Works of art from 18 area schools will be shown in Snellville City Hall during February. Presented by the Snellville Arts Commission, the art from local students will be available for viewing starting February 7 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday in the Community Room in City Hall, 2342 Oak Road. The accompanying art work was produced by Skyler Ewe from Brookwood Elementary School. There will be a reception for the young artists from 4 to 6 p.m. on February 7 in the Community Room. The schools participating in the exhibition are: Arcado, Brookwood, Camp Creek, Centerville, Craig, Gwin Oaks, Head, Knight, Mountain Park, Partee, and Shiloh Elementary Schools; Crews, Five Forks, Shiloh and Trickum Middle Schools; and Brookwood, Parkview and Shiloh High Schools.
IN THIS EDITIONTODAY’S FOCUS: Aurora Theatre Presents Georgia Premiere of Teen Interaction Drama
EEB PERSPECTIVE: New Wrinkle: Some Smaller City and County Governments Merge
ANOTHER VIEW: S.C. Gov. Haley at First Sounded Good, But Then a Turnaround
SPOTLIGHT: Gwinnett Medical Center
FEEDBACK: Two Readers Respond to Column by Wilson
UPCOMING: Notre Dame Academy To Open George Student Center on January 29
NOTABLE: Kaiser Permanente Opens Member Services Facility in Gwinnett
RECOMMENDED READ: In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Georgia First in Nation To Use Same Voting Machines in Each County
TODAY’S QUOTE: Why It Doesn’t Matter What A Room Temperature Is
MYSTERY PHOTO: Ever Hear of a Place Where People Say “Meet me at the Red Robin?”
LAGNIAPPE: Duluth Rexall Drugs Featured in Magazine about Drug Store Lunch Counters
TODAY’S FOCUSAurora Theatre presents Georgia premiere of teen interaction drama
By Chelsea Bohannon
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga., Jan. 26, 2016 | A quintessential tale of two worlds colliding, audiences are invited to experience the power of diversity and the beauty of acceptance in the award-winning I and You at Aurora Theatre, January 29 until February 21. As part of the 2015-16 Georgia Gwinnett College Harvel Lab Series, this moving story of two teenagers and the bond they create through examination of poetry offers an ode to youth, life, love and the strange splendor of human connectedness!
Written by Lauren Gunderson and directed by Aurora’s Director of Education Jaclyn Hofmann, I and You chronicles the unlikely relationship formed by popular jock, Anthony, and chronically ill Caroline, beginning when he shows up to her house unexpectedly with waffle fries, a beat-up book and a homework assignment to explore Walt Whitman’s poem “Song of Myself.” Coming from opposite ends of the social spectrum, the two teens reluctantly work together to journey through Whitman’s impacting verse. As they delve deep into the poem and get to know each other on a personal level, they eventually learn of the profound mystery which brought them together in the first place.
Rodriguez
Anthony Rodriguez, Aurora’s Producing artistic director, says: “This play has quickly become one of the hottest properties in American theater, including a recently opened off-Broadway run. The author, Lauren, is a dear friend. Nothing could thrill me more than having the opportunity for Aurora Theatre to produce the Georgia premiere of this Atlanta-bred playwright’s most recent work. Lauren’s work is universally acclaimed and widely produced across the country, yet her voice echoes the spirit of the modern South.”
Recommended for teens and adults, I and You regular show tickets are general admission and start at $20. Tickets may be purchased online at tickets.auroratheatre.com or by calling the Box Office at 678-226-6222.
Regular show times are Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.; and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. The Aurora Theatre is located at 128 East Pike Street, Lawrenceville.
EEB PERSPECTIVENew wrinkle: Some smaller city and county governments merge
By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher
JAN. 26, 2016 | For years, people in Georgia have been concerned that by having 159 counties, many of them small ones, government is too costly and inefficient.
Meanwhile, the people who control those counties, the big landowners and the timber companies, are pleased as punch about owning property in smaller counties. After all, it’s a whole lot easier to control government when you have just a few voters than it is in the larger counties, where a diverse and educated population sometimes votes slackard politicians out of office. You don’t see that happening often in the smaller counties.
