A $100,000 GIFT from Mingledorff’s Inc. of Norcross is going to Gwinnett Tech to expand the college’s career center and create the Mingledorff’s HVAC Scholarship Endowment. Mingledorff’s, a Norcross-based heating and air conditioning company, distributes Carrier, Bryant, Payne, Totaline and Bard products. The company has 37 locations in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and South Carolina. At the presentation were, from left, Phoebe Coquerel, Jim Spanello, Michael Hopkins, Gwinnett Tech President Dr. D. Glen Cannon, Mingledorff’s President David Kesterton, local HVAC Dealer Matthew Holtkamp, Rob Willis and Harold Nelson. For more information about Gwinnett Tech’s Launch Pointe, Center for Career Experience and the college’s HVAC program, visit gwinnetttech.edu.
IN THIS EDITIONTODAY’S FOCUS: Remembering His Grandfather and Sergeant York in Tennessee
EEB PERSPECTIVE: New Mayor of Dacula Already Has 10 Years on City Council
ANOTHER VIEW: Norcross City Council Once Again Seeking to Go to Four year Terms
SPOTLIGHT: Georgia Gwinnett College
UPCOMING: Two Candidates Qualify To Run for Snellville City Council Post
NOTABLE: Two Gwinnett Cities Win “Live, Work Play” Awards from GMA
RECOMMENDED: Stern Men by Elizabeth Gilbert
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Early Indian Trails Allowed Them To Travel Great Distances
MYSTERY PHOTO: Getting Away from Statues, Today the Mystery Photo Is a Modern Building
CALENDAR:HBCU College Fair Scheduled at Meadowcreek High on February 9
TODAY’S FOCUSRemembering his grandfather and Sergeant York in Tennessee
By Raleigh Perry
BUFORD, Ga. | When growing up, during the weekdays when school was not in session, I spent time with my grandfather sitting on his lap as he wrote editorials. He was a newspaper editor. When school was in session, I went to his house for the weekend, from the first grade though the ninth, when he died. I followed him everywhere I could.
Perry
He was the commander of the American Legion Post in Chattanooga on several occasions and I was often with him when he went there. Sergeant Alvin York showed up for an American Legion meeting. I knew all about him for two reasons.
First, I had read a biography of York, probably in the third or fourth grade, and secondly, when the movie came out, the royalties put Sergeant York into a precarious position. He had never seen that much money before and had never earned enough to pay income taxes. His income tax bill was exorbitant. There was no way he could pay it. It got paid, though.
In most of Tennessee public schools, there were Mason jars in every classroom. We students were encouraged to put our change and even our lunch money into those jars, and I did. His tax bill was paid by school children in Tennessee. I could easily put mine in the jar, encouraged by my grandfather who was stationed with York at Camp Gordon near Atlanta, because I lived across the street from the school and I could easily go home for lunch. Most kids in the school did not have the advantage that I had in going home for lunch, or they went without because they had spent their lunch money.
When going through my grandfather’s papers after he died, I ran across a letter from a gentleman in Kentucky. In it was an article from the New York Times about a Kentucky hero of World War II who may have actually done far more for our country than Sergeant York did. The letter requested that my grandfather assist this Medal of Honor winner in getting back his disability pension.
For some reason, that pension had been cut. This veteran had been gassed so badly during the war that he barely could do the work necessary to keep his farm up. In the letter there was a line that interested me. It mentioned that people from Tennessee know their heroes, but those from Kentucky seemed not to care about theirs. The soldier’s name was Willie Sandlin. I called every public library in Eastern Kentucky to find out something about him and I was sent one page from a magazine.
My grandfather took on the task and using Tennessee Senators and Congressmen managed to get Mr. Sandlin’s benefits back. My grandfather would break his back helping others. The immense time that I spent with him taught me to do the same thing.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
New mayor of Dacula already has 10 years on city council
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
FEB. 1, 2019 | When the Dacula City Council voted to name a replacement for the late Mayor Jim Wilbanks, they picked someone not an elected city councilman. However, he was the present chair of the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals.
Not only that, but new Mayor Trey King, 55, had served for 2.5 terms on the city council previously, for a total of 10 years.
So he was no rookie coming to the job. As he says, being a city official will be for him: “Not entirely something new.”
