5/27, full issue: On ClemsonLIFE program and future of newspapers

WINS CLASSIC: On Sunday the Grayson Athletic Association’s eight and under All Stars won the Memorial Day Classic held at Bay Creek Park. They came back to beat the Johns Creek Ocee Black team in the tournament’s division championship game. The Grayson Rams eight and under All Stars battled to win 14-13 in record-breaking heat. From left on the back row are Coaches Jamie Crunkleton; David Greene; J.R. Landress; and Jeremy Wood. Players on the middle row include Tripp Durant; Bryce Maclin; Barrett Greene; Austin Leonard; Tanner Smith; and Avery Merchant. On the front row are Jack Crunkleton; Easton Wood; Tristan Landress; Leyton Hale; and Kendall Crespo.

TODAY’S FOCUS: ClemsonLIFE Program Good Fit For Former Peachtree Ridge Student

EEB PERSPECTIVE: Daily Newspaper in Little Rock Innovates, Bringing More Prosperity

ANOTHER VIEW: Many In Arkansas Now Read This Newspaper on Their Own iPad

SPOTLIGHT: E.R. Snell Contractor, Inc.

FEEDBACK: Three Letters on Three Entirely Different Subjects

UPCOMING: Stan Hall Is New COO of the Gwinnett Convention and Visitor’s Bureau

NOTABLE: Inaugural All-Day BookFest Gwinnett Coming To Norcross on June 15

RECOMMENDED: Franklin and Winston by Jon Meacham

GEORGIA TIDBIT: Early European Exploration of Georgia Carried Out Mainly By Spain

MYSTERY PHOTO: Memorial Day Makes This a Good Time for This Mystery Photo

CALENDAR: Sugar Hill Breaking Ground for Memorial Plaza on June 6

ClemsonLIFE program good fit for former Peachtree Ridge student

Clemson University President James Clements, Ty Parris and Clemson First Lady Beth Clements

By Sharon Parris

DULUTH, Ga.  |  Life for us at Peachtree Ridge High School is over. There is no diploma for our son, Ty with special needs. Opportunity for training and being self-sufficient are limited.  What is next?

Parris

For us, the answer was ClemsonLIFE, a program we heard about from an ESPN story about another local citizen, David Saville. ClemsonLIFE helps special needs students live independently in the community.

LIFE stands for “Learning Is For Everyone.” Our son was accepted into the program in 2016. He will begin his fourth year this August. In three years ClemsonLIFE has taught our son how to handle his apartment, banking, budgeting, and social skills. Ty’s first two years were spent in an apartment with an adult leader and two other students. He learned how to keep an apartment clean, complete his laundry, personal hygiene, and cooking meals. He also learned employment skills.

This continued for his third year but in an apartment off campus with only students as his roommates. ClemsonLIFE offers classroom time during the day to focus on other life skills, such as budgeting, bill paying, banking, resumes, job interviews, and social interaction. Ty banks effectively with his smartphone He made a resume, and he participated in job interviews. Plus, he’s learned to respect others space around him.

Class time offers discussion of current issues in the community, such as how to safely use Uber and Lyft. Ty lives on a weekly budget, shops for groceries, and finishes his laundry while working three part-time jobs on campus. That includes jobs in landscaping, recycling and in the cafeteria at the football complex.

Costs are similar for other Clemson students: a basic $12,000 for the first two years; $7,000 for the second two years, and plus housing of $4,618 and a meal plan and other university costs. Georgia Vocational Rehab helps with some of the funding. Similar programs are popping up at other campuses; the Clemson program is in its 10^th year. For more details, visit www.clemson.edu/culife.

Ty is learning to manage his time with such a busy schedule. He confidently takes public transportation and occasionally will use Uber to reach his destinations. Socially, Clemson LIFE has provide guidelines and opportunity for the students to interact with other Clemson LIFE students and the student body of Clemson University. Some of the students have even been invited to participate with sororities, or be part of student senate, and film club.

Ty has had the opportunity to participate in athletic practices with most of Clemson Universities athletic programs. His roommate, Marsden, is even part of the new Adaptive sport team. Fraternities and sororities have hosted parties during football season and basketball season for Ty and his fellow students. With over 400 volunteers, the program has plenty of support from the school. It starts at the top, with President Jim Clements, and continues to the academic teachers, facility workers, and student body from the University.

