YOUTH AND ADULT ART CLASSES are routinely held in a variety of mediums including pottery and painting at the Hudgens Center for Art and Learning, located in the Infinite Energy Center campus off of Sugarloaf Parkway. Here Wendy Anett Alvarez of Suwanee adds details to her painting. To learn more about classes at the Hudgens, visit www.thehudgens.org.
TODAY’S FOCUS: Moving from a City Councilman To Working on Disaster Responses
EEB PERSPECTIVE: How Do Those Writers of Fiction Come Up With Their Story Ideas?
ANOTHER VIEW: Here’re Steps To Take When Your Computer Is Phished
SPOTLIGHT: Imagine Advertising and Global Signs
FEEDBACK: Chattahoochee Watershed Endangered by Forest Service New Plan
UPCOMING: Two Top Officials in Lilburn To Resign, Then Seek Other Posts
NOTABLE: Jackson EMC Foundation Donates $73,000 To Gwinnett Non-Profits
RECOMMENDED: Movie: Just Mercy
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Marine Corps Logistics Base near Albany, Opened in 1954
MYSTERY PHOTO: Figure Out The Location of this Southern Mansion, a Mystery Photo
CALENDAR: Learn Stories Surrounding Georgia Lake in Upcoming Talk
Moving from city council to work on disaster responses
(Editor’s note: When we heard that Norcross Councilman Dan Watch had decided not to run after one term in office, we wondered why, asked him, and found out. An opportunity in which he was interested came his way, and here you can understand the results. It’s exciting for him, and should be for us, too, since it is such a distinctive and challenging change.–eeb)
By Dan Watch
NORCROSS, Ga. | Last August, I submitted all forms to run for a second term as a city councilmember in Norcross. Two days later, I had a conversation with representatives at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to discuss design solutions for disaster response. While I had plans to work on disaster response as an encore career, it is important that I begin focusing on this now because of recent opportunities to speak with government agencies such as DHS, the Communicable Disease Center and the Federal Emergency Management System.
Watch
The signs and impacts of climate change are increasing and creating more natural disasters around the world. If natural disasters are addressed in a proactive manner, there is an opportunity to create jobs, as well as saving lives.
By working with U.S. government agencies and innovative companies, universities, and foundations, we can network the strengths of each. Government agencies can share current challenges and success stories, while explaining what is appropriate in addressing natural disasters. This collaboration helps private industry partners to focus within those parameters and design real solutions that can be implemented.
Proactive planning has the potential to provide early warning systems to save lives and assets worth at least ten times their cost. A 24-hour warning can cut the ensuing damage by 30 percent in the context of a coming storm or heat wave. Climate-resilient infrastructure may add three percent to upfront costs, but has benefit-cost ratios of approximately 4:1. With $60 trillion in projected infrastructure investments between 2020 and 2030, the potential benefits of early adaptation are enormous (per the Global Commission Final Report).
Immediate Disaster Response focuses on helping people and locations hit by a disaster within 48 hours of a natural disaster. There are many needs during this initial time frame where people can use their expertise to help, such as general aid, communication, access, utilities, and shelter. Our intent is to provide quick and effective support locally to assist those affected. For example, one of the challenges includes developing a supply chain process from initial design solutions to local installations.
I am working on this grass roots initiative with many others, intending to address real problems with real solutions. We hope to set new policies within various levels of the government to accelerate the best solutions both now and long term. One of the most important outcomes should be for individuals, universities, businesses, and government agencies to collaborate to address climate change and natural disasters now.
I appreciated the opportunity to serve the City of Norcross over the past two years. Those years on city council have been a positive and helpful experience. The community of Norcross has been wonderful to work with, and I appreciate the city’s support. I encourage others to get more involved in politics, especially at a younger age. As I transition off city council, I hope to have the ability to help others through disaster response solutions.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
How do writers of fiction come up with their story ideas?
