GwinnettForum | Number 21.20 | Mar. 12, 2021
HAYES CHRYSLER-DODGE-JEEP in Lawrenceville is marking its 50 anniversary this month. Many of the Hayes family work at their auto dealerships. On the top row is the late A.D Hayes and his brother, Donald Hayes, who together started the dealership. On the second row are Mike Hayes (retired), Ted Hayes, Tim Hayes and Terry Hayes. On the bottom row are Dusty Hayes, Chad Hayes and Matt Hayes. For more information about this anniversary, see the EEB perspective below.
An Apology
GwinnettForum extends a public apology to Everson Blair, chair of the Gwinnett School Board, for insinuating in the last edition that he was part of the group seeking to remove Alvin Wilbanks as superintendent of the Gwinnett schools. The opening line of my comments read “The new Black majority on the Gwinnett School Board ….” The way it should have started is: “The two new Black females on the Gwinnett School Board……” This change is now on the online version. — Elliott Brack
TODAY’S FOCUS: Gwinnett Lands KIRCHHOFF Automotive for Lawrenceville
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Hayes auto dealership in Lawrenceville celebrates 50 years in business
ANOTHER VIEW: Remembering the uncomplicated life of WWII veteran Kelly Houston
SPOTLIGHT: Howard Brothers
FEEDBACK: About independent commissions to draw lines, and campaign reform
UPCOMING: Library seeks participants in survey to assess next 10 years of services
NOTABLE: Buford couple author book on problems of students of color
RECOMMENDED: Stupid History by Leland Gregory
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Published widely, Gunderson’s latest work was at the Kennedy Center
MYSTERY PHOTO: Watch it: don’t jump to a conclusion on this Mystery Photo
Gwinnett lands KIRCHHOFF Automotive for Lawrenceville
By Jaclyn Allison
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. | KIRCHHOFF Automotive, a German-based international supplier to the automotive industry, will invest $15 million in opening an assembly facility in Gwinnett County. The new development in Lawrenceville will create 73 new jobs. Georgia Department of Economic Development Commissioner Pat Wilson personally met with KIRCHHOFF Automotive’s leadership during a December 2019 economic development mission in Europe about the benefits of doing business in Georgia.
Gov. Brian Kemp, in making the announcement, said: “KIRCHHOFF Automotive choosing to open their assembly facility in Georgia is yet another example of Georgia’s robust automotive industry and our investment in workforce training programs delivering solid manufacturing jobs and opportunities to hardworking Georgians.”
KIRCHHOFF Automotive is a family-owned company headquartered in Iserlohn, Germany, that manufactures complex auto body components at 26 facilities across 11 countries. Its worldwide customer base includes BMW and Mercedes-Benz – both of which have headquarters in the eastern United States, with Mercedes-Benz’s headquarters located in nearby Sandy Springs. KIRCHHOFF Automotive is a full-service supplier of complex metal and hybrid structures, crash management systems, chassis applications, and cross car beams.
KIRCHHOFF Automotive Global Chief Operating Officer Stefan Leitzgen says: “A Georgia location will increase our opportunities to provide world-class service to our customers in the southeastern United States. We appreciate the support provided by the State of Georgia as we establish our sixth U.S. facility and look forward to working with state and local resources to build a successful operation.”
KIRCHHOFF Automotive’s new 101,000-square-foot assembly facility will be used for the final assembly of metal body parts coming from other U.S. plants. Individuals interested in assembly positions at the company’s Lawrenceville facility are encouraged to visit www.kirchhoff-automotive.com for additional information.
Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners Chairwoman Nicole Love Hendrickson welcomed the company: “Gwinnett County’s international business presence is already robust. Adding another strong business, like KIRCHHOFF Automotive shows the strength of diversity in our county.”
Project Manager Fernanda Kirchner represented Georgia Economic Development’s Global Commerce division on this competitive project in partnership with project manager Jassy Ji with Partnership Gwinnett and Georgia Quick Start, Georgia Power and Gwinnett Technical College. Managing Director for the State of Georgia’s Europe Office Sérgio Domingues and Georgia Centers of Innovation for Manufacturing Director John Morehouse also played instrumental roles in attracting KIRCHHOFF Automotive to Georgia.
Georgia Economic Development Commissioner Pat Wilson adds: “In addition to our many tangible assets, KIRCHHOFF Automotive choosing to establish their assembly facility in Gwinnett is another example of the ways our local and international partnerships translate into jobs and opportunities for Georgians. I had the pleasure of meeting with KIRCHHOFF Automotive’s leadership team in Germany, and those types of personal connections continue to help us seize new opportunities for our business and our state.”
