Feb. 24 - March 2, 2017
bringing the local news home to northwest Guilford County since 1996
nwobserver.com
Proposed PD text amendment on pause After revisions are made, the amendment will be remanded to Zoning Board for further consideration by PATTI STOKES Greensboro Academy students use multiple mediums to create works of art focusing on foreshortening, detail and composition. For more student works of art, see our monthly student artist gallery on page 11 of this issue.
SUMMERFIELD – A proposed text amendment to create a Planned Development zoning district in Summerfield will be revised and then sent back to the Zoning Board for further consideration.
Following a public hearing at the Zoning Board’s Jan. 23 meeting, at which 48 people spoke, the town council held a Question and Answer session on Feb. 9 to help address what it considered to be confusion and misinformation surrounding the PD; a second public hearing was scheduled at the council’s monthly meeting on Feb. 16. Soon after calling the Feb. 16 meeting to order, however, the town council voted 4-1 to postpone the hearing, further revise the amendment
to incorporate citizen input it had received thus far, and remand it back to the Zoning Board. Once satisfied with the amendment’s language, the board will hold another public hearing before it comes back to the town council, which likely won’t happen before May. Although the Feb. 16 public hearing was continued, citizens were still given an opportunity to speak at the meeting and 60 citizens did so. See some of their comments in the town council coverage beginning on page 6 of this issue.
Town seeks firm to look out for its interests in water authority IN THIS ISSUE by STEVE MANN STOKESDALE – A request for qualifications (RFQ) for an engineering firm to explore Stokesdale’s options regarding a proposed regional water authority was back on the table for the town council’s Feb. 15 weekly meeting. The RFQ just wasn’t the one that had been discussed the week before. At the Feb. 9 monthly council meeting, council member Tim Jones had introduced an RFQ for an adviser/ consultant to the Town of Stokesdale; when presenting it, Jones explained he believed the town needed the expertise
of someone who would look out for Stokesdale’s interests relating to participation in a regional water authority feasibility study that Stokesdale, Summerfield, Oak Ridge and Guilford County voted in early January to pursue. The issue was continued until Feb. 15, and Town Attorney Katy Gregg was asked to review Jones’ document. But the document in the council members’ packet Feb. 15 was one that Town Administrator/Finance Officer Kim Hemric said Gregg had created by merging information from Jones’ document and several other sources. Mayor Randy Braswell said he had
received an email from Gregg requesting input on the RFQ since she wasn’t familiar with what the council wanted the adviser/ consultant to study. During the discussion, additional duties suggested for addition to the RFQ’s scope of services included: • Consider a geological study for supplemental groundwater supplies and that cost comparison;
• Provide alternatives to the regional water authority with regard to inter-local agreements versus surrendering the assets of the town’s water system to the water authority; • Assist in the renegotiations of an existing contract with Winston-Salem – which supplies water to Stokesdale – for a perpetual agreement, a wholesale
...continued on p. 5
News in Brief ................................3 Your Questions ............................4 Summerfield Town Council ........6 Polo + lacrosse = polocrosse ....9 Youth/School News .................. 10 Student Profiles ......................... 12 Coach, daughter share bond . 13 Bits & Pieces .............................. 18 Crime/Incident Report ............. 19 Community Calendar .............. 21 Letters/Opinions .......................24 Grins & Gripes ...........................26 Classifieds ................................. 27 Index of Advertisers ................. 31 NWO on the Go! .......................32