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
JAN. 17, 2019 | Those really good fiction writers? I admire them. Although I generally read non-fiction, particularly histories, if I pick up a good book of fiction, then I am engrossed and content. Sometimes you want the book to go on and on, since the author is so good. I am in awe of those who can produce good fiction.
I cannot figure out how authors of fiction do it. I have a hard time even envisioning development of a fictional story. Since I was a teen, I’ve been observing what’s going on, then writing about what I have seen. That’s news writing. It’s simple: you tell the most important element first, then you go with the next most important part of what you saw, and you continue that way until you run out of interesting aspects of that story. Yet you made nothing up, merely told what you saw.
But come up with a story entirely out of my head? That is something that I can’t imagine doing.
About the only other style that I can construct is the editorial. For editorials, you state your opinion based on a matter, then you ramify and enlarge on it, and give reasons for your thoughts so that it make sense, then at the end, you re-emphasize the beginning. That makes a coherent editorial.
Perhaps I’ve figured out why the really good fiction writers are successful. They must think creatively as no one has before, and come up with a story never told before. But maybe they think “inside themselves.” Perhaps they conjure up their plots from their dreams! After all, even I dream outside the box, sometimes wild dreams. Maybe that’s where good fiction authors get their ideas.
Now, first of all, you recognize that dreams are not straight-line thinking, one element following another in logical order. Dreams jump around with story, plot, characters and setting.
It was a dream that brought this to mind.
The other night in my dreams, I was young, perhaps a teenager, and needed to go downtown. So here I was waiting for the bus to go downtown. Only I was waiting on the wrong side of the street from where the bus stopped. Had a bus come, I would have had to cross the street. See? Dreams do not always make logical sense!
About that time, a white Cadillac convertible taxi pulls up, and three people got out. One was the taxi driver, who said, “You going to town? So you drive the taxi back.” Two other guys were also headed for town, and one gets in the driver’s seat, with me in the front and the other guy in the back, and we turned around and headed for town.
That’s where the dream ended. Made no sense to me. Yet it got me to thinking that perhaps all these fiction writers … may use their subconscious and nightly dreams to develop their sometimes zany plots.
It can’t be that simple. Yet to sit down with a writing pad, or typewriter or computer, and see that blank screen staring at you, and bat off a story that people will recognize as good writing … how else do they do it? What’s the secret?
Beats me. I can only tell a factual story based on what I have seen or learned. Those fiction storytellers? I admire them. They have quite a gift.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Here are steps to take when your computer is phished
By Mary Hester
President, LAN Systems
BERKELEY LAKE, Ga. | If you get phished, you probably won’t know it until it is too late to stop the damage.
Hester
Most phishing starts with an email and instructions to click a link to see a file or an invoice. You click and it takes you to a familiar login screen where many will enter their credentials. Then either nothing interesting happens, the page fails to load or a non-relevant file displays and you move on not realizing that the real attack was to get your login and password. These are your keys. Once in the hands of a hacker, they have access to your computer at will.
The two most common hacker tactics are lie in wait (like a fox hunting rabbits) and email blast. In either case, it may take days for the hacker to enter your mailbox and start malicious activity once obtaining your credentials.
In lie in wait, they will forward all your messages to their email account and set up rules to obscure any changes they have made to your email. They monitor your messages, looking for opportunities to victimize you and others.
In an email blast, the hacker will send out emails with links to malicious code or they will send conversational emails to your contacts pretending to be you and looking for ways to steal money.
When your mailbox is hacked, your friends and colleagues may get strange or urgent messages from you asking for help in the form of gift cards or other favors. The emails may include links to pictures, documents or other lures. At first glance, they look authentic and can easily fool your contacts. Or the hacker may use a contact list from a previous victim and take your contacts to use another day.
Recent attacks have become very personalized, indicating that the hacker is in your mailbox, reading your messages, and constructing more targeted attacks. There are numerous instances where the hacker has changed payroll direct deposit or sent real invoices with altered payment instructions to redirect to the hacker’s account. Another tactic is to send malicious encryption code to a contact list that will lock all computer files if executed. Other times, hackers will harvest more email credentials through a phishing email that is initiated from your email account.