Local government once was worse. Back before the 1950s, Georgia politics and government operated under the County Unit System, deliberately set up so that the large population counties would have little voice in electing state officers and governing the state. It worked this way: in statewide political races, the eight largest counties were given six “county unit” votes; the next 30 counties got four county unit votes each, and the 121 smallest counties got a measly two county votes each.
But those two votes per county were mighty. In statewide elections, the candidate that won the majority of votes in any county got that county’s county unit votes. The 121 smallest counties had 242 unit votes, while the other 36 counties had only 168 county unit votes.
Finally, the courts saw the errors of those ways, and now it’s one-person, one vote. Small counties no longer dominate the state.
Georgia is getting some relief now in ways we didn’t imagine. Instead of eliminating or combining counties, as many have wanted, now smaller counties are consolidating their county and county seat city governments.
Jim Grubiak of the Association County Commission of Georgia says that Columbus and Muscogee were the first two governments to merge, way back in 1971. Now three other large cities and counties have merged into one government: Athens-Clarke County; Augusta-Richmond County; and most recently, Macon and Bibb County.
Recently a new angle has emerged: some smaller counties in Georgia are consolidating their county and city governments. The first to merge was Chattahoochee County back in 2004, with a population of 11,837. The county seat is Cusseta, which has 1,208 residents. (See accompanying table.) The other consolidations followed. In Webster County there were 2,719 people, including only 379 in the county seat of Preston.
Just this week word was out that Taylor County (8,464 residents) was talking to Roberta (1,006 population) about merging. In discussion for a couple of years is the possible merger of Pulaski County and Hawkinsville’s government.
All this is mostly encouraging news. Look what has happened: Once we had 159 county governments, plus 159 county seat (city) governments. That’s 318 governments, but now we’re down to a total of 310. And there may be more consolidation coming.
Who would have thought fewer governments would have happened this way?
One other wrinkle: Once what is Fulton County was three counties, Fulton, Campbell on the Southside, and Milton on the North. Fulton absorbed the other two failing counties during the Depression. Now some people in North Fulton are wanting to win back everything north of the Chattahoochee River into a county of their own, and get back the name of Milton. Watch the Legislature.
It could pave the way.
ANOTHER VIEWS.C. Gov. Haley at first sounded good, but then a turnaround
By Deborah Houston
JAN. 26, 2016 | The president gave his final State of the Union address. I’d no intention of watching. Presidents always say how they did a bang-up job the previous year and the State of our Union remains strong. Ditto Obama. I almost clicked over to an old 60s sitcom, but Speaker of the House Paul Ryan caught my eye. Shifting in his seat behind Obama, Ryan’s adroit facial expressions entertained me. Raised eyebrows and a slight smirk demonstrated he wasn’t grooving to the president’s words.
Then surprise! South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley began the Republican post-state response. She had me at hello, stating with candor, “Much like America as a whole, ours is a state with a rich and complicated history.” Darn right, Governor. The first shot fired in the Civil War came from your shore. A Georgian myself, I commiserated with her characterization of a southern state.
Logical words, phrased with elegance and warmth followed. I loved when she said, “During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices. We must resist that temptation.”
I agreed wholeheartedly. After a year of mass shootings, terrorist attacks, and bitter racial tensions, the nation needs to pull together.
The next day, much to my consternation, angry voices on the right were even angrier – with Haley. How dare she target Donald Trump! “It’s the first time in my life,” Rush Limbaugh said, “I can remember the response to the State of the Union not going after the president but rather going off the front runner of, in this case, her own party.”
At first I thought Rush was wrong. We conservatives have the thinnest of skins sometimes, believing every arrow is aimed at us.
Then Haley confessed. Yes, the barbs were aimed at Trump, she said. What had seemed like a classy speech at first had been nothing more than a cheap shot, the more I thought about it.
Which forces the question: When will the Republican establishment ever challenge the Democratic Party? The fact they’d rather not, gives me a familiar sinking feeling from campaigns past. The RNC will lose the 2016 election as surely as it did the 2008 and 2012.
IN THE SPOTLIGHTGwinnett Medical Center
The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Gwinnett Medical Center’s parent company is Gwinnett Health System (GHS), which also includes Gwinnett Medical Group and Sequent Health Physician Partners. GMC employs approximately 5,000 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.
- To learn more about how GMC is transforming healthcare, visit gwinnettmedicalcenter.org.
