4/30: New payment solution; Visiting Loganville; On Sen. Perdue

SOLAR GROWTH: When it comes to generating electricity through solar power in 2018, Walton EMC leads the southeastern region, a recent SunRiser list shows. Much of the solar power of Walton EMC will go to power a new Facebook data center in Newton County. See more details in Upcoming below.

TODAY’S FOCUS: Gwinnett Medical Center Offers Savings in New Payment Solution

EEB PERSPECTIVE: Visit Loganville and You’ll See Lots of Good Steady Growth Taking Place

ANOTHER VIEW: Outlines Reasons He’s No Fan of GOP Senator David Perdue

SPOTLIGHT: Georgia Gwinnett College

FEEDBACK: Muslim Community Symposium Hears Talks on Several Religions

UPCOMING: Walton EMC Leads All Southeast Utilities in Solar Power Development

NOTABLE: Dr. Keith Everson Becomes New Chair of Peach State Credit Union

RECOMMENDED: The Lost Prince: a Search for Pat Conroy by Michael Mewshaw

GEORGIA TIDBIT: War of Jenkins’ Ear Was First Test of Oglethorpe’s Defenses for State

MYSTERY PHOTO: Tell us Exactly Where This Beautiful Cathedral Is Located

CALENDAR: Town of Braselton Plans Rivers Clean-Up Event on Saturday

Gwinnett Medical Center offers savings in new payment solution

By Kate Steurer-Mucha

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga.   —  With an ever-increasing number of Americans paying out of pocket for healthcare, Gwinnett Medical Center (GMC) is taking steps to help these patients get the medical care they need, when they need it. By partnering with online healthcare marketplace MDsave, GMC is providing a new payment structure where patients can purchase medical services upfront at discounted prices that are bundled together with related fees.

Gwinnett Medical Center is the first hospital in Atlanta to partner with MDsave, offering transparent prices.

GMC’s Michael Boblitz, vice president of planning and business development, says: “This is the same quality care that patients have come to expect at our hospitals. Based on increased administrative efficiency, GMC offers our self-pay patients or those with high deductibles transparency and better prices through MDsave without compromising quality of care.”

Once a patient makes their decision, they buy a voucher for the full bundle. Then, they present the voucher at the appointment at GMC. Their average consumer is saving about 40 to 60 percent, according to MDsave.  Furthermore, consumers are getting the non-emergency care they need sooner and avoiding costly emergency room visits and hospital stays down the road.

The relationship with MDsave signals another course of how GMC is making healthcare more accessible for consumers in the north metro region.  GMC patients can also enjoy same-day scheduling, online scheduling for urgent care, emergency room and primary care, increased access at a number of outpatient facilities, telemedicine options through the Concussion Institute and corporate health services.

MDsave is dedicated to making healthcare accessible to everyone by empowering patients to make informed decisions. The MDsave online marketplace is built on the principles of affordability and transparency in an online platform that’s easy to shop.

MDsave CEO Paul Ketchel says: “Working with GMC, we are taking an important step toward making healthcare more accessible and affordable. We know that the cost of preventive treatments is often a factor in consumers neglecting to have them and thus, we hope that our alliance will increase access and result in saved lives.”

You can see GMC’s online procedure offerings at mdsave.com/gmc. GMC officials encourage potential customers to access this program on their mobile device to understand the simplicity of this product that offers a pre-negotiated rate.  The format involves only a few clicks – simply put the voucher in your cart and check out.

• Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net

Visit Loganville and you’ll see lots of good, steady growth

Loganville Fall Festival

By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum

APRIL 30, 2019  |  Those of you who do not get to drive through Loganville may be surprised should you visit there. This easternmost city of Gwinnett County is mostly located in Walton County, and in the last few years, has seen solid growth.

The town is relatively small, with an estimated 12,062 residents now, but that’s up from 5,435 in 2000 and 10,485 in 2010.

What Loganville has seen in the last few years is a boom of retail activity, mostly in Gwinnett County, while residential growth has taken place mostly in Walton County. Like the rest of Gwinnett, Loganville is diverse, still primarily white in its population (66 percent), but with a growing ethnic diversity with 22 percent black; seven percent Hispanic; and only two percent Asian.

