🗞️ Life-saving drones are expanding across Forsyth County

🗞️ Gloria Whisenhunt is the new chair of the Forsyth County commissioners

🗞️ Data centers become the Triad's newest political flash point

🗞️ A Kernersville late-summer bucket list

🌤️ Cooler and more comfortable | High: 81°F | Low: 66°F

A big, welcome cooldown to start the week after the weekend's heat. Look for a mix of sun and clouds, highs only around 81, and noticeably lower humidity. There is just a slight chance of a passing afternoon shower. A great day to open the windows and get outside.

Something that sounds like science fiction is quietly saving lives right here in Forsyth County.

The Forsyth County Sheriff's Office, working with Duke Health, is expanding its AED drone program with two new launch sites, including one in Walkertown right next door to Kernersville, plus Pfafftown. Here is how it works: when someone goes into cardiac arrest, a drone carrying an automated external defibrillator flies straight to the scene and lowers the AED to the ground on a cable. The device gives audible, step-by-step instructions, and a 911 operator stays on the line to coach a bystander until paramedics arrive.

Speed is everything with cardiac arrest. A drone can deliver an AED in about two to five minutes, compared with the 10 to 12 minutes it can take EMS to reach some rural areas, and the sheriff's office says it has cut response times from six or seven minutes down to under four. Research shows that using an AED within the first five minutes can raise a patient's survival odds by 50 to 70 percent.

The program launched in the Clemmons area in 2024 as the first of its kind in the country, and it worked so well that the team added the two new sites. The sheriff's office now has 17 drone pilots and three AED drones, with Forsyth County EMS managing the units. It is the kind of forward-thinking, neighbor-helping-neighbor idea that makes you proud of where you live.

Read more

Forsyth County has a familiar face leading its board of commissioners.

The commissioners unanimously named Gloria Whisenhunt as chairwoman at a special meeting on Aug. 10, with Gray Wilson, first elected in 2024, named vice chair. Whisenhunt succeeds Don Martin, who retired from the board at the end of July. She is no newcomer: she has served as a commissioner since 1996, has held both the vice chair and chair roles before, and served on the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education from 1990 to 1996.

"The difference between being on the board and being the chairperson is you have to really know more about the agenda and help develop the agenda," she said. "For me it is important that each commissioner knows everything. I don't want to make any decisions the commissioners don't know anything about."

Whisenhunt laid out a full plate of priorities: supporting the school system, addressing the ongoing data center debate, and managing the county's growth. Her biggest emphasis is economic development. "We need to focus more on economic development," she said, pointing to the need for more shovel-ready sites and commercial development, since most companies want to build immediately or move into existing space.

Read more

If you have been to a county or town meeting lately, you may have noticed a new hot topic: data centers.

Disputes over these large computing facilities, and pushes to block their development, have drawn overflow crowds to hearings across North Carolina, and the debate does not fall neatly along party lines. "So far, the opponents of data centers have momentum," said John Dinan, a political science professor at Wake Forest University. A concern that unites people across the spectrum is how much energy and water the centers use, along with nearby homeowners' worries about noise and disruption, and broader unease about artificial intelligence.

Supporters make an economic case: data centers can bring a substantial amount of property-tax revenue to a community while requiring few municipal services, since they do not add students to schools or much traffic. High Point University political science professor Martin Kifer noted that some of the surge in activity is about getting elected officials on the record before the Nov. 3 general election. "It's a hyper-local issue that people are talking about," he said.

A little context: North Carolina has 97 data centers across 19 markets, according to the Pew Research Center, with 13 in Greensboro and two in Winston-Salem. Raleigh leads the state with 35. Nationally, there are more than 4,700. Whatever your view, it is a conversation Kernersville and Forsyth County will likely keep having as the region grows.

Read more

School is back and fall is around the corner, but there is still plenty of summer left to enjoy. Here are a few easy ways to soak up the last of the season close to home.

Chase down some ice cream. A cone or a scoop from a local spot is the perfect excuse for an evening stroll downtown. While you are there, wander Main Street, pop into the shops, and grab dinner from a local restaurant.

Get outside while the evenings are still long. Pack a picnic for Fourth of July Park, take a walk on a greenway, or tour Körner's Folly, our one-of-a-kind Victorian landmark. Craving a bigger adventure? A quick drive gets you to a lake for the afternoon or up toward the mountains for a change of scenery.

And lean into the start of a new season. Friday-night football kicks off Aug. 21 when Glenn hosts East Forsyth, and the Home Grown Arts Fest fills Harmon Park on Aug. 22. However you spend it, here's to a great last few weeks of summer, Kernersville.

Explore Kernersville Parks and Recreation