Ty and his fellow students are welcomed with open arms, big smiles, and fun activities. All of this is the result of hard work of the Clemson LIFE program leaders and teachers. It truly is the “Village” that is helping students such as Ty reach their goal of living independently and contributing to the community.

Upon completion of the program the LIFE students will participate in their own graduation and get to walk with the College of Education at the Universities ceremony.  This year’s graduates received a standing ovation from the 15,000 people attending the ceremony as they received their diploma.

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

Daily newspaper in Little Rock innovates, bringing more prosperity

By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum

MAY 27, 2019  |  Daily newspapers aren’t what they used to be. They are thinner, with less news and advertising, and just plain don’t cover the news as they once did. Today most daily newspapers only cover a small geographic area close to their main city. In Gwinnett, we now see the pitiful coverage which both the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Gwinnett Daily Post offer.

Unfortunately, the impact of the Internet has drastically reduced daily newspapers to the point that at best, they are marginally profitable. Small daily and weekly newspaper have not seen their quality diminish as much, and most of these are still profitable.

What makes all this so bad is that newspapers once provided the basic information people needed to be good, informed citizens in our republic.  The declining quality of newspapers means that not as much useful and necessary information is available for our citizens, threatening our nation’s ability for voters to be informed.

Yet not all newspapers are doing poorly. There are a few newspapers that have forward-thinking and creative publishers who have taken steps to insure their newspaper’s long term viability. One of those persons is Walter Hussman Jr. of Little Rock, Ark. Read today’s accompanying article below about how Mr. Hussman has thought through a dilemma and improved his newspaper and the state of democracy in his state at the same time, and to remain profitable and in business.

Mr. Hussman and his family have been thinking outside the box in the newspaper industry for years. The family owned a small group of Arkansas newspapers when I visited one of those newspapers in Hot Springs, Ark., about 25 years ago. A newspaper publisher from Newnan and I, while attending a National Newspaper Association meeting in Hot Springs, visited his plant. What we found astounded us.  Expecting to see a sleepy operation in an out-of-the-way town, turned into us finding and exciting new venture in one of the most modern newspaper plants we had ever seen. They were years ahead of other newspapers in technology.

In 1998, Mr. Hussman bought the afternoon Chattanooga Free Press, in competition with the stronger morning Chattanooga Times, run by the sister of the New York Times publisher.  The following year, Mr. Hussman had the upper hand, and eventually bought out the Times in Chattanooga. Today it is a healthy newspaper, Chattanooga Times Free Press.

A similar thing happened in Little Rock, where the Hussmans had owned The Arkansas Democrat since 1974, an evening paper against the stronger morning and well-established Arkansas Gazette. Charging hard at the Gazette, Mr. Hussman offered free want ads in many categories, and adopted several up-front activities that eventually had the long-time Gazette owners looking forward to selling out to the Hussmans. In 1986, the Gazette was sold to the Gannett newspaper conglomerate. After a five year newspaper battle, in 1991 the Gazette sold to the Hussmans.

It was the same old adage: better management through forward thinking and a willingness to try something different, which made the significant difference. That’s the way the Hussmans have run their operations over the years. And Mr. Hussman’s changes have resulted that his Little Rock newspaper has a statewide readership of informed citizens, good for democracy in Arkansas.

Read Mr. Hussman’s explanation in Another View (below) and see the innovations that the Little Rock newspapers have adopted today. If other daily newspaper publishers are smart, they’ll adopt some of the Hussman tactics, see their newspapers be of higher quality and profitable, and greatly improve their overall community. That’s good for any community, and for democracy, too.

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

Many In Arkansas now read this newspaper on their own iPad

(Editor’s note: In a letter to subscribers recently, the publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock, outlined an experiment the newspaper undertook last year in Blytheville, Ark., designed to confront the reality of declining profits after being unprofitable for the first time in 20 years. Here are  his ideas, excerpted from his letter to subscribers.—eeb) 

By Walter E. Hussman Jr., publisher
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.  |  Confronted with this reality of declining profits, one logical option was to cut back on unprofitable circulation in remote areas of the state, something most newspapers had done years earlier. But realizing that newspapers are not just a business, but a public trust vital to our democracy, we tried to determine some way we could continue to be a statewide newspaper delivered to all 75 counties.

Hussman

Regarding an experiment last year in Blytheville, Ark., 186 miles from Little Rock, we realized that it was very expensive and unprofitable to deliver to 200 subscribers in an area with about 5,000 households. We realized we could deliver the exact same newspaper in the exact same format, but on an iPad rather than on paper. We also realized that many of our subscribers did not own an iPad.