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Hayes auto dealership in Lawrenceville marks 50 years in business
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
MARCH 12, 2021 | A Lawrenceville auto dealer is marking its 50th anniversary this month. Hayes Chrysler-Dodge began operations on Scenic Highway in 1971. Today the Hayes Automotive Group operates another dealership in Gainesville and two more in Baldwin, selling Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac vehicles. It’s a fourth generation family business, with 14 Hayes men working in the various dealerships. Their biggest seller is Dodge Ram trucks.
The late A.D. Hayes, who died in 2009, originally bought a two-bay service station in Decatur, and started Hayes Auto Service in 1953, specializing in repair service. A.D. Hayes first operated with his father, C.A. Hayes, while his brother, Donald Hayes, came on board in 1956 after finishing his industrial engineering study at Southern Tech and completing two year’s service in the Navy. Two years later, C.A. Hayes retired, and Donald bought him out. At its height, that Decatur operation had 14 service and transmission bays, and 30 employees.
The pair of brothers in 1971 purchased a Chrysler-Dodge-Plymouth dealership in Lawrenceville that had been owned by Maxie Price. Donald, now 87, who lives in Buford, remembers that times were tough then. “We lost money for a few years. Back then we might sell 10-12 cars a month.” Today the dealership has 700 vehicles to choose from, selling perhaps 375 cars a month, and in pre-Covid times sales hit 500 a month.
What’s the secret of their success? Dusty Hayes, who lives in Statham, says: “The company has always tried to take good care of its customers, especially in our service department. Most auto dealers don’t come out of service as we do, but out of sales.”
The hardest time for the company was when Chrysler was about to go bankrupt. Donald remembers: “If Jimmy Carter hadn’t made sure that Lee Iacocca got that $1.5 billion government loan, Chrysler may have gone bankrupt, and it would have ruined us. And Iacocca paid the government back every penny. It changed the auto industry.”
In 1980, Hayes moved their dealership to its current Lawrenceville location on Pike Street near Georgia Highway 316. Ted Hayes, who lives in Dacula, says: “We originally bought six acres, and wish we had purchased all the way to the four lane.” The company kept adding on facilities as their business grew and now has 10 acres at the site.
In 1984, Hayes started their Gainesville operation on 10 acres with Chrysler and Jeep products. And in 2001, Hayes bought out Hardy Chevrolet in Toccoa, and eventually moved that operation to 30 acres Highway 365 near Baldwin.
The company has been innovative in selling vehicles. Ted Hayes recalls: “In 2005 Mike Hayes brought Dusty to the Lawrenceville store to work on internet selling, and things started taking off.”
Dusty adds: “We were the first dealership here to wrap our arms around the Internet, and the first in the area to actually list the price of vehicles there. We showed prices before others, and then buyers started coming to see us. Where before customers often took a Saturday to visit several dealerships, today the average customer visits 1.7 dealerships and 98 percent start shopping for vehicles on the internet. ”
Another element of the Hayes Group is their wholesale parts sales, starting in 1996. It’s a 20 hour a day operation, as Hayes sends 24 trucks plus couriers to the four corners of Georgia to repair shops, working out of a central warehouse in Byron. It grossed $2 million a month last year.
Congratulations to the Hayes family dealerships, as their first location marks 50 years of service!
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Remembering uncomplicated life of WWII veteran Kelly Houston
By Debra Houston, contributing columnist
(Part one of two parts)
LILBURN, Ga. | Kelly Houston, my father-in-law, lived a humble, simple life. He showed how successful one could become by taking advantage of opportunities when they arise and also how life itself shapes us.
Kelly bought his house with cash, never owned a charge card, but lived the American dream. Routine things like bringing in the American flag inside at night and placing it on the flagpole, as tradition dictates, showed his depth of character.
Born in 1917 in Gneiss, N.C. near the Great Smoky Mountains, Kelly grew up in Franklin, the Macon County seat just over the Georgia border, and just a few miles down Houston Road. James Houston, Sr., his great-grandfather was the first pioneer to bring the Houston name into Western North Carolina, no doubt to what became Houston Mountain.
Those early pioneers came from Scotland. The North Carolina high peaks reminded them of their own high lands back home. They farmed, hunted, and had large families. They also lived long lives, regardless of how primitive. Kelly lived to 104, one year shy of his sister, Ruby, who lived to 105.
Kelly Houston
Growing up poor up in the hills gave Kelly a craving for success. He remembered that during the Depression, his father, Melvin, would “turn rocks” in hopes of finding a little moist soil to plant a seed. “If you couldn’t grow it or shoot it,” Kelly once said, “you went hungry.”