Trey King’s full-time vocation is as a chemistry teacher at Mill Creek High, now in his 20th year in that position.
However, he’s also a pharmacist, as is his wife, the former Mary Dawn Holcombe, a Dacula native. She works as a pharmacist in Winder. The couple attend Ebenezer Baptist Church in the Harbins community.
King
King is originally from Stephens County in northeast Georgia, who spent his first two years after high school at Young Harris College. Then it was to the University of Georgia where he studied pharmacy. While there, he found he enjoyed teaching students and interns.
After graduation, he went to work as a pharmacist in Macon with K-Mart, and later moved back to Atlanta to work for Kroger Pharmacy. He was working 40-60 hours a week. He even put in some part time work at the Prescription Shop in Lawrenceville.
Eventually, he remembered enjoying teaching, and began his chemistry teaching. “I really do enjoy serving the people and working with the students.”
King and his wife have three boys, Isaac, 27; Jacob, 24, and Joseph, 21, who all have been or are at Kennesaw State College. Isaac is currently a certified technician for Public Pharmacy; Jacob and Joseph are current Kennesaw students. The family enjoys fishing, going to the lake, water skiing and camping.
Now you know something about Gwinnett’s newest public official, Trey King, the mayor of Dacula.
Every now and then you get a happy story. A recent New York Times story out of Atlanta showed a picture of a man and a woman. It read:
“It was 2000. I was a sad, middle-aged social worker nervously attending a divorce support group at an Episcopal Church in Atlanta. Only one other person was there, a man my age, talkative. We purged our agony for hours and I thought, ‘Geez, this facilitator is so self-disclosing.’ Then he said, ‘How long have you been running this group?’ The real leader never came that day we shared our heartache and felt the first frisson of love. We laughed all the way to the parking lot, and never went back to the group.”
Being efficient: the City of Snellville is holding an election to fill the seat of Councilwoman Barbara Bender, who was elevated recently to become mayor. Hurrah for the city scheduling it on March 19, the same day that Gwinnett County is holding the referendum on MARTA. Perhaps Snellville will get out more voters that way. But as it works, Snellville citizens will have to go to two different locations to vote in both these elections on March 19, their own county precinct and the Snellville City Hall to vote in the city elections.
Hurrah, Hurrah: We’ve just learned that the Netflix series, Greenleaf, is now lining up filming of its fourth season. We’ve just finished viewing its third season, and got the feeling the way it ended that there might be another season. It’s one of the best dramatic and entertaining series that Netflix offers.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Norcross City Council once again seeking to go to 4-year terms
By Josh Bare
NORCROSS, Ga. | There is a proposal before the Norcross City Council to vote on at the February 4 meeting about asking the state legislature to change the length of council member terms in our charter. Currently the council members and mayor serve two yearlong terms. They are staggered with three council seats being up for election one year and then two council seats and the mayoral position being up for election the second year.
Bare
As a Council member, I feel pretty strongly we should stay with two year terms. Any change to the Norcross charter should be most carefully made. The city has asked its citizens to vote on this change twice previously. Both times the voters have overwhelmingly rejected four year terms.
Accountability makes for good government and Norcross has benefited I believe from accountability that two year terms provide. We don’t have an issue with lots of turnover on the City Council. Many times the council members have run without a challenger.
In Georgia our 180 state representatives and 56 senators serve for two year terms. The 435 U.S. Congressmen serve two year terms. These elected officials are able to get up to speed in that time period and be effective.
I believe that Norcross with our two year terms offers a lower barrier for newcomers to enter into the political system. I’ve had folks say that a four year commitment is a long time with possible career and other life changes, but that two years works. We haven’t had an issue with short terms on the council. Over the last 30 years we’ve only had eight council members that just served a single two year term.
The cost to hold elections each year is a relatively small and a worthwhile price to pay to keep two year terms in Norcross.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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Businessman is dismayed at noise being added to the spiteful roar
(Editor’s note: this comes from a friend who maintains his business acumen, but merely does that, and no longer enjoys the fray of give-and-take he once did. He may speak to many of us. His thoughts are so powerful that we asked to run them, without attribution, so that others may see at least another person is turned off by what’s going on. –eeb)
Editor, the Forum:
The divisiveness of our society and the “I must not only win but you must lose and be the target of my outrage, disdain and possibly ruination if I can accomplish it” has left me avoiding almost all news and media other than following the main headlines and relevant details JUST ENOUGH to know what is going on.
