mark your calendar

EVERY WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY

z NW Guilford Farmers & Specialty Market | A farmers market is open Wednesday evenings from 4 p.m. to dusk and Saturday mornings from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Greensboro Performing Arts, 7200 Summerfield Road. More info: Nicki Wagoner, (336) 817-7765 or fromtheearthfm@gmail.com. (See ad on this page.)

Every Wednesday Night

z GriefShare | Oak Ridge First Baptist Church at 2445 Oak Ridge Road is hosting a GriefShare session every Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m. Each week, this support group watches a video seminar about moving through the grieving process, followed by a discussion. Learn more at www.griefshare.org. Register to attend at www.griefshare.org/groups/166856.

JULY 24-AUG. 4, AUG. 5 z Running camp & 5K fundraiser | Oak Ridge Youth Association will host a free running camp Monday, July 24, to Friday, Aug. 4, for kids age 8 to 14, five days a week (M-F) from 8:30 to 10 a.m. at Oak Ridge Town Park, 6231 Lisa Drive. There will be a 5K fundraiser for Second Harvest Food Bank on Saturday, Aug. 5, starting at 8:30 a.m. at Oak Ridge Town Park. All ages are welcome to participate in the 5K. Sign up for the camp or the 5K at www.orya.org. Donations of non-perishable food items will be collected. More info: information@orya.org.

MONDAY, JULY 24 z Lions Club | Oak Ridge Lions Club will meet July 24 in the Oak Ridge Room (next to Bistro 150) in Oak Ridge Commons, 2205 Oak Ridge Road. Come at 6 p.m. to socialize; the business meeting runs from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. More info: Jim Kinneman, president, (336) 207-7166, or james.kinneman@gmail.com.

TUESDAY, JULY 25 z Stokesdale Fire District meeting | Taxpayers in the Stokesdale Fire District are invited to attend the district’s annual meeting on July 25, starting at 7:30 p.m. at the fire station, 8401 U.S. 158. The annual report will be presented and an election will be held for four board members.

SATURDAY, JULY 29 z Food pantry | Good Samaritan Ministries’ food pantry in Stokesdale will open for those in need of food on July 29, 9 to 10:30 a.m. at Stokesdale Business Center, 8500 Ellisboro Road. To receive assistance or to make a donation to the ministry, contact Terri Johnson, (336) 643-5887 or terrij1957@yahoo.com.

SUNDAY, JULY 30 z Fifth Sunday Singing | Good Samaritan Ministries of Stokesdale invites the community to a Fifth Sunday Singing event July 30, starting at 6 p.m. at Bethel Methodist Church, 8424 Haw River Road in Oak Ridge. Groups from local churches will sing and play instruments, with light refreshments to follow. An offering to support Good Samaritan Ministries will be taken. More info: (336) 643-5887.

TUESDAY, AUG. 1 z Kiwanis Club | Kiwanis Club of Northwest Guilford, a nonprofit that engages in projects focused on children in our community, will meet Aug. 1, starting at 12 noon at Bill’s Pizza, 1431 N.C. 68 in Oak Ridge. More info: nwgkiwanis@gmail.com.

Housing market still ‘very, very strong,’ according to custom homebuilders

NW GUILFORD – The market in northwestern Guilford County is “very shielded compared to some other markets nationally,” Casey Johnson, co-owner of Stokesdale-based CJ Builders, recently told the Northwest Observer.

“So many people are moving here,” Johnson said, adding that he’s begun meeting with prospective homeowners who are moving to the area to work for Boom Supersonic, which plans to employ more than 2,400 people in its operations at Piedmont Triad International Airport.

Johnson and other custom homebuilders we spoke with said that despite rising interest rates and construction costs driving home prices ever upward, demand for new houses is strong and they have no, or very low, inventory.

“We have no inventory… I don’t see anything changing unless a very drastic economic failure happens,” Matt Walraven, owner of Walraven Signature Homes, said in an interview earlier this week. “But I don’t see that happening.”

Nationally, the low inventory of housing is “keeping demand solid for new homes,” helping boost builder confidence in July “even as the industry continues to grapple with rising mortgage rates, elevated construction costs and limited lot availability,” the National Association of Homebuilders said in a statement earlier this month. July was the seventh straight month of rising confidence among builders.

Free Fall Lawn

Recently

The 57 acres of old farmland is owned by the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority, and it’s the future site of the service center and parking lot for rental car agencies at the airport.

Kevin Baker, the authority’s executive director, explained the trucks are hauling dirt a short distance from Inman Road to a site on the airport’s property along North Chimney Rock Road. The tract is between Old Oak Ridge Road and Ballinger Road, near the entrance to Honda

Aircraft Co.’s operations.

In recent weeks, trucks have also hauled away several big piles of trunks and limbs of trees cleared from the Inman Road property. Most of the debris removal is now complete.

Partially visible from Interstate 73, the property on North Chimney Rock Road is being graded and improved for erosion control. It “will be a future site for some tenant,” as part of the airport authority’s effort to recruit aerospace companies, Baker said in an email.

He described moving earth between the two sites as “basically killing two birds with one stone – preparing two sites for the cost of one.” in the coal mines, Don Mills decided to follow in his family’s footsteps and began framing houses in 1983. Today, he and his wife, Annette, own and operate Don Mills Builders.

Once earth moving is complete, the Inman Road site will be seeded for grass, Baker said.

“For the near term, nothing will be constructed” there, he said.

One of the things Don enjoys most about building homes is solving problems that are inevitably part of any project, whether they involve dealing with a seemingly impossible

Ray Bullins Construction Co.

Building a home should be exciting

“We think building a custom home should be an exciting event filled with hope and expectation for the entire family,” Ray said. “When that happens, we know we’ve done our job.” something to go there.

At its next meeting on July 27, Stokesdale Planning Board will consider rezoning this recently cleared land, consisting of two parcels totaling .87 acres, in downtown Stokesdale to Conditional Zoning-General Business.

30,000 square foot lot, (RS-30) to Conditional Zoning-General Business (CZ-GB).

Along with abiding by the Town of Stokesdale Development Ordinance and Future Land Use Plan, the application included several other conditions that would be met; these included restrictions on hours of operation, signage and lighting.

The lot is actually two abutting parcels – one located at 8200 Stokesdale Street and the other at 8320 Loyola Street – which together make up .87 acres.

A Conditional Use Rezoning request was submitted last month by Bill Greco of Land Solutions to change the zoning from Limited Office (LO) and Residential, minimum

What is being built just north of Sheetz on N.C. 68 at Leabourne Road in Greensboro (just outside the Town of Oak Ridge limits)?

The property fronting N.C. 68 is being graded for retail establishments, including a possible ABC store, according to Robbie Perkins, the market president for NAI

A public hearing is scheduled for Thursday, July 27, at 7 p.m. at Stokesdale Town Hall when the town’s Planning Board will consider the rezoning request.

The property is owned by Aisha Realty LLC, a company based in Summerfield and owned by Murand Ali. We spoke with Ali last week, but he declined to elaborate on his plans for the property.

Rumors are circulating that a hardware store will be built on the property, but we were not able to confirm those rumors.

Piedmont Triad, a commercial real estate company.

Construction of more than 300 luxury apartments is planned for about 20 acres behind the retail strip, Perkins said in an interview earlier this week. He’s handling the leasing of the sites for Collett, the Charlotte-based developer of the property.

The land is located on the western side of N.C. 68, with Leabourne Road