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September 26, 2006
Changing Roles
As has been noted elsewhere the News & Record is undergoing some changes in how we cover things. I'm somewhat included in that I'm moving from the High Point bureau to the Greensboro newsroom, where I'll be covering courts and legal affairs for the paper.
I start up there tomorrow, so this will be my last post on the High Point & Jamestown blog.
I'm sure some of you won't miss me, but I want to say thanks to everyone who has come by and read the blog. It's been a great learning experience for me and I hope people have found it useful. I'm hopeful that another News & Record blog might be in my future because I've enjoyed interacting with readers this way. It's hard to believe a year has already gone by.
Posted by Jonathan Jones at 7:31 PM | Comments (6)
September 25, 2006
On the Agenda: High Point Planning
High Point Planning and Zoning meets tomorrow night. The only thing on the agenda is D.F. Carty's request for a conditional use zoning permit to build a subdivision off Avondale and Hendrix streets.
The request is to rezone 36 acres and it would have a maximum of 95 units. The Cartys told neighbors of the property in letters that were mailed out that they intend to make the subdivision an affordable one, with homes ranging in price from $100,000 to $125,000 and in size from 1,100 to 1,500 square feet.
Update: The Planning Commission recommended approval.
City planners estimate it would add as many as 90 62 students to Union Hill or Jamestown elementary, Jamestown Middle and Ragsdale High schools.
It's recommended for approval, although the transportation department would like the developers to upgrade Avondale to city code.
Some parts of the property were involved in a zoning request Carty made earlier this year that was rejected by City Council in February. In July City Council approved a land-use designation change that allows for low-density residential on the site.
If you want to go:
What: High Point Planning and Zoning Commission
When: 6 p.m. Tuesday
Where: City Council Chambers, 211 S. Hamilton St.
Posted by Jonathan Jones at 6:31 PM | Comments (0)
September 22, 2006
Old Time Machines
The Jamestown Lions are hosting the "34th Annual Yester Year in Motion" this Saturday at the Willard Moore farm, 3139 Dillon Road in Jamestown. That's the same spot it's always been.
Exhibitors come from around North Carolina and nearby states to show off old engines, tractors, implements and other wares from a bygone era. At least that's what they say.
Anyway, there will be bluegrass and gospel music, a lawn mower pull -- now that sounds fun -- and a toy tractor pull.
It costs $4 but the proceeds help pay for various Lions Club projects. So check it out. Sounds like a good time.
Posted by Jonathan Jones at 7:47 AM | Comments (0)
September 21, 2006
Soldier from the North High Point & Jamestown area is killed in Iraq
Army Spc. Cpl. Robert Thomas Callahan died Tuesday in Iraq when the humvee he was riding in turned over. He was 22 years old and had a young wife.
Bobby Callahan grew up in that odd little area of Guilford County that I never know what to call. It's not in High Point city limits, but is almost entirely surrounded by the city and has a Jamestown address.
I spent a lot of time with his family today talking about him. They were incredibly gracious. I'm always amazed when families let a reporter into their lives during such difficult times. I know for some it helps with the grieving -- to talk about their loved one -- but they put in incredible trust in us that we will do the story right.
Bobby Callahan's death is a sad story. But the way in which he turned his life around before his second tour in Iraq is uplifting. See tomorrow's News & Record for the full thing.
Update: The Army release about Callahan's death can be found here. They list him at a different rank than what his family said last week.
Update II: Several people have asked me about services for Bobby. There will be a visitation Thursday evening, although family members have told me they would like to keep that private, and there will be a public burial at 11 a.m. Friday at Forest Lawn Cemetery. The obituary his family ran can be found here and there is a link from that page to a guest book where people can leave their condolences.
Also I caught up with the right person at Fort Drum today (Wednesday) and found out that Callahan was promoted posthumously to corporal, hence the discrepenancy above.
Update III: The story about his burial can be found here.
Posted by Jonathan Jones at 5:33 PM | Comments (9)
September 20, 2006
NHP Power Outage
Power is out for about 2,500 Duke Energy customers in north High Point this afternoon.
Electricity went off about 1 p.m., Duke Energy spokeswoman Paige Sheehan said. It may take until 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. to restore. Duke Energy crews were working to find the location of the problem and once they find it, the estimated time for restoration could change.
Update: That was fast. The power's back on. Hey, at least it was worth learning about that handy Duke Energy outage tool down below. Police said the outage was caused by a construction crew digging.
The outage has cut power to several stop lights along Wendover Avenue in High Point.
Most of High Point is served by the city’s electric utility company, but a portion of north High Point is served by Duke Energy.
Sheehan said residents can call 1-800-POWER-ON to report their outage and find out if the estimated restoration time has changed. The company’s Web site has a page at which people can see how many customers are without power by county.
Posted by Jonathan Jones at 1:53 PM | Comments (0)
September 19, 2006
North High Point pharmaceutical company lands a big contract
TransTech Pharma landed a $155 million Pfizer bid to continue developing a medication with potential to treat Alzheimer's.
Good economic news for High Point and perhaps better news for those of us who have had loved ones suffer from Alzheimer's.
Posted by Jonathan Jones at 2:07 PM | Comments (0)
HPU's expansion plans...
... hit a bump last night at City Council. Only part of it was approved. (The story doesn't appear to have made the online edition, so I'll paste it below the jump).