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Rebuffs Wilson’s thoughts about Medicaid, minimum wage
Editor, the Forum:
The latest article by George Wilson again clearly points out why you should stop providing him a place of voicing his skewed view.
His quote: “When we discuss expanding Medicaid (paid for by the Federal government), raising the minimum wage, family leave, paying for college, or equal pay for women, they quickly retreat into the usual Grand Old Platitudes of letting the free market work, too much government regulation; and we can’t afford the costs.”
First, the federal government pays for nothing, it only takes workers tax money and redistributes it to non-workers. Sorry George, there is no free lunch here. The government, federal, state, or local does not pay for anything; working people pay.
Second, raising the minimum wage, in its limited time/use in liberal controlled states, has already resulted in (A) excessive rising prices; and (B) loss of employment. But then again, that is what the liberals are all about, getting more folks depending upon the government for daily living.
My main question is what happens when you have more dependent folks on handouts than the shrinking worker pool can pay for? Oh yeah, I remember now, Obama has solved that by printing excessive money without backup value resulting in lower value of our currency and huge amounts of increasing debt.
George, liberal and socialist principles have never ever worked long term anywhere they’re applied. It’s only about giving away the power and control of the citizens lives over to the government.
— Steve Rausch, Peachtree Corners
Likes some Wilson points, but disagrees on tax credit on films
Editor, the Forum:
While I can somewhat agree with Mr. Wilson’s first four paragraphs in the last edition of GwinnettForum, I totally disagree with the point made about the tax credits given to the film industry.
The estimated value of tax credits are not gifts of cash. They are only potential revenues that will never exist if the industry involved does not locate in the taxing authority’s jurisdiction. How can you “give away” something that you would never have had?
To be opposed to giving tax credits to attract new business is like saying “We are financially better off without the new business.” Although the film business can pack up and leave once the tax credits run out, other industries that make large capital investments in real estate will pay property tax indefinitely once the tax credits expire. This is tax revenue we would never get without having given the tax credits initially.
A good argument can be made that in many cases, surrounding property values rise quickly enough to offset the tax credits given to the new industry. More homes, restaurants, movie theaters often follow rapidly.
I disagree that this is crony capitalism.
Creating businesses where government is the only customer, for example, Defense, or directing government purchases to favored companies, is crony capitalism.
Georgia has one of the most restrictive Medicaid programs in the country. Medicaid expansion, if I understand it correctly, only has the major Federal sponsorship for the first few years and after that it increases the state’s responsibility.
Having said that I am for Medicaid expansion, and reform, in Georgia. On the other hand I must have missed some very important news. From where did this figure of 60,000 new jobs from Medicaid expansion come?
— Hoyt Tuggle, Lawrenceville
Dear Hoyt: If I understand it correctly, the jobs come with the increased medical activity from the Medicaid expansion. It speaks to Georgians now not having adequate care, and the professionals who would become employable through the expansion. –eeb
- Send Feedback and Letters to: elliott@brack.net
Notre Dame Academy to open George Student Center on Jan. 29
Notre Dame Academy in Duluth will mark the grand opening of its George Student Center at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, January 29 at 4536 River Green Parkway.
Notre Dame Academy is an accredited Marist and International Baccalaureate World School for the Primary Years and a candidate school for the Middle Years and Diploma Programs. ND Academy currently serves 560 students in grades PreK-3 through 9. Families interested in Notre Dame Academy may find more information at http://www.ndacademy.org.
Anticipated being present will be members of the Notre Dame Academy community, including Head of School Debra Orr and Chairman of the Board Joe George. Members of the Marist School community including President of Marist School, Father John Harhager and Principal of Marist School, Father Joel Konzen, are expected along with Duluth Mayor Nancy Harris and Associate Superintendent of Schools for the Archdiocese of Atlanta, Rebecca Hammel. Harlem Globetrotter Alumnus TyRone “Hollywood” Brown and Michael “Memphis” Douglas will perform at a school-wide celebration immediately following the ribbon cutting ceremony.
The George Student Center will house the school’s first gymnasium along with fine arts classrooms, student center, and offices.
