NEW PROJECT: A significant new development is being announced for the Mall of Georgia area, a mixed-unit development, including a 21 story hotel, which would be the tallest in Gwinnett. The lead investor in the project is the Atlanta Falcon’s Julio Jones. See a few details of the projects in Elliott Brack’s Perspective below.
IN THIS EDITIONTODAY’S FOCUS: How to Improve Health Care: Expand Medicare To Cover All
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Circle Drive Around Gwinnett Shows Continued Vibrant Activity
SPOTLIGHT: The Gwinnett Braves
UPCOMING: The Herd Still Grazing and Winner of Suwanee SculpTour
NOTABLE: Expanded Alexander Park Gets 41 Acres for Nature Preserve
RECOMMENDED: Movie: A Sense of an Ending
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Bill Shipp Enjoys Distinguished Career Covering Georgia Politics
TODAY’S QUOTE: Better Watch Out for That Gold Dust in Several Ways
MYSTERY PHOTO: Today’s Mystery Takes You on a Tombstone Search
LAGNIAPPE: Eastside Medical Gives Defibrillator to Mountain Park….Park
CALENDAR: Wellness Walk Is Saturday at Bethesda Elementary School
TODAY’S FOCUSHow to improve health care: Expand Medicare to cover all
By Jack Bernard, Peachtree City, Ga. | Politicians and some physicians say that all U.S. citizens can get high quality healthcare if they truly need it, and that adequate care can always be found in the Emergency Room (ER). But ER visits by the uninsured are no substitute for affordable primary care.
Bernard
My own family has used the ER services at a suburban Atlanta hospital twice in the last few months. Care and staff were excellent, but the ER itself was impacted, overcrowded (some patients in the waiting room were standing) and the staff was clearly overworked. Obviously, a number of the people waiting were indigent and in need of primary care versus emergency care. This increases the cost of healthcare for the rest of us via rising healthcare premiums.
Dr. David Dvorak is a practicing ER physician in Minnesota and has written about specific cases below. But similar instances of systemic failure are found everywhere in our nation, including right here in Georgia:
Case 1: A middle-aged woman presented to the ER with life-threatening swelling of her throat from a severe allergic reaction. The emergency physician placed a breathing tube to save her life. Thereafter, she spent several days on a respirator in the ICU.
This entire costly episode (indirectly passed on to paying patients) could have been prevented if she been financially able to fill her prescription for an Epi-Pen, a medication previously prescribed for her recurrent allergic reactions.
Why hadn’t she already filled it? On a severely limited income and without insurance, she could not afford the medication, which now costs $600 after recent price gouging by the maker.
Case 2: A young man came to the hospital emergency department with a severe arm infection. Over the prior week, he had developed an abscess (a collection of infected fluid) in his forearm. Because he was uninsured and couldn’t afford primary care, he attempted to drain the abscess at home by puncturing it with a sewing needle.
The infection only worsened…it spread up his arm and he developed high fever. He required emergency drainage of the abscess, followed by costly inpatient hospitalization and IV antibiotics. This expense was picked up by the hospital, which once again indirectly passed the cost on to paying patients.
IN THE WEALTHIEST NATION in the history of the world, there is currently great human suffering that could…and must from a moral standpoint… be alleviated. Plus, because treatments are delayed until conditions significantly deteriorate, the overall expense to the health care system is enormous.
And, the overall situation is getting worse. In 1980, nine percent of our GNP went towards healthcare; it is double that now (Gallup, 12-16).
So, what can be done to improve the situation? Expand Medicare to cover everyone.
Even President Trump stated that in an ideal world, the Canadian system is optimal.
The real impediment is the lobbyists for insurance and Big Pharma, who control our Congress. This deplorable situation can only be changed through pressure by you, the voters of America, on our elected officials.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Circle drive around Gwinnett shows continued vibrant activity
By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | At least two times a year, we make a circular tour of Gwinnett County, to keep up with the continued change in the landscape. Every time we travel this route, we find new activity.
Brack
This week we found some overnight activity: a Tuesday night storm inflicted tree damage all around the county, as we encountered Georgia Power and Jackson EMC (and surely Walton EMC) crews around Gwinnett repairing damage from the storm. The damage was scattered, but seen through much of Gwinnett.
In recent months, perhaps the most spectacular change in any one downtown is going on in Duluth, right in its center. A giant apartment complex at Buford Highway and 120 (District at Duluth) is of five stories, plus parking deck that high, which dominates the intersection. Some residents should be moving in by October. Then across the railroad, in the old Parsons store area, there are 7,000 square feet of restaurant/commercial space. All this is in a walking environment that will extend south to the City Hall. Additionally, the city has also authorized another residential area near the downtown. Altogether, these two residential areas will have a total of 504 housing units and have a massive impact on the downtown area.
