Tony Wilkins files to run for District 6 County Commissioner

As the clock ran out on filing for a few remaining County Commissioner seats yesterday — a deadline which was extended due to a court proceedings which temporarily suspended the filing process as the NAACP challenged the legality of the commissioner redistricting — veteran conservative Tony Wilkins filed for District 6.

Wilkins will run against fellow Republicans Hank Henning and Jeremy Williams, but he wasn't the only candidate to file before the final deadline at 5 p.m. March 9. Democrats Dan Miller of Greensboro and Linda Kellerman of High Point both filed yesterday for District 6 as well, bringing the number of candidates from two on Thursday up to five.

In a press release, Wilkins emphasized his service as Executive Director of the Guilford County Republican Party for two years and the facts that he spent his entire life in the county and experience running a furniture business. "He pledges to work tirelessly for jobs, economic growth, and public safety," the release said.

There is no incumbent running for the new seat.

Also yesterday, Republican Noah Messick of Gibsonville filed for District 4 Commissioner, running against Republicans Jerry Branson of Julian and Douglas Williams of Greensboro, who filed two days prior. Incumbent Kirk Perkins is the only Democrat running for the seat.

As filing closed for the County Commissioner races, Democrat Ray Trapp was ensured victory in District 8, as no other candidates filed for the seat.

For more filing information, visit the Board of Election's filing list.

Trader Joe's coming to the Triad... and not where you think

While Greensboro frets over the location of an imaginary Trader Joe's supermarket, the company announced today plans to open one later this year in Winston-Salem, at 252 S. Stratford Road in the Thruway Center.

The whole thing is kind of hilarious.

Full press release after the jump.

Trader Joe’s to Open in Winston-Salem
Store Scheduled to Open in 2012
________________________________________________________________________
(March 9, 2012) Monrovia, CA - Trader Joe's, a unique, neighborhood grocery store with foods and beverages ranging from the everyday to the exotic, has signed a lease to open a new location in Winston-Salem, North Carolina with a target opening date in 2012. The new store is located at 252 South Stratford Road (inside the Thruway Center) and is approximately 13,000 square feet.

 The store will feature a festive décor that mixes traditional Trader Joe’s elements such as cedar covered walls and Hawaiian motifs, combined with a local flair that includes art celebrating the neighborhood.  This announcement marks the seventh Trader Joe’s to open in North Carolina. Other locations throughout the state include:  Cary, Chapel Hill, Charlotte (Midtown), Charlotte (North), Charlotte (South) and Raleigh.

 The "Trader" in Trader Joe’s refers to the way the company blazed a distinct trail through the grocery industry, searching the world for great values and distinctive products. Store employees, dubbed "Crew Members," consider themselves “traders on the culinary high seas.” Crew Members sport brightly colored Hawaiian-themed shirts, adding to the friendly and  light-hearted air of the store.

Many area residents after the store opens can expect to receive a copy of the Trader Joe’s “Fearless Flyer” in their mailboxes. The Fearless Flyer is a somewhat irreverent description of a timely selection of Trader Joe’s products. It’s been called a cross between Consumer Reports and Mad Magazine. Each edition highlights a selection of Trader Joe’s products that the company buyers believe are worthy of customer interest, including comfort foods and items that are organic or have other special attributes.

Trader Joe's carries an extensive array of domestic and imported foods and beverages including fresh baked artisan breads, Arabica bean coffees, international frozen entrées, 100% juices, fresh crop nuts, deli items, and vitamins and supplements, as well as the basics, like milk and eggs – all at honest, low prices.

Trader Joe’s is truly a grocery store unlike any other.  Trader Joe’s is a  “store of stories,” meaning every item in the store has its own virtues -- high quality ingredients, great flavor or simply an extraordinary price -- many items often feature all of those qualities.  Another significant point of difference, all of Trader Joe’s prices are everyday prices. Trader Joe’s doesn’t have “sales” for a few days, only to hike the prices back up again. Their prices change only when their costs change -- there are no fancy promotions, discount cards or couponing wars.

So how does Trader Joe's offer unique groceries at prices everyone can afford?  By offering more than 1000 items under the Trader Joe’s private label, which includes Trader José's salsas, Trader Ming’s fried rice, Trader Giotto’s marinara sauces, in addition to specially purchased items.

