A LOT OF ACTIVITY is going on in the municipalities of Gwinnett. Here’s a drawing of a parking deck to be in Buford in the square in front of the First Pentecostal Church and the former Buford City Hall. It’ll help relieve the crowded parking situation, especially at night and on weekends, as diners flock to the city to patronize its many restaurants. For more on city projects in Gwinnett, see Elliott Brack’s perspective below.
IN THIS EDITIONTODAY’S FOCUS: Harvest Farm Is First Public Orchard and Playground in the Southeast
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Exciting Activities in Gwinnett Cities with Envisioning Leaders
SPOTLIGHT: Primerica, Inc.
FEEDBACK: Being at Hospital Emergency Room Usually Seems Like Forever
UPCOMING: Gwinnett Library Becomes NASA Partner for STEM Learning
NOTABLE: Foundation Awards Largest Grants Ever to Local Agencies
RECOMMENDED: If Only by Richard Paul Evans
GEORGIA TIDBIT: UGA Veterinary College Now Has Enrollment of 431 Students
TODAY’S QUOTE: What Working at a Fire Hydrant Factory Produces
MYSTERY PHOTO: In Our Warmer Gwinnett Weather, Let This Photograph Cool You Down
LAGNIAPPE: CID, Schools, Library Team Up to Give Meadowcreek 1,400 Books
CALENDAR: Sixth Annual Beach Blast in Snellville Saturday Afternoon
TODAY’S FOCUSHarvest Farm is first public orchard and playground in Southeast
By Abby Wilkerson, Suwanee, Ga. | The City of Suwanee and Harvest Farm have collaborated to develop the first public orchard and playground in the Southeast. Featuring a fully functional orchard that will be open to the community, the Orchard at White Street Park was designed to provide families with a fun and engaging space that changes through the seasons, encourages creative and self-guided outdoor play, and produces fresh fruit.
Layout of public orchard coming to Suwanee. (Click here to enlarge image.)
In addition to trees yielding fruit, the Orchard at White Street Park also includes lawn areas for relaxation and play, a pavilion, winding pathways, and natural children’s play features throughout the one-acre site.
Harvest Farm board member and orchard landscape architect Roger Grant says: “The orchard was designed to incorporate fruiting plants, winding paths, lawns, and natural play features. It will be a unique and exceptional space for discovery and exploration and offer hands-on learning opportunities with a wide variety of fruiting plants. The park will be open to the public and people of all ages are encouraged to observe and enjoy the fruits of our labor. It will be maintained using organic pest control methods, meaning the fruit may not all look like what we see at the grocery store, but patrons will get an authentic and safe experience.”
The orchard will serve as the perfect complement to Harvest Farm, Suwanee’s award-winning community garden, which is also located at White Street Park. Opened in 2010, Harvest Farm was the first community garden in Gwinnett County and remains one of the largest organic community gardens in the southeastern United States.
While the space itself is already open to the public, the orchard will continue to be planted over the next few months, largely by community volunteers. The first community planting is scheduled for Saturday, May 20, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Visit Suwanee.com for more information about the Orchard at White Street Park, volunteering, or making a donation.
Grant adds: “We’re excited to keep building on the success and momentum of the garden by expanding into White Street Park with this orchard. While the City has provided a solid foundation, the ultimate success of the orchard lies with our citizens – we need the community’s support in our effort to raise money to purchase orchard plantings.”
“With your help, we will make a lasting impact in the lives of our neighbors and families by creating a special and unique space for all of Suwanee.”
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Exciting activities in Gwinnett cities with envisioning leaders
Drawing of future Buford High School. Construction is underway.
By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | One of the bright areas in Gwinnett in 2017 is the tremendous vision, funding and activity going on in some of our cities.
Partially funded by the cities of Gwinnett’s greater share of SPLOST funds, but augmented by growth in city revenues, there is a feeling of bustle and movement in some of Gwinnett’s cities that is nothing less than exciting.
We expected it in the youngest Gwinnett city, that of Peachtree Corners, since they are newly formed, and need all sorts of municipal facilities.
And we have seen it for years first in Suwanee and then in Duluth. Suwanee first had to envision a new center of town, their Town Center, built around a spacious new City Hall. Among its many other activities, the city embarked on an innovative art plan for the city, culminating in its annual Sculptour.
Duluth focused its major activities in their downtown area and its Village Green, plus re-locating its City Hall to one edge of the Green. Now it’s completing a major re-build of the downtown area. It’s also getting more than 400 apartments coming to the direct downtown area.