Perhaps the other part of Gwinnett which has seen the most recent growth is in the Loganville area, which is in part of Gwinnett. Virtually every big box store has a location in Loganville. And the land between the Loganville and Snellville city limits on U.S. 78, much of it vacant now, will soon be wall-to-wall retail activity, much like the area now between Snellville and Lawrenceville on Georgia Highway 124. That corridor is something like its own linear mall.
These water towers, removed several years ago, illustrated the county’s continued vibrancy.
There is major development soon to take place along Georgia Highway 20 between Grayson and Loganville. A major mixed-use development will dominate that corridor, while closer to Loganville, you can still pick strawberries right off the highway. What a contrast that will be!
Though not underway yet, the City of Lawrenceville has targeted the land on South Clayton Street between its city hall and Lawrenceville Lawn off Luckie Street for park expansion and development.
Just announced this week will be a major new development near the Mall of Georgia. Led by its lead investor, the Atlanta Falcons Julio Jones, Woodward Crossing will be a 16 acre development of shops, office space, apartments, condos and a 21 story hotel—to be the tallest in Gwinnett. The county commission approved the plans last week. That will make a major impact on that part of northern Gwinnett, and provide a new focus for the area. This will be built in phases, and is anticipated to begin in the second quarter of 2017. The first phase will include 23,000 square feet of retail and 336 apartments. It is to be located at Mall of Georgia Boulevard and Woodward Crossing.
Let me add that except for the Mall of Georgia activity, you can now see activity on most of these projects. And there are many other new projects taking place in Gwinnett off the main circular road, so to speak.
On track and promising more details in a few weeks will be the major re-formatting of the area around the Infinite Energy Center. It will significantly change this area, both for Gwinnettians, and for visitors attending major gatherings and exhibits. There will be a new convention hotel, and massive retail shops, all in a walkable area. Already two new hotels are open in this area.
It’s ever changing Gwinnett, always vibrant and alive with new projects.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
The Gwinnett Braves
The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. The Gwinnett Braves are the Triple-A International League affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. The team plays their home games at Coolray Field, located on Georgia Highway 20 just east of the Mall of Georgia. The G-Braves, winners of the International League South Division in 2016, will open the 2017 season at Coolray Field on Thursday, April 6 with a 7:05 p.m. game against Durham.
- The full 2017 schedule is available now at GwinnettBraves.com. Individual game tickets for 2017 are on sale now, call 678-277-0340 or visit GwinnettBraves.com/tickets. Follow the G-Braves all off-season long at twitter.com/GwinnettBraves and facebook/com/GwinnettBraves1.
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UPCOMINGThe Herd still grazing and winner of Suwanee SculpTour
The votes are in, and the 2015-17 Suwanee SculpTour People’s Choice winner is…The Herd by Phil Proctor! The Suwanee Public Arts Commission, using donated funds, will purchase the eight charming goats that reside in the cemetery at the corner of Buford Highway and Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road, making them the newest additions to Suwanee’s permanent art collection.
Fabricated out of steel and weighing about 100 pounds each, Atlanta artist Proctor says that The Herd symbolizes the concept of awareness. All of the goats – save one – have their faces to the ground, seeing only what is in front of their noses. One goat raises his head to experience the beauty of his surroundings.
Proctor says: “All too often we find ourselves immersed in work, worry, or just the everyday tasks of life and our awareness of self and our place becomes clouded, The Herd is a reminder to look up and remember what’s really important.”
The 2015-17 Suwanee SculpTour exhibit will be at the end of March, with the new art pieces being installed in early May. The 2017-19 exhibit, which will feature 20 pieces of art in and around Town Center, will officially kick off at the SculpTour Sip & See event on May 20. This new event will include guided wine tours of the art and an opportunity to meet some of the featured artists and discuss their work, as well as a performance of Memphis by the Aurora Theatre on the Town Center stage.
The Herd isn’t the only sculpture being given an extended stay. Fan favorites Dancer XX and Friends have been retained for a second round of SculpTour. The artists of these two pieces, Jack Howard-Potter and Nnamdi Okonkwo, respectively, were selected as prize winners by the Public Art Commission, along with:
- Jonathan Bowling – Corey;
- Andrew T. Crawford – Sunflower Gate;
- Benson Sculpture – Love Hurts; and
- Hanna Jubran – The Three Muses.