This is the second oldest settlement in the area, dating back to 1842, when James Harvie Logan, settled the area from Tennessee purchasing 62.5 acres for $150! Logan was a farmer and shoemaker. During the next several years as other families settled in the area, the population rose to about 500 residents. Loganville was first incorporated in 1887 with its original limits extending a half mile in every direction from the town well.

Loganville got a boost in 1898 when the Loganville and Lawrenceville Railroad Company was established, giving it a direct connection to Atlanta. The line was owned by the Seaboard Airline Railroad. Local entrepreneurs built a depot for the rail company. The Depression shut the railroad down in 1932.

The Georgia Legislature amended the Loganville charter in 1905, extending the city limits eastward and the city became partially in Gwinnett.

When WalMart came to U.S. Highway 78 in Loganville, a legal matter entered the picture. It seems that the Walton-Gwinnett county lines went through the cash registers. The question came: which county would get the sales tax revenue? This was settled when Walton agreed to collect the sales tax on items sold at WalMart, while Gwinnett County would get the tax on alcoholic beverages.

Meanwhile, other big box stores, Home Depot, Lowe’s and Hobby Lobby, have located in the Gwinnett County portion, east of downtown along U.S. Highway 78, where there is considerable retail activity.

The city also now has three auto dealerships. For years, people in Metro Atlanta learned of Loganville through the Maxie Price Chevrolet late-night television car-hawking, with the ending question, “Whurs’ Loganville?”  Today two more auto dealerships are in Loganville, Colonial-Buick-GMC and Loganville Ford.

Currently there are four subdivisions with building activity, with new homes averaging $172,000, city officials say. Last fall the city annexed 100 acres off Georgia Highway 81 toward the town of Youth; so far no building activity has started there.

Curry

Former Mayor Dan Curry, who acts as a goodwill ambassador for the town, talks of the town growth: “It’s good, but a lot of our folks don’t like the increased traffic. But then they’ll ask me, ‘When are we getting more good restaurants, like a Longhorn’s Steak House?’ I have to tell them that it takes the traffic they don’t like, and more of it, that it takes car counts, and rooftops, and dollars under those rooftops, to have a vibrant town.  It also cost one cent more to shop in Walton County, because of their HOST tax.

He adds: “And we are a safe community, with good medical care today through the Monroe-Piedmont Hospital, a few good restaurants and good schools in both counties. It makes a well-rounded, highly respected, sought-after community.”  You see why Dan Curry, though no longer the mayor, is a walking commercial for today’s modern Loganville.

• Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net

Outlines reasons he’s no fan of GOP Sen. David Perdue

By George Wilson, contributing columnist

STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga.  —  Any day we can expect our lightweight United States Senator David Perdue, to emerge from his mansion in his closed community wearing his denim jacket to denounce the rising debt level. This is after his vote on the budget busting tax cut.

Along with this consider his continued support of leaving the Guantanamo prison open at a cost of $10,000,000 per detainee (says Human Rights First) and the expensive tax cuts that benefits the top one percent and corporations.  In addition, he voted to increase defense spending without the often promised investigations to end the waste and corruption in military operations and procurement that continues unabated.

Perdue has a 76 percent approval ranking from Georgia Republicans, yet has voted against the average Georgians interests. What does that tell the average voter?

His sycophantic support of President Trump has certainly not benefited Georgia’s hard hit hurricane victims. His political skills in dealing with Democrats are almost non-existent.

Perdue

Perdue continues to be, as Trump puts it, “to be a person from central casting who looks like a Senator.”

The one thing I do know is his eagerness to cut entitlements as a way of reducing the national debt and government expenditures. This means cuts in Social Security and Medicare. Furthermore, the disappointment on his face and his gestures when John McCain voted to keep the Affordable Health Care Act will forever remain in my mind. He was the presiding officer at the time and I got a good look at him on C-SPAN.

Partisanship is an issue currently in Washington, and Perdue wrongly puts the blame on the Democrats. Here is a senator who failed to vote for Obama’s moderate nominee for the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland. His friend, the Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, promised to obstruct Obama at every turn.