Also, Trader Joe’s buys differently than other grocers – they purchase from manufacturers, not through distributors. They’ll take a brand name product, take out the preservatives and artificial colors and ingredients, and put it under their Trader Joe’s label to sell it at a real discount.

Trader Joe’s introduces approximately a dozen new items every week, heightening the store’s adventurous appeal.  Our buyers travel around the world searching out unique products at great values. In order for an item to be sold in a Trader Joe’s store, it must pass the scrutiny of a discerning tasting panel. Thousands of items are tasted each year to find products that both appeal to the culinary adventurer and microwave aficionado.

###

Trader Joe’s is a chain of neighborhood grocery stores featuring high quality imported and domestic foods and beverages at honest, low prices. Trader Joe’s (www.traderjoes.com) began in 1958 in the Los Angeles area.  Since then, Trader Joe’s has expanded to more than 365 stores in 32 states.

Planning board to consider Winston-Salem/Forsyth greenway plan

The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County City-County Planning Board will consider a plan prioritizing greenway construction at its next meeting on April 12. If the board recommends the plan, it will go to the Winston-Salem City Council and Forsyth County Commission for final approval.

The Bicycle-Greenway Planning Subcommittee of the Winston-Salem Urban Area considered 18 greenways for consideration and then ranked them by connectivity, construction feasibility and public support to determine their priority. Three first-priority projects are expected to be built in the next five to seven years, although funding has not been established.

Following a public-input process last year, which involved eight meetings, other projects were deemed second priority, meaning that design work and construction might begin in the next seven to 15 years. Further down the ranking were projects that were deemed to need further assessment. And beyond that were greenways considered “long-term projects” and ones that were deemed unfeasible by the city engineering department.

Some members of the nine-member planning board expressed surprise at the percentage of surveyed residents that said they opposed construction of greenways through their neighborhoods.

“Most people are generally supportive of greenways until they find out it’s coming through their neighborhood, and then the whole thing changes,” said Amy Crum, a project planner on the planning board staff.

Crum added that some residents who live along a recently completed section of the Muddy Creek Greenway have changed their tune. “They were against it,” she said. “And then it was built and are absolutely for it, think it’s wonderful.”

Board member Clarence Lambe, a county appointee from Kernersville, said, “The half a dozen people that I know that use it, to a person they love it. They really do. And they want to see increased connectivity. That was why I was so shocked at the results of your survey. But that needs to be part of your story — is converts.”

Three projects are at the top of the city and county’s list assuming they receive approval.

The proposed Waughtown Connector would runs less than a mile, connecting Reynolds Park Road to Waughtown Road. It would pass through the former Piedmont Quarry. The quarry is owned by the city of Winston-Salem, which makes the trail attractive from a cost consideration, but the topography and exposed rock are considered obstacles. The project would also require approval from Duke Energy, which controls right-of-way, to move forward.

About two thirds of neighboring residents surveyed by the committee said they supported construction of the greenway and would use it.

The proposed Salem Creek Greenway Extension, which is just over a mile long, would connect the Salem Creek Trail at Market Place Mall to Forsyth Tech. The greenway would allow Forsyth Tech students to travel by foot or by bicycle to Salem College and Winston-Salem State University.

The draft plan identifies crossings at Peters Creek Parkway and Silas Creek Parkway, along with conflicts with existing development, as “the greatest obstacles to construction” of the greenway. The proposed greenway received support from 89 percent of surveyed residents, with two thirds saying they would use the trail.

The proposed 1.7-mile Muddy Creek Greenway Phase 2 would connect Jefferson Elementary to Yadkinville Road on Winston-Salem’s west side.

The draft plan indicates that “some residents along Muddy Creek, particularly within the Brownstone neighborhood, expressed strong concerns about placing the greenway along the east side of the creek.”

“Muddy Creek Phase 2 a lot of the comment was, ‘If it’s on the west side I would be completely supportive,’” Crum told the planning board. “There’s one neighborhood that has been very, very vocal.”

Three out of four residents of the area indicated that they support greenway construction generally, but only 50 percent said they supported construction in their neighborhood, compared to 46 percent who said they were opposed. But two out of three said they would use the path.