I have a photo of Kelly’s parents in which Melvin holds one of his daughters. If you look carefully enough, you see a right gnarled hand. Kelly said Melvin had lost three fingers in a coal mining accident. Melvin has an intense, no-nonsense look in his eyes and a bushy dark moustache. I see a resemblance between him and my two sons and their male cousins.
Lilly Belle Ballew Houston sits next to her husband holding their first son, a baby outfitted in a dress, which was a custom back then. She is every bit Victorian with her white blouse and long dark skirt, her thick hair loosely coiled three times atop her head. She has a slight smile, as if she held a secret. Aunt Ruby told me she was pregnant at the time of the photo.
What you see in this photo is a small family of pioneers. The oldest girl stands behind her parents with a quiet dignity. Lilly Belle was born in a cabin in Gneiss that has since been moved near Dillard, Ga. You can see it on Georgia Highway 441 going into Dillard.
Speaking of opportunities arising, once golfer Bobby Jones was looking for a caddy while playing in Highland, North Carolina. Kelly stepped up and got the job.
And there was the time when Kelly killed a rattlesnake with nothing more than a rock. Sort of like David and Goliath. Kelly didn’t know fear.
(To be continued)
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Howard Brothers
The public spiritedness of our underwriters allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today’s sponsor is Howard Brothers, which has retail stores in Alpharetta, Doraville, Duluth, Oakwood and Athens. John and Doug Howard are the “brothers” in Howard Brothers. This family-owned business was started by their dad, and continues to specialize in hardware, outdoor power equipment and parts and service. Howard Brothers are authorized dealers of STIHL, Exmark, Honda, Echo outdoor power equipment and Benjamin Moore paint. Howard Brothers is also an authorized Big Green Egg, Traeger Grill and YETI Cooler dealer.
- Visit their website www.howardbrothers.com.
- For a list of other sponsors of this forum, click here.
About independent commissions to draw lines, campaign reform
Editor, the Forum:
It was interesting to read about the U.S. Congress HR 1 and its provision that George Wilson wrote about recently. It reminded me that several years ago I read that the late Sen. John McCain stated that the two most important actions to take with regard to the functioning of our electoral system would be to have independent commissions to draw congressional districts and to reform campaign financing.
— John Titus, Peachtree Corners
Maybe more cows than 12 people per square mile in South Dakota
Editor, the Forum:
When I hear the governor of South Dakota speak, I keep in mind that people in that state are naturally spaced at a Covid-19 safe distance. It has basically the same population as my county in Georgia, Gwinnett. South Dakota has approximately 12 people per square mile. My county has approximately 2,000 per square mile.
It may not be fair to celebrate South Dakota’s success in not restricting any activities there during the pandemic. There’re probably more cattle than people in her state.
— Byron Gilbert, Duluth
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, and include your hometown. We reserve the right to edit for clarity and length. Send feedback and letters to: elliott@brack.net
Library seeks participants in survey to assess next 10 years
In January 2021, the Gwinnett County Public Library (GCPL) started the journey of a facilities master planning project to prepare an assessment of its facilities and a comprehensive Master Plan to guide facilities planning improvements for the next 10 years.
(Meanwhile, this week all Gwinnett County libraries re-opened for full services after being closed during the pandemic.)
As the library launches its Facilities Master Planning project, it seeks to engage its customers. Help the library come up with goals and objectives for your library. Click the following to take a survey:
Survey in ENGLISH | Survey in Spanish
The Facilities Master Plan will ensure that the Library has the space, tools, and technology necessary to create a world-class customer service experience for its users, and will support its strategies to:
- Continually evaluate and improve infrastructure and use of space,
- Explore, develop, and implement innovative technological solutions, and
- Explore, design, and develop Library facilities that are flexible and responsive to changing needs.
It will serve as a guide to the Library as it seeks to provide high quality 21st Century library services that meet the growing and evolving needs of Gwinnett County.
In constructing the plan, the library is taking a new approach that considers community conditions and aspirations, and impacts. Impacts like job creation and fostering entrepreneurship, improving educational outcomes, connecting to technology and critical social services, and creating spaces to gather and organize.
The plan will enable the Library to respond appropriately and effectively to changes in community demographics, technology and telecommunications development, emerging service expectations, aging facilities, and other future needs.
Once complete, the plan will be a significant asset to the Library’s ongoing planning efforts, and a guide to the ideal sequence for branch improvements.
