A-MAZE-ING: The labyrinth on the grounds of Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville offers a peaceful area for contemplation. The Gwinnett Hospital System is in discussion with Northside Hospital on a possible merger. For more information, see Today’s Focus, below.
IN THIS EDITIONTODAY’S FOCUS: Merger Talks Going on Between Gwinnett, Northside Hospitals
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Food Trucks Becoming More of an Issue to Many
FEEDBACK: Stop Signs and Another View of Roundabouts
UPCOMING: Duluth Getting Geotours; Lilburn Offers Glimpse of History
NOTABLE: Gwinnett Place CID Releases New Master Plan for the Area
RECOMMENDED READ: The Aubrey–Maturin Series by Patrick O’Brian
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Spanish Visit Georgia from Bases in Mexico in Early 1600s
TODAY’S QUOTE: One Way You Can Recognize When It’s Labor Day
MYSTERY PHOTO: Few Recognized Castle in Loire Valley of France
LAGNIAPPE: Here’s a Nice View of Downtown Atlanta
TODAY’S FOCUS
Gwinnett Medical Center, Northside Hospital in discussion of merger
By Beth Hardy
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga., Sept. 4, 2015 | Northside Hospital and Gwinnett Medical Center have announced that they have approved a non-binding letter of intent (LOI) to begin exclusive discussions to combine their operations.
If a final agreement is reached, the merger would create a major health care system serving rapidly growing areas of the Atlanta Region and North Georgia. Anchored by Northside Hospital in Sandy Springs and Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville, the system also would include hospitals in Canton, Cumming and Duluth, as well as cancer treatment centers, imaging centers, medical office buildings, urgent care centers and other outpatient locations throughout the state.
Altogether, the Northside-Gwinnett Medical combined system would have nearly 1,400 beds, more than 16,000 employees and close to 3,500 physicians on staff.
Northside Hospital CEO Bob Quattrocchi and Gwinnett Medical Center CEO Philip Wolfe say they are targeting early 2016 as a potential closing date for the deal. Meanwhile, the two organizations will conduct due diligence and planning activities. If a final definitive agreement is reached, the proposed transaction will be submitted to the State of Georgia Office of the Attorney General for review and approval, including at least one public hearing on a date to be determined.
The leaders of the two systems said that the merger is the best way to prepare for the future needs of patients and their families.
Quattrocchi says: “A Northside Hospital and Gwinnett Medical Center combination is a strong and strategic fit on many levels. We come to the table with very similar organizational cultures and unsurpassed commitments to patient safety and quality care. Northside and Gwinnett Medical Center already are geographic neighbors, and together we will serve one of the fastest-growing markets in the country.”
Wolfe adds: “Our service offerings complement each other. Northside Hospital is a regional and national leader in women’s health and cancer care, while Gwinnett Medical Center is a leader in cardiac care, trauma care and sports medicine. Going forward, our strategy will be to leverage our respective strengths in our expanded footprint and provide the total spectrum of health care to patients not only in our market area, but throughout Georgia and the Southeast.”
Quattrocchi and Wolfe say that the merger should create many opportunities for enhanced patient care, additional growth, professional development and fiscal strength.
The Northside Hospital health care system is an 852-bed, not-for-profit health care provider with more than 150 locations across Georgia, including three acute care, state-of-the-art hospitals in Atlanta, Cherokee County and Forsyth County. Northside Hospital leads the U.S. in newborn deliveries, diagnoses and treats the most cancer cases in Georgia and performs the most surgeries in Georgia. Ranked #4 on the U.S. News list of the Best Hospitals in Georgia and the only Georgia hospital on the Forbes list of America’s Best Employers,
Gwinnett Health System (GHS) is the parent company of Gwinnett Medical Center, Gwinnett Medical Group and Sequent Health Physician Partners. GHS employs 4,800 associates and has 800 affiliated physicians serving more than 400,000 patients annually. Gwinnett Medical Center (GMC) is a nationally-recognized, not-for-profit healthcare network with acute-care hospitals in Lawrenceville and Duluth. Additional facilities include: the Gwinnett Women’s Pavilion, the Gwinnett Extended Care Center, Glancy Rehabilitation Center, outpatient health centers and surgical centers, imaging centers and outpatient physical, occupational and speech therapy facilities. In 2014, GMC was recognized by Georgia Trend as the top large hospital in the state.