Meanwhile, Lilburn is re-focusing the city, building the new combined City Hall and Library to the uptown area, nearest major streets. Now it concentrates on renovating its former City Hall into a larger police headquarters.
Lawrenceville has a host of major projects underway, totaling nearly $100 million. That includes creating a linear park from downtown to Georgia Gwinnett College, major gas distribution infrastructure improvements, moving their public works location, and other activities.
Main Street Grayson is encouraging businesses with its “BOOST” activity, helping firms to move to their next level of growth.
Norcross is moving, somewhat slowly, in developing plans for a new library, and eventually has plans to move the police department out of City Hall to the former library location.
Buford always has improvements underway, with the big ticket being a new $70 million high school, for 2,000 students, up 50 percent from its current 1,300 enrollment, to open in the fall of 2019. Other activities in Buford include $14 million in streetscape projects for Lee and Moreno Streets. Then there’s to be an elevated parking deck built over the park in front of the old City Hall which will cost between $6-8 million. (The trees in the park are to stay.) Coming soon will be a $22 million arena seating 6,000 for the performing arts and sports. Already scheduled this year are six games of professional indoor football!
Sugar Hill is perhaps in the most extensive expansion mode of all Gwinnett cities, as it is building a new downtown around its relatively new (and paid for) City Hall. In about a walkable half mile area, there will be something between $250-$300 million in new multi-story developments, some paid for with city funds, others with private development monies. About 1,000 new residents will live in this area. Some call it a “dense, urban development in a suburban setting.” Wow!
There’s a lot more going on in other cities, of course. We can’t recount it all here.
Yet the key factor in all this is not just the money. It’s the close working association between the city leaders, their paid staff, their consultants and their engineers. But more than anything else, to move forward, the leaders of governments must work together and have a consensus who have the motivation, the ability to think forward and envision possibilities……of their future.
That’s what exciting about most of our Gwinnett cities.
Forward evermore! Old Button Gwinnett would be mighty proud!
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Primerica, Inc.
The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Primerica, Inc., headquartered in Duluth is a leading distributor of financial products to middle-income families in North America and is Gwinnett’s fourth largest employer, with 1,700 employees. Primerica representatives educate their Main Street clients about how to better prepare for a more secure financial future by assessing their needs and providing appropriate solutions through term life insurance, which it underwrites, and mutual funds, annuities and other financial products, which it distributes primarily on behalf of third parties. In addition, Primerica provides an entrepreneurial full or part-time business opportunity for individuals seeking to earn income by distributing the company’s financial products. It insures approximately 5 million lives and had over 2 million client investment accounts at December 31, 2016. Primerica is a member of the S&P MidCap 400 and the Russell 2000 stock indices and is traded on The New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “PRI.”
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Being at hospital emergency room usually seems like forever
Editor, the Forum:
I’ve seen the Eastside Medical Center’s sign advertising the “short” waiting period in their emergency room. It is accurate, as far as it goes. Yeah, they’ll get you checked in and the paperwork started in 10 minutes or so, but that is the tiniest tip of the iceberg. I went there several times with my mother before her passing last November and the average time, portal to portal, was about eight hours. Sometimes more.
You wait an hour to see a doctor. He orders some tests. You wait an hour to have the blood drawn for the tests. Then you wait another two hours or so for the test results. Then you wait another two hours for the doctor to review the tests. Then you wait while he decides what needs to be done. Then you wait for it to actually BE done; then you wait to be released.
Our best in-and-out time was seven hours and 55 minutes. The worst was pushing 10 hours.
As I said, the sign is accurate, as far as it goes.
— Robert Hanson, Loganville
Send us your thoughts: We encourage you to send us your letters and thoughts on issues raised in GwinnettForum. Please limit comments to 300 words. We reserve the right to edit for clarity and length. Send feedback and letters to: elliott@brack.net
UPCOMINGGwinnett library becomes NASA partner for STEM learning
Gwinnett County Public Library (GCPL) is one of 75 U.S. public libraries, and the only library in Georgia, selected through a competitive application process to become a NASA@ My Library Partner. This program will increase and enhance STEM learning opportunities for library patrons throughout the nation, including geographic areas and populations currently underserved in STEM education. GCPL will participate in the 18-month project with the opportunity to extend for an additional two-year period.
GCPL will receive materials and training to lead educational, fun STEM programming for all ages. Materials include two NASA STEM Facilitation Kits designed for use in hands-on STEM programming, a tablet computer preloaded with how-to videos, apps, and educational games.