(Editor’s Note: The readers get a pdf version of each newspaper page, and read it page-by-page, just like leafing through a printed newspaper.)

So we included an iPad with the subscription, allowing them to read an even better version of their paper. We sat down with each of our subscribers and gave them their iPad, showed them how to use it, and how they could read the newspaper on it.

The Blytheville experiment was successful with over 70 percent of our subscribers converting to the iPad. We did a survey later, and we found most subscribers were reading it as frequently as the print edition. Most said they found it hard to believe, but they actually liked the newspaper better on an iPad.

We determined that if 70 percent or more of our subscribers converted from the print edition to the iPad, we could eliminate considerable costs in production, newsprint and delivery expenses. We found that if subscribers paid the existing full subscription price, we could turn an unprofitable newspaper into a profitable one again. And we could do this without reducing any cost in our newsroom, allowing us to continue to offer complete coverage and deliver it throughout the state of Arkansas.

Over the past year, we have now converted subscribers from newsprint to an iPad in most of the counties in the state. And they have told us the same thing: they read the iPad version just as regularly, and surprisingly to them, they like it even better.

Here’s why readers like the iPad version:

• The most popular feature is the ability to enlarge the type, simply by touching the article and spreading two fingers apart on the screen. This makes the type larger, and it is much easier to read the newspaper.
• The clarity of the type and photos on the iPad are much sharper than in print.
• And on the iPad, every photo is in color.
• Articles can be shared with friends or family. You can do this simply by pressing a few buttons and sending by email, or send on social media such as Facebook or Twitter.
• News items can be read aloud to you from your iPad. This is convenient when you are in a car or somewhere else where you can’t devote your visual attention to reading the paper.
• The paper is delivered in your house, not outdoors, so no more going out in the cold or on a rainy morning to get the paper. The iPad edition also has later news, with everyone in the state getting the city edition, and it’s delivered earlier, almost always before 4 a.m.
• The newspaper can also be delivered and downloaded to your iPad anywhere, even if you are in another state.
• You can store the past 60 days of editions on your iPad.
• With an iPad and our subscription, you can now access free of charge all of the archives of the newspaper.
• Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net

E.R. Snell Contractor, Inc.

The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today’s sponsor is E.R. Snell Contractor, Inc. of Snellville. Founded in the 1920s, ERS was built on Christian beliefs with honesty and integrity leading the way. Specializing in roads, bridges and culverts, its goal is to build a safe and modern highway system while preserving our natural environment. Through quality production and high safety standards, it strives to be the best contractor possible, while continuing to be a positive influence on its employees and the community. Internet access is available at www.ersnell.com.

• For a list of other sponsors of this forum, click here.

Looks at European Union vote and considers changing ideology

Editor, the Forum:

As I watch the returns of the European Union (EU) election, my immediate reaction is to Marx’s German Ideology.  Ideas become obsolete and dinosaur politicians go down in flames trying to force these ideas on a suffering populace.  New thesis, better yet synthesis. So England, France, Hungary, Italy now have right leadership. Germany grows its Green Party. One issue parties find paydirt in retaliation to blind pounding of obsolete positions.  Leadership is absent. Feeble reptilian European minds will feebly seek answers, hopefully quickly enough before to much damage is done.

The EU vote is merely a prelude to the vote in the United Kingdom (UK.)  If the UK leaves hard, the EU results are different.  If the UK can leave hard with negotiated agreements with the rest of the world, there will be a new era in the UK. The real need is leadership which has been in short supply. So green hills of flaming chariots,  pick up your bow, your golden arrow, and deliver .

— Byron Gilbert, Duluth

Sees idiocy within political system which doesn’t help both parties

Editor, the Forum:

The idiocy within our political system does not honor the bounds of party membership; however, the proposals by Bernie, et. al., set new records. The only consolation is that our republic has survived lunacies (and lunatics) in the past, but this one is wrong in so many dimensions it is scary.

— Ed Orr, Peachtree Corners

Dear Ed: Lots of scary stuff out there.  Remember we survived Richard Milhous Nixon and I hope we can survive Mr. Trump. And others would say Ms. Pelosi, to make your point.—eeb

Why can’t the USA move as quickly as New Zealanders on guns?