The board meets next on April 12 at 4:30 p.m. in the public meeting room on the fifth floor of the Bryce A. Stuart Municipal Building, located at 100 E. 1st St. in Winston-Salem.

Police release statement on meeting with Beloved Community Center

Greensboro police released the following statement (below) late this afternoon regarding a meeting with the Beloved Community Center staff and board yesterday. The meeting focused on a package that was allegedly delivered to the center that the Rhino Times claimed contained illegal drugs.

Here is the full statement from the police, sent to YES! Weekly at 6:36 p.m. today.

High Point council in 'muddled mess' over funding to Coltrane festival

High Point at-large Councilman Latimer Alexander suggests in an e-mail today that the city might take over John Coltrane International Jazz and Blues Festival in the wake of a fiduciary lapse in which council members granted the festival $32,000 with the understanding that it would be repaid, but failed to formally stipulate the terms of the agreement.

Mayor Pro Tem Bernita Sims brought the request to the council last May on behalf of Friends of John Coltrane, a nonprofit that produced the festival.

Alexander said in an e-mail to community volunteer Cynthia Davis today: “I don’t know how this muddled mess will be unpacked to satisfy everyone. I believe that if the festival is going to move forward it will need to be absorbed within the city under the [High Point] Theatre and/or the Parks & Recreation departments. There will be a place for the Friends of JC and their board to be involved but control and accounting of the flow of money could be managed professionally and the accounting would be without question. Whether the community and city council along with the Friends group can come to agreement on this will determine where the city moves forward with this."

Alexander chairs the city council's finance committee. More from the e-mail:

At this point, I don’t believe the Friends group has the money to repay even if they wanted to. There certainly is no way the city has legal claim against them, nor do I believe that the city would take that action. I also don’t believe that future funds will be awarded to the Friends under the current structure of the festival.

I do believe that the festival could be a tremendous success given time and the proper professional organization of the event. Right now what we have is a group who has a good plan without the professional ability to execute and account for everything that is required. I do not believe nor has anyone ever brought forward any evidence that any money went to anything inappropriate.

I certainly hope that our finance committee meeting will yield people who want to find a solution to the issues and not who want to find a scapegoat. That will not serve our community well. I believe at the end of the day the best solution would be for the board of JC to ask the city to take over and surrender everything they have to the city to pick it up from here and run with it.

I have not made this a suggestion to anyone at this time and I don’t know how others might feel. I do know that Labor Day weekend is usually a very slow time in High Point for our hotels and restaurants. Many of our citizens are off for that last weekend at the beach, lake or campground before the fall season starts. It would be great to have something here that could bring a meaningful number of out-of-towners into the city to celebrate the life and art of JC. Whether that will ever happen, I can’t say but I am concerned that this relatively small amount of money, $27,000 in a general fund budget of over $103,000,000 might split our community up. There are lots of passions on all sides and we need to lead forward as a council and not get mired up and bogged down. This issue will show leadership or lack of leadership on all concerned.

City council minutes reflect that Alexander made a motion to authorize an appropriation of city funds of up to $32,000 to support the John Coltrane International Jazz and Blues Festival at a May 2011 meeting. The council had suspended its rules to vote on the motion considering that it was not on the agenda for the meeting.

Alexander acknowledges in today’s e-mail to Davis that Mayor Pro Tem Bernita Sims, who made the request for the funds, promised to repay if the festival made money. The money came out of a downtown improvement fund.

A transcript of the discussion among council members that was released this morning by City Clerk Lisa Vierling quotes Mayor Becky Smothers as asking Sims: “If you meet your budget and exceed your budget before the event, is there anyway perhaps you could repay some of that money that you’re being advanced?”

“Absolutely,” Sims responds. “No problem with that at all.”

Alexander says in the transcript that he will be glad to make a motion for the funds, which were requested to cover marketing and promotion expenses.

“Are you putting in that motion, Mr. Alexander, if the festival is able to raise the money that they have projected, that this advance would at least be… ?” Smothers asks.

“That’s assumed,” Alexander responds. “I don’t mind putting it in the motion, but I believe Ms. Sims has made that comment and that’s assumed.”