Farm and Food Film Festival coming to Norcross Community Center
Mark your calendar for The Farm and Food Film Festival at Norcross Cultural Arts and Community Center Ballroom, 10 College Street. Three farm and food indie films are being presented to raise funds for the new Norcross Community Market and raise awareness of the trends in farming and food. Free popcorn comes with your admission fee on the following dates:
- February 11: See the vision of the possible as Fresh profiles heroes all over the country who are changing the way Americans eat as they pursue the grassroots effort to get fresh food on every plate.
- February 25: Follow along as a small Southern town learns the benefits of a plant-based diet in the documentary Plant Pure Nation.
- March 10: Explore the stories of three women military veterans who were among the first to deploy, serving in Afghanistan, Kuwait and Iraq as they learn how to heal the hidden wounds of war through farming in Terra Firma.
The Festival is organized by Project Generation Gap, as part of their mission to reconnect all generations with their food and to the land. It is offered in collaboration with Sustainable Norcross to support the new local farmers market opening this summer.
- Each showing will begin at 7 p.m. Order online tickets at http://localfoodfilmseries.eventbrite.com. Seating is limited.
Check out what will happen at EHC Evening Festival on Jan. 29
Ever wonder what happens at the Environmental and Heritage Center (EHC) after hours? Join the EHC for a special evening festival on Friday, January 29, entitled “Night at the Museum” and see how the exhibits come to life after dark. The festival will begin at 5 p.m. and continues until 10 p.m.
Visitors will have the chance to participate in an exclusive “Mystery Museum Tour,” listen to stories around a campfire and participate in a “Glow in the Dark Green Building” scavenger hunt.
The evening will also feature special showings of the Blue Planet sensory theater as well as multiple Discovery Dome films. Guests will enjoy a “Lights Out Nature Sensory Room” as well as numerous crafts, activities and games.
- Program fees for Night at the Museum are $8 per person. EHC members and children ages 2 and under are free. Guests can pre-register online at www.gwinnettEHC.org or pay at the door.
Kaiser Permanente opens member services facility in Gwinnett
Kaiser Permanente will open a national member services contact center in Gwinnett County later this year on Breckenridge Boulevard in the former Primerica building. The move will bring more than 800 new jobs to metro Atlanta by 2020—most of them by 2017.
Governor Nathan Deal made the announcement last week: “The health care industry is an economic driver in Georgia. Kaiser Permanente’s devotion to bettering the lives of citizens through innovative health care services makes the company a good fit for Georgia. The state looks forward to continuing this partnership with Kaiser Permanente as it further expands and produces a positive impact on Georgia’s economy.”
The company will retrofit the former Primerica headquarters to serve as a Member Service Contact Center, bringing the company’s total presence in Georgia to some 5,000 personnel. Situated on an 18-acre site in Duluth, the 185,000-square-foot office complex will have the capacity to hold up to 1,000 contact center workers. The facility will also be designed to meet requirements for LEED certification.
Julie Miller-Phipps, president of Kaiser Permanente of Georgia, says: “Kaiser Permanente has been caring for metro Atlanta residents for 30 years, and we are excited to be able to help this region’s economy thrive as well. By expanding our footprint in metro Atlanta, we are showing just how committed we are to bringing our unique model of care to this region.”
Two from Gwinnett honored at Advanced Disposal’s annual meeting
Two Gwinnett employees of Advanced Disposal, an integrated environmental services company, were honored as top employees at the company’s fifth annual employee of the year awards celebration in Orlando, Fla. last week. A total of 68 employee nominees and their guests attended the event held at Disney’s Yacht Club Resort. All nominees were presented with a plaque, and winners received crystal and cash awards recognizing the tremendous accomplishment.
Edwards
Lamb
Among the winners were Lori Lamb of Norcross, named the Trash Talker of the Year; and Steve Edwards of Sugar Hill, named municipal marketer of the Year.
Advanced Disposal Chief Executive Officer Richard Burke says: “These team members are ‘Driven to Deliver’ and are our environmental heroes who dedicate their time to clean communities and serving with a ‘Service First, Safety Always’ attitude. The Employee of the Year event is only a small way for us to say thank you for everything they do. They are the heart and soul of our company, and their passion, hard work and dedication is greatly appreciated.”
The employee of the year awards celebration is held in conjunction with the company’s annual meeting so that all levels of management can celebrate in the company’s accomplishments over the last year, review plans for achieving goals in the New Year, and most importantly, personally applaud our very best team members.
