RIPPLE EFFECT: Lilburn Woman’s Club presented the club’s third Ripple Effect scholarship award this month to Trickum Middle School leaders Barbara Mahon, Kay Sands and Nicole Irish for their creative Jelly Bean Diversity project. Diversity Beans are red, orange, yellow, green, black, white and come in a variety of flavors, but don’t try to determine the flavor of these beans by looking at their color — you’ll never be able to guess. The exercise helps students understand that this candy is just like people — you can’t determine what is on the inside by simply looking at the outside. The Ripple Effect Scholarship was created by the Lilburn Woman’s Club in 2015 looking to engage local students and teachers who can creatively present how one simple act of kindness can generate a positive ripple effect in our community. From left are Patty Gabilondo, President Barbara Brooks, Gloria Sill, Barbara Mahon, Principal Kay Sands, and 7th Grade administrator Nicole Irish.
IN THIS EDITIONTODAY’S FOCUS: Update on the New Norcross Branch Library and Highway Improvements
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Seems To Be Simple Way To Solve Which Restroom To Enter
ANOTHER VIEW: What Discrimination Laws Will Do to Some Southern States
SPOTLIGHT: Infinite Energy Center
FEEDBACK: Closed Minds Lead to Destruction, plus Thanking Lilburn Alcohol-Selling Sites
UPCOMING: Upcoming Clean and Beautiful Dinner to Honor Wiggins, Volunteers
NOTABLE: Majority of Gwinnett Real Properties Will See Change in Valuations
GEORGIA TIDBIT: UGA Has Two Historic Paintings from American Artist George Cooke
TODAY’S QUOTE: What Knowing the Truth Can Do To You
MYSTERY PHOTO: Couple of Clues Awaiting This Edition’s Mystery Photo
LAGNIAPPE: Sugar Hill Bringing Back the Popular Thursdays@the Hill
EDITOR’S NOTE: We’re now on Facebook
We’re now offering readers with a new way to get some of the best of GwinnettForum. Yes, we now have a Facebook page, that will be updated with our top features every Tuesday and Friday.
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As always, we’ll continue to send each full issue to subscribers by email … but now know that you can read many of our stories through Facebook and our website. — eeb
TODAY’S FOCUSUpdate on Norcross’ new library, Buford Highway improvements
By Josh Bare, city councilman, Norcross
APRIL 12, 2016 | The Norcross City Council is honored to be working closely with Gwinnett County and Commissioner Lynette Howard to plan a new Norcross Branch of the award winning Gwinnett Library System. We see this building as a cornerstone towards re-development on Buford Highway and serving as a pivotal hub for the community to mix and mingle as they enjoy everything a modern library has to offer.
Bare
Beautiful views of Lillian Webb Park and an accompanying plaza to the southwest are planned, as well parking below the library building. The library location is even closer to the new Beauty Baldwin Elementary and Summerour Middle Schools. People of this area are proud of these two new schools.
In 2015, the City of Norcross purchased outright the Plaza Latina located at 5735 Buford Highway. We had already purchased the properties adjacent and currently have assembled about 1,400 feet of frontage on Buford Highway between Holcomb Bridge Road and Britt Avenue, backing up to Lillian Webb Park.
Our Downtown Development Authority is on a mission to find the perfect developer partner to build out the property next to the new library. The goal is to have a multi-use, walkable development that will echo the basic design elements of our downtown area with retail, office and possibly residential capacity. We want to extend our downtown area to Buford Highway to welcome residents and visitors alike to spend more time in Historic Norcross, enjoying our businesses, restaurants, festivals and parks.
At the February council meeting a contract was approved to partner with the Georgia Department of Transportation to start construction on a central median on Buford Highway the length of the city, from Langford Road to Jimmy Carter Boulevard. This should create a much better environment for walking safely along this major transportation corridor. There will be planters built into this median and we hope that at some point we will be able to install trees and shrubs in the middle of Buford Highway. This should be a beautiful complement to the new library and development next door.
