July 1 - 7, 2016
bringing the local news home to northwest Guilford County since 1996
Intersection improvement project gets underway Surveying the intersection and surrounding area is one step in the process of developing a new configuration for the N.C. 150 and N.C. 68 intersection
by PATTI STOKES OAK RIDGE – It’s hard not to notice the surveyors in neon-colored vests and hats who are working these days in and around the intersection of N.C. 150 and N.C. 68. While NCDOT contractor Blythe Construction is working on adding shoulders and re-surfacing a five-mile segment of N.C. 150 that runs between N.C. 68 in
Oak Ridge and U.S. 220 in Summerfield, the surveyors are working on another NCDOT project that has finally gotten underway after being on the back burner for several years. Oak Ridge Town Manager Bruce Oakley says the intersection improvement project dates back to when Oak Ridge
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Veterans honored in patriotic display Summerfield Town Hall decorated for July 4 by PATTI STOKES
Photo by Patti Stokes/NWO
Summerfield Historic Committee Chair Linda Southard stands beside a table set up to honor veterans killed in action as well as those who returned home safely but have since died. The table is part of a patriotic display in Summerfield Town Hall that will remain up through July.
SUMMERFIELD – With a little more than a week to pass before the arrival of July 4, Linda Southard, chair of the Summerfield Historic Committee, and committee member Betsy Ingram step back to assess their work. They’ve just put the finishing touches on a patriotic display located in Summerfield Town Hall’s museum area, and want to spread the word to community members to stop by and view photographs and stories the committee has compiled on local veterans. Besides preserving and restoring Summerfield’s historical properties, the committee is dedicated to honor-
ing the community’s veterans. Since 2008 committee members have been involved with hosting annual Veteran Appreciation events, and for almost 10 years they have been in the process of interviewing local men and women who served in the armed forces so their stories will be preserved for present as well as future generations. Southard points to an article about Ralph Walker which was published last fall in the News & Record. A farm boy, Walker graduated from Summerfield High School in 1943 and was drafted into the Army a year later. In March 1945, on a day he’ll never forget, the 45th Infantry Division that he was a member of liberated thousands of prisoners in a concentration camp at Dachau.
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