The public art encounter has brought a total of 79 sculptures to a walkable one-mile area of downtown Suwanee during its past four installations, as well as 14 permanent pieces owned by the City and artworks that have been purchased privately through the City’s voluntary one-percent-of-construction-costs-for-developers program.
Heritage Center program March 26 concentrates on living history
Join the Gwinnett Environmental and Heritage Center (GEHC) as it celebrates the county’s namesake at the Let Freedom Ring: Button Gwinnett Living History Festival on Sunday, March 26, from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. The event is a collaboration with the Button Gwinnett Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, the Philadelphia Winn Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Gwinnett Historical Society.
The festival highlights the late 1700s and provides guests a glimpse of daily life in Revolutionary America. Meet costumed reenactors, see a Revolutionary solider encampment, play 18th Century games, make historic toys, write with a quill feather and discover Ben Franklin’s glass harmonica.
A colonial fashion show takes place at 3 p.m. as costumed reenactors model clothing of the period and tell the significance of their various garments. Guests are also encouraged to delve into the event by dressing themselves in period appropriate living history clothing.
The program fee for the festival is $8 per person. GEHC members and children under the age of two are free. Pre-registration is encouraged and can be done online at www.gwinnettEHC.org. Guests can also pay the program fee at the admission desk on the day of the event. The GEHC is located at 2020 Clean Water Drive in Buford. For additional information, visit www.gwinnettEHC.org.
Libraries offering 3 programs if you need free legal help
Do you need legal help but can’t afford the cost? Gwinnett County Public Library and the Gwinnett Pro Bono Project can help! The Lawyers in the Library program match caring attorneys with qualified clients who need assistance to access the justice system. This program serves children, domestic violence victims, the elderly, low income individuals, and the unemployed. The areas of law covered are consumer, debt/credit/bankruptcy, family and juvenile, and life planning.
Gwinnett County Public Library is offering three upcoming free Lawyers in the Library programs. For English speakers, the events take place on Tuesday, March 28 at 6:30 p.m. at the Buford Branch, 2100 Buford Highway, Buford; and on Saturday, April 1 at 12 p.m. at the Five Forks Branch, 2780 Five Forks Trickum Road, Lawrenceville. For Spanish speakers, the event takes place on Saturday, May 20 at 1 p.m. at the Norcross Branch, 6025 Buford Highway, Norcross,.
- For more information, call 770-978-5154 or visit www.gwinnettpl.org.
Braselton accepting applications for 2017 Citizens Academy
Applications are now being accepted for the 2017 class of the Braselton Citizens Academy. The classes are held from May to October on the third Thursday of each month from 6-8 pm. There are also optional other days for special tours and law enforcement ride-alongs. There are attendance requirements for graduation.
Classes cover all aspects of Braselton’s government structure and responsibilities. Members get a true behind the scenes look at how Braselton performs its daily tasks and special events. Applications will be accepted through May 1, 2017.For an application, email Jennifer Scott at jscott@braselton.net.
NOTABLEExpanded Alexander Park gets 41 Acres for nature preserve
Alexander Park southwest of Lawrenceville will expand to more than 132 acres after Gwinnett commissioners agreed Tuesday to buy an adjoining 40.7 acres south of the current park for $3,714,000.
The land has road frontage on both Scenic Highway (Georgia Highway 124) and Old Snellville Highway. The County plans to use the heavily wooded rectangular property as a nature preserve to be named the Ezzard Nature Preserve at Alexander Park and dedicated to the memory of Dr. Webster P. Ezzard and Dr. George P. Ezzard.
District 3 Commissioner Tommy Hunter says: “Alexander Park is one of our most popular parks for walking and hiking, and we hope to expand the trail system in the future. We appreciate the Ezzard family’s willingness to sell this property to Gwinnett County to be preserved as park land.”
The existing 91-acre passive park at 800 Old Snellville Highway features a 1.7-mile paved trail and a one-mile natural trail along with a lake, fishing, playground, pavilions and an 18-hole disc golf course. In total, Gwinnett County manages nearly 49 parks and 10,000 acres of greenspace.
Library offering Beanstack portal to engage families in reading
Gwinnett County Public Library (GCPL) now offers customers access to Beanstack, a customized online portal designed to engage families with young readers and to facilitate the library’s summer reading program.
Beanstack starts with sending parents a weekly recommendation of a book and event at your local library, matched to each child’s interests. Parents are also provided tools for building literacy, including learning tracks that are like step-by-step guides through subjects like “A Guide to Reading Readiness,” “Ninjas,” and “Surviving Family Car Trips.” As families log their reading and complete literacy activities, they earn badges that encourage them to visit their local branch.