Editor, the Forum:

Why can’t we in the United States do what New Zealand was quickly able to do?   Each time there is another mass shooting we are told, “Now is not the time” to pass gun laws which most Americans want.)  When is the time? How many children and adults must be murdered before the Grand Old Party and National Rifle Association care?

— Lucy Brady, Suwanee

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

Hall is mew COO of the Gwinnett Convention and Visitor’s Bureau

Gwinnett Convention and Visitor’s Bureau (GCVB) Board of Directors has announced the appointment of Stan L. Hall as Chief Operating Officer (COO) for GCVB effective June 1, 2019. Prior to the COO appointment, Hall served as the executive director of the Gwinnett Sports Commission and the PGA TOUR Champions Mitsubishi Electric Classic for the past eight years.

Hall

Preston Williams, GCVB chief executive officer, states: “This appointment will bolster the leadership of our organization as we continue to evolve into one of the leading entertainment destinations in the state. The vital role Stan has served in our organization and within the county makes him the ideal person to lead our current endeavors into a bright and successful future.”

The COO will oversee operations for Infinite Energy Center, Infinite Energy Arena, Explore Gwinnett, the Gwinnett Sports Commission and the PGA TOUR Champions Mitsubishi Electric Classic. The COO also oversees the annual maintenance and capital projects of Coolray Field, where the Gwinnett Stripers, the AAA affiliate of the Atlanta Braves, play their home games.

Hall also serves as the treasurer of the Sugarloaf Community Improvement District and is chairman of the board for Mosaic Georgia. He is also a board member on the Gwinnett Public Schools Foundation, Gwinnett Medical Center Foundation, Gwinnett County Police Foundation, Eastside Hospital Board and Gwinnett Public Schools Student Leadership Advisory Board. Hall is also a member of the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce Chairman’s Club and the Gwinnett Rotary Club.

Prior to becoming the Executive Director of the Gwinnett Sports Commission, Hall served as the director of the Victim Witness Program for the Gwinnett County Judicial Circuit. In his 33 year career in public service he was a chief criminal investigator and served as a senior director for the District Attorney of Gwinnett County. He is a graduate of the 188th Session of the FBI National Academy and has been recognized by proclamation by both Governor Barnes and Governor Perdue, as well as the Georgia State Senate, for his work in public service.  Hall is a 6th generation Gwinnett resident where he and his wife, Janell, continue to reside.

Kemp names two from Gwinnett to state boards

Lisa Winton of Lawrenceville has been named by Gov. Brian Kemp to the State Board of the Technical College System of Georgia.  She is a STEM education and workforce development advocate. In 1997, Winton and her husband, George, founded Winton Machine Company, which designs and builds tube and semi-rigid coax fabricating machinery.

George and Lisa Winton

Winton serves as an advisory member for the Collins Hill High School STEM Program and Career and Technical Education Committees. Winton is currently serving as a Gwinnett Chamber and Partnership Gwinnett Board Member. Winton is also a member of the Gwinnett Shelter Fund Development Committee for Partnership Against Domestic Violence.

Winton is a past president of Junior League of Atlanta and is a University of Florida graduate with a degree in Business Administration. She and her husband have raised their two young adult children, Amanda and Andrew. She was sworn-in on May 23.

Thompson

Named to the Georgia Student Finance Commission Board of Commissioners is Thad Thompson a life-long resident of Norcross. Thompson is married to Emily, and they welcomed their first child, Mary Frances, last November. Thompson is a member of Mt. Carmel UMC where he enjoys working with the youth group. A graduate of Young Harris and Georgia College, Thompson runs a financial planning practice. Spending time with family, being outdoors, playing golf, and working in the community are what he enjoys most. He will be sworn-in on May 22.

Inaugural all-day BookFest Gwinnett coming to Norcross on June 15

The inaugural BookFest Gwinnett will be a one-day event at the Norcross Cultural Arts and Community Center showcasing the theme of diversity in literature. Festivities will include a keynote address by Kenny Leon. Panelists including Tayari Jones, Anjali Enjeti, Susan Puckett, and Soniah Kamal.  There will also be sessions for children.

The event will be June 15 from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. at the Norcross Cultural Arts Center, 10 College Street.  The event is organized by The Atlanta Writer’s Club and is supported by a grant from Georgia Humanities. BookFest Gwinnett will offers a variety of speakers addressing different aspects of the writing craft and the strength of Georgia’s kaleidoscopic literary makeup.

