I have been receiving information on Guilford County's air quality (or lack of it).  As in everything else there is dispute as to the truth about how bad it really is especially relating to "ozone exceedence levels" which  are supposed to tell us how bad things are.

The ozone is measured at ground level at various sites throughout the nation from little huts that the EPA has constructed for such things.  The one I see most often is at the intersection of Cridland and Wendover (you know, across from Latham Park, next to the tennis courts across the street from the big Exxon near Fisher Park).

According to this report by the John Locke Foundation analyzing these findings by the American Lung Association a county's ozone levels "are given an 'F' if one of its monitors records three readings greater than or equal to 85 PPB (parts per billion) of ambient air averaged over 8 hours during the three years of analysis."

The thing I am trying to find out is this: how many air quality monitors does Guilford County have compared to other areas of similar makeup, and where are the monitors located? 

I would think that if you want to get a high reading for emissions, the Wendover/Cridland intersection is exactly where I would place a monitor because the place can look like a mile- long parking lot during rush hour.  If I wanted to get a low reading, I would place it up on the pristine North Shore of Lake Jeanette.  I would then average the two, but this is not how it happens.  If the Wendover site records a high reading, Guilford County gets a big fat 'F', the low reading counts for nothing!

Based on our EPA designation as having too many "ozone exceedence days" the Piedmont Council of Governments has undertaken exhaustive efforts to lower our number of exceedence days.  This is their progress report.

Hardworking Councilwoman Sandy Carmany is vice-chair of the committee charged with implementing the EPA's guidelines.  I'll give her a call and hopefully find out the answers to my questions and pass it on to you.

I haven't studied this much since college!

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Sometimes it takes an unjaundiced eye to help us see who we are and what is important. 

Financier Wilbur Ross said this of the NEW (1971) Burlington Headquarters building on Friendly Avenue," What strikes us is: It's a very interesting building and it's of historic significance locally" in this N&R article today.

The county owned OLD (1924) Burlington Headquarters building which currently house the Social Services Dept. is targeted for demolition to make room for the new baseball stadium on North Eugene.  Stadium backers have labeled the structure as "crumbling", "decrepid", "unappealing" and so on.

The NEW headquarters would not have been possible if Burlington Industries had not thrived in the OLD headquarters (of rare Moderne style design).  So... if the new HQ is "of historic significance" what does that make the old HQ?  I like this Ross fellow!

To my mind, the pending demolition of the old Burlington Headquarters is a valid reason to vote FOR the ordinance to stop the new stadium from being constructed at Bellemeade.

What makes the situation even more distasteful is that the County agreed to pay $387,000 of our own tax money to have the structure demolished.

This and other distasteful FACTS were documented in this toungue-in-cheek Offer To Purchase that I wrote last October lampooning the lunacy of the land swap deal between DGR, LLC and Guilford County. 

Now don't get me started on baseball....

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