Customers can create Beanstack accounts, get emailed recommendations, log their reading, and register children for 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten. Beginning May 5, customers will be able to register for the Summer Reading Program, earn incentives for book clubs, and more.
“It’s easy and fun to keep track of reading online using Beanstack,” says Youth Services Manager Amy Billings. “We hope that the excitement of earning badges and prizes along the way will help motivate children and teens to track their reading on their computer or mobile device, explore our digital resources, and encourage visits to library branches for books, services, programs and more.”
- To sign up and learn more about Beanstack, visit gwinnettpl.beanstack.org.
Deadline approaching to be in Suwanee Fest program in September
The deadline to apply to be part of this year’s award-winning Suwanee Fest is quickly approaching. Exhibitor and entertainment applications for the September 16-17 festival are due March 31. Artists, crafters, entertainers, and food vendors may apply online at suwaneefest.com.
Suwanee Fest, which brings approximately 50,000 people to Suwanee’s Town Center Park each year, is a past Southeast Festivals and Events Association ‘Best Festival’ winner. The annual “celebration of community” includes arts and crafts exhibitors, a variety of delicious foods, eclectic on-stage entertainment, a parade, and children’s rides and activities.
RECOMMENDEDMovie: A Sense of an Ending
From Karen Harris, Stone Mountain | The film is a reenactment of the novel written in 2011 by Julian Barnes. The story moves between the past and present, deals with pivotal events in the past and the impact words can have on the trajectory of lives. Tony, Veronica and Adrian were friends during secondary school, with Tony initially dating Veronica. When Adrian and Veronica bond and want to begin dating, they communicate this to Tony via a letter. Tony writes a letter in response, one that is immensely cruel and appears to set off a chain of events in the lives of all three. The twists and turns and the who, what, when, and why of the triangle is only partially revealed decades later with much still-shrouded in mystery. It’s a film or book equally affecting, remaining in one’s mind long after it is concluded. The movie stars Jim Broadbent, Charlotte Rampling, and Michelle Dockery.
- 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
Bill Shipp enjoys distinguished career covering Georgia politics
During his 50 years in journalism, Bill Shipp has distinguished himself as one of the country’s premier political commentators, whose pronouncements and predictions are heeded by policymakers and activists at all levels of government.
Shipp
William Shipp was born on August 16, 1933, in Marietta to Grace and Ralph Shipp. He graduated from Marietta High School and attended Emory University and the University of Georgia (UGA), where he was the managing editor of the student newspaper, the Red and Black. Shipp worked as a summer intern at the Atlanta Constitution in 1953, and in the fall of that year he wrote sharply critical editorials and columns in the Red and Black protesting the decision by Georgia governor Herman Talmadge and the Board of Regents, including member Roy V. Harris, to bar Horace T. Ward‘s enrollment at UGA.
Shipp served in the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1956. He married Renate F. Reinelt of Heidelberg, Germany, and they have two daughters.
After Shipp came home from military service in 1956, he worked full time for The Atlanta Constitution. He went on to cover the civil rights movement, along with the early days of the space program, numerous political campaigns, and breaking stories all over the world during his three decades of writing and editing at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Shipp broke the story that Jimmy Carter planned to run for president. “Nobody believed me,” he says. “I had to beg the news editor to put it on page one.”
In 1987 he resigned his position as political editor to start Word Merchants, a company that produces Bill Shipp’s Georgia, a weekly newsletter. In the 1990s it became the country’s first serious political journal on the Internet, making Shipp, an old-school newspaperman, a pioneer “blogger.”
Shipp’s twice-weekly columns appear in more than 60 newspapers, and he is a panelist on The Georgia Gang, a weekly televised roundtable discussion of current events. He is renowned for bringing context and calm perspective to heated topics.
Despite his prodigious output, Shipp has confounded observers trying to pin down his ideological identity. “When the Democrats are in power, they say I’m a Republican, and when the Republicans are in power, they accuse me of being a Democrat,” he said. “I regard myself as an independent, the guy in the striped shirt—the referee. Politics is like a great game of football.”
In 1997 Shipp published The Ape-Slayer and Other Snapshots, a collection of more than 50 essays and columns on subjects both personal and political. The title comes from a profile he wrote about a gung-ho, impolitic police officer who shot a rampaging chimpanzee in midtown Atlanta. He also wrote Murder at Broad River Bridge: The Slaying of Lemuel Penn by Members of the Ku Klux Klan (1981), a nonfiction account of the 1964 murder of Lemuel Penn, a black lieutenant colonel in the army reserves who, on his way home to Washington, D.C., was shot to death near the Oglethorpe–Madison county line by Athens members of the Ku Klux Klan.