What is the definition of a hypocrite? Perdue’s and Trump’s political ineptness are causing the following:

• Georgia farmers are going bankrupt;
• California wildfire victims are struggling to rebuild; and
• Puerto Rican families are losing access to food benefits.

Further, he stated: “This economy is growing rapidly. We’ve created five-million new jobs.” Moreover, he exclaims that unemployment is the lowest that it’s been in over 50 years. “So, we got the economy moving,” taking credit for what Obama and the Democrats started.

“We made a dent in the long-term debt by growing the economy. A significant dent,” said Perdue. Remember that statement when cuts are proposed by Republicans to human services to balance the budget. But wait until his main constituents in rural Georgia become aware that they are not benefitting from this so called success.

“I’ve got a lot of Democratic friends, a lot of Republican friends in this state. I can tell you, the road to Socialism is not going to run through the state of Georgia,” said Perdue. This trope is used to demonize people who want a fair deal on wages, health care, education and other programs and services that are available in other advanced industrial nations.

Two women may run against him. One is Teresa Tomlinson, former mayor of Columbus and the other is Stacey Abrams. Both would be excellent senators and it really is time for real change in Georgia.

• Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net

Georgia Gwinnett College 

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Muslim community symposium hears talks of several religions

Editor, the Forum:

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community hosted a Peace Symposium/Religious Founders Day Program in Norcross.  Invited to speak were representatives of the three Abrahamic religions and Sikhism; Rabbi Lauren S. Cohen, Reform Judaism; Dr. Paul Graetz, Christianity, Imam Yahya Luqman, Islam and Hardeep Singh, Sikhism.  The 20 minute speeches on the founder of each religion were followed by a question and answer session and light refreshments.

The Ahmadiyya are a small community of 10-20 million followers worldwide.  They live in 206 countries with the largest numbers in Southeast Asia and Indonesia.  They were founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in 1889, who professed to be the Promised Messiah and Mahdi.

The first symposium was presented in the spirit of a conference held in 1896 at Lahore in what is now Pakistan.   At that conference leaders of Islam, Christianity and Aryas (ancient Hinduism) were invited to present the truths of their respective religions.  A speech written by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, said to be written after receiving a revelation from God a few days before the conference was found to be the most convincing.

The Norcross conference was an enlightening way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Imam Luqman is an intelligent and gentle man eager to educate people about Islam.  It’s a pity this peaceful element of Islam makes up only 10-20 million of the 1.8 billion Muslims in the world.

— Theirn Scott, Lawrenceville

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

Walton EMC leads all Southeast utilities in solar power development

Consumer-owned Walton Electric Membership Corporation (EMC) is leading all Southeast utilities in solar power development, according to a newly published report by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE).

In its Solar in the Southeast, 2018 Annual Report, SACE recognizes the northern Georgia electric cooperative as the region’s top utility developer of major solar projects. The report documents current progress and trends driving solar growth in southeastern states, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Walton EMC earned the top rank on the report’s SunRiser list, which identifies the utilities experiencing the greatest solar energy growth. The co-op currently distributes 115 watts of solar power per customer-owner. By 2022, that number is expected to rise to 1,569 per customer — a standard that will put the cooperative at the top of the list of southeastern solar power distributors and boost Georgia’s overall solar generation per customer by 135 percent.

Walton EMC landed at the top of the SunRiser list by executing power purchase agreements with three major solar projects to support a new Facebook data center. Last year, the cooperative executed contracts for the projects as part of its agreement to provide 100 percent renewable energy for Facebook’s advanced, energy-efficient data center now under construction in Newton County.

Walton EMC CEO Ronnie Lee says: “It’s gratifying to be recognized for the groundbreaking energy supply arrangement for Facebook’s Newton Data Center. We hope the SunRiser honor will spotlight our unique agreements that can serve as models for similar projects all across the country, bringing more renewable energy and economic rewards with them.”

The renewable energy supply collaboration, which is the largest solar development project in Georgia, is projected to provide $230 million in new investment and 800 jobs to boost the state’s economy.