EEB PERSPECTIVEFood trucks becoming more of an issue in many areas of nation
By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher
SEPT. 4, 2015 | Sometimes communities get hung up over relatively trivial activities.
Take what is happening in North Kansas City, Mo. This suburb, surrounded by the larger Midwest area, has a 2013 population of 4,319, smaller than most of the cities of Gwinnett. It’s relatively small, only 4.63 square miles, and two miles from downtown Kansas City. There’s a casino in town, and the biggest employers is Cerner, a major health care giant founded in North Kansas City.
The issue that has people in North Kansas City talking is food trucks.
Some enjoy the variety of food that the food trucks offer.
Others don’t care for them, citing these trucks for taking away dollars from established restaurants in the town.
One way of putting it might be: “tradition vs. trend” or “free market vs. fair play.”
All across the nation, a debate is going on in built-up areas, as operators of food trucks look for population centers that they think offer them better opportunity to seek such areas. Many food trucks offer non-traditional fare, with distinctive tastes.
Meanwhile, operators of established food restaurants, some of them on shaky financial ground, see these trucks parked on city streets as nothing but strong and unfair competition, and have to battle them for the customer’s food dollar.
Many food trucks once (and many still do) serve customers in far-flung work sites, showing up at break times, or even for lunch, and do a brisk trade. They cater to construction sites, in particular, making it easy for that site’s workers to get a snack or even a meal, and not wander far from the site for a break or lunch, while snacking relatively quickly. Employers on such sites welcome them.
It gets to be another matter, however, when these trucks park in the middle of towns on the city streets, and compete with permanent businesses. Those favoring food trucks cite their distinctive taste in food, sometimes offering atypical fare compared to traditional restaurants. Detractors say that food trucks have lower costs in that they do not have to support an overhead of running a traditional restaurant, making a food truck parked outside unfair competition.
In recent months in Gwinnett, there seems to be a growing cadre of food trucks not just showing up for weekend fairs, but having a set time to visit many of the cities on the country on a regular basis. Some cities almost go overboard to welcome these trucks as an amenity for their citizens. The area’s restaurant owners do not agree.
Some people want to have a “dining experience” when they choose to dress up to go out to eat, and spend money by having someone else prepare the food, even up to white tablecloths, distinctive wines, and possibly some music in the background.
Others would just as soon “grab a bite” when ordering to a food truck window. They don’t mind either standing up to eat, or moving to a nearby park concrete picnic table for their leisure eating. They never even think of white tablecloths.
In Gwinnett, we suspect we’ll start hearing more, pro and con, of this relatively small but consequential issue of food trucks. After all, if it’s happening in middle America in North Kansas City, Mo., it’s probably a concern for just about all of our vast country.
IN THE SPOTLIGHTGwinnett County Public Library
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Finds Gwinnett drivers often pay no attention to stop signs
Editor, the Forum:
Heck with us being able to handle four-way stops, we can’t handle stop signs at all! I have been noticing for a couple of years now that drivers around Duluth do not bother with stop signs.
The other day I was out trying to keep my heart from attacking me by walking. Cardinal Lake Road was extra wide at this point, as a lady zipped past me, missing me by about six inches. I turned to give her one of my dirty looks (that she was not going to see) in time to see her pass right through the stop sign onto Georgia Highway120 without even tapping her brakes.
Start paying attention to how often drivers do not come close to a stop at a stop sign. You will be amazed. You might even notice that you are one of them.
— Alex J. Ortolano, Duluth
Figures roundabouts are easier to learn than another foreign import
Editor, the Forum:
Roundabouts make sense, should not stump Georgians, and are easier to learn than the metric system. What are we waiting for?
— Michael L. Wood, Peachtree Corners
- SEND FEEDBACK AND LETTERS: elliott@brack.net
Duluth is first in Gwinnett to offer geotours with GPS-enabled devices
Outsiders will get a chance to learn something unique about the City of Duluth in an new way soon. The City of Duluth will host its own Geotour entitled “Caching Duluth,” which will be significant as it highlights different areas of Duluth that are historic, playful, educational, and fun.
Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants must navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location. Once found, participants must write down what treasure they found by using a logbook or log sheet provided on site. If participants take something, they must leave something of equal or greater value for other participants.
Right now, there are over two million geocaches in the world. The City of Duluth just added about 35 more. It’s the first Geotour in Gwinnett County and the fourth in the Peach State; making Georgia the largest active Geotour location in the United States.