High Point city reporter Kory Dodd reported that at one point in the meeting the university made a veiled threat to take its new school of education to its Winston-Salem campus if the northern portion went unapproved, which it did but only for a few weeks until council revisits it. The university said its Winston-Salem property is already properly zoned.
I thought the threat was interesting. Of course it'd be easy to move forward with plans on property that's already zoned correctly. But taking a major program to a satellite campus seems like it would either disconnect a significant chunk of the student body from the university or put a number of students on the road between the two campuses.
It's also interesting that in front of the Planning and Zoning Commission the university said those northern lots would be used for parking lots, but now it's talking about putting that school of education there.
By Kory Dodd
Staff Writer
HIGH POINT — Expansion plans for High Point University might have been complicated Monday when the City Council approved only a portion of the school’s rezoning request.
The council looked at listing the rest of the site as “pending.” Officials were unsure whether they could split the zoning request in two, so members decided not to act on this part until the council’s Oct. 2 meeting, when City Attorney Fred Baggett could be present.
The legally questionable move stems from the university’s plans to rezone from residential to public institution 8.2 acres — or 24 lots — across the street from its main campus.
The council voted 8-1 to approve rezoning the 20 lots north of North Avenue and to consolidate three conditional-use permits it already holds in the area. As part of the vote, the council withheld its decision on the university’s request to rezone four lots above North Avenue.
The majority of the council wanted to mark the request “pending” for up to one year but is waiting to make sure the action is legal.
Twenty of the lots lie south of North Avenue between Fifth Street and West College Drive beside areas already owned and properly zoned for the university’s use. The university plans to use them for a communications school and a school of commerce.
But the remaining four lots, which lie above North Avenue just below Fifth Court, are more controversial.
The university only owns about 30 percent of the blocks on which these lots lie. According to the city’s land-use plan amendment, which designated the university’s western boundary, if the school wants to change the zoning within a block it must own or control at least 50 percent of the properties on the block.
High Point University plans to use the three northern lots across from the university on West College Drive for its new education school.
The lone lot on North Avenue, between Fifth Court and West College Drive, is next to property owned by the university. It is scheduled to first be a parking lot and eventually be used for student housing.
Donald A. Scarborough, the university’s vice president of administration, said the school would have bought the property around the area where the education school is planned but one of the homeowners is asking an exorbitant price. He said the education school must be built on three lots so it can be near the graduate school.
Scarborough said several of the university’s donors are lobbying the school’s board of trustees to move the education school to its Winston-Salem campus, where the land has the proper zoning designation.
Scarborough said he would prefer to stay in High Point, but may be forced to change the university’s plans if the council doesn’t approve the complete zoning change.
Clarence Ilderton, of 907 West College Drive, said he is the homeowner asking for the so-called exorbitant price.
He said he has lived there for 70 years with his wife and would prefer not to move, but doesn’t want to live right next to the school.
“They’ve got plenty of room around here,” Ilderton said. “They’ve got more room then they know what to do with. They could put it somewhere else.”
Reciting the 50 percent rule, Ilderton argued the council “can’t treat them any different then you can individual citizens. And all these people around here are individual citizens.”
Mayor Pro Tem Bernita Sims said the university was doing the right thing by approaching Ilderton to buy his property. She thought it should continue to talk to the other neighbors on the block.
“But we have a guideline and a policy we’ve adapted,” Sims said. “It’s troublesome to me that depending on who comes to the table with a request determines who gets it.”
She said just because the university wants something doesn’t meant the council should ignore its own policy.
Mayor Becky Smothers was the lone vote against the council’s decision to approve only a portion of the zoning request.
Contact Kory Dodd at 883-4422, Ext. 241, or kdodd@news-record.com
Posted by Jonathan Jones at 1:50 PM | Comments (0)
September 8, 2006
Jamestown Bypass, US 311 extension get bumped back
Transportation reporter Taft Wireback had a report this morning about how changes in the N.C. Department of Transportation's draft Transportation Improvement Program for FY 2007-2012 affect local road projects. (Note: If you try to make sense of the TIP, we're in Division 7 and Guilford County projects start on page 284). It's an important document in the transportation world because it outlines which projects the state intends to fund over the next six years. Projects left out, are generally out in the cold.
The Jamestown Bypass stayed in the improvement program, which means the state is planning on going forward with it, but it got bumped back a couple of years. Depending on your perspective that could be either a good or bad thing.
The US 311 extension from Interstate 85 Business to Interstate 85 got bumped back one fiscal year -- from '06 to '07 -- but the district engineer says it shouldn't really affect that project much because its really just pushing it back a few months, not a full year.
Posted by Jonathan Jones at 12:10 PM | Comments (0)
September 5, 2006
Red Cross moves in.
Tucked in the warehouses of north High Point is a new American Red Cross distribution center.
It's part of the Red Cross' plan to be better prepared for disasters such as Hurricane Katrina. The agency has tripled its warehouse space nationally so that it can get supplies to stricken areas faster.
Posted by Jonathan Jones at 12:06 PM | Comments (0)
September 4, 2006
High Point's Finest ...
... haberdashery that is.
Esquire magazine declared Lindsay Odom Limited on Main Street one of the best men's clothing stores in the country in its latest edition.
I'm personally not much of a clothes horse, but if I was, I'd be sure to check them out. Actually I should probably check them out anyway, seeing as how they're here in town.
Posted by Jonathan Jones at 5:57 PM | Comments (0)