Shipp’s papers are held at the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies at UGA. In 2016 he was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia online, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Today’s Mystery takes you on a tombstone search
Today the Mystery Photo goes to a cemetery, with a tombstone that tells its own story. Send in your thoughts to elliott@brack.net and be sure to include your hometown.
What appeared to be a tough Mystery Photo with little landmark highlights proven pretty simple for many of our readers. Logan Duke of Atlanta was the first to spot the mystery shot by Frank Sharp of Lawrenceville, saying: “Today’s picture is certainly a shot from the top of Amicalola Falls.” Then came an onslaught of others recognizing, including Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill; Karen Burnette Garner, Dacula; Theresai Manley, Loganville; Lou Camerio, Lilburn; Rick and Sandy Krause, Lilburn; Bob Foreman, Grayson; Rob Keith, Peachtree Corners; Mark and Bobbie Tkacik, Lilburn; and of course, George Graf of Palmyra, Virginia.
LAGNIAPPEEastside Medical gives defibrillator to Mountain Park … Park
Eastside Medical Center of Snellville met with the Park at Mountain Park Board of Directors and local community leaders recently to acknowledge the hospital’s donation of an AED defibrillator to the park. This day marked the celebration of opening day for baseball season. The donation was initiated by Steven Smith, RN at Eastside Medical Center and longtime community supporter of the park’s athletic association. From left are Smith; Henry Page; Trent Lind, Eastside CEO; Dr. Marcus Sims cardiologist of Gwinnett Heart Specialists; and Patrick Spink of Pat’s Heart, a non-profit organization whose mission is to raise awareness of sudden cardiac arrest and to increase the number of first responders that will willingly perform CPR or use an AEDs. Dr. Sims says: “Less than five percent of patients who have cardiac arrest make it. If we can save one person’s life with this automated external defibrillator at Mountain Park Park, we will beat the odds and make a significant difference in Gwinnett County thanks to Eastside Medical Center.”
CALENDAR
(NEW) Wellness Walk sponsored by Live Healthy Gwinnett is Saturday, March 25, beginning at 9:30 a.m. at Bethesda Elementary School. Several activities are planned, including Zumba demonstrations, two mile walk, and active lifestyle give-a-ways. The host is the Bethesda PTA. The event is free. For more information, visit www.bethesdapta.org.
The Jawbones (attorneys) vs. the Sawbones (doctors) will play in the sixth annual basketball match on March 25 at 6 p.m. at the Mercer University Gymnasium in Chamblee to raise money for the Side-by-Side Brain Injury Clubhouse. It is sponsored by the Lilburn and Stone Mountain Woman’s Clubs. For more information or tickets, go to www.sidebysidecluhouse.org.
Chip Wade, an HGTV designer will speak on March 25, at 7 p.m. at the Infinite Energy Center, 6400 Sugarloaf Parkway in Duluth, presented by the Gwinnett Public Library. Host, designer, and executive producer of the Emmy Award winning series Elbow Room, Wade is an Atlanta native who comes from a long line of carpenters and wood craftsmen. For more information, visit www.gwinnettpl.org or call 770-978-5154.
(NEW) Fourth Annual Science WORKS Open House at Gwinnett Tech, Thursday, March 30 from 4 to 8 p.m. Middle school, high school and adult learners are invited to actively engage in dozens of interactive stations that offer unique insights into how science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) can be powerful launching pads for many exciting educational and career paths. The event is FREE to attend. Attendees are encouraged to register in advance at ScienceWorks at www.GwinnettTech.edu.
Exhibition Extended: World Through the Lens Photo Show of Frank Sharp at the Tucker Library, 5234 LaVista Road has been extended until April 28, 2017. The library is open on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. and on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.
11th Annual Supplier Symposium for firms wanting to do business with Gwinnett County. The symposium will be April 11 starting at 8:30 a.m. at the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center. Attendees will meet buyers and contracting officers from the Purchasing Division and other metro Atlanta agencies and take advantage of networking opportunities designed to create relationships. For more information about the event and to register, visit this site.
HANDYMAN SERVICES: Whatever your home maintenance problem is, Isaias Rodriguez can help. An experienced painter, he is dependable in installing or repairing siding, gutters, ceramic tile, plumbing, garage doors, or any other problem around your home. He’ll even fix your bike! He is originally from Mexico and has been in Georgia since 1996. He is legally allowed to work in the United States and is insured. Give him a call at his home in Norcross at 404-569-8825 or email him at rodriguez_isais@yahoo.com. Visit his Facebook page at Neza construction and home repair to see some of his past work.
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