🗞️ A new hospital may be coming to the area, and Kernersville Medical Center could grow

🗞️ After more than 40 years, Gray Garrison is stepping away from Bowman Gray Stadium racing

🗞️ Forsyth County's commission chairman, Don Martin, is stepping down

🗞️ Amazon is muscling into freight, and Triad-based Old Dominion is in its sights

🌡 Hot and humid, afternoon storm possible | High: 88°F | Low: 67°F

A hot, humid midweek day with a high near 88 and a chance of an afternoon thunderstorm. Keep an umbrella handy.

Forsyth County could be getting another hospital, and Kernersville is squarely in the picture. Cone Health, the Greensboro-based system, has filed plans for a $320 million, 56-bed hospital near the Northern Beltway off Cole Road, its first in Forsyth County. Cone says it would serve east Winston-Salem, Kernersville, Rural Hall, King and High Point.

At the same time, Novant Health says it wants to add 40 acute care beds at Kernersville Medical Center, along with 63 more at Forsyth Medical Center, to keep up with demand. Both moves were tied to a June 16 deadline for filing certificate-of-need applications with the state, which decides which systems are awarded new beds.

Cone has been in the area since opening MedCenter Kernersville in 2008. “This community is ready for that next level of care, and Cone Health is proud to deliver it close to home,” said Cone CEO Dr. Paul Krakovitz. State regulators typically take six months to a year to rule, and denied applicants often appeal, so this will play out over time. For now, it is a sign of how fast the eastern Forsyth area is growing.

Read more

An era is ending at Bowman Gray Stadium. Gray Garrison, 66, the longtime promoter and the last link to the family that started weekly racing at the Winston-Salem track in 1949, is leaving midway through the season. General manager Austin Shuford will take over the promoting.

Garrison's family ran the show for 75 years before selling the lease to NASCAR three years ago, and he stayed on as a consultant. He got his start selling programs at age 6 for his grandfather, Alvin Hawkins, who helped bring NASCAR-sanctioned racing to the quarter-mile stadium, the first paved track to host such an event.

Friends and drivers say it is the end of something special. “It was like a gut punch when he told me,” said Jimmy Brown, who ran the track cleanup crew alongside Garrison for 40 years. “His friendship and his passion for racing is off the charts.” NASCAR's lease runs through 2050, so Saturday night racing at the historic stadium will continue.

Read more

Don Martin, chairman of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners, announced he is resigning effective July 31. Martin, who turns 75 next month, had already said he would not seek reelection, and he said he promised his wife years ago that he would step back from public life at 75.

Martin has served on the board more than 11 years and as chairman for about four, succeeding Kernersville's David Plyler. Before that he spent 19 years as superintendent of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools. “I like solving problems and I am all about spending people's tax dollars well,” he said.

The Forsyth County Republican Party will meet in July to name someone to finish his term, and Martin said he expects it to be Chris Parker. He is not leaving public service entirely, agreeing to co-chair a statewide Blue Ribbon Committee on Public Education through early next year.

Read more

One of the Triad's biggest companies has a new and formidable competitor. Amazon has opened its internal less-than-truckload shipping network to all businesses, going head to head with Old Dominion Freight Line, the Thomasville-based trucking giant that is a major regional employer, including 107 workers at its Kernersville service center.

Less-than-truckload shipping, Old Dominion's specialty, moves palletized freight from several customers on shared trucks. Amazon says its version will cost less and runs on a fleet of more than 80,000 trailers. “I need LTL that performs like my full truckload service,” Amazon Freight's Jim Ruiz said shippers kept telling the company.

Analysts are split on the threat. Some say Amazon will only nibble at the margins in the near term, while a Winston-Salem State economist called it “a direct attack” on Old Dominion. Either way, Old Dominion's strong reputation and steady reinvestment, including a planned $575 million in spending this year, give it a sturdy base to defend.

Read more