These projects, including Lillian Webb Park, are the culmination of over 10 years of planning and over a $10 million investment. It is so exciting to be in the final stages of planning. I know we all can’t wait to start seeing buildings coming out of the ground! This will be the start of a total transformation of Buford Highway into a much safer, cleaner, livable place that celebrates the history and cultural diversity of A Place to Imagine, Norcross, Georgia.
EEB PERSPECTIVESeems to be simple way to solve which restroom to enter
By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher
APRIL 12, 2016 | We in Georgia may think we have our problems. Yet recent action by the Legislature in North Carolina puts that state in the ranks of those with reactionary actions flying in the face of reasonableness.
The North Carolina situation particularly vexes us, in that its action made no sense. Legislators there quickly passed an act, their Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act, which will force public colleges and universities (as well as other public venues and government buildings) to require their restrooms be used only by people whose biological sex at birth matches the sign on the door.
It’s caused an uproar in North Carolina, with already one national company pulling a major project, which would have amounted to 400 jobs. (That company must go somewhere; maybe Georgia is in the chase for it.) Entertainers have also cancelled concerts because of this.
By the time the North Carolina legislature passed this Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act, the bill was signed within 12 hours by the governor. You wonder why he signed it so quickly. You also wonder why he signed it at all, since he is up for re-election this year. We hope he loses, which will show that the North Carolina citizenry is wiser than its legislators!
The Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act wants to regulate which public restroom anyone will use, seeking to insure that people use the restroom which corresponds to their sex at birth.
But we ask you, “How do you know which sex someone was at birth?” You certainly can’t these days determine that by their dress. Today we have women dressed as men, and vice versa. When it’s time for them to seek a restroom, how’s anyone to know if they adhere to the law and use the restroom of their birth sex?
In reality, anyone trying to check that out would cause quite a disturbance. And are we to have licensed restroom monitors who by some means—we haven’t figured out yet—will say whether you or I or the next person should go into this rest room or the other? And how about the persons approving the license?
You see all kinds of problems in such situations.
Far better it would be for a woman dressed as a man to go into the guy’s restroom. Granted, that person would not use a urinal. So this person might have to go into a stall while there, but would any of the other guys in the room know or care?
Or if a guy was dressed as a woman went into the ladies’ restroom, who’s to know except that guy? At least there he would, of necessity, use the private stalls.
All this makes us think that some people seem to feel more governmental regulation is just the route to take to make our lives better. But aren’t these the same people who say they want less government? Seems they are giving us “super-government,” complicating our lives, and not paying attention to introducing legislation from the pressing problems of the day. We don’t feel determining which rest room to enter is a pressing problem. We all know which sex we are. The least we can do is use the rest room corresponding to how we are presently dressed.
What! Is this taking the reasonable route? Many legislators would not recognize that!
ANOTHER VIEWWhat discrimination laws will do to some Southern states
By George Wilson
APRIL 12, 2016 | Mississippi is the poorest state in the United States, with 24.1 percent or 695,915 of its citizens living below the poverty line. It also ranks last in its rate of child poverty (33.7 percent), and subsequently last in hunger and food insecurity.
The South needs to examine its history, if it wants to continue to be prosperous. For a hundred years after the Civil War, the south was a third-world country. American business was loathe to make investments in the old Confederacy because of lynchings, segregation, and the anti-evolution laws prevalent in the South. It was only after the Civil Rights movement of the sixties that business was ready to invest in the South.
If this Southern religious crusade against gay people continues, the South will not be part of the new tech economy of the 21st century. Moreover, the South lags the rest of the country in some significant quality of life measures, such as educational level, per-capita income, infant mortality, etc.
In 2014 the four states with the highest murder rate were Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and South Carolina, with Alabama and Georgia also in the top ten. Of the ten states with the lowest life expectancy, all but Oklahoma are in the South. The states that consume the most junk food are Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi. The list could go on and on.
This gay controversy is just a cover for another issue: the unending insistence of Southern states to snub federal laws. Others include segregation labeled as “states rights;” suppressing voting (the true “voter fraud”); trying to sabotage national health care; and this current rebellion against the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage.
These all are expressions of the Confederacy still raging against its defeat 150 years ago. We should just let go and move on.