Concerts this weekend by Sugar Hill Mormon Church Choir

Sugar Hill Choir of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will present its 14th semi-annual free community concert entitled, A Tribute to the Master – to celebrate the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.

The concert will be held both on May 4 – 5 at 7 p.m. at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Church located at 4833 Suwanee Dam Road, adjacent to North Gwinnett High School. No ticket is necessary and the community is welcomed. A reception will follow each performance.

The choir performance will include guest soloist, Cary Bate from Salt Lake City, who has sung for decades for a wide variety of audiences including world leaders and influencers like Mother Teresa in Calcutta, India. He also performed in past Atlanta choirs directed by Sugar Hill Choir Director Pamela Gates, who helped to mentor him in the early years of his career.

For this musical tribute, the choir will sing a special song, “Here I Am Lord” by former Jesuit composer Dan Schutte, a Suwanee congregation member of the church. During this Easter season, the musical celebration will help neighbors and friends from all religions better understand the Choir’s and Church’s Christian belief, love and testimony of Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah and Savior of the World.

The Choir has been nominated by local media as one of the best church choirs in Gwinnett, in addition to performing with the Gwinnett Community Band for 13 years.

Everson becomes new chair of Peach State Credit Union

Everson

Peach State Federal Credit Union has elected Dr. Keith Everson as chairperson of the board following their Annual Meeting recently.. This comes after their previous chairperson, Rick Davis, stepped down from that position.

Dr. Everson joined Peach State’s Board in 2004 and previously was vice chairperson. Dr. Linda Anderson, who previously served as secretary/treasurer, is now vice chairperson, and Robert Bradford has taken on the role of Secretary/Treasurer.

Dr. Everson is the executive director of the Northeast Georgia Regional Educational Service Agency (RESA), a resource that provides educational services to the 14 school districts in the northeast Georgia area. He has more than 30 years of experience in public school service and has been a member of Peach State for over 30 years.

Dr. Everson’s first significant experience with the credit union was as a college student needing $250 to complete the spring quarter of his freshman year. “I had no job during the school year, but intended to work over the summer to repay a loan,” he recalled. Peggy Kilgroe, Peach State’s first full-time (and still active) employee, approved him for the $250 loan and that kindness has stuck with him for over 30 years. “I believe in the credit union philosophy of people helping people and was grateful for the opportunity to join the Board of Directors. I am also grateful to my Board colleagues for trusting me to represent them and Peach State as their Chair,” he said.

Peach State Credit Union President Marshall Boutwell says: “Keith has been a valued member of our Board since he joined 15 years ago. His career in education and dedication to the credit union is a perfect fit with our foundation and values.”

Microtransit service in Snellville ends up second best in nation

The test period for microtransit, the door-to-door, on-demand bus service in Snellville, will conclude April 30 and Gwinnett County Transit officials will analyze operations to assist in establishing similar programs in the future.

Launched September 2018, the microtransit program carried 38,898 riders through April 3 for more than 172,000 miles on 28,740 trips. TransLoc, which provided the software to operate the microtransit system, reported that among the 12 cities it serves, the Snellville area microtransit program’s passenger count rated No. 2 behind the city of Sacramento.

Karen Winger, Transit Division director, says: “We didn’t know what to expect when we started the program. But we ended up carrying up to 344 people a day in a 17-square-mile area. Microtransit is serving a real need in the Snellville area.”

Microtransit, which employs smaller buses, is designed to provide transit service in areas that lack the population to sustain regular bus routes. The Snellville service uses seven 12-passenger buses operating from 6 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday. The average wait from the time the call was received to the pickup time during the test period has been 23 minutes.

Lilburn Woman’s Club supporting Brookwood  aquaponics class

Conservation co-chairs Mandy McManus and Andrea Brannen drop off a $550 check to Brookwood Aquaponics to support their summer trip to Honduras.  Brookwood students, Michael Hopf, Ellie Schutter William Skillen, and their teacher, Carrie Settles Livers, will head to Central America to assist with an aquaponics garden in a school during their visit.  For more information on how you can help, visit the website ­­­­­­­­­­at brookwoodaquaponics.com.