I am like anyone else, I have lots I could say and it comes easily, but I am absolutely sure I would just be adding more noise to an already spiteful roar. Logic and reasonableness, empathy, statesmanship (kindness, gentleness and self-control) are gone. It isn’t about right and wrong, working together or thinking ahead. It’s about politics first and playing the game.
No one is willing to take concepts and policy ideas in the media to a real conclusion. I am way too analytical to tolerate that back and forth of opinion pieces. It’s like playing a game of checkers that only allows three moves and those are separated by days or weeks, then the topics move on to the outrage of the day.
I think that our most recent administrations and Congresses have taken us so far down the path of animus and mean-spiritedness that it will take almost a miraculous combination of statesmen in the right places to change it.
So I will join what I suspect is a large number of people (maybe another sleeping giant?) who will vote and pray for a change of heart and attitude. Maybe resentment will grow and reach a tipping point, or it will take a 9/11 or something bigger than our pettiness to do something about it….for a while. I am genuinely disheartened.
— Name Withheld
Concerning local columnists and where the referendum money goes
Editor, the Forum:
I want to associate myself with the comments of David Simmons, Norcross, regarding the bias and integrity of some of the guest columnists — specifically Jack Bernard. What I love about the GwinnettForum is its vertical focus on Gwinnett County history, economy, and growth.
Many of the posts by Mr. Bernard go beyond that focus, and do so in a way that incites and warrants rebuttal. I would prefer that you keep the focus local – such as MARTA expansion and how it’s intended to be paid for.
And to that note, may I add that while I am a rail advocate, I don’t want it to be at the expense of expanding Gwinnett County parks to meet the population growth. This is critical since uniquely in Gwinnett County, schools rely on parks for youth recreation, and do not purchase the land nor build out athletic fields. Parks and MARTA thus both compete for the same pot of SPLOST money. Please inform me if I am wrong. Keep up the good work.
— Joe Briggs, Suwanee
Dear Joe: Yep, think you are wrong on Parks and MARTA competing on SPLOST money. From what I understand should the March 19 MARTA referendum pass, the added one cent will be entirely for MARTA. The Parks monies will either come out of the general fund or from specifically-named SPLOST projects for parks. It’s also written in the upcoming MARTA referendum that all MARTA collections will be spent in Gwinnett for transportation. —eeb
Enjoyed how the writer captured essence of recent book review
Editor, the Forum:
It always amazes me how someone can get to the heart of a book when writing a brief review. Karen Harris of Stone Mountain did exactly that in her review last week of Why Religion? by Elaine Pagels.
I read Ms. Pagels’s memoir last November and found her memories both sad and comforting, as she dealt honestly with the death of her six-year-old son and a year later, in 1988, the accidental death of her husband.
There’s a lot to consider in this thoughtful, wise book. Your reviewer captured much of this in her excellent review.
— Billy Chism, Toccoa
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
UPCOMINGTwo candidates qualify to run for Snellville City Council post
City of Snellville residents will pick a new councilman and vote on a Sunday alcohol sales question during a March 19 special election.
Tod Warner, a 56-year-old real estate investment adviser, and Chief Operating Officer Antonio Molina, 36, are vying for the Post 5 seat vacated by now-Mayor Barbara Bender. Bender left her post after she was named mayor earlier this month following the resignation of Tom Witts.
Warner has previously served on term on the Council, and one time was chairman of the Snellville Development Authority. Molina is the chief operating officer of a health organization and has not held office before.
Residents will also be asked whether they support the “Sunday Brunch Bill” which was signed into law on May 8, 2018 by the state, authorizing counties and cities to permit and regulate Sunday sales of distilled spirits or alcoholic beverages beginning at 11 a.m. If approved, Sunday alcohol sales starting at 11 a.m. at restaurants will be authorized as of April 9.
Polls will be opened at 7 a.m. and closed at 7 p.m. in the Community Room in City Hall, 2342 Oak Road. To vote in the special municipal election, residents must register to vote by 5 p.m., Feb. 19.
