GwinnettForum | Number 20.43 | June 19, 2020
LIBRARY PROGRESS: Work is well underway on a new Gwinnett County Public Library in Norcross. This view is looking northeast toward Buford Highway from the Biltmore apartments. Work is now under construction adjacent to the Library. The library’s parking deck will be on the bottom floor (sandy area). You can see the Library’s main floor underway in the central foreground. Anticipated date for completion of the Library is summer of 2021, says Chad Smith, architect for the project.
TODAY’S FOCUS: Ministry Finding Great Kindness in COVID-19 Time of Great Need
EEB PERSPECTIVE: High School Grads Organizing “Togetherness” Event for Weekend
ANOTHER VIEW: Hiking the Appalachian Trail, Finding a Surprise, plus Raspberries
SPOTLIGHT: Northside Hospital
FEEDBACK: Atlanta Shooting Points to Inflexible Departmental Policies
UPCOMING: GGC To Resume Class in Fall with Added Safety Accommodations
NOTABLE: Northside Hospital Assumes Management of Urgent Care Centers
RECOMMENDED: Take a Trip to Gibbs Gardens
GEORGIA TIDBIT: African-American Granted Land in Recognition for War Service
MYSTERY PHOTO: Classical Building Is Today’s Mystery Photo
CALENDAR: Snellville Farmers Market Will Have Social Distancing When Shopping
Ministry finding kindness in COVID-19 time of great need
By Jay Wilburn
NORCROSS, Ga. | In the midst of the economic strain brought on by COVID-19, the needs in our community have greatly increased. For over three decades, Neighborhood Cooperative Ministries (NCM, formerly Norcross Cooperative Ministry) has worked with clients to provide food, assistance with rent and utilities during times of personal and family crisis, and career assistance to help clients plan and work for a brighter future.
Now, more than ever, these are the areas where help is needed most. Fortunately, local individuals, churches, business leaders, and community organizations have risen to the challenge with kindness and generosity to help NCM in meeting these needs in Doraville, Norcross, Peachtree Corners, Tucker, and across Greater Southwest Gwinnett.
Thankfully, with NCM in an improved new location, our organization has had the necessary space needed to meet these unique challenges for our clients. From the last week of February through the end of March:
- NCM had a 526 percent increase in clients served.
- Food distribution increased 710 percent.
To compare May 2020 with May 2019:
- NCM has helped 2,225 clients — four times more than the number of clients helped in May 2019.
- NCM has distributed 55,603 lbs. of food — eleven times more than the amount distributed in May 2019.
- To help families with financial needs, NCM has distributed $120,200 towards rent and utility assistance.
More Kindness: our neighbors needed help, and the residents of the Peachtree Corners community showed up in a big way, contributing significant food and financial donations. Shirley Cabe, executive director of NCM, says: “It is so encouraging to see so many people who want to help those in need. We are so thankful to live in a generous community that wants to make a difference in the lives of those in crisis due to COVID-19.”
Kindness Continues: the Piedmont Bank saw the need and acted. With the help of a donated trailer from Howard Brothers Hardware and a donated banner from Trinity Press, Piedmont Bank started a weekly food drive at their location on Peachtree Parkway. During the month of April, the drive collected 35,000 lbs. of food. Under normal conditions, this amount of food
would take eight weeks to distribute to clients in need. Because of the increased level of need, this food lasted only three weeks.
NCM’s consistent history with serving the community allowed our organization to receive a grant for $200,000 from the Greater Atlanta COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund through the United Way. This money has been specifically used to provide extended stay lodging expenses (helping to keep people and families from possibly becoming homeless), rent assistance, and utilities assistance to families who desperately need the help right now.
When a neighbor is in trouble, we help because that is what neighbors do. We are all neighbors now and help is needed. The generosity and kindness of our community has allowed NCM to be here for our neighbors during these troubling times. Kindness makes all the difference.
We know we will get through this together because we have seen that the word neighbor still means something to this community.
- To help support our mission, please go to OurNCM.org to give online today, or send a check to NCM at P.O. Box 1489 Norcross, Ga. 30091. In the memo line, designate it for “Covid-19 Relief.” For more information, visit our website.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
High school grads organizing “Togetherness” event
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
JUNE 19, 2020 | Every now and then, a story comes by that just gladdens your heart.