Virtual Healthcare Summit March 24 focuses on building immunity
A virtual Healthcare Summit focused on topics that will help better understand how the community is working to build immunity from Covid-19 is scheduled for Wednesday, March 24 at 8 a.m. Gwinnett Cares, powered by the Gwinnett Coalition, and the Gwinnett Rockdale Newton Health Departments, will host this Healthcare Summit. This session will also offer insights into the new “Race for the V” – Vaccines vs. Variants.
Tune in via Zoom or Facebook Live as the region’s top healthcare experts offer a comprehensive briefing on the status of COVID-19 care and vaccination efforts. Key discussion topics will include:
- Current status on COVID-19 and vaccination efforts;
- Georgia’s vaccination supply and distribution plan;
- Vaccine options;
- Vaccine side effects;
- Update on vaccination phases and anticipated timelines;
- What precautions are still necessary after being vaccinated;
- Rising mental health concerns – resources available; and
- What we all need to do to achieve herd immunity.
Register to attend at bit.ly/Mar24HealthcareSummit or watch via Facebook Live day-of at @GwinnettCares.org. Live translation services will be offered in Spanish and Korean via the Zoom webinar.
Spalding Drive widening will shift traffic starting Monday
The Gwinnett Department of Transportation will shift traffic on Spalding Drive Tuesday, March 16, as part of the widening project that extends from Winters Chapel Road to Georgia Highway 140 (Holcomb Bridge Road.)
The shift is to occur along the full length of the project. Flaggers will be on site to direct drivers safely through the construction zone.
Multiple jurisdictions are working on the project to widen Spalding Drive to four lanes with a center lane. Along with the widening, the project includes the replacement of the existing bridge over Crooked Creek with a new bridge and addition of sidewalks and a multi-use path on Spalding Drive. Curb and gutter and associated drainage improvements also will be installed.
This project is funded by the 2014 and 2017 SPLOST programs, the cities of Sandy Springs and Peachtree Corners, and the state of Georgia.
Duluth planning farmer’s market on 2 occasions this spring
Shop fresh local vendors in the heart of Downtown Duluth at the Duluth Farmers Market! This seasonal market will take place on March 25 and April 29 from 4-8 p.m. This market features vendors who bring in-season, local produce, baked goods and other locally-made food products. Purchasing locally grown produce means fresh-picked, nutritious, and flavorful produce for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. In addition to shopping with unique vendors, guests can enjoy live music on the Festival Center stage and socially distanced seating around Town Green.
This event is sponsored by Provisions on Main and Phoenix Roasters.
Follow the City of Duluth Facebook page (@cityofduluth). The city will be giving away Duluth Farmers Market Dollars in the coming weeks. These dollars can be spent with the vendors at the event.
Buford couple author book on problems of students of color
A Buford couple has released a new book. It is Wendy and James Taylor’s “The Imperfect Storm: Racism and a PandemicCollide in America: How it Impacted Public Education and How to Fix It.” Readers can discover the problems students of color face on a daily basis and get strategies to eradicate racism in U.S. schools. The 314 page book is published by Archway Publishing and is available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
The Taylors share how systemic racism in public education has prevented many black and brown children from achieving their full potential. In the book they explore how to:
- bridge the culture gap between teachers and students in culturally diverse classrooms;
- prepare teachers to succeed in multicultural settings;
- ascertain the differences between divergent views of education.
The authors also take readers on a journey through America’s past that begins with the Jim Crow era of the late 19th century when America had separate and unequal societies and culminates in the present where students learn together — but from teachers that are often biased.
Dr. James “Jim” earned his bachelor, master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of South Carolina. He is a consultant with Taylor and Taylor Education Consultants, LLC., which he co-owns with his wife, Dr. Wandy W. Taylor.
Dr. Wandy Taylor has 23 years of experience as an administrator in public education. She holds a bachelor of science from the University of South Carolina; a master’s in education from South Carolina State University and an education specialist degree from the University of West Georgia; and doctorate in educational leadership and management from Capella University. She works as a performance consultant with the Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement.
Stupid History by Leland Gregory
From Karen Harris, Stone Mountain: “This book is a delightful romp through the many mistakes we have about sayings and supposedly vetted information that in many cases is truncated or just plain wrong! Examples include “The sticky situation,” “Don’t Be Such a Chicken,” the origin of the tool “Monkey Wrench,” “Bringing Down the House” and many others. There are also many definitions of things we think we know but may not for example, “Welsh Rabbit,” which is melted cheese on toast, a delicacy for the poor. There are illustrations throughout the book and scrolls that tell peculiar short stories. All the snippets and stories are peculiar and oddly entertaining. An engaging and bizarre book well worth reading! The full title is Stupid History; Tales of Stupidity, Strangeness and Mythconceptions Throughout History.
