• By Don Martin
• Posted Thursday, June 11, 2026

County Commissioner Chair Don Martin announces retirement

Last fall, I decided not to run for reelection for my County Commissioner seat. Now that next year’s budget is approved, I plan to retire from the County Commission on July 31. I want to thank the voters of Forsyth County for the support they have given me over the past 12 years, and I would also like to thank those voters who voted to pass both the 2016 school bond referendum and the quarter sales tax referendum in 2020. Our students thank you for their improved facilities and our teachers thank you for the supplement increase that resulted from the quarter cent sales tax.

During my eleven and a half years on the Commission, I’ve had the privilege of working alongside my colleagues on the Commission as well as with the many dedicated County staff members who serve Forsyth County citizens every day in a myriad of roles. Together, we have been able to complete a number of building projects – three new libraries, a new courthouse, a new Kaleideum Science Museum, a new clubhouse at Tanglewood, and a new Agricultural Center that houses our Cooperative Extension program. We have invested in parks – including the recent addition of the Dudley Watts park at Belews Lake – and we have been able to completely renovate the airport and construct two new hangars. Our health department, working side-by-side with Atrium and Novant hospitals, was able to successfully navigate the pandemic. In the past decade our economic development efforts, led by Greater Winston-Salem, Inc., have resulted in over a billion dollars in capital investment and almost 2,200 jobs.

Most recently, I have enjoyed serving on our new Fire Commission with several of our volunteer fire department chiefs and our County Fire Department staff on developing plans to address the difficulties of finding volunteer firefighters and funding the replacement of equipment. The second round of recommendations will be implemented next year.

And finally, I’m pleased that we have a school funding formula in place that guarantees that WS/FCS’s base allocation of the previous year will receive an increase equal to the county’s annual percentage property tax revenue increase. Our local per-pupil support for schools is now in line with other urban school districts in NC even though our county wealth per pupil is considerably less than all but one of those counties.

Four years ago, I promised my wife that I would step down from public life if I were fortunate enough to reach 75 years of age - and that happens next month! She has a “few” things planned for me, we have four wonderful grandchildren to spend more time with, and we are looking forward to taking our first cruise in the fall!