Georgia should take economic advantage of the states that have passed these discriminatory laws and try to recruit businesses like PayPal that pulled out of an investment in North Carolina. Finally, Charlotte lost 400 jobs and $3.6 million in PayPal’s investments; I say welcome them to Gwinnett County.
IN THE SPOTLIGHTInfinite Energy Center
The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum to you at no cost to readers. Today’s underwriter is Infinite Energy Center, home to four distinct facilities in Duluth: The Infinite Energy Arena, Infinite Energy Theater, Infinite Energy Forum, and The Hudgens Center for the Arts. Infinite Energy Arenahas had 13 years of tremendous success hosting countless concerts, family shows and sporting events, and is home to the ECHL’s Atlanta Gladiators and the NLL’s Georgia Swarm.
Some past concerts include George Strait, Carrie Underwood, Beyoncé, Foo Fighters, Eric Clapton, Katy Perry, Kid Rock, James Taylor and Michael Bublé. Infinite Energy Arena also hosts many family shows including Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey, Cirque du Soleil, Disney On Ice and Harlem Globetrotters. Infinite Energy Forum offers patrons the opportunity to host or attend a wide variety of events, from corporate meetings to trade shows to social occasions. Infinite Energy Theater has an intimate capacity of 708-seats and is home to many local events, family shows and even some comedians. The Hudgens Center for the Arts showcases a range of artwork throughout the year along with offering a wide range of fine art classes.
- For further information visit www.InfiniteEnergyCenter.com.
- For a list of other sponsors of this forum, go to: Our sponsors.
Closed minds may help led to the destruction of our world
Editor, the Forum:
I was at a meeting of a civic club of which I have been a member for over 40 years; and once served as president. I am supporting a candidate for the presidency of the United States and had a brochure outlining why my wife and I supported this candidate and gave a few to club members asking they vote for us as delegates.
I was met with disinterest and hostility by many of those I thought to be friends, one of whom is a member of the church I attend. I could not even enter a brief discussion with them because of their unreasoning hostility. At first I was angry, but later I became just disappointed.
The reason many prehistoric animals have disappeared from existence, as well as certain strains of humanoids, is because as a group they were either unable or unwilling to adapt to the changing environment.
Look at population estimate changes in the United States:
- 1650: 50,400
- 1800: 5,309,000
- 1900: 75,995,000
- 1980: 226,000,000
- 2016: 323,300,000
There are over four times as many people in this country today as in 1900 and over 66 times as many people as in the late 1700s when our Constitution was written. At that time we were an agrarian society with most living in small rural towns scattered about the nation. Now our country is controlled by large industrialized metropolitan areas.
Our Constitution was written by the most educated and experienced people of its times to cope with life in the environment in which it was written. These writers, however, had the forethought to create a document that could be read and interpreted based on the changes in the social environment and changes in time. It was a manner in which society could evolve when faced with new and alien problems created by an explosive population and advances in science, and immediate and self destructive dangers brought about by these changes.
The people who show hostility to new, different, and somewhat evolutionary thought are much like the prehistoric animals and humanoids who failed and refused to recognize the problems and dangers coming into existence in their times, and perished. This mind-set refuses to recognize ideas created since World War II—the atomic bomb, and rockets to transport them within minutes, anywhere in the world, which can destroy civilization if in the wrong hands.
We don’t need to receive new thoughts with disinterest and hostility. They should be received with interest, analyzed and then accepted, modified, or rejected. This is the way this country will survive and thrive in a rapidly changing world. To do otherwise, we will go the way of many in the past . . . to extinction.
— Alvin Leaphart, Jesup, Ga.
Applauds Lilburn alcohol retailers for not serving minors
Editor, the Forum:
The Gwinnett County Police Department detectives visited three alcohol retailers in the incorporated area of Lilburn between January 1 and March 31, 2016. None of the stores sold alcohol to an underage decoy.
In order to expand this effort even further, we support the alcohol retailers in the community and supply them with information they can use in their training of employees. Preventing teens from drinking is the key to preventing many social issues accompanying underage drinking. When attempting to reduce and prevent underage drinking, it is imperative that there are restrictions in place that help reduce the availability of alcohol on an environmental level.