Environmental Heritage Center plans Mystery Museum on Feb. 1
Take part in an exclusive after-hours mystery museum experience at Night at the Gwinnett Environmental and Heritage Center on February 1 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Guests can dress up as their favorite scientist or historical figure while interacting with Ben Franklin, Marie Curie, Eli Whitney, Ruth Patrick and other famous scientists and inventors from the past.
The evening will also feature the only Sensorium in the Southeast, where participants enjoy using all five of their senses in an effort to explore a few scientific mysteries. Other activities include a moonlit tram ride, stories around a campfire, glow in the dark games and face painting. In addition to the many activities, guests can have a sneak peek at Tiny Titans, the upcoming exhibit which highlights fossils and baby dinosaurs. The exhibit, created by Silver Plume Exhibitions, will open March 1.
Pre-registration is strongly encouraged online at www.gwinnettehc.com or guests can pay at the door. Registration is $5 per person. The Gwinnett Environmental and Heritage Center is located at 2020 Clean Water Drive in Buford. For additional information about this event, call 678-765-4664.
NOTABLETwo Gwinnett cities win “Live, Work Play” awards from GMA
The cities of Duluth and Lawrenceville have received the 2019 Live, Work, Play Award for presented by the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA), in conjunction with Georgia Trend Magazine. The award was presented to local officials during GMA’s annual Mayors’ Day Conference in Atlanta recently.
The Live, Work and Play Award recognizes cities that are committed to increasing the overall quality of life for all residents. It is presented to cities that make a positive impact on residents, the community and serve as examples for local governments across Georgia. Other winners in this category included Canton and Valdosta.
Last year, the City of Duluth ranked number 2 in the Best Atlanta Suburbs by the AJC, named one of AARP’s 10 Best Places to Live for under 40,000, and won the Innovation Award from Partnership Gwinnett for Uber Ride Promotions. The District at Duluth and Park at Parsons added 406 units of residential housing within a five minute walk of downtown Duluth during 2018. Downtown anticipates the addition of 8 retail opportunities in 2019 to add destination walkability. Construction of a walkable downtown connector park linking an adjacent subdivision was also begun showcasing the City of Duluth’s continued commitment to its community.
Lawrenceville is the County Seat of Gwinnett and home to unique regional assets in Aurora Theatre, Georgia Gwinnett College and Gwinnett Medical Center. The heart of Gwinnett, Lawrenceville boasts a robust population of 30,000 locally but in a county of more than 950,000. People visit the City’s renowned Historic Downtown Square. The city is known for its original dining, craft brewing, concert, festival and entertainment options, Lawrenceville offers a true urban experience with small-town appeal. In 2018, Lawrenceville embarked on a major downtown transformation, breaking ground on a private $200-million mixed-use development project known as the South Lawn. Complementing that development, the City welcomed Gwinnett’s first-ever brewery, Slow Pour Brewing Company, invested over $6-million to return one-way streets to two-way for walkable appeal, approved designs for an expanded arts and cultural complex and recruited over a half-dozen new businesses to the Square.
New Sugar Hill movie theatre offers $2 tickets on Tuesdays
Tuesdays in Sugar Hill just got a little bit sweeter, especially for movie lovers. The Eagle Theatre kicks off their $2 Tuesdays movie series next week with a slate of 80’s classics including E.T. and The Breakfast Club.
Beginning on February 5, the $2 Tuesdays movie series will bring shows at noon and 7 p.m. every week. Tickets may be purchased in advance via the Eagle Theatre’s website or at the box office on West Broad Street.
Each month in 2019 will feature a different theme including family favorites, recent blockbusters, and classic films. Full details for each month’s theme will be announced every third Thursday on social media and the City of Sugar Hill’s website. For information on the movie series, tickets, or the Eagle Theatre in downtown Sugar Hill, visit www.eagleatsugarhill.com.
