MOUNT AIRY -- An investor is interested in reopening the Bright Leaf Drive In theater, which was closed earlier this year.
"An out of town investor has said they would be interested in purchasing the property and leasing it, if we could find a qualified operator," said Martin Collins, Mount Airy's community development coordinator.
The investor has asked to remain anonymous until an operator can be found to lease the property and run it, Collins said.
As of yesterday afternoon, Collins said he had talked with one potential operator and had inquiries from some others. "We're trying to find and vet some qualified people with a business plan," he said.
The Bright Leaf, which is on U.S. 52, was closed in March after the owner of the land decided not to renew the lease with the current theater owners. It had been in business for 55 years.
"There was a great deal of nostalgia among local people," Collins said. "No one really wanted to see it closed."
-- Tim Clodfelter
Council Member Montgomery to have meeting today at 6 p.m.
Winston-Salem City Council Member Derwin L. Montgomery will have a meeting at 6 p.m. today at the 14th Street Community Recreation Center to discuss a blueprint for a renewed East Ward.
He is inviting residents of the East Ward, and representatives of businesses, churches, and civic and social organizations in the ward to the meeting at 2020 N.E. 14th St. -- John Hinton
Author Grisham to speak Sept. 14 at Wake Forest University
Best-selling author John Grisham will speak at Wake Forest University on Sept. 14 as part of President Nathan Hatch's annual speaker series, "Voices of Our Times."
Grisham, whose books include The Firm and The Pelican Brief, will speak at 4 p.m. at Wait Chapel.
The speech is free and open to the public.
Earlier in the day, Grisham will speak to students and faculty from the law school's Innocence and Justice Clinic.
-- Lisa O'Donnell
Old Vineyard Behavioral to provide update for public on Wednesday
Kevin Patton, the chief executive of Old Vineyard Behavioral Health Services, is expected to provide an update on the provider at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Forsyth County Mental Health Collaborative meeting.
The meeting will take place at the Downtown Health Plaza.
Old Vineyard Behavioral has not provided a public update for months on its plans for a 50-bed psychiatric emergency-department.
The project has not moved forward even though Old Vineyard demonstrated to the N.C. Division of Health Service
Regulation last year its ability to pay for the $13.8 million facility.
The beds are being transferred from a state hospital in Morganton. Old Vineyard received a certificate of need for the project in January.
The lack of activity by Old Vineyard prompted the state agency -- responsible for issuing certificates of need, or CON, for major health-care projects -- to request last week a progress review that the provider was supposed to have submitted in July. Old Vineyard has 30 days to respond.
-- Richard Craver
SECCA to get Paperless exhibition for showing in September 2011
Steven Matijcio, the curator of contemporary art at the Southeastern Center
for Contemporary Art, has received a grant for $85,000 from the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation for the exhibition "Paperless," according to officials at the foundation.
"Paperless," which Matijcio has curated for SECCA, is tentatively scheduled to be mounted in September 2011.
Works by emerging and lesser-known artists have been selected for the
exhibit, which is concerned with the decline of paper use in a world that is increasingly digitized and environmentally aware.
The SECCA show was one of three selected by the foundation from 70 applicants.
The other winners are in Cambridge, Mass., and Cincinnati.
SECCA, at 750 Marguerite Drive, was re-opened on July 15 after having been closed for 18 months for repairs and renovation.
-- Journal staff
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