On Wednesday we heard of a gathering set for Saturday, June 20, from 2 to 5 p.m. at Thrasher Park in Norcross. It’s called the “Togetherness Project,” and has been organized by members of the 2011 Class of Norcross High School. It will be a catered cookout, free to all. All families in Norcross are invited. The project is being held in cooperation with the 5ive Foundation of Norcross High.
Besides coming together, there will be music, guest speakers, raffles, and food. All will be free.
Bradley Coleman, now living in New Orleans, La. and teaching at George Washington Carver High School, is the lead organizer. His parents are Vengia and Jeffrey Coleman, who live off Medlock Bridge Road. Bradley says: “This gathering will be family friendly, with no smoking and no drinking. We want to bring the entire Norcross community together in a positive and peaceful atmosphere.”
Bradley wanted to hold this event two weeks ago, but took the time to organize it correctly, and get a permit for the event from the City of Norcross. Bradley says that recently, he has been peacefully protesting, but felt the need to do something for the community where he was raised. “I talked to my old teammate, Kendrix Hitt, and we bounced ideas off each other. Then we reached out to more guys, classmates of ours, and we came together with this idea of a ‘Togetherness’ celebration. Then we organized, putting people with jobs which they were good at, and all of a sudden, we had something going.”
Coleman was a member of the Norcross High football team and 2011 state basketball champions. “I was born and raised in Norcross, and the area is dear to me.” He later coached at Peachtree Ridge and Mountain View High Schools.
Bradley has had lots of help from his classmates, many who were members of the Norcross High football and basketball teams. That includes three professional football players, Max Garcia (Arizona Cardinals), Jason Croom (Buffalo Bills) and Geremy Davis (Detroit Lions.) Several other classmates have been helpful, including Seth Hinsley of Atlanta, Kendrix Huitt of Lawrenceville and from Norcross, Arius Wright, Erika Miranda, Matt Poole, Montgomery Tardy and Neil Reifenburger.
Jesse McMillian, the boys basketball coach at Norcross High, says that in talking with Bradley, “He remarked on how he felt that Norcross High School had prepared him for ‘real life’ because of our racial and economic diversity, because of his teachers and staff, and two incredible school resource officer, like Officers Chuck McCallum and Jennifer Gardner. He also mentioned the consistent feeling of community and cooperation that we have also enjoyed. Bradley also mentioned that he had spoken to many of his high school friends, and that they echoed these same statements.”
McMillian said that he understood that Bradley has been “an impressive voice during these times, taking part in and organizing peaceful protests in Georgia and Texas. And now he has taken this step further by championing many of his peers to organize the Togetherness Project in Norcross.”
McMillian adds: “We were lucky enough to teach these students. I ask that you join me on Saturday and bring people you know. It’ll be an afternoon of people that care for each other and are committed to navigating these unprecedented and difficult times.”
Isn’t this a great story of local graduates making a meaningful undertaking!
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Hiking Appalachian Trail, finding surprise and raspberries
By David Simmons
NORCROSS, Ga. | So far this has been a good year for raspberries. Most years in our locale, just as they begin to ripen, the weather shoots up into the 90s with no rain. That’s not good for the berries. This year, no 90s so far and lots of rain.
Simmons
But why raspberries, you might ask? I’ve told the story a few times, but I don’t think I have ever written it. It goes back to the late summer/early fall of 1990 as I was completing my through hike of the Appalachian Trail.
I was hiking through the White Mountains in New Hampshire on a beautiful September day. It was early, and I had just started my hike for the day. I hadn’t been out on the trail long at all as I was traversing around the side of a treeless mountain top, called a bald. I was moving around to the right, but actually circling to the left around the bald. There were no trees, as I walked along grasses and brush.
Suddenly, much to my surprise, a 300-400 pound black bear was ahead of me! He was as surprised to see me as I was him. I knew that because he paused from his munching on wild raspberries to cock his head and peer at me with a “Whatchoo lookin’ at Willis?”
Of course, I froze in place. As I stood there, the bear nonchalantly resumed chowing down on the wild raspberries. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, he was just a couple of feet off of the trail, so there was nowhere for me to go around him. After watching for a while, I decided to go for broke, stood tall, with my arms akimbo, and began shouting: “Scat! Shoo! Get out of here! Please!”and all kinds of other things hoping he would not take offense.
This time, he slowly turned and gazed in my direction. In what seemed like a disgusted frown, came down off of his back legs and onto all fours, shook his head and ambled slowly off down the mountainside. To celebrate my good fortune of continuing to live, I then proceeded to spend about a half an hour enjoying a great breakfast of the finest wild raspberries you could imagine.
