GwinnettForum | Number 21.04 | Jan. 14, 2022
SHOVELING AWAY at the groundbreaking of the Elizabeth Williams Library in Snellville are, from left, Charles Pace, director of the Gwinnett County Public Library; State Rep. Rebecca Mitchell; JT Wu, Library Foundation secretary; Sheriff Keybo Taylor; Snellville Mayor Barbara Bender; Commission Chairwoman Nicole Hendrickson; and Commissioners Marlene Fosque and Jasper Watkins. Gwinnett County and the city of Snellville are jointly funding the $10.2 million project using 2017 SPLOST program dollars. It is expected to be open in the fourth quarter of 2022. It is in downtown Snellville, and will replace the current library on Lenora Church Road.
TODAY’S FOCUS: Israeli company joins 5G Open Innovation Lab in Peachtree Corners
EEB PERSPECTIVE: GwinnettForum issues call to all potential 2022 candidates
ANOTHER VIEW: Amid anxieties and illness, remember: people are kind
SPOTLIGHT: The 1818 Club
FEEDBACK: Dissent now is often considered unpatriotic and unpopular
UPCOMING: Marker dedication commemorates lynching on Courthouse Square
NOTABLE: Patient thanks local neurosurgeon for saving her life
GEORGIA TIDBIT: John D. Gray manufactured weapons for Confederate Army
MYSTERY PHOTO: Pointed elements, plus classical design, in this edition’s mystery
CALENDAR: Gwinnett honors Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a weekend of service
Israeli company joins 5G Open Innovation Lab
By Louis Svehla
PEACHTREE CORNERS, Ga. | Curiosity Lab partner Brodmann17 has joined the 5G Open Innovation Lab (5GOILab) after several months of successful tests of its state-of-the-art Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) technology in Peachtree Corners. In June 2021 Israeli-based Brodmann17 added their technology to Curiosity Lab’s Level 3 autonomous test vehicle to further develop and prove its software-only perception technology for assisted driving in real world conditions.
Pinhas
Brodmann17 Co-Founder and CEO, Adi Pinhas says:“Our partnership with the City of Peachtree Corners and our ability to test and develop our technologies in a real-world environment, along with real connected infrastructure and data analysis, has been invaluable. In addition, being part of 5GOIL and Peachtree Corners has helped us forge valuable relationships with partners like T-Mobile that benefit our long-term business objectives. 5G-enabled technologies open the door to a wide variety of new use cases, and we feel strongly that hybrid cloud-edge solutions play a critical role in the future of the automotive industry.”
In October 2021, the company joined the Seattle-based 5GOILab, bringing its technology to corporate partners Accenture, Dell, Intel, Microsoft and T-Mobile. The 5GOILab is an ecosystem designed to make it easier for innovators, global platforms and enterprises to collaborate using open platforms and markets to develop, test and deploy new use cases and innovations for 5G and 5G-enabled technologies.
Brandon Branham, chief technology officer and assistant city manager of Peachtree Corners, says: “Brodmann17 is a perfect example of our commitment in working with talented deep learning engineers to prove out and scale technologies in a real-world smart city. The work Brodmann17 did here is making a global impact. It’s why so many international companies have been flocking to the heart of Silicon Orchard.”
The success of Brodmann17 is another example of numerous Israel-born technology start-ups that have worked with Peachtree Corners to leverage their differentiated, city-owned smart connected infrastructure and overall technology ecosystem to develop and scale technologies, while creating critical new partnerships and scaling their efforts in the U.S. market.
Earlier in 2021, Brodmann17 also partnered with professional camera design house Rhonda Software to launch a new ADAS camera platform using the Ambarella CV25 edge AI vision processor. The new solution combines a camera feature set with the unprecedented levels of accuracy and performance which addresses the needs of the video telematics sector for increased driver safety and fleet efficiency.
For more information or to schedule a briefing with city leaders and Adi Pinhas, CEO, Brodmann17, contact Peachtree@GoDRIVEN360.com.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
GwinnettForum issues call to all potential 2022 candidates
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
JAN. 14, 2022 | TO: Potential candidates for public office in Gwinnett County and those running for statewide offices:
If you’re interested in being a candidate for public office in 2022, GwinnettForum wants to meet with you.
Ever since 2008, GwinnettForum has interviewed candidates for all Gwinnett public office seats, plus candidates running statewide. GwinnettForum wants to get to know more about the candidates, such as the way they act so as to understand their insight into government. It does that so that it can evaluate the candidates in every race. It uses this information to determine which candidate GwinnettForum will endorse in all these races.
