By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | Gwinnett motorists going into Atlanta will have to find new routing after a portion of the Interstate 85 collapsed last Thursday from a fire under the bridge. It drastically affected Express bus routes originating from Gwinnett.
GC Transit says that all Express bus routes from Gwinnett will not operated via I-85 to I-295 to I-20, with return buses running in the opposite direction. Plan extra time for all Express trips.
- For a route schedule, click here.
TALKING ABOUT HIGHWAYS, many of you know that while Interstate highways are wonderful and usually faster to get anywhere, it’s often just about as fast and much less stressful to travel the back roads. It’s especially great when you have a four lane back road.
Well, here’s good news if you are traveling on the west side of the state.
Georgia Department of Transportation has announced the completion throughout Georgia of U.S. Highway 27, all 352 miles of it from Tennessee to Florida. The missing link, a 24.6 section from south of Cuthbert in Randolph County, is now open. This road four-laning has been talked about since 1969, viewed as an economic developer for that part of Georgia. Now it’s a reality.
We’ve driven this road from Columbus to Blakely. For about 20 minutes on one drive, we saw nary an automobile. You can make good time, since you barely have to stop on this route. If you heading to Southwest Georgia, this is a good alternative route for you.
POLITICAL FORUMS: For the serious political candidates, many of the political forums that pop up during the election season are virtually useless. Here’s why: though the organizations sponsoring them are trying to promote interest in the election, few people attend these sessions. Seldom do you get as many as 50 people attending (other than media), and usually that is a high number. These forums seriously cut into the time the candidates have to spend politicking. They can usually spend their time far better than at these slack forums.
A good example may have been the forum in Cobb County last week where the 18 candidates vying for the Sixth Congressional District met. Now really, each of the candidates ended up having only a few minutes to speak. Good meeting practices say that you want no more than three persons on a panel discussion. Don’t you know that all 18 were frustrated by this unreasonable session?
About the only time these political forums really amount to anything is when they are filmed or televised for much wider distribution. We urge any organization planning a political forum next year to find a way for wider distribution, since generally, few people ever hear of these meetings.
Lee
CONGRATULATIONS to David Lee who has been named Jackson EMC’s District Manager in Gainesville. He will replace Bill Sanders, who once was located in the Gwinnett office. Lee joined the utility in 1999 as a marketing representative in Lawrenceville and has been in its Gainesville office as a senior representative since 2005. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree and certificate in management from the University of Georgia, and expects to earn a Masters in Divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary in 2018.
Goodman
HAPPY 75TH BIRTHDAY to Dick Goodman of Suwanee. Dick’s been most active as a Suwanee City Councilman and chair of the Board of Trustees of the Gwinnett County Public Library. He told us the other day: “….and I never did anything like this before I moved to Gwinnett 11 years ago.” Keep up your good work, Dick!
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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