Brookwood High School has offered a ground-breaking new course called Natural Resource Management.  It is an applied science course where students learn about environmental science through an entrepreneurial lens.  Students design products for the garden, home and body, all using sustainable agriculture.  All products are made in the classroom by teaching kids entrepreneurship skills.

The local  community members live in what is classified as a food desert. Not only does the class sell the products made from their produce, and simply the produce itself, but they donate half of what they grow to the local food co-op. The funds raised go directly back to the classroom or a charity of the schools selection.  Customers get amazing products and kids learn valuable real world business skills.

The Lilburn Woman’s Club (LWC) Conservation Program learned of this new course at Brookwood and visited the classroom to see their Aquaponics class in action.  What is Aquaponics you might ask?  The simplest definition of Aquaponics is the combination of aquaculture (raising fish) and hydroponics (the soil-less growing of plants) that grow fish and plants together in one integrated system.

The fish waste provides an organic food source for the plants, and the plants naturally filter the water for the fish.  The third participants are microbes (nitrifying bacteria). These bacteria convert ammonia from the fish waste first into nitrites, and then into nitrates.  Nitrates are the form of nitrogen that plants can uptake and use to grow.  Solid fish waste is turned into vermicompost that also acts as food for the plants.  In combining both hydroponic and aquaculture systems, aquaponics capitalizes on their benefits, and eliminates the drawbacks of each. The Lilburn Woman’s Club decided to support the efforts of the class.

GACS’s Winkes wins Shuler Award for Best Direction

Winkes

Greater Atlanta Christian School’s Theater Director, Kristy Winkes, won a Shuler Award for Best Direction at the 2019 Shuler Hensley Awards recently. The Shuler Awards recognize the most elite high school performers and programs in Georgia. This award underscores Ms. Winkes’ skill in directing GAC’s tour de force performance of Les Miserables. The 70-person cast included students from K-12, making it the largest to date. Among her many gifts is the exceptional talent for drawing the best out of her students. In the short time she has been director, she has grown a program that already had a rich history of excellence in theater production. Ms. Winkes’ students treasure their time under her tutelage and many leave GAC prepared to pursue advanced training in theater, including GAC alumna and three-time Shuler Award winner Parker Jennings who is now at the Boston Conservatory.

The Lost Prince: a Search for Pat Conroy, by Michael Mewshaw

From Karen Burnette Garner, Dacula: The Lost Prince details an insider’s look at what drove writer Pat Conroy’s tormented genius.  Moving to Rome, Italy early in the 1980s, Conroy found a kindred spirit in Michael Mewshaw, a lesser-known writer in his own right.  Struggling to make ends meet, raucous family life, and shared insecurities bound the authors as brothers, each baring their souls and finding support for their common traumatic backgrounds. Each grew up in abusive, alcoholic families, and each struggled with finding their artistic voice.  Over time, Mewshaw grew more grounded, while Conroy spiraled out of control.  Their friendship became victim to Conroy’s perceived wrongs at the hands of his then-wife and children, and resulted in relentless, acidic correspondences.  If you are a Pat Conroy fan, you owe it to yourself to read this inside view of his life. Truth is in the eye of the beholder

• 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

War of Jenkins’ Ear was first test of Oglethorpe’s defenses

(Continued from previous edition)

Some scholars suspect that James Oglethorpe may even have attempted to redraw versions of early Georgia maps to show fictive branches of the Altamaha River connecting to the St. Johns, thus implicitly redrawing the colony’s southern border. His ambitions, thwarted at St. Georges Island, paid off in 1738, when he persuaded the British Parliament to send a regiment of nearly 700 soldiers to the colony. The majority of these men were stationed at Fort Frederica, but Oglethorpe also posted 200 men farther south at Fort St. Andrews and a smaller company of perhaps 50 or 60 men on the southern end of Cumberland Island.

The first real test of Oglethorpe’s coastal defenses came with the War of Jenkins’ Ear. After an unsuccessful siege of St. Augustine in 1740, Georgians retreated into their fortifications to await the inevitable Spanish retaliation. Finally, in 1742, led by the Spanish governor Manuel De Montiano, 36 naval vessels carrying 2,000 infantrymen appeared off the Georgia coast. The first alarm was raised by the garrison at Fort William, which successfully kept several Spanish galleons from entering the inland waterway.

