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Is it Councilwoman Sandra Anderson Groat? Or Sandra Anderson-Groat?

Both.

Greensboro's mayor pro tem, who is running for re-election for an at-large seat on City Council this fall, selected the hyphenated version to appear on the ballot. Her reasoning: It will appear alphabetically under A rather than G.

Groat, who has married Dr. Robert Groat since the last election, feared people wouldn't look under the G's for her name.

Hence the hyphenation.

"I'm not using it for anything else," she said. "I was afraid I'd be at a disadvantage if people looked for my name and didn't know to look for Groat."

The move didn't require a legal name change, only a tweak in her voter registration. And she'll use the unhyphenated Anderson Groat for everything except the ballot.

Town meetings

If you live in District 1 or 3, you've got a chance to tell the News & Record how you see the key issues for the upcoming elections.

Residents of those two districts are invited to town meetings, a chance for you to talk and for N&R editors to listen.

District 1: 6 p.m. Sept. 18, Glenwood Library, 1901 W. Florida St.

District 3: 6:30 p.m. Sept. 20, Benjamin Branch, 1530 Benjamin Parkway.

Lovey dovey

Guilford County commissioners were ga-ga Thursday over the county's new vision and mission statements.

But that doesn't mean all board members like the statements, which will guide the county's long-term strategic planning. They talk about creating prosperity, providing safe and healthy communities and operating government efficiently.

The vision statement also says the county "views diversity as a strength," but Vice Chairman Melvin "Skip" Alston noted that other commissioners cut money for nonprofits in black communities when the board passed the annual budget in June.

He called the language "fluffy duffy lovey lovey duff stuff that you yourself don't even believe in."

Republican Billy Yow countered that Alston, a Democrat, would be "scared that we accepted diversity in this county."

"His purpose would be minute," Yow said. "He would have no reason to go out here and create chaos if it was a lovey dubby city and everybody got along."

Alston is black; Yow is white.

Later, Alston voted against giving County Manager David McNeill a 3 percent raise, calling his accomplishments "very mediocre" and saying he hadn't attended events in Alston's district. But a majority of the board approved the raise, bumping McNeill's salary to about $179,000.

And Yow jumped in with more baby talk.

"Waah, waah, waah," he said of Alston. "That's all I'll say. He's whining. Like a kid in a day care."