March 4 - 10, 2016
Sales tax distribution method topic of luncheon discussion by PATTI STOKES NW GUILFORD – Randy Braswell and Bill Jones are on a mission. The Town of Stokesdale’s mayor and mayor pro tem recently reached out to the 12 other mayors in Guil-
ford County and sent them informational packets which include history of the county’s method of distributing sales and use tax collected by the state, Stokesdale Town Council’s rationale for why the present distribution
method is unfair, and a copy of a resolution the council approved last month in which they requested the county commissioners change the distribution method. Jones and Braswell have invited the
Residents touted as ‘happiest,’ ‘smartest’ in the state by PATTI STOKES NW GUILFORD – If the smile on the face of northwest-area residents seems to be a little wider than folks who live in other communities across the state, or they just seem a little “smarter,” you might not be imagining it (but then again, you might be). Within the last month, Oak Ridge and Summerfield were ranked at or near the bottom of “The Most Miserable Places to Live in North Carolina” (or at the top of the “happiest places to live,” depending on how you look at it), and at or near the top of “The Smartest Places to Live” in the state list. RoadSnacks.net is an online company that claims to use “data and science” to recognize small, mid-size and large communities for a wide variety of reasons, such as “best places to live,” “worst places
to live” and “the 10 most liberal cities” in North Carolina.”
Last month the company ranked Oak Ridge the No. 1 “happiest” small town to live in North Carolina, out of 188 communities with a population of over 2,000. The company’s criteria included average commute time to work, percentage of residents with a college degree, unemployment rate, poverty rate and percentage of married couples and homeowners. Summerfield ranked No. 6 “happiest” small town to live in and Stokesdale ranked No. 47. And on Feb. 23, Triad Business Journal reported that career resource site Zippia ranked Oak Ridge No. 5 and Summerfield No. 7 among “The 10 Smartest Cities in North Carolina.” According to the newspaper’s article, Zippia based its findings on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest American Community
Survey; the data included percentage of adults older than 25 with at least a high school degree and the percentage of high school dropouts (ages 16-20) for the largest 132 cities in the state.
Lest Oak Ridge residents begin to let their No. 1 and No. 5 status go to their head, we must note that last August, Roadsnacks.net also ranked the town No. 5 among the Top 15 “Most Boring Places to Live” in North Carolina, based on statistics such as percentage of population over 35, population density (the lower, the more boring), percentage of married households (the higher, the more boring), and median age. Summerfield, by the way, ranked No. 2 on the “Most Boring Places to Live” list, close behind Lake Norman of Catawba. It’s all just for fun, RoadSnacks.net says of its rankings. “We try to paint a picture of what’s happening in a region based on “Friday Night Science” — how you’d argue at a bar. To do that, we gather data from around the web to help determine a wide array of factors about where you live, things like safety, desirability, and culture,” says the company on its website.
other mayors to a luncheon on March 8 in hopes of convincing them to also request the commissioners change the sales tax distribution method back to the per capita method, which is based on population. The present method used, ad valorem, is based on the amount of property tax that municipalities levy. Of the 13 incorporated towns and cities in Guilford County, Stokesdale
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Early Voting Thursday, March 3 thru Saturday, March 12.
IN THIS ISSUE News in Brief ............................... 3 Your Questions ........................... 4 High School Sports .................... 6 Youth/School News ................... 9 Pets & Critters ............................11 GSC releases rescued sea turtles ................................. 12 Pet Briefs ................................... 13 Bits & Pieces ............................. 19 Community Calendar ............. 20 Crime/Incident Report ............ 22 Letters/Opinions ...................... 24 Grins & Gripes .......................... 25 Classifieds ................................ 27 Index of Advertisers ................ 31
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