Forewarned of the invasion, Oglethorpe mounted a spirited defense of his main base at Fort Frederica, culminating in the famous Battle of Bloody Marsh on St. Simons Island, in which his forces soundly defeated the Spanish. While retreating toward St. Augustine, however, Montiano drew level with Fort William on Cumberland Island and launched a massive assault on the tiny garrison, commanded by Lieutenant Alexander Stewart. Once again Georgia’s defenses held firm, and the Spaniards were compelled to withdraw.

The end of King George’s War in 1748 brought a downsizing of Georgia’s defenses. With the disbanding of the regiment in 1749, the southern portions of the colony, once the focus of Oglethorpe’s ambitious energies, entered a prolonged period of neglect and inactivity.

Small garrisons continued to be posted for some time at Fort Frederica and Fort William, but Fort St. Andrews, Fort St. Simon, and the Amelia scout station rapidly fell into disuse. Probably by 1758 even Fort Frederica had been abandoned. During the American Revolution, British and American forces moved back and forth across the region repeatedly, attempting on several occasions to reoccupy Fort William on Cumberland Island. Such efforts, however, were brief and inconsequential. By the 1780s the coastal defense system pioneered by Oglethorpe 50  years earlier had been all but forgotten. It had served its purpose.

• To view the Georgia Encyclopedia online, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org

Tell us exactly where this beautiful cathedral is located

Today’s Mystery Photo is obviously one of the world’s vaulted cathedrals, so tell us where this is and explain some about it. Send your answers to elliott@brack.net and be sure to include your address.

Last edition’s Mystery Photo must have been easy, as 22 readers sent in correct answers. The photo was sent in by Roving Photographer Frank Sharp, who was recently in that area of Wyoming. Here are the thoughts sent in:

Susan Carr, Dublin: “The elk antler arch in Jackson, Wyoming’s town square, one on each corner, so there are four corners.  With antlers.  Elk antlers cost $7 a pound originally, but when the last arch was restored, they cost $15 per pound. Each arch contains up to 14,000 pounds of antlers. Antlers were placed on steel frames, one by one. 64 years ago, but restored one by one from 2007 to 2015 through Rotary Club and private donations.”

Allan Peel, San Antonio, Texas: “I expect that today’s mystery photo will be quite easy for many of your readers. When I showed it to my wife, Jackie, she immediately exclaimed … “Oh. I know where that is. It is in Jackson Hole!” She recognized and remembered it from our visit there with our kids in the mid-1990’s. Pretty impressive if you ask me! The arch in the photo is at the northeast corner of the park, at the intersection of East Deloney Avenue and Center Street.

“With the 200th anniversary of the birth of George Washington approaching in 1932, the state of Wyoming cooperated with Congress to prepare memorials throughout the state. The Wyoming plan was to establish a George Washington Memorial Park in as many communities as possible. This Town Square was the designated site for Jackson in 1932. The first elk antler arch in the Town Square was built later in 1953, and after the success and popularity of the first arch, the three other arches were erected at the remaining corners in 1966, 1967 (the one in the mystery photo) and 1969.

“However, today’s arches are not the original ones since elk antlers have a life span and, like all bones, will eventually decompose. As the arches aged, the town realized that they were becoming a safety hazard. So in 2006, the three Rotary Clubs in the area funded replacement of “all four arches. Workers disassembled the old arch just after Memorial Day and had the new one up by the Fourth of July of that same year.

It should also be noted that making an elk antler arch is a labor-intensive process. Each antler weighs from 5 to 10 pounds, and there are perhaps 1,500 or more antlers in each arch, weaved together, one at a time, around a steel frame. Some of them are screwed down to add extra support and prevent vandalism. By the time an arch is done, it’s a mosaic of 10,000 to 12,000 pounds of antlers. The new arches should be good until 2040 or so, at which time the town will need to decide if they want to rebuilt them or not.”