The meetings with candidates are simple: it is scheduled to last only 30 minutes, recognizing that once a candidate declares for office, he or she is mighty busy. Most of the questions for the candidates are demographic in nature, though the candidates are asked to give their views on certain current political topics.
GwinnettForum will endorse in every race in Gwinnett, and in all statewide races. The endorsements will come three weeks prior to the primaries and the General Election.
We ask candidates to contact GwinnettForum early on in the primary to arrange for what we prefer to be a face-to-face meeting. The candidates may contact GwinnettForum by email (ebrack2@gmail.com), or via telephone, 770 840 1003.
Why does GwinnettForum endorse candidates? Simply to sort out which candidate it thinks is the best candidate in each of these races. We find that most Georgians early on know who they will vote for in the major offices, such as governor, or president. However, in many down-ballot races, they have no idea who to support, and often may not know anything about these candidates.
So, GwinnettForum takes the time, and it takes lots of time, to meet with the many candidates. It is the eyes and ears for the readers, so that they can know something about the many candidates for offices.
Does GwinnettForum always make the best choices in the races? Well, it tries. But sometimes we find out later on that an endorsement of certain people may not have been the best choice. For instance, in 2018 GwinnettForum endorsed Jim Beck for Insurance Commissioner for Georgia. Later on, he was convicted of stealing from his former employer and sent to prison. You can’t win them all.
However, it’s gratifying when you see a candidate GwinnettForum supports who wins an election for the first time and becomes a solid public servant. We rejoice that we have seen this happen many times.
In the last election cycle, in 2000, GwinnettForum interviewed 147 candidates altogether, an all-time record. We have no doubt, with reapportionment, and Gwinnett getting more legislative seats in 2022, that we will meet with even more candidates this year.
And the sooner we can meet with them, the better, for it will be a busy season.
Therefore, if you are going to make a run for elective office this year, get in touch with us soon, for your benefit, and for ours.
We look forward to hearing from all local and statewide candidates for election in 2022.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Amid anxieties and illness, remember: people are kind
Via Unsplash
By the Very Rev. Sam Candler
Dean, Cathedral of St. Philip
ATLANTA, Ga. | People are kind.
Candler
Let me interrupt the program. Let me gently interrupt our anxieties and illnesses, let me interrupt our sheer exasperation with this pandemic, with a special notice: People are kind.
It seems like the journey we have now walked for almost two years is never ending. We’ve climbed some steep hills looking forward to rest and return, only to see still another mountain in front of us. We’ve made some turns for the better, only to find ourselves almost exactly where we have already been.
During our walk, we have been hounded, admonished, chastised, scolded, scared, by people who think they have been helping us. Their latest “breaking news” has often been just another opportunity to raise anxiety. The high drama of daily anxiety would have us believe that another world-devastating catastrophe is right around the corner. The screens we watch somehow present people as threats to us.
For the record, I have become a believer in some of the work of Stephen Pinker; in his book, The Better Angels of Our Nature, he makes the case that, over the long course of history, violence is actually being reduced in human civilization, not getting worse. It may be that, over time, other things are getting better, too. Individual cases can be horrible, for sure. But, over time and as a whole, human civilization is progressing towards the better. The ubiquity of available news accounts would have us believe that catastrophe is everywhere; but the true odds are, it is not.
People are kind.
So, last Saturday, I took another kind of walk. I escaped the world of “breaking news” and the latest anxiety tweet. I went for a walk in one of Atlanta’s great parks, this one along the Chattahoochee River. I knew Covid cases were rising and that I had to be free from exposure as I led church services on the following day. There were others with me out there, perhaps with similar desires; let’s get some fresh air without infecting anyone!
On my walk, I saw kind people, pure and simple. We were all so different out there! Me, a seasoned white man. A Black couple, with two scrambling children. An Asian guy jogging. An Hispanic family on a picnic. A group of college guys playing some new kind of game in the field (roundnet? spike ball?). An old couple meandering and taking their time. A cool bicycle guy. Lots of people, of all shapes and colors and sizes, walking their dogs, who were also of all shapes and colors and sizes. I was walking in love.
“Hey,” I said softly, as we passed each other in the woods. “Nice day,” replied the guy with a huge German shepherd. I wondered if I would have been so fear-free if it were dark and we were in some city alley. But we weren’t. I saw young lovers enjoying each other, without a care. They smiled at my smile.