Not many years later, being a new homeowner in Norcross, I was wandering through the local Home Depot, where much to my delight I came upon raspberry plants for sale. My memories came rushing back to me! Of course I bought eight of the bushes, planted them alongside the fence outside my house, and now have had about 25 wonderful seasons of fresh raspberries in the early summer.
Little did I know that fateful day at the Home Depot that not only would I be enjoying and sharing fresh raspberries with friends for years to come, but also, each time I went out to pick them pleasant memories of that beautiful day in New Hampshire would come rushing back.
That and the nagging thought, “Could I have outrun that bear?”
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Northside Hospital
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Atlanta shooting points to inflexible departmental policies
Editor, the Forum:
The tragic shooting of Rayshard Brooks points less to racism than to the inflexible drug and DUI policies that reward arrests instead of more humane options.
It’s hard to watch videos of the interactions between Officers Brosnam or Rolfe and Brooks and conclude that race was a factor. The night was civil, respectful, and courteous up until Rolfe began to cuff Brooks and place him under arrest. It went downhill from there and all the world got to see the results of reactionary laws translated into inflexible policies that lead to inhumane situations.
Officer Rolfe had been recently recognized for his high DUI arrest count. So why would he be satisfied with impounding the car and calling Brooks an Uber or letting his sister come and get him? The answer is that currently policies don’t award humane solutions; they award arrests.
While Rolfe could be accused of poor judgement in failing to inform Brooks that he was under arrest before cuffing him and then carelessly shooting in the direction of a busy highway, it was policy, not racism that led to a man losing his life that night.
The mayor directly firing the cop who enforced the underlying law and policies instead of reviewing and changing them just means that we will have more Friday nights like the last one.
— Joe Briggs, Suwanee
Recalls bridge in Florida that reminds him of local one
Editor, the Forum:
Any idea who designed this new pedestrian bridge in Peachtree Corners?
It reminds me of the Florida International University bridge that collapsed and killed the motorist two years ago. I actually go to a couple of businesses in the Peachtree Corners town center. We’ll just enter from the north so we won’t travel under the bridge anyway.
— Dan Mackaben, Lawrenceville.
Dear Dan: Just because a bridge looks like another does not necessarily mean that it is structurally unsound. The Peachtree Corners firm of Michael Baker, Inc., designed the Gwinnett bridge. –eeb
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
GGC to resume class in fall with added safety precautions
Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) will resume in-person classes in the fall with safety and social distancing accommodations in place. GGC President Jann L. Joseph says: “A great deal of planning and preparation, involving a number of scenarios, is underway to prepare to bring employees and students back to campus so that everyone may engage in the full higher education experience.”
Joseph said the college continues to work with the University System of Georgia in tandem with the governor’s office and the Georgia Department of Health to make informed decisions based on advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about the status of the campus.
GGC’s employees, most of whom have been teleworking since mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will be welcomed back to campus July 6 in a phased approach with staggered, rotating schedules for those working onsite and remotely. Those returning to campus will see strengthened protocols in place and additional communications and signage promoting methods to minimize risk of spreading the virus. Nearly all employees will be back on campus by the time classes start in the fall. As departments ramp up onsite operations, officials ask guests and visitors to continue to conduct business by appointment via phone or teleconferencing.
Students who live on campus will see some proactive changes implemented to promote safety. Those measures include hybrid courses, where students alternate between learning in the classroom and learning online. Safety measures implemented for residential students include a two-person suite, offering private bedrooms and a shared bathroom with just one suitemate; enhanced common space cleaning, based on CDC guidelines and touchless hand sanitizers located at every entrance. GGC continues to offer health services through its onsite health clinic.
Information about GGC’s campus resources, services and more can be found at the college’s Public Health FAQ page.
Gwinnett Place CID launches new mobile channel
Gwinnett Place Community Improvement District (CID) has launched a mobile channel www.visitgwinnettplace.com. This website features a comprehensive business directory of the area’s 170+ restaurants, businesses, services, hotels and more.
A mobile channel looks and acts like an app, but takes up no space on a mobile device. It can be accessed via desktop as well. The channel can be updated in real-time, making it easy for Gwinnett Place CID to add new businesses as soon as they open their doors.