Sound scary? Well, it is. It happens to people all the time, and most cannot recall how or when they fell victim.
Although there are dozens of ways that hackers can fool you, there are a few simple steps to keep you safe. You may not be able to identify every attack, but a few strategies will protect you from most online threats,
Use these three steps to protect yourself against phishing:
- Use Multifactor Authentication. Learn how at our blog post.
- 2. Learn to identify Phishing emails. Take our Phishing Quiz. (To take this quiz, go to:https://lansystems.com/computer-safety/phishing-quiz.)
- Make computer safety a priority! Practice good computer safety habits.
Attacks are increasingly malicious, targeted and persistent. If you have entered your email and password in a webpage and received a result that you did not expect, or if you are noticing strange happenings in your mailbox, do not ignore them. Change your password, check your mailbox rules and turn on Multifactor Authentication.
If you are not sure and need help, call your IT guy or reach out to me at mary@lansystems.com.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Imagine Advertising and Global Signs
The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today we welcome new underwriters. They are Imagine Advertising and Global Signs, two separate companies that are jointly owned and co-located right here in Peachtree Corners. Imagine Advertising is a full-service advertising agency that specializes in creative design, print, and digital services – including their subsidiary, Imagine Retailer,which hosts and manages some 400 web sites for retailers across the country. Global Signs is a full-service sign company that has been in business since 1952. Acquired three years ago, Global designs and fabricates all types of indoor and outdoor signage, and currently works with seven of the top ten home-builders in the country. Relevant websites, to learn more, are: www.imagineadv.com; www.globalsignsusa.com; and www.imagineretailer.com.
- For a list of other sponsors of this forum, click here
Chattahoochee watershed endangered by Forest Service plan
Editor, the Forum:
There is a serious threat to Georgia’s water supply, recreation, and natural beauty. The citizens of Georgia are soon to feel the assault of the Trump Administration’s harvesting of resources from our National Parks and public lands. This benefits only the corporate/industrial world.
I have stood at the source of the Chattahoochee River. Our beautiful Chattahoochee National Forest Watershed is now on the U.S. Forest Service’s (USFS) corporate chopping block. That’s 301 square miles of Georgia forest affected, not counting the 300 miles of new roads that will be built to make it easier to get to the timber.
Here is a list of USFS’s plans. They include:
- 60,000+ acres of commercial timber harvest.
- 50,000 acres of prescribed burning.
- Constructing 360 miles of new bulldozer paths to facilitate prescribed burning.
- Herbicide application across as much as 74,500 acres.
- Grinding vegetation to wood chips using industrial machinery on up to 83,000 acres.
- Rerouting up to 111 miles of trail.
- Decommissioning trails and dispersed camping areas.
It is my understanding this notice was released just before the holidays and a short period for comments closed on Jan 10, 2020.
— Tom Payne, Wayside Ga.
Supersize that purchase so economy will grow to consume
Editor, the Forum:
You may be astounded to hear, but the way to a strong, healthy economy, and a strong healthy America, is to consume, consume, consume.
To hell with conserve. Conserving shrinks markets, which causes businesses to fail, which leads to higher unemployment, which erodes the tax base. However, consuming leads to prosperity. It causes businesses to evolve and grow to meet the demand, which leads to more jobs, and stretches the workforce, which causes competition for workers which raise wages.
All this in turn fuels the stock market, and increases the baby boomers IRA’s and creates more retiree disposable income. This means retirees can enjoy their retirement years, spend more money, and consume, consume, consume, further stimulating the economy and bringing it full circle. So when going through the drive through, supersize it, help a baby boomer out. Please!
— David Simmons, A Baby Boomer, Norcross
Sees no problem with legislation on sports gender control
Editor, the Forum:
Let me take issue with a recent letter from Sara Rawlins regarding the proposed HR 747, which she says creates a Gender Policeman. I actually read the entire bill this morning, and other than the language being a little restrictive, I don’t see a problem with it.