GCPL Executive Director Charles Pace says: “Gwinnett County Public Library is strongly committed to promoting education for all, and STEM is one of our major areas of focus. From learning how to use a 3D printer to working with robotics, GCPL leads the way in public STEM education. We are very pleased to be the only library in Georgia selected to take part in the NASA@ My Library program.”
NOTABLEFoundation awards largest grants ever to local agencies
The Community Foundation for Northeast Georgia has awarded the largest amount of grants to date at this year’s grants breakfast. Twenty-eight grants were awarded, totaling $303,409. The Community Foundation’s Good2Give Community Fund provides the funding for the grants, and, with the help of fundholders, is the largest distribution for the annual grant cycle.
Randy Redner, executive director of the Community Foundation, says: “We are surrounded by many incredible nonprofits doing incredible work each and every day. To be able to support some of them in the work they do, to help them impact even more people and change even more lives – that is part of our mission at the Community Foundation.
Including this year’s grants, the Community Foundation has now donated more than $80 million to worthy charities since 1985. Anyone can give to the Community Foundation’s Good2Give Community Fund. There is no age limit or dollar amount restrictions on the fund as giving is something the Community Foundation wants the entire community involved in. To donate or learn more, visit www.cfneg.org.
Three Eastside Urgent Care offices receive accreditation
Eastside Urgent Care, in affiliation with Eastside Medical Center, has received the Accredited Urgent Care Designation, the highest level of distinction for urgent care centers by the Urgent Care Association of America, for all three of their locations. Eastside Urgent Care is located in Snellville, Lawrenceville, and Lilburn. Eastside Urgent Care provides patients with walk-in, extended-hour medical attention with licensed providers for a large scope of medical conditions. Eastside Urgent Care has met all of the Urgent Care Association of America’s established standards and criteria for quality of patient care, safety, and scope of services.
Commissioners eye development of tennis center after demolition
The Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners has approved a contract to demolish the 1996 Olympic Tennis Center in Stone Mountain and prepare it for future redevelopment.
The 24-acre site, located at 5525 Bermuda Road just off U.S. Highway 78, was acquired by Gwinnett County in October in a land exchange with the tennis venue’s owners, Stone Mountain Memorial Association Board of Directors. To obtain the aging venue for redevelopment, the County traded a 35-acre tract bordering the existing golf course at Stone Mountain Park.
The land will be cleared and grassed to make it attractive to potential developers, who will submit proposals for the County to consider through a competitive process.
Demolition of the tennis venue will cost about $1.075 million and should begin by late June and take about six months. TOA LLC was the low bidder.
GGC’s Beauchamp to retire, heads for University of South Florida
Beauchamp
Edwin R. “Eddie” Beauchamp, vice president of operations has announced his plans to retire from Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC). A charter staff member, Beauchamp was appointed the first vice president for Business and Finance in January of 2006. He served as a member of the GGC start-up planning team. In 2010, he transitioned into his current role.
GGC President Stas Preczewski says: “As a charter member of the GGC team, he personally drove decisions that will continue to impact this institution for years to come. As a leader, teacher and friend to so many, we thank him for his contributions and wish him well as he continues to contribute to higher education.” As the campus grew, Beauchamp routinely oversaw aspects of budgeting, planning, and design and construction management for more than a million square feet of academic and student support space.
Beauchamp transitions to the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee where he has accepted the position of regional vice chancellor, Business and Finance.
County opens new facilities for medical examiner’s morgue
Gwinnett officials held a ribbon cutting Wednesday to mark the opening of a 15,000-square-foot Medical Examiner’s Office and Morgue with more space, improved technology, and more efficient administrative capability. The new building is located at 320 Hurricane Shoals Road NE in Lawrenceville.
Board of Commissioners Chairman Charlotte Nash said the new facility provides the 10-person Medical Examiner’s Office with the capability to handle the caseload that comes with a county of nearly one million people.
The Medical Examiner’s Office conducts death investigations in accordance with the Georgia Death Investigation Act, including postmortem examinations, to determine cause and manner of death in cases where the death is unattended or suspicious. In 2016, more than 1,600 deaths were reported to the Gwinnett County Medical Examiner’s Office and approximately 379 examinations, including 185 full autopsies, were performed.
The $5.7 million facility, paid for with SPLOST revenue, replaces two separate locations – a small morgue located within a county facility and a rented administrative office located a half-mile away. The new building was designed to achieve LEED Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.
