Fire, water and billboards
Sometimes, political animosity or anxiety over one issue can spill over into other issues. Case in point, this memo from County Commissioner Billy Yow.
Those who aren't loyal Scoop readers (and the 11 of you who are) may need a little background:
The city and county have been at odds over whether to allow billboards along the Greensboro Urban Loop, a new highway being built around the city. The city leaders don't want them, but the county commissioners who have jurisdiction over more than half the territory have been more permissive.
To try to persuade land owners to eschew billboards, City Council members proposed a policy to withhold water from landowners outside the city limits with billboards on their property. The proposal failed narrowly and there has been talk of resurrecting it.
In a seemingly unconnected story, Commissioner Melvin "Skip" Alston proposed a merger between the city's fire department and the multiple rural fire departments that serve people outside the city limits.
Which brings us back to Yow's memo, which objects to the merger idea and cites worries over the billboard proposal. In particular, Yow worries out loud that council members Robbie Perkins and the blogging Tom Phillips "could possibly threaten county property owners by withholding fire service if these property owners have outdoor advertising..."
Of course, Yow says he won't be there in person at commissioners' retreat at the end of the month where this issue might be discussed. But that's another story or two.