Councilman Chris Whitley states that he believes the funds should come from a tourism agency rather than a downtown improvement fund.

Sims says in response: “And if that happens, which we are going to approach that entity again regarding funding – again, if that happens, I have no problem or the committee has no problem with going ahead and refunding those dollars back to the city.”

At the mayor’s request and after further discussion, Vierling restates the motion as “to approve up to $32,000 for the John Coltrane International Jazz Blues Festival.”

The motion passed 5 to 3, with Smothers, Alexander, Sims, Councilman Foster Douglas and Councilman Jim Corey voting in favor, while Whitley, Councilman Britt Moore and Councilman AB Henley opposed it. Councilman Mike Pugh was absent for the vote.

In his e-mail to Davis today, Alexander said, “The issue here is Bernita was speaking for a board [Friends of John Coltrane] without prior authority from that group in writing. Council never asked for Friends board for formal action so from a legal standpoint, there is no written promise of repayment from the board of the Friends of JC.

“I was interested to again read the minutes and that the term loan never appeared anywhere in council comments but it certainly," Alexander continued. "A clear promise of repayment was made but that was again by an individual and not the board. No terms or schedule was ever discussed and no documents were ever prepared to accompany the check.”

The High Point Enterprise reports that the festival brought in $223,566 with total expenses of $200,499, leaving a profit of $23,066.

In council discussion prior to the vote on the $32,000 appropriation, Sims said Friends of John Coltrane had determined that if the festival were to turn a profit, proceeds would go to benefit the restoration of the John Coltrane House, a “John Coltrane festival workshop” hosted by the High Point Arts Council, Brothers Organized To Serve Others and Ladies Organized To Serve Others and Nia Community Action Center, while “leaving some funding in place for the festival next year.”

Along with Sims, Guilford County Commissioner Bruce Davis has served as a member of the board of directors of Friends of John Coltrane.

Davis and Latimer Alexander are both running for NC Senate this year. Davis is challenging fellow Democrat Gladys Robinson in District 28. Alexander is one of a quartet of Republican candidates vying for the new District 27 seat.

The festival itself was generally well received when it made its debut last September, but YES! Weekly music critic Ryan Snyder faulted the program for failing to live up to Coltrane’s legacy of sonic adventurousness, noting that the festival felt musically safe while its namesake never was.

This week in YES! Weekly

feature: Triad gymnasts go big time

be there: Mixed Tape Series Presents: The Neverending Story

dirt: Coalition doesn’t feel friendly towards development

10 best: 10 BEST Dirty Tricks

voices: Celebrating International Women’s Day

editorial: Undeniable math for the GC GOP

tunes: Best of: The music endorsements

flicks: Dr. Seuss on the loose in The Lorax, Tim and Eric make big-screen bow

visions: Art mimics nature with exhibit honoring NW NC landscape

chow: Cafe without the accent in Ardmore

crash: The Voice of the IRC

Breaking news in Forsyth County election

CLARIFICATION: Ed Hanes says that some of the information in this article is incorrect. One example that came immediately to mind concerns the location of his business, Monticello Park. Hanes told me the business is based in Winston-Salem, and he works out of an office in the Piedmont Tower in Winston-Salem. A reverse lookup for the work phone number listed for Hanes’ candidate filing at whitepages.com identifies the number as a landline in Winston-Salem, Walkertown or Kernersville.

He acknowledged that the Asheboro and More article cited by Bonham does give the impression that his business is located in Asheboro.

The article quotes Hanes as saying, “I now have this free office space in Winston-Salem, which is fine because it works with our plan to be3 there for our parents. However, I recognize the unique business environment and opportunity Asheboro provided for you young business people. I really felt my business had a much better opportunity to not only survive in my first nine months in Asheboro vs. Winston-Salem, but to thrive. My friends in Winston-Salem wouldn’t like to hear that, but I think I made the right choice. My business was started here for a reason and, I believe, will remain here long term no matter where we live.”

ORIGINAL POST: Jimmie Bonham, a Democratic candidate for NC House District 72, plans to file an official challenge to the residency of primary opponents Ed Hanes Jr. and Wayne Patterson at the Forsyth County Board of Elections at 3 p.m.