Visit Gwinnett Place was designed to enhance a printed map that Gwinnett Place CID and Explore Gwinnett produce each year. The mobile channel also features images and slideshows of the numerous businesses in the area, and a quick link to Google Maps to easily find the location. To visit the mobile channel, go to www.visitgwinnettplace.com on either your mobile device or desktop.
Northside Hospital to manage urgent care centers
Northside Hospital has announced the completion of the launch of a new medical brand, Health Choice Urgent Care, formerly ChoiceOne Urgent Care.
The new name, Health Choice, represents a reintroduction of the Gwinnett County centers to the community in conjunction with new ownership (Northside Hospital) and management (Urgent Care Group). The transaction took place earlier in the year.
Debbie Mitcham, president and CEO of the Northside Hospital Gwinnett campuses, says: “We are pleased to continue to serve the Gwinnett County community by offering convenient, affordable, and efficient on-demand care at Health Choice.”
Health Choice Urgent Care has been voted Best of Gwinnett for the past three years and has three locations in Gwinnett County (Hamilton Mill, Sugar Hill and Grayson). All centers are open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The centers offer walk-in urgent care, and occupational health services, accept all major insurance, and have self-pay options. Additionally, all Health Choice centers are VA-authorized urgent care providers. Health Choice Urgent Care celebrated their new name with a ribbon cutting ceremony on June 18.
Public invited to assess Suwanee Police accreditation process
A team of assessors from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc. will start assessing the Suwanee Police Department on June 22, 2020. The team will examine all aspects of the Suwanee Police Department’s policy and procedures, management, operations, and support services, Suwanee Police Chief Mike Jones announced today.
As part of the on-site assessment, agency personnel and members of the community are invited to offer comments at a public information session on Monday June 22 at 4:30 p.m. The public information session will be conducted through Zoom, if you would like to attend and make comments please register in advance at:https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__z4V9mt6TsGSKAuZTWJSVg
If for some reason an individual cannot speak at the public information session but would still like to provide comments to the assessment team, he/she may do so by calling 770 904-7655 on Tuesday, June 23 between the hours of 1 to 3 p.m.
Persons wishing to offer written comments about the Suwanee Police Department’s ability to meet the standards for accreditation/recognition are requested to write: Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement, Inc. 13575 Heathcote Boulevard, Suite 320, Gainesville, Va. 13575.
Take a Trip to Gibbs Gardens
From Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill: Previously I have recommended Gibbs Gardens, but that was because of the flowers. This time, I’m recommending it because it’s a large, beautiful woodsy park for those who want to get out into nature and feel safe. At no time do you have to get near anyone else, if you don’t want to. This year, you must buy your ticket and print it out before you arrive. You don’t go into the building, but walk around to the side and drop your ticket into a box. The walkways are wide and you are free to walk on the grass. The tables in the picnic area have been removed and chairs are placed in groups about six feet apart. Even the number of people allowed in the restrooms is restricted. I have been self-isolating since March 13 and going to Gibbs Gardens Tuesday was a real balm for my cooped-up soul.”
We are getting low on recommendations material. So, how about you? Submit a recommendation to us soon, and we’ll be pleased to hear of your selection.
An invitation: what books, restaurants, movies or web sites have you enjoyed recently? Send us your recent selection, along with a short paragraph (150 words) as to why you liked this, plus what you plan to visit or read next. Send to: elliott@brack.net
African-American granted land in recognition for war service
Austin Dabney was a slave who became a private in the Georgia militia and fought against the British during the Revolutionary War (1775-83). He was the only African American to be granted land by the state of Georgia in recognition of his bravery and service during the Revolution and one of the few to receive a federal military pension.
Born in Wake County, N.C., in the 1760s, Austin Dabney moved with his master, Richard Aycock, to Wilkes County, Ga., in the late 1770s. In order to avoid military service himself, Aycock sent Dabney to join the Georgia militia as a substitute. Serving as an artilleryman under Elijah Clarke, Dabney is believed to have been the only black soldier to participate in the Battle of Kettle Creek, one of the most significant battles in Georgia, which took place near Washington on February 14, 1779. He was severely wounded in the thigh during the fighting, and Giles Harris, a white soldier, took Dabney to his home to care for the wound. Dabney remembered Harris’s kindness and worked for the Harris family for the rest of his life.