It’s not a moral issue that brings this bill to the floor, it’s one of basic fairness. While six year old boys and girls may be able to compete equally in sports, the scientific facts get in the way of the “gender equality” issue when they get much older than that. It is an indisputable fact that as children approach puberty their bodies develop in markedly different ways. Biological boys generate testosterone, which aids the development of bone density and muscle mass. Biological girls do not.
Setting aside the social aspects of gender identity, the plain fact is that the average high school boy is taller, stronger, and faster than the average high school girl. There will certainly be exceptions, but to introduce artificial exceptions into the equation is unfair to the competitors and to the sport itself.
Perhaps you have head of the girl in Connecticut that won the state championship in track, although biologically a male? Competing as a female, she set several new state records. However, her statistics, when compared to male competitors, put her at 120th place statewide for the event. Plain and simple, there are girls competitions and there are boys competitions. Unless the State of Georgia is going to open up every athletic competition to every gender identity to compete as equal, this is a silly conversation to have. I’m sorry, but facts trump feelings.
— Rick Hammond,Lawrenceville
O’Reilly book may read well, but it is co-authored
Editor, the Forum:
In the review of a Bill O’Reilly book, it was stated that he writes well. O’Reilly uses ghostwriters or co-authors! If you look at the myriad of books that he has written, you will find that most of his early books were written “with Charles Flowers.”
I went to high school with Charles Flowers at Chattanooga. I have known him since 1956. He also ghosted a book for Huckabee. He has written on a plethora of subjects as well as often ghosting books for those that cannot write well. He lives in New York City and has also had an opera (or a play) on Broadway. He is, in fact, one of the most intelligent people that I have known. His politics are not O’Reilly’s or Huckabee’s; he is as liberal as I am. I asked him why he had this bargain with O’Reilly. His answer was, and I understand it well, “It pays well.”
— Raleigh Perry, Buford
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
Two top officials in Lilburn to resign, then seek other posts
Lilburn voters will face a city election on May 19, after Mayor Johnny Crist and MayorPro-Tem Tim Dunn have announced their resignations. Crist will be seeking a seat in the Legislature in the primary, to represent House District 108, currently held by Jasmine Clark. Dunn will seek election as Lilburn Mayor.
The resignations are effective March 1.Crist has served as a council member since 2008 and as mayor of the city since January 2012. Council member Dunn served on the Planning Commission for two years and has served on the Lilburn City Council since 2007.
A special election will be held on May 19, 2020 at Lilburn City Hall to fill the vacancies in the offices of Mayor and Council Post 4. For more information about the special election, visit cityoflilburn.com or contact City Clerk Melissa Penate at 770-638-2226.
Duluth accepting applications for 12th L.E.A.D. program
The 12th installment of the Duluth L.E.A.D. (Learn, Engage, Advance Duluth) Academy is set to begin on February 11, 2020. It will consist of seven Tuesday evening sessions held from 6 to 9 p.m.. There will be one Monday evening session (February 24) when the class will join the City Council for the regularly scheduled Work Session at 5:30 pm. Sessions will take place at City Hall.
The Academy was founded with the thought that citizens engage when they are armed with good information. Class members will be empowered to help address community issues when they understand ways all can help.
The deadline for applications is January 31, 2020. For more information and an application go to www.duluthga.net/lead. Questions? Contact Alisa Williams at awilliams@duluthga.net or 678-475-3506.
Join in the fun of tree-chipping at Bethesda Park on Jan. 25
Join Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful on Saturday, January 25, 2020 for Bring One for the Chipper! Activities start at 8 a.m. at Bethesda Park, 225 Bethesda Church Road, near Lawrenceville.