UPDATE: The official challenge (link) has been filed.

"Several citizens who live near these guys have contacted me stating that they live with their wives and their children and not at the addresses where they filed for candidacy," Bonham told me earlier today. "That creates suspicion with me to see exactly where their domicile is."

Bonham charges in his challenge that Hanes is a resident of Asheboro, which is not part of District 72. The challenge also states that Patterson's wife resides and owns property at an address different from the one the candidate listed in his filing, and that he should be required to prove him true residence to establish his qualifications to represent District 72.

Hanes acknowledged in an interview that 3920 Pomeroy Drive, the address he used to file as a candidate for District 72, is his father's home. The candidate owns and operates a business, Monticello Park LLC, in Asheboro. Voting records show that Hanes has voted only once, in 2010, using the Pomeroy Drive address.

"My mother died very suddenly in December of 2006 and shortly after that my wife and I made the decision that I would transition my living space to Pomeroy so that I could be with my father," Hanes said. "The decision was a private one and the right one to do. It's meant a lot of driving and a lot of nights away from my family. I'm glad we did it, and we'd do it all over again."

The challenge cites an article in the December 2011 issue of Asheboro and More Magazine stating, "In 2006, his mom passed away resulting in a decision to look after his father by splitting time between Asheboro and Winston-Salem."

Hanes is quoted in the article as saying, "That was a difficult decision for us, for me to move home, but one we felt was necessary based on our family values and our desire to care for our parents. Driving from Winston during the week and maintaining two households (and a rental in Durham) is tough, but we make it work."

Hanes said his wife, a self-employed certified registered nurse anesthetist, now lives with him in Winston-Salem. Both are from Winston-Salem. Hanes said their house in Asheboro has been on and off the market for years and that they have been unable to sell it, adding that they don't want to take on a third mortgage by immediately buying a new house in Winston-Salem.

State law requires a candidate whose residency has been challenged to prove through a preponderance of evidence that he or she is qualified to be a candidate.

"The local board [of] elections holds an evidentiary hearing where rules of court prevail," Forsyth County Elections Director Rob Coffman said. "Witnesses can be subpoenaed. The board will determine if the candidate holds the qualifications to run for office based on a preponderance of evidence. That's different from a criminal [case], where you're required to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt. It's like 51 percent says he lives there, 49 percent says he doesn't; he lives there then."

A paper (link) by NC Board of Elections General Counsel Don Wright states that the candidate who has been challenged must show

• an actual abandonment of the first domicile coupled with an intent not to return to the first domicile;

• the acquisition of a new domicile by actual residence at another place; and

• the intent of making the newer domicile a permanent domicile.

Bonham's challenge charges that "Ed Hanes Jr. did not intend to permanently leave his wife, Traci, and two children, Madelyn and Evelyn, in Asheboro within Randolph County and live away from them permanently by choosing to temporarily help his father who resides at 3920 Pomeroy Drive in Winston-Salem, North Carolina."

Coffman said state law requires the Forsyth County Board of Elections to hold a hearing within 20 days, but that because the board is already under the gun by a deadline to send out absentee ballots he hopes to hold the hearing by the middle of next week at the latest.

Hanes said he regrets that Bonham filed the challenge.

"He knows my mother has passed," Hanes said. "That's really unfortunate and unsavory. The people of this district are going to reject that type of politics."

Patterson's case may be more cut and dry.

He told me that a Renigar Street address that is listed on his filing papers is his primary address. He acknowledged that he has a second residence, on Poindexter Avenue. Coffman confirmed that the Poindexter Avenue address is located in District 72, as is the Renigar Street address.

"Due to the fact that my campaign is all about integrity, I will not stoop to dirty politics," Patterson said. "Clearly, I live in the 72nd, I work in the 72nd and I play in the 72nd."

Lawyers in Latin Kings case wrestle with mountains of evidence

Four North Carolina Latin Kings, including inca Jorge Cornell, pleaded not guilty to federal racketeering charges in federal court in Greensboro this morning. The government filed a superceding indictment including a handful of new overt acts and added a 14th defendant last month.

Cornell, Russell Kilfoil, Randolph Kilfoil and Samuel Velasquez entered the courtroom wearing prison scrubs with hands cuffed to waist chains and smiling at supporters.