Early birds can buy the speakers’ books from Bookmiser beginning at 10 a.m. A Children’s Stage also will be open to entertain with puppet shows and a comic book artist.

Norcross Mayor Craig Newton will officially open the festival at 10:45 a.m. on the Main Stage, to be followed by our keynote conversation at 11 a.m. from Kenny Leon, Tony Award-winning Broadway and television director and founder and artistic director of Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company. He will be interviewed by John Lemley, a mainstay of Atlanta’s media scene for well over two decades. A blend of local, regional, and nationally acclaimed authors addressing different genres, themes, and styles of fiction and nonfiction will be presented throughout the day

The final speaker of the day, Tayari Jones, will give away signed copies of her 2018 Oprah’s Book Club Selection An American Marriage.

The Gwinnett County Public Library has created The Children’s Stage, with free signed books for the first 50 children who attend. It will also offer puppet shows and a craft club for little writers.

Fans of Young Adult books and graphic novels will enjoy interacting with local authors who are renowned for their speculative fiction, graphic novels, and comic books.

Writing workshops presented by local university professors. The Atlanta Writers Club will show potential writers how to get started, put the finishing touches on their work, and find a publishing home for it.

Gwinnett Police partnering with firm in neighborhood watch program

The Gwinnett County Police Department is partnering with a private neighborhood watch program to deter crime. Under an agreement approved by the Board of Commissioners, the department will be able to access videos submitted by subscribers of Ring, a doorbell video company that forms online crime watch networks with neighborhood users.

The company will donate 80 Ring Video Doorbell 2s valued at $15,920, which the department will give away and help install. However, residents do not need the Ring security system to be a part of the Ring online crime watch network, called Neighbors. Unlike other social media-type networks, Ring is solely dedicated to crime prevention.

Gwinnett Police Chief Butch Ayers said, “This agreement will allow the Gwinnett County Police Department to engage the community with a tool that can assist in solving crimes, help in reporting suspicious activities, and provide timely notifications by residents of potential problems in their neighborhoods.”

Ring sells doorbells equipped with video cameras triggered by motion. Residents can volunteer those recordings to help police investigate crimes. Police cannot access live stream video and cannot access videos that residents do not submit.

Ring also offers an app that allows users to post on a page with neighbors to alert one another of possible criminal activity. The agreement with Ring allows Gwinnett police to follow those conversations to track burglars and other criminals.

Gwinnett County Police Department will meet with neighborhood groups that are designated COPS communities to discuss the Neighbors crime watch app. Residents of these neighborhoods who download the app will be entered into a raffle to win a doorbell video camera. One Ring doorbell camera will be raffled per COPS community. The Gwinnett County Police Department will help install the device at the winners’ residences at a later date.

Franklin and Winston by Jon Meacham

From John Titus, Peachtree Corners: The first brief meeting of Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill was in July 1918. Neither was impressed by the other. They would not be in contact for another 21 years. Within a few days of England’s entry into the war, Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. Shortly thereafter Roosevelt wrote Churchill a congratulatory letter on his appointment asking him to stay in touch. Thus the first step in their friendship was taken. Using a variety of sources from their correspondence, the remembrances of aides and friends, official reports and the observations of family members Meacham explores the fascinating relationship between these two men who led the English-speaking world during World War II. I have read many books on Churchill and a few on America during this period. This was one of the most interesting and revealing about these two giants of the 20th century.

• 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 European exploration of Georgia carried out mainly by Spain

The initial European exploration of Georgia was carried out in large part by Spaniards, first operating out of colonial bases in the Caribbean Sea and Mexico and later from the city of St. Augustine on the Florida coast. Between 1525 and 1646, expeditions large and small explored both the coast and the interior of Georgia, covering most of the inhabited portions of the Coastal Plain and parts of the lower Piedmont.

The first documented exploration was carried out along the coastline in 1525 by two ships from Puerto Rico under pilot Pedro de Quejos, who had landed in South Carolina in 1521 on a slaving expedition. This brief reconnaissance of the entire coastline prefaced the subsequent colonial venture of Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon, whose 600 colonists first made landfall in South Carolina before moving south, following Indian trails, to the Georgia coast in 1526. There, in an as yet undiscovered location (perhaps near Sapelo Sound), Ayllon established the short-lived colony of San Miguel de Gualdape, which was abandoned just six weeks later, following political disputes and an African slave uprising.

