Message from the President, March 2017

For our March lunch meeting, City Manager Jim Westmoreland will present an update on the “State of the City”, which will include a short video of the City’s 2017 accomplishments and a PowerPoint presentation on the 2017 forecast.  Mr. Westmoreland graduated from North Carolina State University with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and is a registered Professional Engineer.  He has been Greensboro City Manager since February of 2014.  Among other awards, Mr. Westmoreland received the George C. Franklin Award for Municipal Administration from the UNC School of Government.

Construction on our Habitat House will begin at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, April 1, 2017.  Construction will continue each weekend (except for holiday weekends) through Saturday, August 12, 2017 with dedication and closing on Saturday, August 19, 2017.  The house will be built on the lot at 722 Prince Street.

Our homeowners are Tona Nay and D’Joan R’mah, who came to the United States from Vietnam. Tona is employed at Affordable Stone Products and D’Joan manages the family.  They are parents of four sons: Sru – 25 years old, Santigo – 14 years old, Tula – 12 years old, Jensu – 7 years old, and three daughters: Sara – 21 years old, Sama – 18 years old and H’Po – 16 years old.

In order to qualify as Habitat homeowners, Tona and D’Joan have attended more than 30 hours of classes on budgeting, home maintenance, and finance.  They will work a minimum of 350 hours during construction and repay Habitat through an interest free loan.

We now have a firm schedule for the work, set out on the Habitat website: (http://gsobar.habitatgreensboro.volunteerhub.com/events/indexv1).  The framing related tasks are set for the following dates (all Saturdays):

• 4/1 – Wall Framing (exterior walls)
• 4/8 – Wall Framing (interior walls)
• 4/22 – Scaffold Setup/Truss Prep
• 4/29 – Roof Framing
• 5/6 – Misc Framing/Shingle Prep

We have invited the NC Supreme Court Justices for the initial work date on 4/1.  So far, two have declined, Justice Newby has tentatively accepted and we are waiting to hear from the others.  We will break that day at noon for lunch and a groundbreaking ceremony at the site.  All members of the Bar are invited to the ceremony and lunch whether or not they are on the work crew that day.  We will be sending you an email for you to make reservations.

On 4/8 and 4/22, we will be working with the UNCG Student Veterans Association.  This is an outstanding group of young veterans and we are honored to work with them.  They have requested having members of the Bar on their workdays, and this is a great opportunity for them and for us to make connections.  Please also consider the roof framing work and shingle prep, which are among the most interesting tasks on the work schedule.  The roof is 6 pitch (6” of rise for every horizontal foot), which is far less steep and more manageable than the 8 pitch roofs we had on the last two GBA houses.

If you have already signed a Volunteer Form, we will be getting in touch with you by email to confirm your work dates.  If you have not signed a Volunteer Form, please volunteer for your preferred work dates by going directly to the Habitat website.

Thanks so much for volunteering!