On August 14, 1786, Dabney became the only African American to be granted land, 50 acres, by the state of Georgia, in recognition of his military service during the Revolution. The legislature also provided 70 pounds to emancipate Dabney from his owner, Richard Aycock. Dabney continued working for Giles Harris and eventually paid for his son, William Harris, to attend Franklin College (later the University of Georgia). Dabney supported Harris financially throughout his studies in Athens and while Harris read for the bar with Georgia attorney Stephen Upson in Lexington.
Although a war veteran, Dabney’s race precluded him from participating in any of the Georgia land lotteries of the early 1800s. Upson, by then a state legislator, supported Dabney’s cause and sponsored a resolution to provide him with additional land not distributed in the 1819 lottery. In 1821 Dabney received an additional plot of 112 acres in Walton County. This grant caused unrest among the residents of Madison County, who felt that whites and blacks should not be regarded as equals in terms of land allocation. In addition to the two land grants, Dabney also received a federal invalid pension of $60 a year starting in 1789 (which increased to $96 annually in 1816) for the wound he received at Kettle Creek.
The friendship between Dabney and the Harris family continued for the rest of Dabney’s life. He followed them to Walton, Burke, and Pike counties, and in 1835 William named a son, Austin Dabney Harris, in Dabney’s honor. At his death in Zebulon in 1830, Dabney left all his land and property to Harris and was buried in the Harris family plot in Pike County. His name appears on a historical marker in Griffin. U.S. senator Max Cleland of Georgia lauded him on the Senate floor in February 1998 for his war service and close relationship with the Harris family.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to http://georgiaencyclopedia.org
Classical building is Mystery Photo for this edition
Today’s Mystery Photo is classical and in a beautiful setting. You may have seen this building before. Tell us where it’s located by sending to elliott@brack.net, including your hometown.
Almost time GwinnettForum was published Tuesday, Lou Camerio of Lilburn sent a message: “
I believe the pottery is by Dave Drake, aka Dave the potter. He worked in South Carolina. One of the plantations he worked on was Edgefield.” He’s right. The photo was taken at the Greenville County Museum of Art (GCMA).
Allen Peel of San Antonio, Tex. gave more details: “Today’s mystery photo is part of the Art and Artists of South Carolina: David Drake, Jasper Johns, William H. Johnson, and Grainger McKoy Exhibition that began on June 18, 2018 and is still on display today in Greenville Art Museum. The photo features three pieces of alkaline-glazed stoneware created by David Drake, an enslaved potter and poet from Edgefield, S.C. in the mid-1850’s. The table in the photo is from the same time period, and is a simple, Southern-style Huntboard table.
“David Drake (1801 – 1875) was an enslaved African-American who worked as a “turner” in several pottery manufacturing facilities in South Carolina’s Edgefield District, otherwise known as ‘Pottersville’. Drake, who was known only as “Dave” before 1865, learned to both read and write, dangerous and even illegal skills for a slave to possess. Apparently with his owner’s approval, Dave openly expressed his literary skills by inscribing original poems on many of the utilitarian works he created. While not very legible in the mystery photo, you can barely make out that each piece has been inscribed, and if you look closely, signed by ‘Dave’.
“Dave produced over 100,000 alkaline-glazed stoneware jugs between the 1820s and the 1870s. The GCMA is home to the largest institutional collection of pottery pieces by David Drake, including single-handle jugs, storage jars, pitchers, a syrup jug, and a rare butter churn.
“Under the table sits a large, 1858 Butter Churn that sold at a Charlton Hall Auction in South Carolina in 2012 for $130,000. While impossible to make out in the mystery photo, you can see what appears to be an inscription around the neck of the pot. It is a witty couplet (two lines of verse, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme, that form a unit) that reads: “This is a noble churn / fill it up, it will never turn / Dave”. It is speculated that the meaning of the couplet was that the sturdy 14-gallon pot would withstand vigorous churning sessions and also that the milk would not turn sour.”
George Graf of Palmyra, Va. wrote: “When I saw your mystery photo, I knew right away that it was the work of Dave the Potter, but just had to find the location. Took a bit of time, but I think I have it. My first guess was that it was your night stand with your jugs of wine, but I didn’t see the cheese and crackers nearby. It is the work of David Drake The Potter on display at the Greenville County Museum of Art in South Carolina.”
Snellville Farmers Market will be held Saturday, June 20, from 8:30 a.m.to 12:30 p.m.on the Town Green. To comply with social distancing mandates, the market may need to limit the number of customers at a time. Please be patient and maintain the six foot social distancing rule, and if necessary, wait before entering.
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