De Soto

In the spring of 1540, an army of some 600 Spanish soldiers under the command of Hernando de Soto marched north from Florida into southwestern Georgia in search of riches. The expedition crossed the Flint River near present-day Newton, and visited the chiefdom of Capachequi located along Chickasawhatchee Creek, and then pushed northeast toward present-day Marshallville, where they recrossed the Flint and stopped briefly at a village called Toa.

The soldiers then moved east to the Ocmulgee chiefdom of Ichisi, with its capital at the Lamar Mound site (from which the Lamar Period of Georgia prehistory gets its name) near present-day Macon and then to the Oconee River villages of Altamaha, Ocute, and Cofaqui. The expedition continued east into South Carolina, turned north to cross the Appalachian summit in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, and finally dropped south again into northwestern Georgia during July.

The army stayed more than a month in the capital of the powerful Coosa chiefdom near present-day Calhoun and then marched south to Itaba (Etowah) near Cartersville before following the Etowah River west to Ulibahali at Rome, and subsequently downriver along the Coosa River to Apica and finally into Alabama.

(To be continued)

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

Memorial Day makes this good time for this Mystery Photo

The just-marked Memorial Day is a good time to bring back this sight some have seen. This may not be as tricky as it looks. Figure out where this photo was taken and you’ll solve today’s Mystery Photo. Include your hometown when sending your idea to elliott@brack.net.

Only one person was able to spot the most recent Mystery Photo. He is Jim Savadelis of Duluth, who recognized an elaborate fountain in Bruhl, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The fountain is of Neptune at Phantasialand Amusement Park.  The photograph came from George Graf of Palmyra, Va.

Indoor Pest Control workshop will be May 29 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at OneStop Centerville, 3025 Bethany Church Road, Snellville.  Many pests, such as roaches, ants, and spiders, can be bothersome to homeowners. In this workshop, learn how to use a multitude of tactics to control them and keep them out of the home. For ages 18 and up. Preregister online with code EXT34501.

Lilburn Dinner: To provide funds to support the Georgia Fresh for Less program, the Lilburn Farmers Market is hosting a Farm to Market to Table fundraising dinner on Friday, May 31 in the outdoor courtyard at Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church. Chef Lisa Lowe of Cooking for Caregivers has crafted an amazing three-course meal focusing on the locally grown and produced products found at the market. It is a preview of the upcoming Lilburn market which opens on June 7. However, the dinner is sold out!

Kids’ Fishing Day at Jones Bridge Park, 4901 East Jones Bridge Road in Peachtree Corners, will be Saturday, June 1 from 9 a.m. until noon. Bring the kids for food, fun, and fishing. For both beginners and the more advanced. Rod and bait will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis. Call 678-277-0906 for more information. Jones Bridge Park, 4901 East Jones Bridge Road, Peachtree Corners.

Concert in the Park in Norcross on June 1: Gwinnett Symphony will close the 2018-19 season as its Jazz Ensemble completes its third concert season with an entertaining evening in Thrasher Park at 7 p.m. This free concert sponsored by City of Norcross features a program which includes a diversity of groovy music from North and South America. Bring your chairs or blankets and your favorite foods to enjoy as you relax to the sounds of music on a summer evening.

Author Lauren Willing will speak on June 5 at 7 p.m. at the Georgia Gwinnett College Heritage Room on the third floor of the Kaufman Library.  She is a  bestselling author of historical fiction.  Her works include The Other Daughter and The English Wife. Her latest book is The Summer Country. Visitor parking is at Lot 3000 off of Lonnie Harvel Boulevard. The event is open to the public and free and is presented by the Gwinnett County Public Library.

Groundbreaking: The City of Sugar Hill will host an official groundbreaking ceremony for its new Veterans Memorial Plaza on the 75^th anniversary of D-Day, June 6 at 9 a.m. Mayor Steve Edwards and the Sugar Hill City Council welcome the Sugar Hill community to take part in the groundbreaking for this community symbol.   The ceremony will be held at the intersection of W. Broad Street and Church Street, across from City Hall at 5029 W. Broad Street. NE. The Memorial Plaza includes monuments for the six military service branches, a water feature, and an eternal flame, arranged on a walkable hardscape plaza.

Mary Kay Andrews will speak at the Peachtree Corners City Hall on June 7 at 7 p.m. She is a Georgia author of 24 novels and a cookbook. Her latest novel is Sunset Beach. Books will be available for purchase and signing. Her appearance is presented by the Gwinnett County Public Library.

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