The new morgue space has three state-of-the-art autopsy stations, including a separate station for cases requiring isolation. It has enhanced medical and laboratory equipment, and space for evidence processing and storage. The former morgue had only one autopsy station with limited medical and laboratory equipment. The new morgue can accommodate 50 bodies; the former morgue had room for just four.
RECOMMENDEDIf Only
A novel by Richard Paul Evans
From Tim Anderson, Fitzgerald | Evans is known for his often overly-sentimental stories, particularly his Christmas stories. But they strike a tender chord in his readers. He has written a new book, If Only, that is guaranteed to resonate with readers on a most profound level. Eric is 14 years old, living in 1960s Utah with his family. The family is poor, but loving. Eric befriends Grace, a classmate and a runaway, found dumpster diving behind the burger joint where he works. Eric hides Grace in his backyard clubhouse and tenderly cares for her with a maturity beyond his years. Grace is running from a most abusive home life imaginable. Eric has his moral compass set for life out of the tragedy that is Grace. We must warn that the book will break the reader’s heart, but Evans’ skill as a wordsmith is at its very peak, and the story will live with readers for very long time.
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 TIDBITUGA Veterinary College now has enrollment of 431 students
The University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine is one of 14 schools and colleges at the University of Georgia and one of only 28 colleges of veterinary medicine in the United States. The faculty has national and international expertise in nearly every medical field, especially poultry diseases, infectious diseases, colic and lameness in horses, and pet bird diseases, among others. Currently the college had an enrollment of 431 students earning a doctorate in veterinary medicine and 88 Ph.D. candidates.
The College of Veterinary Medicine started small. Formed in 1946, the school was housed in Hardman Hall, formerly a livestock-judging pavilion and U.S. Navy warehouse, which was remodeled for laboratory use. War-surplus refabricated buildings served as the large and small animal hospitals. Classes opened in September of that year, with two professors and 56 students using borrowed tables and microscopes. They dispensed veterinary care in these makeshift facilities, until the new building was ready for occupancy in 1953. The first class graduated in 1950.
The college also offers internships and residencies, in addition to graduate programs leading to the master of science and doctor of philosophy degrees. Notable among them is the unique master of avian medicine degree program, which provides veterinarians specialized training in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of poultry diseases.
The college’s teaching program is based on the premise that veterinary medicine is a unique combination of medical, agricultural, and biological sciences. It is a health profession that applies principles of biomedical sciences to health and disease in animals. In the first three years of the four-year curriculum, students learn the basic medical sciences and their clinical application. The fourth year is devoted entirely to applying that knowledge in real-life clinical situations.
Much of the students’ clinical training takes place in the college’s veterinary hospital.
After 50 years of growth and expansion, the number of cases seen in the hospital has grown to an estimated 20,000 animals a year—horses, dogs, cats, birds, cattle, sheep, and pigs, among others. Most of the animals admitted to the hospital have unusual, complex, or critical conditions. They are referred by the client’s veterinarian for treatment that can be found only in specially staffed and equipped facilities like the college’s veterinary hospital.
(To be continued)
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia online, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
In our warmer Gwinnett weather, let this photograph cool you down
As Gwinnett approaches the 90 degree mark in its May weather, here’s a photograph about a cooler time and place. A few clues might drive you to this identification. Send in your thoughts to elliott@brack.net and be sure to include your hometown.
Susan McBrayer of Sugar Hill was so pleased to finally be able to identify last edition’s Mystery Photo as the Old North Church in Boston. We wrote back to her: “Well, you should have identified it. You sent it in a couple years ago.” So she’s disqualified, of course.
Lots of others immediately identified it also. They include Lynn Naylor, Atlanta; Alexis Stryker, Lawrenceville; Mark Barlow, Peachtree Corners; Diana Preston, Lilburn; Bob Foreman, Grayson; Ross Lenhart, Pawley’s Island, S.C.; Emmett Clower, Snellville; David Will, Lilburn; Bobbie Tkacik of Lilburn; and Dottie Kuhn, Lawrenceville;
Doug Rouner, Lawrenceville, wrote: “Although I did not recognize the church off hand, I pretty much knew the it was the famous Old North Church in Boston. Old North Church was the signal station for Paul Revere’s famous ride on April 18, 1775 to alert John Hancock, Samuel Adams and the local militia in Concord that the British were coming ‘by sea’ or in reality crossing the Charles River. Old North Church was chosen because at the time it was the tallest building in Boston and could see and be seen for miles. Paul Revere Heritage Project is an interesting read for the history buffs out there. http://www.paul-revere-heritage.com/index.html.”