Evidence based environmental strategies, such as conducting regular compliance checks of alcohol retailers, are effective in restricting the retail availability of alcohol to teens in the community.
We would like to thank the following retailers for their efforts to prevent underage drinking and continued commitment to checking IDs of those who purchased alcohol during the months of January-March 2016:
- Neighbor’s Market, 775 Beaver Ruin Road, Lilburn;
- Quicktrip, 5065 Stone Mountain Hwy, Lilburn; and
- Sam’s Mart #438, 4032 Stone Mountain Highway, Lilburn
Each of these stores checked for ID and refused to sell alcohol to an underage decoy. We appreciate your important role in reducing teen access to alcohol and making Lilburn a safer and healthier community.
GUIDE is a substance abuse prevention agency serving Gwinnett County since 1986. To find out more about us, please connect with us at guideinc.org.
— Margot Ashley, Lilburn
- Send Feedback and Letters to: elliott@brack.net
Upcoming Clean and Beautiful dinner to honor Wiggins, volunteers
On Friday, April 22, to commemorate Earth Day, Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful will host its annual awards dinner at Infinite Energy Forum, to include a special tribute to longtime Executive Director Connie Wiggins. There will also be recognition of individuals and local businesses who serve as shining examples of environmental stewardship to the rest of the Gwinnett County community.
Bartow Morgan, GCB chairman of the board, says of Ms. Wiggins’ departure: “We are truly thankful to Connie for an amazing 30 years of service to our organization and our community. During that time, she championed countless campaigns and garnered numerous awards on behalf of Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful. She was never one to sit idly by, often jumping in and getting her hands and clothes dirty during a cleanup event – smiling ear-to-ear all the while. We look forward to paying tribute to her, while also recognizing the efforts of other amazing citizens and businesses in Gwinnett County.”
The annual Awards Dinner kicks off with a social hour from 6 to 7 p.m., followed by a seated dinner and awards ceremony. A more intimate farewell “beach” party will follow at the 1818 Club to bid bon voyage to Wiggins. To attend this event, RSVP online through the GCB website at www.gwinnettcb.org no later than April 11.
Gwinnett Tech hosts summer programs in all grades at both campuses
“Screen time” gets smarter this summer as Gwinnett Technical College’s Lawrenceville and Alpharetta-North Fulton campuses host programs taught by Kids 4 Coding, a metro Atlanta’s leader in technology and design youth education programming.
Kids 4 Coding bridges the gap between the need for more computer science and technology education and the lack of opportunity to learn such skills in traditional school settings. Utilizing a proprietary curriculum track developed in collaboration with technology leaders and entrepreneurs, Kids 4 Coding offers year-round programming to teach students digital skills, computational thinking and independent innovation.
Students learning to program (code) their own interactive game using Scratch programming, developed by MIT media lab.
Co-founders AnnMarie Laramee, entrepreneur and technology strategist, and Denise Detamore, longtime educator and new technology expert, collaborated with teachers and industry professionals to create offerings that encourage digital literacy and coding proficiency, unlocking students’ potential for problem-solving, logical thinking, mathematics application and creativity. Kids 4 Coding regularly partners with technology organizations and companies to bring real world knowledge into the classroom, helping students embrace and understand emerging technologies and relevant trends.
Kids 4 Coding uses a consistently evolving technology curriculum to teach programming, game development, robotics and 3D design to students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Selected as one of Microsoft’s Top 10 Most Innovative Young Tech Startups in Atlanta (2015) and one of TechRepublic’s Top 10 Inspiring “Tech Doing Good” Stories of the Year (2014), Kids 4 Coding actively collaborates within the Atlanta technology community to expand digital literacy in young learners. Kids 4 Coding’s youth programming summer camps will be offered at both GTC campuses May through July.
Half and full-day session options include:
- Game Design | Programming
- Minecraft Modeling | Robotics
- 3D Modeling & Animation | 3D Design
- Mobile App Design | Civil Engineering | Web Development
Camp fees include a t-shirt, healthy snacks and a certificate of completion. The ratio of student to instructor is 9:1, and space is limited. For full details, including tuition, session dates, location specifics and registration details visit www.kids4coding.com.
