🗞️ Aldermen vote tonight on a $989,000 loan for land and Town Hall repairs

🗞️ Voting is open for Best of the Best Kernersville through Oct. 5

🗞️ A mobile money classroom is headed for Forsyth County schools

🗞️ A Triad chocolatier turns a home kitchen into a bean-to-bar business

☀️ Sunny | High: 84°F | Low: 59°F

Summer isn't quite done with us. Expect wall-to-wall sunshine, a light west breeze and a high near 84, then a partly cloudy, mild night with a low around 59. If you're headed to tonight's aldermen meeting, no umbrella needed. Thursday keeps the warm streak going, with sun and a high near 87.

The Kernersville Board of Aldermen meets tonight at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall, and the biggest item on the agenda is money. The board will hold a public hearing on borrowing $988,952 to buy three pieces of land and replace the gutters and fascia on Town Hall itself. The projects were already approved in this year's budget. Tonight is about how to pay for them.

According to the staff memo in the agenda packet, the loan breaks down like this: $186,362 for land at 569 Smith Edwards Road, $201,590 for land at 1004 Beeson Road, $160,000 for a parcel on NC-66 South, and $441,000 for the Town Hall gutter and fascia replacement. The packet does not say what the town plans to do with the land.

The town asked lenders for a fixed rate over 10 years, and two responded. PNC Bank offered 5.28%, with a total cost of about $1.28 million over the life of the loan once interest and fees are included. First National Bank offered 6.001%, which would have cost about $6,100 more overall. Staff is recommending PNC. The board will also vote on sending the loan to the state's Local Government Commission, which has to sign off on local government borrowing.

Neighbors who follow rezonings will want to watch the second half of the meeting. Staff will update the board on how the town notifies residents when a developer wants to rezone nearby land. Right now, letters go to property owners within 200 feet. The town looked at stretching that to 500 feet but found it would more than double the letters per case, at $12 a letter. Instead, staff is proposing a 300-foot radius, signs on every street frontage of a property, and one of two new opt-in options: an email list anyone can join to hear about neighborhood meetings, or a registry where homeowners' associations can sign up to be notified.

The board will also approve its 2027 meeting schedule and recognize Fire Prevention Week and Indigenous Peoples' Day. Can't make it in person? The meeting streams live at toknc.com/youtube.

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Got a favorite pizza place, dentist or hair salon in town? Now's the time to say so. The Kernersville News is running its Best of the Best Kernersville reader's choice survey, and voting stays open through Monday, Oct. 5, at 5 p.m.

The survey covers six big categories: food, drink and dining; house and home; medical; places; professional; and retail services. Each one has plenty of subcategories. Don't see your pick on the list? Write it in. Write-in votes count the same as the listed options.

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Junior Achievement of the Triad is putting its popular Finance Park on wheels. With a Toyota Tundra from Toyota North Carolina and financial backing from Truliant Federal Credit Union, the nonprofit is building a mobile version of its budgeting and career simulation that can pull right up to a school. Students spend about three hours working through real-world money decisions like paying bills, budgeting a paycheck and weighing career choices.

The goal is to reach about 5,000 students in grades 6 through 12 at 56 schools across Forsyth, Guilford, Alamance, Randolph and Rockingham counties, starting in the 2027-28 school year. "We really believe that so much of our society and communities lack just the basic knowledge of how do you borrow money," said Truliant CEO Todd Hall.

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Jennifer Watson of High Point had never made chocolate before she started Perikles Noir out of her home last year. Now she turns out small-batch, bean-to-bar chocolate made from organic cacao from Ghana and Ecuador, organic cane sugar and pure cocoa butter. Her flavor list reads like a dessert menu: hazelnut praline, pistachio, lavender, candied orange, salted caramel, espresso, champagne and raspberry rose, among others.

You can find her at the Oak Hollow Farmers Market on Eastchester Drive in High Point, at vendor events around the Triad and online. Her long-term dream is a lounge-style shop where customers can sit down with a glass of wine and a few squares of chocolate.

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