 19 child safety seats. Sheriff’s Office. The District 1 sheriff’s office reported it responded to 95 calls in Summerfield last month.

PUBLIC COMMENTS

 Gail Dunham, a candidate for mayor in the Nov. 2 election, said she favors low overall density in development. She criticized the council for adopting the unified development ordinance (UDO) in June after making changes that relaxed density restrictions. The council adopted the changes the same night that it approved the UDO, without review by the Planning Board or a public hearing to gain residents’ views. The Northwest Observer • Totally local since 1996 Perryman, seeking reelection to the council, said she favors low density development, partly to protect the town’s supply of well water.  Beth Kaplan said she was disappointed that changes to the UDO recommended by the Planning Board in August will discourage construction of more affordable housing.

As an example, Kaplan cited the board’s recommendation that triplex and quadplex dwellings should not qualify for density bonuses under moderately priced housing guidelines for developers and builders.

MANAGER’S REPORT

Pedestrian tunnel art

 4  0 to authorize students from Northwest Guilford and Northern Guilford high schools to proceed with the second phase of painting the inside of the pedestrian tunnel under U.S. 220.

In a power point presentation, Northwest Guilford’s Autumn Jackson and Amir Kazzaz told the council they and other students want to paint a mural on the southern side of the tunnel that “blends the cityscape of Greensboro with the countryside of Summerfield.”

Over four Saturdays, they plan to paint the mural with depictions such as Greensboro’s skyline, the Lake Higgins reservoir and scenes with animals around a barn and people fishing.

Students painted the northern side of the tunnel last spring.

“I love what you did and I love what

Photo by Chris Burritt/NWO From left, Northwest Guilford High School students Autumn Jackson and Amir Kazzaz tell the Summerfi eld Town Council about plans by students at their school and Northern Guilford High School to resume painting the inside of the pedestrian tunnel under U.S. 220. Students painted a mural on one side of the tunnel this past spring.

Photos by Patti Stokes/NWO The entrance to the A&Y Greenway’s pedestrian tunnel beneath U.S. 220 in Summerfi eld (top right) sports brightly painted geometric shapes on one side; continuing inside, the concrete walls of the 110-foot-long tunnel have been transformed with an “abstract, bold take on a park scene that includes shapes and bold colors not typically found in nature, yet synonymous with the four different seasons," students described to Summerfi eld Town Council when they presented their plans for the mural at the council’s March 9 meeting. The high school students got their mural project underway in April, and one side of the tunnel now depicts cyclists, a runner and a dog walker against a backdrop of dark brown trees and a sky of triangular shapes in various shades of blue. Changing colors of the leaves denote the different seasons.

you are going to do,” DeVaney told the students. Town Hall update. Rising prices for metal and other building materials prompted a council committee planning development of the new town hall to recommend pausing the $3.5 million project until costs decline. (See related article on front cover.) The committee consists of DeVaney, O’Day and Sessoms, who told the council price increases over the past month pushed the project more than $100,000 over budget. ...continued on p. 10

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