Jan. 6 - 12, 2017
bringing the local news home to northwest Guilford County since 1996
Mail carrier retires from USPS after 43 years Jerry Huffines, who retired on Sept. 30, is missed by his co-workers at Summerfield Post Office and those in his 55-mile mail carrier route
Find a job with benefits. “My mama made me,” Huffines, 66, said. “I was working on a farm. She told me I needed some retirement and benefits. The farm didn’t provide it.”
by STEVE MANN and PATTI STOKES Jerry Huffines’ mother gave him some sound advice in the early 1970s.
nwobserver.com
Photo by Patti Stokes/NWO
Mail carrier Jerry Huffines, known for his dedication and positive attitude, sorts the mail for one of the last times before his retirement on Sept. 30.
So, the lifelong Gibsonville resident started a career with the U.S. Postal Service, spending the first 10 years as a part-time mail carrier whose routes included the Forest Oaks and
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Towns, county expected to vote on water feasibility study A Memorandum of Understanding will be on January meeting agendas by PATTI STOKES NW GUILFORD – In late 2015, the towns of Oak Ridge, Summerfield and Stokesdale were approached by Mark Richardson, chairman of the Rockingham County Board of Commissioners. The topic of discussion: water. Richardson said the board had wanted for a long time to extend water lines into southwestern Rockingham County for economic development
purposes. Hopeful that the $2 billion state bond referendum (Connect NC) – which designated $312,500,000 for water/sewer infrastructure and local parks – would pass, the commissioners’ had their sights set on obtaining a portion of that bond funding and joining water lines coming from Madison and Reidsville in the area of the U.S. 220 and U.S. 158 intersection, into northern Guilford County. The bond was overwhelmingly approved by voters in March 2016. The following month, at the April 12 town council meeting, Summerfield Mayor Mark Brown told fellow council members he had received another call from Richardson, who said Rocking-
ham County would like to “take the U.S. 220/U.S. 158 water line south down U.S. 220 to N.C. 150 (Oak Ridge Road) and then west on N.C. 150 to the Town of Oak Ridge.” Brown then presented a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in which Reidsville, Madison, Mayodan, Stokesdale, Oak Ridge and Summerfield were asked to agree to work collaboratively with Rockingham County to support a regional water initiative for the purposes of water supply planning and future economic development. The council was asked to prepare to vote on the MOU at a later date. Meanwhile, Oak Ridge held a wa-
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IN THIS ISSUE News in Brief ..................................................3 Your Questions ..............................................4 Summerfield Town Council ..........................6 Student Profiles .............................................8 Youth/School News ....................................10 High School Sports ..................................... 11 Charlie & Me ...............................................14 Pet Briefs ......................................................15 Community Calendar ................................21 Crime/Incident Report ...............................22 Letters/Opinions .........................................23 Grins & Gripes .............................................24 Classifieds ...................................................27 Index of Advertisers ...................................31
IN NEXT WEEK’S ISSUE The article on a proposed Planned Development (PD) zoning district in Summerfield, initially scheduled for this week’s issue, will instead appear in our Jan. 13-19 issue.