RECOMMENDEDStern Men by Elizabeth Gilbert
The setting for this beautiful novel is two small islands facing each other a mile apart in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Maine. The background tells how the men of these islands make their living by fishing for lobster. Usually there is the captain at the wheel, fighting the swells and the wind, and the ‘stern man’ pulling and emptying the lobster pots, working together. However, the main story centers around an intelligent girl of about 18, who doesn’t entirely fit in with the way of life on these islands, yet is the one person on the two islands intelligent enough to figure out how these people can save themselves against horrible odds. Meanwhile you are learning what harsh and lonely lives these people have to put up with. The author later on wrote a subsequent book you may be familiar with, entitled Eat, Pray, Love.—eeb
- 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. Send to: elliott@brack.net
Early Indian trails allowed people to travel great distances
Before Georgia had roads, it was laced with Indian trails or paths. These trails served the needs of Georgia’s native populations by connecting their villages with one another and allowing them to travel great distances in quest of game, fish, shellfish, and pearls, as well as such mineral resources as salt, flint, pipestone, steatite, hematite, and ochre. Many groups followed an annual economic cycle that saw them undertake seasonal migrations in pursuit of plants and animals needed for their existence.
Travel for war making was also dependent on trails leading to the homelands of hostile groups. To take to the warpath had more than metaphorical meaning to Georgia’s Indians. The first map General James Oglethorpe selected to publicize his newly founded colony was based on the work of Thomas Nairne, a trader-explorer and Indian agent. It showed several important Indian trails, including “the Road of the Ochese [Creeks] going to War with the Floridians.”
There is abundant evidence indicating that some of the trails used by the early Indians of Georgia were already formed by large grazing animals, particularly buffalo. These animals ranged through much of Georgia and the Southeast until they were hunted to extinction in the late 18th or early19th century. Nairne wrote of hunting them in his excursions across the Southeast in the first years of the 18th century. He noted that the paths leading to the clay pits or licks, at which buffalo congregated, were as numerous and “well Trod” as those leading to “the greatest Cowpens in Carolina.” The best known of Georgia’s buffalo licks was described by the naturalist William Bartram and is located about ten miles south of Lexington in Oglethorpe County. It was a prominent point along the trail followed by Bartram in 1773.
When Oglethorpe was laying out the new colony of Georgia, Indian trails were of even greater importance. For example, in 1734, when Oglethorpe laid out the town of Ebenezer for a large group of German Protestant settlers, he ignored the site’s lack of agricultural potential and based his choice on the fact that it was located where a number of Indian trails converged at a crossing on Ebenezer Creek. After two years of struggling to survive in this poor location, the settlers were allowed to move to a new location with better soil.
Oglethorpe followed a similar strategy emphasizing transportation when he ordered the building of Augusta in 1736. His motive was to intercept the lucrative Indian trade at the point where a complex of major Indian trails from the interior Indian country reached the head of navigation on the Savannah River just below the fall line. Previously this trade had been enriching the merchants and traders of South Carolina. Three years later Oglethorpe wrote of Georgia’s successful trading outpost: “The settlement of Augusta is of great service, it being 300 miles from the Sea and the Key of all the Indian Countrey.” Augusta diverted first deer hides and later upland cotton away from Charleston to Savannah‘s warehouses and wharves, eventually exceeding even its founder’s most optimistic dreams.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia online, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
From statues, today the Mystery Photo is a modern building
From recent statues, today’s Mystery Photo is a modern glass-fronted building. Check it out and see if you can determine where it is located, and what goes on inside this building. Send your ideas to elliott@brack.net and include your hometown.
Apparently the most recent mystery was most difficult. The only person sending the correct answer was the dependable George Graf of Palmyra, Va. The photograph came from Jerry Colley of Alpharetta. Graf writes: “The statue is a memorial to Chief Sawnee, a Cherokee for whom the mountain was named and is located in the Sawnee Mountain Preserve in Cumming, Ga. It is believed that Native Americans may have used a natural clearing atop the mountain called the Indian Seats for ceremonial purposes. As white settlers migrated to the area, now known as Cumming, a local Cherokee named Sawnee helped them adjust to the native land. As a well skilled carpenter and farmer he was known throughout the land, and the range was named in his honor.”
Ashley Brown Film: Artist Ashley Bryan has dedicated his life to creating beauty and joy and spreading love and awe through his art. He is a poet/illustrator of over 50 children’s books, and he makes magical puppets and sea glass windows from found objects inspired by his African heritage. His life story and the art he makes from this wellspring of experience is an inspiration to people of all ages. Gwinnett Library will present this film viewing on Saturday, February 2 at 2 p.m. at the Lilburn Branch, 4817 Church Street, Lilburn. It is free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.gwinnettpl.org or call 770-978-5154.