Event Coordinator Maggie Waddell says: “This is a great way to have a scavenger hunt on a large scale that will hopefully put our City on the map…literally.”
- For more information about “Caching Duluth” and to join in on the fun, visit https://www.geocaching.com/play/geotours/duluth-georgia.
Take a peek at pre-development Lilburn on September 5
Ever wonder what the Lilburn area looked like before all the subdivisions, highways and commercial centers were built?
Come out to the Wynne-Russell House on Saturday, September 5, between 10 a.m. and noon to view an 1895 three-dimensional display of the Luxomni-Lilburn area.
Longtime resident and descendant Gail McGinnis painstakingly created the diorama of the 1800s farms and homeplaces from old photos and land records. She and Elmer Nash, another longtime resident, will give commentary and answer questions regarding the area’s history.
Attendees will also have an opportunity to purchase a booklet showing the photos that Mrs. McGinnis used to construct the miniature buildings. There is no charge for the diorama presentation nor the tour of the Wynne-Russell House. The Wynne-Russell House is located at 4685 Wynne-Russell Drive in Lilburn.
Heritage Center demand leads to new classroom-workroom
The Gwinnett Environmental and Heritage Center in Buford will convert existing storage space to build a new classroom and educator workroom. The Board of Commissioners approved a $409,506 contract Tuesday with low bidder, Bayne Development Group LLC of Winder. The 2014 SPLOST program is funding the work.
Educational programming doubled during the last year, causing the center to reach its capacity. The EHC offers classes and special events for K-12 students, homeschoolers, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and seniors, plus it holds exhibits, symposiums and community events for the general public.
The contractor will convert existing storage and open space into new classrooms and teacher workroom space on the first and second floors. About 3,500 square feet will be renovated and improvements will include relocated HVAC, electrical and pneumatic air systems and new energy efficient lighting. Construction will begin in October and finish by the end of the year.
Executive Director Steve Cannon said, “The additional space will allow us to keep up with our continued growth and customer demands. We are looking forward to offering even more programs that focus on the environment, natural resources, and healthy lifestyle and wellness.”
Snellville police, firefighters square off in softball for charities
It will be a battle of heroes as the Snellville Police Department (SPD) will square off against the Gwinnett County Fire Department (GCFD) in a charity softball game on September 12. It is the first Guns and Hoses Charity Softball game and it will be played on Briscoe Park’s new softball fields with activities starting at 12 p.m. First pitch is at 2 p.m.
The Guns (SPD) will be playing for the Amanda Riley Foundation, an organization named after Snellville resident Amanda Riley who passed away after a battle with cancer when she was a teen. The Hoses (GCFD) will be playing for the Gwinnett Fire Employee Benevolent Fund.
There will be fire trucks and police vehicles including a SWAT truck and Snellville’s Cop Cab. Concessions will be available from the Masonic Lodge.
There will be free admission for those who bring a canned food item, which will be given to the Give Hunger the Boot effort which benefits the Southeast Gwinnett Co-op. For more information on either event email jbouchard@snellville.org or call 770-985-3533.
NOTABLEGwinnett Place CID releases new master plan for the area
The Gwinnett Place Community Improvement District (GPCID) announces the release of the ACTivate Gwinnett Place master plan, which charts a path for redevelopment of Gwinnett’s central business district. The plan proposes bold infrastructure investments that will meet the experiences and expectations desired for future public space and travel within the district.
- For more information about the ACTivate Gwinnett Place master plan please visit: https://youtu.be/2BtDsuAVZz4.
Building upon the 2012 Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) study, ACTivate Gwinnett Place identifies catalyst projects for investment to improve transportation options, connectivity and livability through greenspaces and feasible infrastructure changes. With input from area property owners, local business interests, civic leaders, Gwinnett County officials and GPCID board members, the master plan identifies an infrastructure framework that invites mixed-used developments, creates greater connectivity between commercial centers and enhances public green space.
The plan’s key elements include a “grand promenade” trail network, an iconic bike and pedestrian bridge connecting with McDaniel Farm Park, intersection and roadway improvements, and storm water management solutions that can also serve as a public amenity. The GPCID invites people to learn more about the ACTivate Gwinnett Place plan through meetings with GPCID stakeholders or by visiting www.activategwinnettplace.com.