Judge William Osteen decided against setting deadlines for motions after hearing from both the government and defense council that the complexity of the case and volume of documentation was likely to require considerable time for preparation. Instead the judge scheduled a status conference for the first week of April.

Assistant US Attorney AJ Lang said the government has provided the defendants with 200 hours of audio and video recordings and 6,000 pages of documentation in discovery. The government is still in the process of having the audio recordings transcribed.

“I don’t see how we could resolve this case in April,” Lang said. “It’s a voluminous case.”

Mark Everette Edwards, the public defender assigned to Velasquez he had difficulty discerning who was speaking in the audio recordings and they did not match up to other documentation provided to the government.

“It’s just going to take a long time to plow through,” he said.

The defense lawyers, some of whom have capital cases scheduled for trial in the interim, said it could be late summer or early fall before they are prepared to go to trial in the Latin Kings case.

Many of the defendants are being held at Piedmont Regional Jail in Farmville, Va., a five-hour drive for their lawyers.

“When I get up there, I’m told, ‘Oh, you can’t bring your computer in,’” said Brian Michael, who represents Russell Kilfoil. “They say they have a computer in the facility we can use. But I find out it doesn’t even have something as simple as Adobe Acrobat. So I can’t go over the case with my client. It makes it difficult to prepare for trial.”

As Cornell was led out with the other four defendants, supporter Saralee Gallien told him from the gallery: “We love you and miss you. Your girls love you and miss you.”

“Are you at Farmville?” she added. “Put us on the list.”

Outside the courthouse, a handful of supporters dressed in the Latin Kings’ colors of gold and black held banners reading “FBI conspires, kings and queens inspire” and “From Pelican Bay to Greensboro, in solidarity with all prisoners.”

Two of them declined to give their names, but indicated they were from different parts of North Carolina.

Zoning dispute could bring about entertainment district

A conflict between entertainment and residential uses on the northern fringe of downtown Winston-Salem could put the city on the path of developing an entertainment district as a new zoning classification.

After hearing concerns from a lawyer representing the opposition, the city council decided to take no action on a rezoning request by property investor Jonathan Waterbury, who is seeking to rezone his building at the corner of North Main Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive from light industrial to pedestrian business, which allows residential uses.

Councilman Derwin Montgomery, whose ward encompasses Waterbury’s property as well as Ziggy’s, made a motion of no consideration, meaning that the request could come up again at the full council’s next meeting on March 26. Montgomery expressed concern about the potential for the rezoning to negative impact existing property owners, including Ziggy’s and District Roof Top Bar & Grille on Trade Street. He added that he had hoped that by delaying the decision the opposing parties would find common ground, but that did not come to pass.

(Disclosure: YES! Weekly publisher Charles Womack is a part owner of Ziggy’s and this reporter maintains a satellite newspaper office in the building.)

“High-intensity, crowded, noisy uses are popular with the young people Winston-Salem wants to attract,” said Donald M. Nielsen, who represents Ziggy’s and the District. “These uses, of course, don’t have to be downtown, but a successful downtown needs to have a place where they are accepted and ideally would be celebrated as a key ingredient in a vital downtown.”

Lawyer Everett Powell told council his client, Jonathan Waterbury, moved to the neighborhood about 15 years ago.

“He’s an artist in an artist’s area, and he was one of the first to become a resident and a working member there in this area in this building,” Powell said. “And he spent a lot of money rehabilitating it and making it into a very nice work area and residential area.”

Nielsen told council that the owners Ziggy’s, which opened last August, worked closely with the city to ensure that the venue would be compatible with its neighbors, including factoring topography and nearby buildings into noise mitigation. He added that the owners did not know that Waterbury “made his permanent home” nearby.

“The natural result of a large entertainment venue right next to a home or nearby a home is tension,” Nielsen said. “Mr. Waterbury complained about noise from Ziggy’s between the time it opened and the time of his rezoning application.”

Nielsen said the city’s noise ordinance was written to protect residents — who, he might have added, like to sleep in peace at night — but Ziggy’s and similar music venues provide entertainment primarily between the hours of 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.