New London Theatre presents Pulitzer Prize’s Our Town from April 15
New London Theatre in Snellville will present the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Our Town, opening April 15 and continuing through May 1.
The play shows the entire cycle of life in this “show within a show.” Narrated by a stage manager, audiences follow the Webb and Gibbs families as their children fall in love, marry, and eventually—in one of the most famous scenes in American theatre—die.
Showtimes are Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m., and Sunday afternoons at 2:30 p.m.. A special Saturday matinee will be held on Saturday, April 23 at 2 p.m..Tickets are $12 in advance or $15 on the day of the show. Children/students (3-19) and seniors (55+) are always $10. Shows are performed at New London Theatre: 2338 Henry Clower Boulevard in Snellville in New London Plaza. Details: information@newlondontheatre.org.
NOTABLEMajority of Gwinnett real properties will see change in valuations
Approximately 60 percent of all Gwinnett real estate properties will see a change in value from the previous year. Property sales confirm the continuation of increases in property values. The general rise in values is a direct result of an improving economy as sale prices are continuing to move toward pre-recession levels.
As an example, a property which had a fair market value of $160,000 in 2015, would have increased to $180,000 this year. The assessed value (40 percent of real value) would have increased to $72,000, from $64,000.
Chief Appraiser Steve Pruitt says recent changes in the state’s methodology for testing the accuracy of tax values have contributed to the large number of value changes this year. Pruitt estimates the overall net property tax digest will increase between five and six percent in 2016 once the impact of appeals and changes in certain exemptions are finalized.
The property tax digest is the total value of all property subject to taxation and can change in two ways. The first is through value updates that reflect sales prices of similar properties. The second reason is because of growth caused by construction activity. The increase in value from value updates requires consideration of a rollback in the tax rate to remain revenue neutral. The actual tax bill will be based on the 2016 tax rates set by the Board of Commissioners and the Board of Education later this year.
Property owners have 45 days from the date of the notice to file an appeal by using the statewide uniform appeal form (PT311A). Property owners who choose to appeal may submit appeals online at www.gwinnett-assessor.com. Assessment notices, forms and appeal information, including FAQs, can also be found on the webpage. Property owners may also contact the Tax Assessors’ Office by email at assessor@gwinnettcounty.com or by telephone at (770) 822-7200 for assistance.
Local nonprofit to open community market in Norcross on June 4
Sustainable Norcross, a local nonprofit, will host a community market opening on June 4 with over 25 produce and local food vendors, including fruits, vegetables, sustainable meats and dairy product. Site of the market will be Lillian Webb Park.
The group has a financial grant from the Norcross hotel/motel tax to help support the market. The market is partnering with Sustainable Norcross to build capacity and help the market be viable long term.
Sustainable Norcross, with the support of the City of Norcross and the Norcross Downtown Development Authority, is partnering with the Georgia Farmers’ Market Association (a project of Project Generation Gap Inc.) to create a farmers’ market that is shaping up to serve as a best practice model for markets across the state. The Georgia Farmers Market Association (GFMA) is an association of farmers markets, producers and other good food movement advocates committed to improving access to healthy foods in Georgia.
GFMA’s Executive Director Sagdrina Jalal says: “Essentially, our goal is to make the Norcross Farmers Market a huge success. Our experience and research have given us a good understanding of the key components of a sustainable farmers market. Our plan incorporates many of those practices here in Norcross.” Contact norcrosscommunitymarket@gmail.com for more information.
GEORGIA ENCYCLOPEDIA TIDBITUGA has two historic paintings from American artist George Cooke
George Cooke typified the ambitious American painter of the early 19th century. He began his artistic career as a self-taught itinerant painter in northern Virginia; in 1826 he went to Europe. His exposure to the old masters of the Renaissance and baroque periods encouraged him to try his hand at history painting and landscapes while continuing to derive his livelihood from portraiture.