You can be one of the many community volunteers that will help chip trees into mulch at the largest Christmas tree recycling event in Georgia. Recycling your Christmas tree keeps trees out of landfills by recycling them into mulch. This effort saves precious landfill space and provides and easy and environmentally conscious solution for residents.
Drop off your Christmas tree to through January 20 and it will be turned into mulch on January 25, 2020! If you want to participate, wear long pants and thick-soled, closed toed shoes. Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful also recommends weather-appropriate, comfortable clothing that the volunteer won’t mind getting dirty.
Jackson EMC Foundation gives $73,000 to local nonprofits
A $10,000 Jackson EMC Foundation check to Just People will help purchase a vehicle for transporting individuals to work and to programs. Adam Duncan, Jackson EMC residential energy adviser, and Jim Puckett, Jackson EMC Foundation board member (far left) present the check to Just People staff and individuals served by the organization.
The Jackson EMC Foundation board of directors awarded a total $103,005 in grants during its December meeting, including $73,000 of which benefit organizations serving Gwinnett County. They include:
$15,000 to Hi-Hope Service Center, Inc., in Lawrenceville, to help fund part-time nursing and nutrition services for 20 developmentally disabled Gwinnett residents who require onsite nursing care for services.
$12,000 to Sandy Creek Nature Center, in Athens, to help construct an outdoor play and exploration area for children throughout the Jackson EMC service area.
$10,000 to Eyes of Love Lighthouse Mission, Inc., in Buford, a grassroots ministry that collects and distributes clothes, food and furniture to needy families in Barrow, Gwinnett and Hall counties.
$10,000 to Junior Achievement of Georgia, Inc., for program materials, support materials and supplies for the JA Biztown and JA Finance Park interactive programs at Discovery High School.
$10,000 to Just People, a nonprofit organization serving adults with developmental disabilities, head injuries and mental illness in Gwinnett and Hall counties.
$10,000 to Mending the Gap, a Lawrenceville-based nonprofit organization serving the basic needs of low-income seniors, for its Save Our Seniors Project.
$6,000 to Norcross Meals on Wheels, which serves Norcross, Peachtree Corners, Duluth and Berkeley Lake communities in Gwinnett County.
Movie: Just Mercy
From Cindy Evans, Duluth: We recently saw this newly-released, powerful film. It is based on a true story of Bryan Stevenson, who helped inmates on death row that were wrongly convicted. The film focuses on Walter McMillian, played awesomely by Jamie Foxx. Michael B. Jordan is great as Bryan, his lawyer. Brie Larson is also great as his assistant, Eva. Although frustrating to watch at times because of the injustices, you will find yourself rooting for victory and freedom for the innocent. Remain in your seat when the movie ends for additional facts about the real story. It is most emotional and highly recommended and although it was tough to watch at times, I felt it was important and inspiring. There are also some scenes that were filmed here in Georgia. It lasts 2:16 hours, and is PG 13.
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
Marine Corps Logistics Base near Albany, opened in 1954
The Marine Corps Logistics Base is located in Dougherty County in southwest Georgia, approximately five miles southeast of Albany. Its mission is to rebuild and repair ground-combat and combat-support equipment and to support installations on the East Coast of the United States.
Albany was chosen as the site for the logistics base after a two-year search in the early 1950s for a level area convenient to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean and serviced by road and rail. Albany was also attractive for its inland location, well away from the possibility of saltwater corrosion of the stored equipment, and its adequate workforce. Under construction for two years, the base opened in 1954 as the Marine Corps Depot of Supplies. In 1959, renamed the Marine Corps Supply Center, it was assigned the mission of rebuilding nonaviation equipment. In 1976 the base was redesignated the Marine Corps Logistics Support Base, Atlantic, and was finally given its present designation in 1978.
Today’s Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, comprises more than 3,300 acres and in 2002 employed more than 2,400 civilians along with a complement of 600 marines. The Albany Maintenance Center is also the home base for the commander of the Marine Corps Logistics Bases, which includes those located at Barstow, Calif., and Jacksonville, Fla.
