Cartoon: Preservation Reservations
By Anthony | July 9th, 2007 | 1:08 am
Guilford County Commissioners turned a blind eye to our past when they came up with our new budget:
Julie Curry’s job was to make sure Guilford County’s history didn’t get lost.
Now, she has lost the job she held for 11 years. And outraged preservationists declare progress to save historic structures will suffer as a result.
Curry, who was county government’s only historic preservation specialist, worked her last day Friday.
“I was hoping it was a typo,” Curry said, explaining how she learned she was losing her job while reading a story June 21 in the News & Record.
That night, county commissioners officially abolished her 30-hours-a-week position, in which she earned $31,465.80 and benefits. It was among cuts the board made to balance the county’s $549.3 million 2007-08 budget, which went into effect Sunday.
Wharton and Hoggard weighed in last week.
The thing that amazes me is that county preservationist position was eliminated before, almost 20 years ago, with ill effects that led to the hiring of Curry. I don’t know why the Commissioners think things will be different this time around.
July 9th, 2007 at 10:29 am
Great cartoon, Anthony!
July 9th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
Sometimes the brilliance of our local leadership is very very dim.
July 9th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
Thanks David!
meblogin: Well said.
July 11th, 2007 at 11:29 am
You know Anthony maybe the commissioners did us a favor in abolishing the commission. People tend to sit back and relax once a commission is set up. You know: Okay, they set up a commission and now I can relax because those people will see to things. Well as we both know bad things have happened to old buildings in Greensboro/ Guilford since the commission was set up. Maybe it is time for a grassroots movement of groups looking out for their pet projects is the way to go for now. Make things a people’s project as I am hoping David with the WMS. Remember it was pennies from school children that built the base for the Statue of Liberty. BB
July 11th, 2007 at 11:30 am
Oh, sorry I forgot the most important part: Loved the cartoon!
July 11th, 2007 at 10:31 pm
Thanks Brenda! I see what you’re saying, but my impression was that there *were* grassroots efforts to get certain buildings preserved, and the role that Curry played was to facilitate things between preservation groups and the county. I think the effect of this is not going to be to get citizens more involved, but to create a whole lot of inefficiency in the process. Curry’s job still needs to be done, but instead of being done by a dedicated employee, it’ll be distributed among a different bureaucracy that probably already has a full workload.