🗞️ A $300 million makeover is on the table at our home airport

🗞️ A Kernersville couple gave away $140,000 in one morning

🗞️ Forsyth County wants to hear from the dads

🗞️ Bishop McGuinness rallies past Glenn for a Kernersville Cup win

🗞️ The knock on your door about your gas meter

⛅ Partly sunny | High: 85°F | Low: 66°F

Friday's rain clears out overnight and Saturday turns into the better half of the weekend. Look for partly sunny skies, a high near 85 and a light south wind. There is a slight chance of showers before 10 AM and a slight chance of a thunderstorm later on, but the overall chance of rain is only 20 percent and any rainfall should stay under a tenth of an inch. That is a good draw for the Home Grown Arts Festival at Harmon Park, which runs 9 AM to 3 PM. Saturday night settles to around 66 and partly cloudy. Then it gets even better: Sunday is mostly sunny and 84 with a low near 62, Monday is flat-out sunny and 85, and Tuesday holds at 84. After the week we just had, that is a stretch worth using.

The airport most of us fly out of is thinking about a serious remodel.

Piedmont Triad International Airport is weighing whether to spend up to $300 million modernizing its terminal, which would be the most comprehensive update there in the past four decades. A notice released Thursday by the Guilford County Board of Commissioners lays out what the work would cover: the concourses, the ticket lobby, the TSA screening areas, baggage claim and the concessions areas.

Nothing is settled yet. Airport Executive Director Kevin Baker said officials will not decide whether to proceed "until we get the scope and costs ironed out."

The money side is worth understanding, because Guilford County's name ends up on the paperwork. If the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority moves ahead and chooses to issue debt, federal tax law requires the county commissioners to consent to the bond issuance. That consent is procedural. "However, neither the county nor the taxpayers of Guilford County will be responsible for this debt," Baker said. "The authority does not receive tax dollars from Guilford County and the money to repay the bonds is not included in Guilford County's budget or the budget of any city or county. The bonds will be repaid from the revenues of the authority."

Commissioners will hold a public hearing on it at their meeting on Thursday, Sept. 3, at 5:30 PM in the Old Guilford County Courthouse, 301 W. Market St. in downtown Greensboro. PTI is one county over, but it is the closest airport for most of us, so it is worth knowing what is being weighed.

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Seven checks, one room, and no interest in a plaque.

Jim and Mary Taylor of Kernersville handed $20,000 to each of seven area nonprofits on Monday at the Kernersville Auto Museum. That is $140,000 in all. The recipients were The Shepherd's Center, Crisis Control Ministry, Next Step Ministries, Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina, The Salvation Army, HASTEN International Medical Missions and the North Carolina School of Biblical Studies.

The gifts came through a donor-advised fund the Taylors recently established with the Kernersville Foundation after selling some property. Mayor Dawn Morgan, Alderman Sarah Sabanis and Foundation board chair Duane Long were among those on hand.

"We recently learned that most organizations have an immediate need because demand for assistance has exceeded community support," Jim Taylor said. "We are not doing this for personal recognition. Our family believes in the Christian mission of each of the seven organizations."

Speaking to Scope News, he put it another way: "The more we give, it seems like the more we're able to give. This is not about Jim and Mary." Foundation executive director Bruce Boyer noted that the Taylors could have gone to each organization directly, but wanted to see the Kernersville Foundation grow as well.

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The county has a question for fathers, and it is buying lunch to hear the answer.

The Forsyth County Department of Public Health is holding a Community Health Impact Assessment kickoff on Wednesday, Aug. 26, from 10:30 AM to 2:30 PM at its offices at 799 Highland Ave. in Winston-Salem. The subject is whether local parenting and family-support resources actually feel welcoming to fathers and other male caregivers.

Parents, caregivers, community members, advocates, service providers and community partners are all encouraged to come and share their experiences, ideas and perspectives to help improve local parenting resources. Lunch and refreshments are provided.

After the in-person kickoff there will be an optional virtual meeting where participants complete the assessment itself. That one is scheduled for a later date. Registration for the kickoff is encouraged rather than required, and there is an online form.

This is a countywide effort rather than a Kernersville one, but the programs it is aimed at reshaping are the same ones families here use.

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The Kernersville Cup is not only a football trophy.

Bishop McGuinness came from behind to beat visiting Glenn 4-2 on Tuesday night in a Kernersville Cup boys' soccer match. Michael Murphy put the Villains ahead fifteen minutes into the first half, running onto a through ball and shooting from the top of the box. Glenn answered ten minutes later after Bishop failed to clear a corner, then went up 2-1 off a direct kick five minutes into the second half.

That is when it turned. Marcos Feliz Regaldo tied it ten minutes after that, smashing a shot in from 25 yards out. Guglielmo Epifanio made it 3-2 from close range after Glenn failed to clear a corner of its own, and Regaldo finished it off the rebound of a Murphy shot that came back off the crossbar.

Bishop is now 2-0-1, with this win, a 4-2 win over Mount Tabor and a 3-3 tie with Forsyth Country Day. "Glenn is a different team than last year in terms of, like most teams, players graduating or moving on," head coach Jay Benfield said. "They are still tough. They know how they want to play and they are good at it. It is still tough to break them down."

The Cup is a round robin among Bishop McGuinness, Glenn, East Forsyth and North Carolina Leadership Academy, with fewest goals allowed breaking a tie at the top. Both Kernersville sides get East Forsyth next: Bishop hosts the Eagles Monday at 7 PM, and Glenn hosts them Tuesday at 7 PM.

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If someone turns up wanting to get at your gas meter this fall, here is what that is about.

Piedmont Natural Gas, a subsidiary of Duke Energy Corp., is replacing customer meters with smart meters as part of a companywide upgrade. The company says on its website that the new meters add safety and remote-monitoring features. Local customers will be alerted to the switch through notices from the company, so the letter should arrive before anyone does.

The practical parts are worth knowing in advance. Customers will not be charged for the new meter. The notice comes with instructions for scheduling an appointment, and an adult over the age of 18 has to be at home when the technician arrives, because they need access inside the house to the pilot lights on your gas appliances. The old meter comes off and the new one goes on immediately.

One thing that may catch people off guard: not everyone doing this work is a Piedmont employee. Honeywell Technologies is replacing some of the meters on behalf of Piedmont Natural Gas.

If you have questions, or you want to get on the schedule, the number is 855-671-2467. That is also the number to call if somebody shows up at your door and no notice ever came in the mail.

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