During the Persian Gulf War (1990-91) the base’s workforce shipped more than nine million pounds of equipment to air and seaports for rapid transport to troops abroad. Personnel also installed 26 “tractor protective kits” on bulldozers used to break through Iraqi barriers and minefields. The armored bulldozers helped open the way for coalition troops to overrun enemy defenses.
Preserving the environment and the wildlife in and around the base has been a priority since the early planning phases of the facility. Colonel A.E. Dubber, the officer who chose the Albany site, insisted early on that he wanted no wildlife disturbed unnecessarily and that as many trees as possible should be saved. Because of his policies the base is lined with pecan orchards and rows of oaks. The so-called Dubber Oak, upon which the base was aligned during construction, still stands near the main gate.
In 1973 more than 200 Indian artifacts were discovered on the base. Arrowheads, flint knives, scrapers, and other ancient tools estimated to be more than 8,000 years old were unearthed by archaeologists. Their presence suggests that the area may have been a trading or supply post for Native Americans.
Logistics training for employees of the base is offered through Albany Technical College.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia online, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Figure out location of this Southern mansion, a Mystery Photo
Isn’t this a beautiful colonial residence? Your job is to identify where it is located, and that might not be all that easy. Send your answers to elliott@brack.net, and include your hometown.
The previous mystery evidently was easy. Some 15 people sent in answers, including one not printed who did not give her hometown. Scott LeCraw of Suwanee “”signed in early identifying the last Mystery Photo: “I didn’t need to search the web to identify today’s mystery photo. It’s the location of the Providence Spring that appeared inside Camp Sumter at the Andersonville POW Camp during the Civil War. My third great-uncle, William Pitman LeCraw, was a private in the First Heavy Artillery Regiment of Massachusetts and was captured at Petersburg in June of 1864. Transported south to Andersonville in south Georgia, he was imprisoned there with thousands of other POWs in brutal conditions.
“The prisoners were given next to nothing and were forced to get by on their own, resulting in severe suffering. There was a creek running through the camp that was the only source of water. Less a creek and more of a swamp, it was also used as the only way to handle human sewage and soon became a recurring source of disease. Then one night in August of 1864 lightning struck inside the camp during a thunderstorm and fresh water sprang from the earth. While accounts vary as to whether it was lightning or heavy rain or some other event that caused the spring to erupt, the prisoners considered it an act of Providence from God.
“My great-uncle William died in the camp on August 29, 1864, as did thousands of his compatriots. I have visited his grave and walked where he walked. I visited the Providence Spring, which has been flowing for 156 years and felt a strong connection to him and to the suffering endured by all who were interned there.”
The photo came from Jerry Coley of Alpharetta.
Other recognizing the photo include David Will, Lilburn; Elizabeth Truluck Neace, Dacula; Lynn Naylor, Atlanta; Bobbie Tkacik, Lilburn; David Earl Tyre, Jesup; Virginia Klaer, Duluth; Kay Everett, Lawrenceville; Lou Camerio, Lilburn; Jim Savedelis, Duluth; George Graf, Palmyra, Va.; Randy Brunson, Duluth; Bob Foreman, Grayson;
Stewart A. Woodard of Lawrenceville added: “Providence Spring House is located at Andersonville Confederate POW camp, one of the most infamous of both the Union and/or Confederate prison camps. I have visited it.
“My family tree has members on both sides at the camp. A Union second Great Grandfather, Francis Asbury Remington, died there April 1, 1863, at age only 35, with a wife and four children. He is now buried at Popular Grove National Cemetery, Petersburg Va. A Confederate second Great Grandfather, John McConnell Stewart, lost his right leg below the knee at Battle of Chickamaunga. He did not die until June 20, 1917, at age 73. He was the Fayette County (Ala.) Assessor for about 12 years. He is buried at Stewart Cemetery at Bluff, Fayette County, Ala. Hence, I belong to both the Sons of the Confederate Veterans and Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War. That is why I am “A True American SOB”, because I am a son of both.”