STATE OF LAWRENCEVILLE will be the topic for the city’s mayor, Judy Jordan Johnson, to present on Monday, February 4 at the City Hall at 7 p.m. Those attending will hear the mayor’s view on what will take place in the city in 2019, and the successes of 2018. Updates will be given on the anticipated expanded arts complex, the College Corridor, new public utility facility, two way street conversion, and other plans.
CHOCOLATE WALK and fun strolling in downtown Braselton, Saturday, February 9, from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. The fifth annual Chocolate Walk treats you while you shop. Tickets are $10, and have sold quickly in the past. For details, visit this site.
Journey through Jazz and Blues: Join musicians from the Atlanta Blues Society and learn about influential blues and jazz musicians. Connect today’s popular music with old tunes and make some music of your own! This Journey through Jazz and Blues program takes place on Saturday, February 9 at 1 p.m. at the Gwinnett County Public Library’s Lilburn Branch, 4817 Church Street, Lilburn. It is free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.gwinnettpl.org or call 770-978-5154.
An HBCU College Fair will take place Saturday, February 9 at Meadowcreek High School, 4455 Steve Reynolds Boulevard in Norcross. Representatives from Historically Black Colleges and Universities will be present, including, Howard University, Morehouse College, Spelman College, Tuskegee University, Clark Atlanta University, Tennessee State University and Florida A&M University. The college fair is free and open to the public. The Fair is sponsored by Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Upsilon Alpha Omega Chapter, and the Gwinnett County Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
Trace Your Roots at an African American Genealogy Workshop. Learn how to overcome the challenges of tracing African American genealogy through free genealogy databases, including the Library Edition of Ancestry.com. Presented by Gwinnett County Public Library, this workshop will take place on Sunday, February 10 at 3 p.m. at the Collins Hill Branch, 455 Camp Perrin Road, Lawrenceville. It is free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.gwinnettpl.org or call 770-978-5154.
Celebrate Virtuosity with the Gwinnett Symphony Orchestra on Sunday, February 10, at 4:30 p.m. at Discovery High School Theater, 1335 Old Norcross Road in Lawrenceville. Under the director of Robert Trocina and Gregory Pritchard, conductors, this program will feature Jose Manuel Garcia on piano and Nancy Schechter on violin. Tickets are $10 and will be sold at the door. For more information, visit www.GwinnettSymphony.org.
QUR’AN EXHIBITION, exploring women’s empowerment, is scheduled for the Five Forks Branch of the Gwinnett County Public Library on February 10 from 12:30 until 3:30 p.m. The purpose of this exhibition is twofold. First is to eliminate the misconceptions about the Qur’an and second is to highlight the peaceful message of Islam. Members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community will be available to answer questions about Islam.
LILBURN POLICE ADADEMY is accepting applications for its 13 week course. Registration deadline is February 15. Preference is given to Lilburn residents or to someone working in Lilburn. The minimum age is 21. For more information, go to https://www.cityoflilburn.com/281/Citizens-Police-Academy.
State of the County Annual Report will be February 20 at 11:30 a.m. at the Infinite Energy Center. Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners Chairman Charlotte Nash will review 2018 achievements and present the vision for 2019 and beyond.
Fifth Leadership Challenge Workshop will begin February 26 with a four hour session, and continue for five other periods, concluding on April 9. The Workshop brings local leaders together to equip them to serve the community. It is sponsored by the Southwest Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce. It will be facilitated by Betsy Corley Pickren, with guest instructors. For more information, visit www.SouthWestGwinnettChamber.com, or call 678-906-4078.
ANNUAL PLANT SALE, from the University of Georgia Extension Service, runs through March 6. Plant experts are offering a host of fruit shrubs and trees. Purchasers must pick up their prepaid order on March 14 at the Gwinnett County Fairgrounds, 2405 Sugarloaf Parkway in Lawrenceville. No orders are shipped. For order forms or for more information, visit www.ugaextension.org/gwinnett, or call 678-377-4010.
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