RECOMMENDEDIn the Heart of the Sea
A book by Nathaniel Philbrick
This detailed examination of the history of Nantucket whaling, inspiring the newly released film, In the Heart of the Sea, chronicles the development of the whaling industry that enriched the island. The heavy cost of that success, in terms of species decimation, and human suffering and loss, is faithfully described. The wreck of the ship Essex, attacked by an 80 foot sperm whale, inspired Herman Melville’s great white whale. The actions of the crew after the sinking give a brutal look at life as a sailor in the early 1800s. Based on a true story, gruesome at times, the reader gains an appreciation for the sacrifices men readily accepted to seek their fortunes. Mr. Philbrick’s extensive research of the facts is delivered with empathy and understanding. A must read for history buffs. The full title is In the Heart of the Sea: the Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex.
— 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 TIDBITGeorgia first in nation to use same voting machine in each county
(Continued from previous edition)
Voters in Georgia must be citizens of the United States, legal residents of the counties in which they seek to register, and 18 years old by the day of the election; they must also apply for registration 30 days before an upcoming election. Those serving sentences following conviction for a felony or those who have been declared mentally incompetent are not eligible to vote.
For a century after the Civil War (1861-65), voter registration in Georgia was a difficult and time-consuming process. Due to state constitutional restrictions designed to keep African Americans from voting, citizens who wanted to register were required to go before a board of registrars to prove residence and demonstrate literacy. White citizens were usually exempt from these sorts of restrictions and some of the restrictions, like the literacy test, were designed to be impossible to pass.
After the U.S. Congress passed the 1965 Voting Rights Act, restrictions targeting racial minorities were lifted. Nonetheless, it was still relatively difficult to register to vote in Georgia until the 1980s, when additional offices were given the authority to register voters and the General Assembly passed legislation allowing voter registration drives by private interest groups and even candidates for public office themselves. The passage of federal legislation known as the Motor-Voter Act also made it easier to register to vote in Georgia as well as in the rest of the nation.
After the 2000 presidential elections, when difficulties emerged in determining the winner of Florida’s electoral votes, the Georgia secretary of state, Cathy Cox, announced that she would seek funding to install uniform voting machinery around the state of Georgia. As a result of Cox’s initiative, only one type of machine is used today throughout the state in every county and jurisdiction. The system, a touch-screen imaging device, has three backup systems, and it ensures that each voter can vote only once for an office; additionally, the system alerts a voter if he or she neglects to vote for a particular office listed on the ballot.
Georgia was the first state in the nation to employ such technology statewide, and other states soon followed suit. The secretary of state’s office has also been credited with using innovative technology to purge the rolls of dead and ineligible voters.
- To access the Georgia Encyclopedia online, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Do you know where people say, “Meet me at the Red Robin?
Today’s Mystery Photo has become something of a meeting place in this community. “Oh yes, meet me at the Red Robin,” is heard, and it works. Do you know where this Red Robin is located. If so, send your answers to elliott@brack.net, and be sure to include your hometown.
George Graf of Palmyra, Va. has been active recently recognizing the Mystery Photo. He was first in with the answer to the last mystery, saying: “Lighthouse in Bald Head Island, North Carolina. Old Baldy was first lit in 1817 by its longtime keeper Sedgwick Springs, a veteran of the American Revolution and owner of the nearby Sedgely Abbey Plantation. He had been appointed to the position in 1806 at the behest of US President Thomas Jefferson and served as the light keeper at Bald Head for more than 30 years.”
Then came Bob Foreman of Grayson, telling us: “Bald Head Light House, Brunswick County North Carolina. Some of my ancestors came from Carteret County and Brunswick County.” The final right answer came from Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill, who added: “The new photo is the lighthouse at Bald Head Island across from Fort Caswell at the mouth of the Cape Fear River in North Carolina.”
LAGNIAPPEDuluth Rexall featured in story about good drug counter food
Featured in the January issue of Georgia Magazine, the publication of Georgia Electric Membership Corporation, was the Duluth Rexall Drugs lunch counter. The story also told of other places in Georgia to get great food at drug stores. Danielle Sexton shows off a Duluth Rexall cheeseburger plate, featuring ground chuck, French Fries and tomato. The accompanying article also highlighted the single dish that Rexall Drugs features every day, “slabs of meatloaf.” (Photo by Phillip Ratliff.)
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