- For more information and to schedule an overview of the plan, contact Joe Allen at 678-924-8171.
Thornell is new president of Peachtree Corners-Norcross Rotary
New president of the Norcross-Peachtree Corners Rotary Club is Mark Thornell, executive director of the Fowler YMCA in Peachtree Corners. He succeeds Sam Evans of Alpharetta, who served as President in 2014-2015. Thornell was born in Bangkok, Thailand, but was raised in Norcross, and is a graduate of Norcross High School. He went to college at Georgia Southern University. Mark has been at the local YMCA for four years. He and his wife, Kristen reside in Norcross with their 14-year-old daughter, Andrea. His hobbies include hiking, kayaking, camping and golf.
Slingshot opens new entertainment center in Peachtree Corners
Billed as the “largest indoor entertainment facility in Georgia,” Slingshot Entertainment officially opened Friday, Aug. 28 in the old BJ’s Wholesale Club building on Jimmy Carter Boulevard in Peachtree Corners.
Inside the cavernous building is a giant playground for both adults and children. The new facility is fitted with electric high-speed go-carts, bowling alley, tri-level kids play arena – and a large ninja obstacle course.
In addition a restaurant, bar and meeting room space for corporate events and private parties has been incorporated into the new facility.
The building sat empty for over four years before its partners pumped $6.5 million to transform the 128,000 square-foot building into the ultimate indoor playground.
The news of Slingshot’s opening is just the latest example indicating the uptick in commercial building activity in Peachtree Corners. In the last year and a half, building permits have doubled from 2013 (637 permits) to 2014 (1,218 permits) and 2015 is on track to succeed last year’s number.
Snellville hosting exhibit at City Hall of two artists
Works of two artists are on display in the cases of the City Hall lobby, where they will remain through November. Visiting hours are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. There will be a reception for the artists from 2 to 4 p.m. September. 13.
Artist Hung Nguyen is a master of glass art and a new small business owner of MC Glass Art Inc. in Lilburn. He has been in the industry for more than 28 years. After coming to America in 1981, he was an apprentice of internationally acclaimed Master of Glass Hans Godo Frabel.
Hung’s passion for the simple elegance and beauty of Georgia’s state flowers placed several of his sculptures at exhibition places like: the State Botanical Garden of Georgia – University of Georgia, the Atlanta Botanical Garden and McKee Botanical Garden in Vero Beach, Fla. In addition, his abstract and creative sculptures landed him the opportunity to place his intrepid glass sculptures in Crystal Fox Gallery.
Potter Stephanie Phelan of Hoschton grew up in New York on Long Island, and moved to Georgia 20 years ago. She started making pottery, at Winder’s Georgia Piedmont Art Center, taking classes with instructors Margie Coats and Kathy Adams, and has also attended John C. Campbell Folk Art School for pottery. She has a home studio where she spent hours honing her skills, creating functional pottery. Inspiration from growing up by the ocean shows in her Mermaid Tail pieces and assorted other ocean themed pottery, which are usable one of a kind works of art. Phelan is also a yoga coach.
Naval series by Patrick O’Brien is well-written, technically correct
The Aubrey–Maturin Series, by Patrick O’Brian
This are a series of 20 novels, beginning with, Master and Commander, written in 1969, through Blue at the Mizzen (1999). Patrick O’Brian takes us through a multitude of adventures beginning in the Napoleonic Wars and continuing after into 1820. The novels can be read in sequence, following Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin through their naval and personal adventures during war and peace. Intimate details of their lives, loves, addictions, and friendship are woven with technical sailing notes and descriptions of wartime naval maneuvers. The movie, Master and Commander, starring Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany, offers readers a taste for the banquet ahead in this novel series. Well-written, technically accurate, and filled with details of naval life, any armchair sailor will enjoy these tales, and will be sad when the last, unfinished 21st novel reproduced in O’Brian’s handwriting, ends.
— Karen Burnette Garner, Dacula
An invitation: what books, restaurants, movies or web sites have you enjoyed recently? Send us your recent selection, along with a short paragraph (100 words) as to why you liked this, plus what you plan to visit or read next. –eeb
GEORGIA ENCYCLOPEDIA TIDBITSpanish visit Georgia from bases in Mexico in early 1600s
(Continued from previous edition)
After the Spanish Luna colony failed and the colonists returned to Mexico, in 1561 Luna’s replacement, Angel de Villafane, led a ship around the Florida peninsula briefly to reconnoiter the Atlantic coastline of Georgia and South Carolina. This same region soon witnessed a flurry of activity by other European explorers.