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
Gunderson’s latest work was at the Kennedy Center
(From previous edition)
Though it remains one of Decatur native Lauren Gunderson’s most acclaimed works, I and You was just one in a series of successes for Gunderson during this period. Others include Exit, Pursued by a Bear (2011) and the Kennedy Center-commissioned The Amazing Adventures of Dr. Wonderful and Her Dog! (2011), which was later adapted as a picture book.
Gunderson
These and other works allowed Gunderson to occupy a series of niches uncommon in the world of theater: as a woman in a field still dominated by men; as an artist enamored by science; and as a playwright without a day job.
But most remarkable perhaps is the fact that she has achieved such success outside of New York, the capital of American theater. After completing her M.F.A., Gunderson left New York for San Francisco, taking up residence in the Bay Area and forging close ties to the regional theater companies that have made her the most-produced American playwright in recent history.
Gunderson has a knack for writing scripts that delight mainstream theatergoers—a gift best evidenced by Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley (2016), an original sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, cowritten with Margot Melcon. The comedy, which was initially scribbled on napkins over the course of a road trip between California and Oregon, takes place after the marriage of Elizabeth and Darcy, during holiday festivities hosted at Pemberley, the fictional country estate that provides the setting for Austen’s novel. Mary Bennet, the middle Bennet sister, enjoys a focal role that positions her bookishness and awkwardness as relatable, even charming. She stumbles through an emerging romance with fellow visitor (and fellow bookworm) Arthur de Bourgh, culminating in what critics have described as a new holiday classic, as comforting and effervescent as A Christmas Carol.
In addition to her comedic fare and her many works exploring scientific history, Gunderson has also become known for her political engagement. After the 2016 presidential election, Gunderson organized free, nationwide readings of her feminist political commentary, The Taming (2013). An irreverent rejoinder to the Bard’s The Taming of the Shrew and one of four productions that compose her Shakespeare cycle, the play appeared in more than 40 cities on Inauguration Day 2017, raising generous sums for progressive causes. The following year, she launched a campaign against gun violence, organizing free, public readings of her one-woman show Natural Shocks in theaters across the country.
Gunderson returned to The Kennedy Center in 2019 with Earthrise, a commissioned children’s musical, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s lunar landing. Peter Pan and Wendy, her adaptation of the J.M. Barrie classic, premiered later that same year at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C.
Though best known for her plays, Gunderson has published a wide variety of works, including short stories, poems, and columns, and lectures regularly on the intersection of art and science. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, renowned virologist Nathan Wolfe, and their two children.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to http://georgiaencyclopedia.org
Watch it: don’t jump to a conclusion on this Mystery Photo
All we can say about today’s Mystery Photo is “Don’t jump to a conclusion too quickly.” Tell us where you think this photograph is located. Send your answers to elliott@brack.net and include your hometown.
The last Mystery Photo was quite a challenge, with only three people recognizing it, though others thought it was in Colorado. The photo was at the White Sands National Park, as sent in by Mark Barlow of Peachtree Corners.
Allan Peel of San Antonio, Tex. gave us details: “Today’s mystery photo is of the White Sands National Park, located approximately 40-miles northeast of Las Cruces, New Mexico. Originally established as a National Monument on January 18, 1933, it was recently ‘promoted’ to National Park status on December 20, 2019. This action made White Sands the 62nd National Park in the USA, and was our ‘newest’ National Park, until the New River Gorge National Park became our 63rd National Park in West Virginia.
“The white “sand” in the 275-square miles of shifting dunes that make up the White Sands National Park is actually gypsum crystals, as opposed to the more common quartz or coral crystals that make up most other inland sand. This glaring, bright white sand really does look more like snow than sand. But once you step out of the car in the hot summer sun (with temperatures that often reach 100°F), you quickly realize that you are in a desert landscape, not an arctic one!
“Interestingly, the White Sands National Park is completely surrounded by the White Sands Missile Range. This missile range is famous as well, as it is the site of the very first atomic bomb (code named Trinity) that was detonated by the Manhattan Project near the northern boundary of the missile range on July 16, 1945. Currently it is the Department of Defense’s largest, fully-instrumented, open air range, that is used to research and test our nation’s most sophisticated defense systems. My wife and I visited the White Sands National Monument in October 2016). The uncanny resemblance to snow was surreal. I have attached a photo that I took while visiting the area. You can see some tourists attempting to slide down a white sand dune as if it were snow, and then leaving a message for the world to see … at least before the ever-shifting winds would annihilate the message of love.
Also recognizing it were George Graf, Palmyra, Va.; and Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill.
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