“My clients have met with elected officials and city staff to discuss an alternative, which would protect live entertainment facilities and allow residential,” he said. “The city could embrace the recommendations of downtown plans that formally designate this area as an entertainment district. Within the district, there could be measures that would protect entertainment facilities and encourage residential development. It would be explicit that loud noise and late hours are expected, and even celebrated.”

Although discomforted by the prospect of threatening the viability of entertainment businesses, council members signaled that they also want to encourage residential development in downtown.

Earlier, the council had approved a rezoning from light industrial to pedestrian business for a quarter-acre site at North Main Street and East 7th Street. Planning Director Paul Norby noted to council that since 2002 a succession of such transitions allowing a mix of business and residential to replace industrial uses has occurred along the eastern side of downtown running towards the northwest.

“To us, that’s a sign of progress,” said Mayor Pro Tem Vivian Burke, who represents the Northeast Ward, “if we looked at where we’ve come from and where we’re going.”

Montgomery said the council’s public safety committee will look into the possibility of creating an entertainment district at its next meeting on March 19. He added that staff in the planning and legal departments will likely draw up a proposal for council’s consideration.

“You have to ask the question: Is this the area that you designate for entertainment,” Montgomery said. “If it is entertainment, how does the residential threaten entertainment? This is an individual who has made a substantial investment. We want people to bring business to Winston-Salem. This individual was there first because he has been there 15 years, but without it being zoned in a residential use, it’s as if you were there illegally.”

Three officers sue city of Greensboro for racial discrimination

Charles Cherry, Joseph Pryor and Robert Reyes, three officers who were fired by the Greensboro Police Department in 2010 and 2011 after complaining about discrimination and retaliation, have filed suit in federal court against the city of Greensboro.

Read the complaint here (link).

Cherry and Pryor are also plaintiffs in a discrimination lawsuit (background here) against the city involving 39 black officers based on events that took place under the administration of former Chief David Wray before 2006. The first lawsuit, which was filed in 2009, is in discovery. The new lawsuit is based on events that took place under Wray's successors, chiefs Tim Bellamy and Ken Miller.

Cherry, Pryor and Reyes all received “right to sue” letters from the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission notifying them that the commission was “unable to conclude that the information obtained establishes violations of the statutes,” but that the plaintiffs are free to proceed with a private lawsuit.

The three plaintiffs are represented by Anita Earls, executive director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.

From the complaint:

The plaintiffs are a captain and two police officers formerly employed by the defendant city of Greensboro’s police department who were targeted for unwanted transfers, received other unjustified disciplinary actions, and ultimately were terminated from employment because of their race and national origin....

In retaliation for their complaints and because of their race and national origin, the GPD discharged all three officers on pre-textual grounds. Their careers shattered and their professional reputations called into question, former Captain Charles Cherry, Officer Pryor and Officer Reyes have been unable to serve the public in the role of police officer as a result of the discriminatory actions of the GPD.

Background here (link).

The lawsuit asks the court to order the city to immediately reinstate the plaintiffs, to quit engaging "in unlawful and discriminatory acts, to institute training for department employees "responsible for making determinations regarding complaints of discrimination" and award compensatory damages to the plaintiffs.

No alternate funding for HEAT buses, transportation director says

There aren't any alternate funding sources for the HEAT bus system, according to a recent memo from Transportation Director Adam Fischer to the city manager. At the request of District 1 Councilwoman T. Diane Bellamy-Small, the department tried to identify possible funding sources to help cover the operating costs of the bus system.

"GTA does not have extra operating funds to support the HEAT service," the memo reads. "Even if such funds were to become available, their use in support of HEAT (as opposed to broader improvements in GTA service) would raise reasonable questions among our current riders and the residents of Greensboro."

The HEAT buses connect the area colleges and other sites in town, including the depot, and began in operating in August 2006. The project is a partnership between the colleges and the city, which was able to secure a federal grant covering 80 percent of the costs for the first three years.

The contract for the service is currently being negotiated, and even though the cost per student —paid by the schools— will not increase as much as anticipated, it will still rise from $15 per student per semester to $16.20 next academic year and $17.40 the year after.

The memo also explains an alternative relationship that GTCC has with the HEAT system. Read the full memo