In two separate editorials, the N&R kicks incumbent Guilford County Commissioners Billy Yow and Skip Alston to the curb. There’s no party opposition in the general election in either District 5 or District 8, so the May 6 primary is winner take all.
In the lead editorial endorsing Yow challenger Rick Wallace, the N&R writes:
Yow and Wallace clearly differ on $671.6 million in county bonds, which also will appear on the May 6 ballot. Yow supports only the jail bonds and bonds to help rebuild Eastern Guilford High School, which was destroyed by fire in 2006. Wallace supports bonds for GTCC, the schools and Eastern Guilford. He argues, correctly, that the county finds itself where it is with school spending because it neglected school needs for so long.
Yow says he opposes tax increases while Wallace pledges to hold them “to a minimum.” Both, however, support the proposed quarter-cent sales tax increase as a means to ease the burden on property-tax payers.
The main difference between the two men is, in fact, more style than substance. Yow is unpredictable. Wallace at least offers a hope for more consistent and professional behavior.
So two bond referendums in the last eight years isn’t doing enough to address school needs, eh? Sorry guys, but word’s out* on Guilford County Schools’ spending habits when building new schools.
The N&R also endorses Alston challenger Greg Woodard despite a “skimpy resume” and “an ill-timed bout with pneumonia is preventing him from actively campaigning.” Still, the N&R believes if Woodard “were given the opportunity to serve, there’s every reason to believe he would respond well.”
As for Alston, who pushed GCS to find the money to rebuild Eastern Guilford without a bond referendum the N&R writes his attributes “too often are overshadowed by belligerence, intimidation and a propensity to see nearly every issue from a racial perspective.” Though I respect Alston’s opposition to the bonds, I can’t say I’m a big fan. Yet I still find it disturbing that the N&R would endorse his opposition based on practically nothing.
*As for GCS school construction, surely Rhino editor John Hammer is being sarcastic when he writes:
We do know that outrageous claims are made about the schools that are built, but they have to be to justify the expense. The school board was told at Northern Middle that the hot air would not rise above people’s heads. They were also told that students would not get sick as often at Northern Middle because the air around each student was taken away and filtered before it came in contact with another student.
The school board members just nodded and talked about what great innovations had been made. Not a single member asked why hot air didn’t rise and how the air from around each student was sucked away, filtered and brought back without some huge vacuum system or something like the cone of silence.
But never assume anything with the Guilford County school board.