George Graf of Palmyra, Va. gives more detail on this scene: “The Old North Church is the oldest standing church building in Boston, having first opened its doors to worshippers on December 29, 1723. Because of its height, it would play a dramatic role in the American Revolution be immortalized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. In the basement of Old North are 37 crypts containing the remains of over 1000 former members of the Church’s congregation. One notable, Major John Pitcairn, a British hero who lead the Redcoats at the Battle of Lexington and Concord, was killed in the Battle of Bunker Hill. Pitcairn was buried beneath Old North but was scheduled to be sent home to be reinterred in England’s Westminster Abbey. By accident, a Lt. Shea was sent instead.”
LAGNIAPPECID, schools, library team up to give 1,400 books to Meadowcreek
Gwinnett Village CID, Gwinnett County Public Libraries and the Gwinnett County School Board have come together to deliver over 1,400 books to the children at Meadowcreek Elementary. Gwinnett County Public Library Executive Director Charles Pace says: “A core component of the mission of the Gwinnett County Public Library is to provide books and opportunities for reading and learning to everyone in Gwinnett County. With our partnership with the Gwinnett Village CID, we are able to put a book in the hand of each student at Meadowcreek Elementary.” The books were donated by Better World Books, a partner organization of Gwinnett County Public Library. Shown with some of the students are School Board Member Louise Radloff; Laurie Gardner, Principal at Meadowcreek Elementary, and Marsha Bomar of the Gwinnett Village CID.
CALENDAR
(NEW) Sixth Annual Beach Blast on the Snellville Town Green will be from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 20. More than 70 tons of sand will cover Oak Road for visitors to play in. There will be a Mascot Parade around the Green, fun and games with DJ Lee, a rock wall, a bungee jump, inflatables, a trackless train, the Big Kahuna Water Slide and a 9-hole mini golf course. An all-day pass is $10. Individual tickets are also available. (After the Blast, the sand will be used on South Gwinnett High athletic fields.)
Earlybird Market in Norcross on Saturday, May 20, at Summerour Middle School. Go to the rear parking lot at 321 Price Place between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. This will give you an idea of what to expect when the regular season opens on June 3 at Lillian Webb Park.
Bikes and Barks, a motorcycle ride, and a barbecue to benefit Canine Pet Rescue, May 20, with ride registration at 8 a.m. and the ride beginning at 9 a.m. Barbecue at noon. The ride will begin at the Gwinnett County Detention Center, 2900 University Parkway, Lawrenceville. It will end at Big Sky Farm 2625 Jones Phillips Road in Dacula. Detail: http://www.caninepetrescue.com.
Third Annual 1, 2, 3K Glow and Show will be May 20 at Rhodes Jordan Park in Lawrenceville, during the Spring into Summer Festival. It features wellness exhibitions, inflatables, fitness demonstrations and entertainment, plus kids activities sand food vendors. A movie under the stars follows at 9 p.m. For more information, visit http://www.livehealthygwinnett.co/assets/spring-into-summer-flyer4-18-17.pdf.
Author Mark Pendergrast will discuss his latest book on Saturday, May 20 at 3 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, 5141 Peachtree Parkway, in Peachtree Corners. City on the Verge: Metro Atlanta and the Fight for America’s Urban Future uses the BeltLine saga to explore issues of race, education, public health, transportation, business, philanthropy, urban planning, religion, politics, and community. For more information, please visit www.gwinnettpl.org or call 770-978-5154.
City of Lilburn Fourth Annual Classic Car Event will be May 20 beginning at 10 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. in Lilburn City Park. Free admission for spectators. Awards will include 20 different categories. Entry fee is $15 day of the event.
The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman will be presented by the Lionheart Theatre Company through May 21. Hours are 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $15 for adults and $12 for seniors and students. This play will be directed by Allan Dodson.
Information Session for prospective students of the Georgia Campus – Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (GA–PCOM) will be Wednesday, May 24, from 3–4 p.m. Participants will learn about degree programs offered on campus, including Osteopathic Medicine (DO), Pharmacy (PharmD), Biomedical Sciences (MS), Physician Assistant Studies (MS), as well as the developing Physical Therapy (DPT) program. Those interested in attending the session are encouraged to register online or call the Office of Admissions at 678-225-7500.
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