Allan Peel of San Antonio, Tex. “ Today’s mystery photo is of a granite building at the Providence Spring of the Andersonville National Historic Site. Interestingly, this structure is only 500 feet from the harrowing sculpture of a Union POW soldier that was featured as the Mystery Photo in the March 15, 2019 edition of the GwinnettForum.”
Learn stories about Georgia lake in coming talk
Photographic Show, from the lens of Roving Photographer Frank Sharp, “From Russia with Love,” is at the Tucker Library, 5234 LaVista Road, through February 29. See the colorful and skilled photographs from this talented photographer.
Gwinnett NAACP presents a Martin Luther King Jr. Sunday Supper, on January 19, at South Gwinnett High School at 4 p.m. in Snellville. The theme is “Reignite, rebuild and reconnect ourselves through history.” For more information and to purchase tickets at $5 each or $20 for families of five or more, visit www.gnaacpmlksundauysupper.eventbrite.com.
MLK Day of Service: Cemetery Field or Peachtree Ridge Park will be January 20 from 9 a.m. to noon. Begin 2020 with service to the community by joining at either of two park locations. Families, service organizations, and scout groups are welcome. Wear pants and closed-toe shoes, and bring gloves i. Tools, water, and snacks will be provided. Call 678-277-0905 for more information. Register online for Cemetery Field or Peachtree Ridge Park. Cemetery Field is at 211 Street, Norcross. Peachtree Ridge Park is at 1555 Old Peachtree Road, Suwanee.
“Plan Exploration with a Purpose” is the subject of the Gwinnett Master Gardeners meeting on January 20 at noon at The Bethesda Senior Center, 225 Bethesda Church Road, Lawrenceville. The event is free and open to the public. Speaker will be Scott McMahon, manager of International Plant Exploration at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.
Martin Luther King Day Parade, the 18th annual, will be in Lawrenceville, on January 20. The program is sponsored by the United Ebony Society of Gwinnett County. Activities start at 11 a.m. at the Gwinnett Justice and Administrative Center, 75 Langley Drive. The theme for 2020 is “The Time Is Always Right to do What is Right.” The parade line-up is at 11:20, and the parade will begin at noon. The route will leave the Justice Center and follow U.S. Highway 29 south to Moore Middle School, approximately two miles. The society says that “Remember, this is not a march/protest.”
Emory Professor Dr. Carol Anderson discusses her new book, One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy, on Sunday, January 26 at 3 p.m. at the Gwinnett County Public Library Lawrenceville Branch, 1001 Lawrenceville Highway, Lawrenceville. The event is free. Books will be available for sale and signing. She is the Charles Howard Candler professor of African American Studies at Emory University. Her research focuses on public policy with regard to race, justice, and equality. Professor Anderson is currently on the Advisory Board of the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative.
Author and Historian Lisa M. Russell will discuss the lakes of north Georgia, known for their breathtaking views and fun weekends on the water. But there is often a forgotten history that lurks beneath them. Entire towns have been submerged, sparking the interest of scuba divers, historians, and myth busters. Petersburg, Georgia for example, is now an underwater ghost town after the Army Corps of Engineers flooded more than 72,000 acres to build Thurmond Lake. But what is most fascinating about this underwater ghost town is that it had quite a rich and respectable history. Gwinnett County Public Library, in partnership with the Gwinnett Historical Society, will present author and historian Lisa M. Russell on Monday, January 27 at 6:30 p.m. at the Gwinnett Historic Courthouse, Lawrenceville. The public is welcome. For more information, visit.www.gwinnettpl.org or call 770-978-5154.
State of the City of Duluth Address will be held on January 27 at 7 p.m. at the Red Clay Music Foundry. . Mayor Nancy Harris will provide her unique twist on the annual state of the city address. This will take the place of the regularly scheduled Council Work Session. Come hear about all the accomplishments of the past year and what the city is looking forward to in the future.
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