Tallulah Falls
Back in the United States, Cooke found a generous patron in Daniel Pratt. First an architect in Milledgeville, Pratt became a major industrialist in New Orleans, La., and then in Prattville, Ala., where he built a gallery to house Cooke’s history paintings.
Born in eastern Maryland in 1793, Cooke taught himself to paint in the flat, linear manner often found in American art in the early decades of the 19th century. By the early 1820s he was executing portraits in Washington, D.C., and northern Virginia. His first formal training was with Charles Bird King (1785-1862), a respected portraitist and painter of Indians and humorous scenes of everyday life.
In 1826 Cooke and his wife, Maria Heath, left America and spent six years in Italy, England, and France. There he copied classical sculpture, prints after Greek and Roman art, Italian Renaissance and baroque paintings, and modern Neoclassical and Romantic paintings. Cooke’s largest and best-known painting is Interior of St. Peter’s Rome (1847, Chapel, University of Georgia, Athens).
Cooke was consistent in his approach to art. Once he understood the aesthetic views of the old masters, he applied them to all his subjects, as for example his View of Athens from Carr’s Hill (1845, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia, Athens).
His images, whether history scenes, portraits, or landscapes represent the popular academic style of balance, order, harmonious coloring, and clear and accurate drawing that is both an idealization and a realistic-looking image.
His history paintings and landscapes notwithstanding, Cooke was first and foremost a portraitist. Although he did paint some well-known historical figures, for example, George Washington (ca. 1838, University of Alabama) as well as an array of southern politicians, Cooke made his living depicting local people, mainly in Virginia, Georgia, and Alabama. He traveled from place to place, often staying with friends while visiting nearby places to execute his portraits. These range from busts, to canvases about 24 by 36 inches, to full-length, life-size portraits. He by the late 1840s was one of the South’s best-known painters.
Many American artists of the period, including Cooke, found outlets for their work in prints. His most notable series was done in 1832 for the British illustrator William James Bennett Rounding out his academic career, between 1834 and 1840 Cooke wrote five treatises on art in the Southern Literary Messenger, a journal based in Richmond, Va.
(From Wikipedia: The health of George Cooke had never been very good, and in 1849, in New Orleans, he contracted cholera and died quickly from the illness. Nearly 20 years after his death, the gallery in Prattville was found to be infested with dry rot and had to be torn down. As a result, all of Cooke’s work housed at the gallery wound up being destroyed or dispersed. It was this threat that prompted Daniel Pratt to donate Interior of St. Peter’s Rome to the University of Georgia.)
- To access the Georgia Encyclopedia online, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Some clues in this Mystery Photo just might help you
Look carefully for a couple of clues are waiting for you to help recognize this edition’s mystery photo. Send your idea on where this photograph was taken to elliott@brack.net, and be sure to include your home address.
The mystery photo in the last issue was difficult, and only George Graf of Palmyra, Va. recognized it. It is the Mausoleum of Itmad-ud-Daulah’s Tomb, city of Agra, state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Some people call it the “Baby Taj.” The photograph was taken recently by Frank Sharp of Lawrenceville on a trip to India.
One guy came up with a distinctive answer, which was wrong. Jim Savadelis of Duluth wrote: “This is the Spring Palace of Alibaba, after he ditched the 40 thieves. He ran for office and found that graft in government paid better than stealing.”
LAGNIAPPESugar Hill bringing back the popular Thursdays@the Hill
Spring is finally here and the City of Sugar Hill is bringing back by popular demand its Thursdays @ the Hill starting April 21 and lasting through October. The first and third Thursday of the month will feature occasional live music, an outdoor market, food trucks, cornhole and more.
A favorite aspect of Thursdays @ the Hill is the array of food trucks that participate in the event. With easily accessible varieties of tasty foods and drinks, it’s a new way to enjoy the beautiful weather and spend time with friends and family. Attendees can expect different food trucks for each Thursday, and are encouraged to bring blankets, chairs, and any other picnic equipment so they can enjoy the Town Green.
The city will also be featuring an outdoor market, complete with a variety of products.
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- MORE: Contact Editor and Publisher Elliott Brack at: elliott@gwinnettforum.com
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