In 1562 French sailors under Jean Ribault reconnoitered the coastline before establishing Charles Fort on Parris Island, S.C., and two years later a Cuban ship under Hernando Manrique de Rojas scoured the coast in search of the abandoned French fort, which they destroyed. That same year French ships visited the Georgia coast from Rene de Laudonniere’s new colony at Fort Caroline near present-day Jacksonville, Fla., but it was Spanish colonists under Pedro Menendez de Aviles that completed this coastal exploration in the decades after the 1565 founding of St. Augustine, Fla.
Spanish explorers. Image courtesy of the Georgia Encyclopedia.
Although two major military expeditions under Captain Juan Pardo were dispatched into the Appalachian mountains between 1566 and 1568 from the short-lived Spanish colonial city of Santa Elena on Parris Island, Georgia’s interior saw no further exploration until 1597, when two Franciscan missionaries and a soldier briefly pushed inland as far as Altamaha and Ocute near present-day Milledgeville.
When Spaniards heard rumors of an overland expedition from Mexico, they sent yet another expedition to these same towns under soldier Juan de Lara in 1602, and at least five reconnaissance expeditions were dispatched into the interior Coastal Plain between 1624 and 1628, including two trips under Ensign Pedro de Torres that penetrated as far as central South Carolina.
During this same period Franciscan missionaries explored other populated regions of southern Georgia, establishing missions at Utinahica near present-day Lumber City, Ibihica and Ocone near Folkston, and Cachipile and Arapaja near Valdosta by 1630. The well-documented expedition by Fray Luis Geronimo de Ore in late 1616 skirted the back side of the Okefenokee Swamp before descending the Altamaha River to the coast.
The final Spanish exploratory expedition into Georgia’s interior took place in the winter of 1645-46, when Florida governor Benito Ruiz de Salazar Vallecilla led a group of soldiers north from the Apalachee mission province into the villages of the unconverted Apalachicola province along the lower Chattahoochee River in southwest Georgia and eastern Alabama. Though there were sporadic visits to these villages as late as 1695, the Ruiz expedition was the last major Spanish exploratory venture into Georgia. The remaining portions of north Georgia would eventually be explored by English traders and soldiers during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century, long before ownership of the land was acquired through treaties between 1733 and 1838.
- More on the Spanish exploration of Georgia
- To access the Georgia Encyclopedia online, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Man, ‘O man, that’s a lot of bicycles!
Bicycles everywhere, eh? Where are these being stored? Two clues: not in China nor Holland. But where? Send your answers to elliott@brack.net and be sure to include the town where you live.
Three people recognized the recent Mystery Photo. The photo came from Ann Royster of Shelby, N.C. who took it last week while on a Rick Steves tour of the area. First in was Karen Garner of Dacula, saying the photo was that of “Château d’Amboise, France. Supposedly the chapel is the burial place of Leonardo DaVinci. It was a royal residence for many years, and Mary, Queen of Scots was raised there. French king Charles VII hit his head on a doorframe and died of his injuries there. It was built in the 1400s.”
Bob Foreman of Grayson added: “The photo is of Chateau d’Amboise in the Loire Valley of France. This is a great example of early renaissance and French Gothic architecture. There is a lot of interesting history associated with this place, including the “grave” of Leonardo deVinci. Both my wife and my mother descended from Huguenots. Thousands of French protestant Huguenots were massacred by French Catholics here, supposedly because of a plot by protestants against the Catholic king. Huguenots never forget.”
Another recognizing it was Michael Wood of Peachtree Corners, saying: “Chateau D’Amboise was taken by French King Charles II to become a royal palace. Francois I, a later king, invited Leonardo da Vinci to move to Amboise; and Chateau D’Amboise became da Vinci’s place of burial.”
LAGNIAPPESpectacular skyscraper buildings in downtown Atlanta
ATLANTA SKYLINE VIEW: Here’s a particularly neat look of the Atlanta skyline, taken viewing westward, by Roving Photographer Frank Sharp just at the end of a cloudless day. If you send this to friends in faraway places, remind them that the new skyscrapers in the Buckhead area of Atlanta are much more modern and soaring than the older downtown area.
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