Last Saturday, people were being patient. They were not threatening each other. People were being real, in person, next to each other. Moving to the side to let others pass. Returning errant soccer balls. Letting children squeal. They were walking in love. To a soul, every person I encountered that day was kind. To a soul.
Friends, I have something to tell you. We are going to make it. People are kind.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
The 1818 Club
The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today’s underwriter is The 1818 Club, named for the year that Gwinnett County received its charter. The 1818 Club is a member-owned, private dining experience providing the best in food, service and meeting accommodations for its members. Whatever your business or social dining needs, the 1818 Club has the proper facilities, recently renovated, to gracefully host your gatherings.
- 100-seat formal dining room open for breakfast and lunch.
- Capital Room open for breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as cocktails.
- Three private rooms which can be used for dining or meeting space. AV is offered in each room.
- 220 seat Virgil Williams Grand Ballroom, divided into three sections, all with AV.
- Gwinnett Room for upscale dining, with Frankie’s menu available.
Our top-notch service team enhances your experience by providing a sophisticated social atmosphere, engaging events and a full serving of dining and entertainment opportunities. If you want an urbane and central site to entertain people, consider joining the 1818 Club. For more details, visit https://www.the1818club.org/Home.
- For a list of other sponsors of this forum, click here.
Dissent now is often considered unpatriotic and unpopular
Editor, the Forum:
Sadly, dissent nowadays (unlike previous eras) is considered unpatriotic, and beyond unpopular in some circles. Criticism of those in power or uniform, regardless of their responsibility, is stiffed and lambasted. Labeling politicians incompetent concerning crime or terror is a curse. Helping the unfortunate is a weakness.
Today it seems the First Amendment has two meanings, and it depends on whether you are buying or selling.
There are many who served and many who lost loved ones…who dissented.
Read the history of the 1920s, the 1930s, the 1960s. Discern the responsible ones. We may find many like them today screaming at and accusing dissenters.
Bonhoeffer, Barth, Gandhi, for almost 50 years, and King in the mid 20th century dissented. Barth was the only one to die a natural death.
What’s next? Let’s hope Charlottesville and Charleston and Pittsburgh, Parkland, and Louisiana were not just the opening salvos.
Hitler and Mussolini learned that by controlling the press they could dominate the contemporary population’s attention.
Do I remember correctly? The new structure of the 1850s, the Gilded Age, the 1920s, Reagan’s voodoo economics, the first decade of the 21st century and Trump’s era…all promised that it would build wealth for the average citizen. But then and today, it is only the top fractional group that has increased!
– Ashley Herndon, Oceanside, Calif.
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. The views of letters are the opinion of the contributor. We reserve the right to edit for clarity and length. Send feedback and letters to: elliott@brack.net.
Marker to commemorate lynching on Courthouse Square
The Gwinnett Remembrance Coalition, in partnership with the City of Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County, the Gwinnett Historical Restoration and Preservation Board, and the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) of Montgomery, Ala., will dedicate a historical marker. It will honor the memory of Charles Hale, an African American resident of Gwinnett County, who was lynched in 1911 on the Lawrenceville courthouse square.
The Historical Marker dedication ceremony will take place virtually on Saturday, January 15, at 11 a.m. The program will include a short memorial service, a dedication ceremony, and statements from Mr. Hale’s family and local elected officials from Gwinnett County and the City of Lawrenceville. This service will also include the announcement by an EJI representative of the winners of a racial justice essay contest for students in Gwinnett County public high schools.
Residents and community members interested in participating virtually should register via Eventbrite to receive a livestream link for January 15. Register by clicking here or at https://gwinnettrc.eventbrite.com.
This ceremony follows a June 2021 event in which soil was collected near the spot where Mr. Hale was lynched. Jars containing this soil will be displayed in Gwinnett County and at EJI’s Legacy Museum in Montgomery.
The historical marker will be located on the west side of Lawrenceville square. Community members and members of the press are invited to visit the memorial at their convenience after it is installed to learn about the history of lynchings and racial terror in Gwinnett County.
The Gwinnett Remembrance Coalition is a diverse group of Gwinnett residents who have come together to memorialize local victims of racial terror and lynchings and to educate the Gwinnett community about this dark chapter in our county’s history.