Lou Camerio, Lilburn: “This is an archway made of Elk antlers on the square of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The last time I went skiing in 1992 was at Jackson Hole. It was a great trip. Also made the circle around Yellowstone on snowmobiles. This was the year after the fire. The animals were starving. Big mistake by the National Park Service.”

Lynn Naylor, Atlanta: “This is one of the four elk antler arches guarding the corners of Jackson Hole’s George Washington Memorial Park; they have been featured in thousands of family photos over the years.”

Others spotting the photo were Otis Jones, Buford; Bob Watson, Grayson; Marsha Bomar, Duluth; Paige Havens, Lawrenceville; Mike Tennant, Johns Creek; Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill; Shelley Marlatt, Dacula; Mary McNeil, Duluth; Jim Savadelis, Duluth; Ann Serrie, Lawrenceville; Sara Rawlings, Lawrenceville; Tim Sullivan, Buford; Kay Everett, Lawrenceville; Molly and John Titus, Peachtree Corners; Kay Montgomery, Duluth; Cindy Hall, Snellville;

Food Truck Fridays return to Snellville on May 3 from 4-8 p.m. Come enjoy the first of many family friendly events on the Towne Green this season. A wide variety of food trucks will be present that will satisfy any palate. If you can’t stay and eat with us, drop in and take your order to go.

The Town of Braselton will hold a Rivers Alive clean-up on Saturday, May 4 from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. Those attending will be at the Thompson Forest Arboretum, 1740 New Liberty Church Road at 9 a.m. Then the group will move to the Mulberry River, local streams and roadsides to pick up trash and to share lunch. For more details, contact Yvette Wish at ywise@braselton.net with “rivers alive event” in the subject line.

Cinco de Mayo Celebration, La Batalla de Puebla, will be held at the Norcross First United Methodist Church on Saturday, May 4 from 2 to 6 p.m. It’s free for the whole family, and includes authentic food, music and mariachi bands, dancers and items made in Mexico. Location: 2500 Beaver Ruin Road.

Kentucky Derby Party at Formetco, 2963 Pleasant Hill Road in Duluth, Saturday, May 4 at 4 p.m., being put on by the Gwinnett Rotary Club as their annual fundraiser. See the Derby on Formetco’s giant LED billboards. Participants are encouraged to dress in Derby ware, which includes a hat contest for the ladies. Cost is $100 per person, which includes food and drinks. Tickets can be purchased online at http://rotaryderbyparty.weebly.com.  More details: mwillis@gsba.com.

Snellville Days, the city’s largest festival for more than 40 years, will return at T.W. Briscoe Park. It will take place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. May 4 and 12 to 5 p.m. May 5. Admission is free. There is a free shuttle to the park from the parking lot of First Baptist Church Snellville, 2400 Main Street East, on Saturday only. There will be more than 200 craft, food, sponsor and civic vendors, kids’ activities and continuous live entertainment both days.

Fourth Annual Rock The Quarry Run will be May 4 at the Vulcan Materials Norcross Rock Quarry on Beaver Ruin Road. Join us at the Norcross Quarry, the largest quarry in the area. This route takes you more than 600 feet to the bottom of the quarry before you begin your climb out. You gotta’ dig deep to scale the quarry from 600 feet down! Register at QuarryCrusherRun.com.  Proceeds benefit the Gwinnett County Public School Foundation and Boys and Girls clubs of Metro Atlanta.

Electronic Recycling will take place at Trinity Lutheran Church, 1826 Killian Hill Road in Lilburn, on May 4 from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. The church and Atlanta Recycling Solutions have joined for a drive-through event in the church parking lot. Dispose of unwanted electronics free of charge, except a $20 charge for TV sets and $10 charge for CRT monitors. Other electronic items, from laptops to copiers to cable and wire are acceptable. For info, contact John Harben at 678 849 8084.

Community Garden beds for rent in Lilburn. Now accepting applications for a year’s rental, until next March 31. Rates are $40 for a 4×8 foot bed, or $60 for a 4×12 foot bed. An Easy Access bed is $20. For more information, go here..

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Meet our team

• Editor and publisher:  Elliott Brack, 770-840-1003
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