🧵 In Today’s Edition

1. Greensboro City Council Primary Results
2. The Eastern Music Festival May Live Again
3. Greensboro Says City Water is Safe. Why Is It Brown?
4. What We’re Reading

Morning, gang.

After one of the more interesting primary races in recent memory, victors emerged Tuesday night, and the general election races are set.

We’ll be bringing you more in-depth stories on each race, their specifics, and more on the candidates over the next month. But here’s how the races shook out in complete but unofficial results.

For Mayor: Marikay Abuzuaiter came out atop this four-way contest with about 40 percent of the vote. She was followed by Robbie Perkins (32.5 percent), Mark Cummings (18 percent), and Akir Khan (10 percent). A total of 1,587 votes separated Abuzuaiter and Perkins, who will proceed to the general election on Nov. 4.

In the at-large election, the ten-candidate field was narrowed to six — Hugh Holston (16 percent), Denise Roth (14 percent), Richard Beard (14 percent), Jamilla Pinder (12 percent), Irving Allen (11 percent), and T. Dianne Bellamy-Small (9 percent). They will proceed to the general election.

Falling short of the mark were Carla Franklin (at 9 percent, just 51 votes behind Bellamy-Small), Michael McKinney (8 percent), Latoya Gathers (4 percent), and Samuel Hawkins (3 percent).

Districts 1 and 5, where there were just two candidates in each race, did not have a primary.

In District 2, Cecile (C.C.) Crawford won commandingly, taking about 49 percent of the vote, followed by Monica Walker (25 percent), Jim Kee (19 percent), Irish Good (5 percent), and Anthony Wesley (2 percent). Crawford and Walker, separated by 582 votes in the primary, will proceed to the general.

In District 3, Zack Matheny took about 49 percent of the vote, followed by April Parker (48 percent) and Mohamed Bashir (3 percent). Just 150 votes separated Matheny and Parker, who will proceed to the general.

In District 4, Adam Marshall took about 65 percent of the vote, the most dominant performance of the evening. He was followed by Nicky Smith (31.5 percent) and Steve Ignac (4 percent). Marshall and Smith, who were separated by 2,090 votes, will proceed to the general election.

Turnout for the primary was just 10.5 percent, with about 22,200 of approximately 211,000 registered voters casting ballots. With nearly 90 percent of voters sitting out the primary, most of the races could be in play if turnout significantly increases for next month’s general election.

Today, we also have two important stories for you that aren’t about the election.

This week, you may have heard about the dissolution of the Eastern Music Festival after its board and music faculty couldn’t come to terms. What you’ll read exclusively in Sayaka Matsuoka’s story today: the festival could well go on with a new non-profit, which has raised more than $1 million and is already negotiating with Guilford College to continue with this year’s festival.

Reporter Gale Melcher was at last week’s meeting about continuing brown water problems in south Greensboro. In today’s story, she brings you the perspectives of city residents whose lives are being impacted by these problems and the science behind why it’s happening and what can be done.

Let’s get into it.

— Joe Killian

The Eastern Music Festival May Live Again

The Eastern Music Festival will be dissolved as an organization after negotiations between faculty artists, the EMF board, and staff broke down in the last few weeks. But faculty artists and supporters say they’ve identified a way to revive the yearly five-week summer festival, which draws professional classical musicians and students from all over the country to Greensboro.

Read the full story here.

— Sayaka Matsuoka

Thanks for reading The Thread, a 3x week newsletter written by Greensboro editor Joe Killian and reporters Sayaka Matsuoka and Gale Melcher. Reach us with tips or ideas at greensboro@theassemblync.com.

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Stained and ruined clothes. Clogged appliances. Water from faucets so brown it looks like sweet tea.

This is what residents in south Greensboro have been dealing with for the last year, said Keith Peterson, a resident of the Woodlea neighborhood. And it has felt like an uphill battle to get answers from the city as to why.

Read the full story here.

— Gale Melcher

What We’re Reading

Meet The New Boss: Ed Kitchen was named the new president of the Joseph M. Bryan Foundation Tuesday. Kitchen, a former Greensboro city manager, has served as vice president of the charitable foundation since 2006. With the recent death of Jim Melvin, Kitchen succeeds the man who brought him into the organization. The Triad Business Journal has more. Look for our own Q&A with Kitchen in our Friday newsletter.

Blades of Steel: The Greensboro Gargoyles, the city’s new minor league hockey team, opened its training camp on Monday at First Horizon Coliseum. They’ll practice through Wednesday and hold two preseason matches before the official season launch on Oct. 18. WXII has more.

It’s a Scream: It may still be 80 degrees out there, but it is officially spooky season. Greensboro’s Woods of Terror has been voted among the nation’s top haunted them park attractions, reports WFMY.

Joe Killian is The Assembly's Greensboro editor. He joined us from NC Newsline, where he was senior investigative reporter. He spent a decade at The News & Record covering cops and courts, higher education, and government.

Gale is a Report for America corps member and Greensboro-based reporter for The Assembly. She previously covered local government and community issues for Triad City Beat. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from N.C. State University.

Sayaka Matsuoka is a Greensboro-based reporter for The Assembly. She was formerly the managing editor for Triad City Beat, an alt-weekly based in Greensboro. She has reported for INDY Week, The Bitter Southerner, and Nerdist, and is the editorial/diversity chair for AAN Publishers.