Ray Harvin, chair of the Gwinnett Remembrance Coalition, says: “Confronting our history is painful, but doing so is essential if we are to learn from the past and move beyond it. Our silence about this history allows the legacy of racist violence and injustice to continue to poison our community in ways that harm us all. Only by coming together to acknowledge past wrongs can we ensure that these wrongs are not repeated.”
GGC opens Tuesday with in-person instruction
Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) will begin its spring semester with in-person instruction on Tuesday, January 18.
The college continues to adhere to current guidance from the University System of Georgia, the Georgia Department of Public Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
College officials strongly encourage students, faculty, staff and visitors to wear masks in campus buildings and to continue social distancing and other practices to protect against COVID-19.
For those interested in receiving COVID-19 vaccines, GGC will continue to work with the Community Organized Relief Effort to host COVID-19 vaccine clinics on campus between January and May. Complimentary vaccinations and boosters will be administered to faculty, staff, students and the community in the Student Center third-floor lounge from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Tuesday and Wednesday.
Patient thanks local neurosurgeon for saving her life
Penney and Rachelle Broom. Photo provided.
Dr. Donald Penney, a clinical professor of emergency medicine at PCOM Georgia, experienced an incredible gift just before the holidays. A former patient, who says he saved her life some 27 years ago, reached out to thank him.
Penney
The reunion between Dr. Penney and Rachelle Broom, a nurse at Northeast Georgia Medical Center, who is studying to be a family nurse practitioner at Brenau University, was made possible through a mutual friend. Dr. Renee Himmelbaum, a clinical assistant professor of pediatrics at PCOM Georgia and a practicing pediatrician in Gwinnett, introduced the two medical professionals through email. Dr. Himmelbaum, who graduated from PCOM Georgia, is a former student of Dr. Penney’s and now a colleague.
The physician/patient story began in 1994. Following a high school football game, 18-year-old Broom, a senior at Norcross High School, was riding in the backseat of a Bronco 2 with her boyfriend, Brian Watkins, 19. Neither were wearing seatbelts. In a matter of seconds, the driver overcorrected as the SUV ran off the road. The vehicle flipped and the couple was ejected. Watkins was later pronounced brain dead at the hospital. Broom survived with multiple injuries to her right side, including a head injury.
Dr. Penney was on call that night. Recruited to Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville (now Northside Hospital Gwinnett), in 1993 as the second neurosurgeon for fast-growing Gwinnett County, he evaluated the situation. Recalling that Broom had a life-threatening brain hemorrhage, he remembers discussing the situation with Broom’s mother and receiving permission to perform a craniotomy.
He said, “Obviously the surgery had a good outcome. It changed Rachelle’s life and I’m honored to be here. It’s humbling for me,” he said, acknowledging the gifts he believes he’s been given. He noted, “As a neurosurgeon for over 30 years, it’s not like you have this experience often. With more than 1,000 procedures during my career, only two to three former patients have contacted me.”
Penney grew up in Toronto, Canada, and trained at McGill University in Montreal. He honed his skills at Cook County Hospital’s level one trauma center in Chicago, which is well known for trauma management.
He said, “I was at the right place at the right time. I’ve been blessed with mentors throughout my career.”
Penney worked as a neurosurgeon in Gwinnett for 20 years before moving to Casper, Wyoming, to work in a trauma center. His family, including his wife, Line, and his youngest daughter, Dawn, made the decision to return to Gwinnett in 2016 and he accepted a teaching position at PCOM Georgia. Dawn Penney (DO ’23) is now a member of the PCOM Georgia DO class of 2023.
Broom credits the accident with launching her interest in health care and a nursing career. The first person in her family to graduate from college, she earned an RN in 2003, and a master’s degree in nursing from the University of South Alabama in 2012.
She worked in a variety of nursing settings and states before returning to Georgia in 2015 to work at Gwinnett Medical Center. Coming full circle, she knew for many years that she wanted to thank Dr. Penney for saving her life. It took seven years, some internet research, and a serendipitous friendship for the meeting to occur.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
No recommendation today, since our readers have recently have not sent new reviews. See if you can write150 words about what you have enjoyed recently, from trips to look at leaves, to cultural events, or what gave you pleasure. Help! We need new ones.
- 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
Gray manufactured weapons for Confederate Army
(From previous edition)
In manufacturing enterprises John D. Gray incorporated, with other partners, the Saluda Manufacturing Company, a South Carolina textile mill. He purchased land in north Georgia on South Chickamauga Creek and established a company town (Graysville, in Catoosa County), combining mining, manufacturing, agriculture, and transportation. His Graysville Mining and Manufacturing Company mined and processed lime, and he built a large furniture factory, a distillery, a barrel factory, and a large gristmill.
When the Civil War began in 1861, Gray was one of the first to manufacture guns in Georgia, under the names of John D. Gray and Company and the Columbus Armory at Columbus. He turned his furniture factory in Graysville into a war manufacturing establishment, and he established the Montgomery Rolling Mill to further the cause in Alabama. A versatile Confederate manufacturer, Gray produced carbines, Mississippi rifles, Enfield rifles, muskets, sabers, knives, canteens, buckets, poles, gunstocks, bayonet-scabbards, pick axes, shovels, cookware for the field, kettles, nests of tubs, castings, trace chains, axes, pole slides, and tent buttons.
He led in the manufacture of “Joe Brown” pikes—poles with sharp blades named for Governor Joseph E. Brown, who ordered them—for the state of Georgia. He owned and developed the Chatata Lead Mines near Charleston, Tenn., for the Confederate government.
Gray initially assisted in the private establishment of the niter works at a cave in Kingston, in Bartow County, which was later taken over by the Confederate Ordnance Department. At the request of the Confederate Railroad Department, Gray surveyed iron and coal supplies in Alabama and Georgia and manufacturers capable of casting iron for use in constructing railroad cars. Union soldiers destroyed all his assets in Graysville in late 1863 and all of his manufacturing establishments in Montgomery, Alabama, and in Columbus in 1865.
After the war Gray reconstructed the Dillingham Street Bridge in Columbus that had been destroyed during the war. With the profit he incorporated the Atlanta Mining and Rolling Mill Company, which was financed in part by railroads. He continued to construct railroads, rebuilt Graysville, and worked on large and important projects up to the last years of his life. He died in Graysville on November 17, 1878.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Pointed elements, plus classical design, in this edition
There are several pointed aspects to today’s Mystery Photo. Added to the classical design, it makes a handsome photo. Tell us where you think it’s located, and include your hometown when you send your idea to elliott@brack.net.
Last issue’s mystery: Reader Doug Cozart shared, “Frank Lloyd Wright designed and lived in this house, if I remember right. I’ve been inside the house, in 2005 or 2006, with my Dad, on a ‘Wright Plus’ walking tour in Oak Park, Ill. (Chicago area).
Others recognizing the mystery were Robert Foreman of Grayson, who said: “This is one of the most well known of Wright’s residential designs, ranking with his house designs like Falling Water and Taliesin West;” George Graf, Palmyra Va.; Lou Camerio of Lilburn; and Allan Peel of San Antonio, Tex.,who wrote: “Frank Lloyd Wright purchased the property and built the home in 1889 when he was only 22 years old. He and his wife, Catherine Tobin, raised six children in the home even though the original structure was really quite small. The home was extensively remodeled in 1895 to expand and convert the kitchen into a dining room, expand and convert the nursery for use as Catherine’s dayroom, and add a new Children’s Playroom and a new kitchen to the back of the house.
“A second major addition was made in 1898, when the Studio and Connecting Corridor were built. It was this next phase of construction that stands out and puts a light on Wright’s unique design and commitment to integrating his architectural designs to best fit with the natural landscape. For example, when adding the studio to the building in 1898, Wright did not want to cut down a willow tree that was in the way. So, in order to preserve the admired willow, he built an interior ‘connecting corridor’ and passageway to the studio around the tree, and allowed it to continue to grow into the house. Although the original tree is now gone, preservationists have recreated the built-in tree with a honey locust.”
Oooops. In naming those who identified the East Lake Country Club as a recent mystery photo, we left out Lou Camrio of Lilburn and Jim Savadelis of Duluth. Our pardons.
Gwinnett County is honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a weekend of service. Volunteer opportunities are available across Gwinnett parks, including:
-
- Freeman’s Mill Park on Saturday, January 15 from 9 a.m. to noon;
- Rhodes Jordan Park on Monday, January 17 from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.; and
- McDaniel Farm Park on Monday, January 17 from 9 a.m.to noon.
Historical Marker dedication of a statue of Charles Hale, an African American resident of Gwinnett County, who was lynched in 1911 in Lawrenceville Square, will be Saturday, January 15 at 11 a.m. on the Square. The ceremony will take place virtually, because of a pandemic spike.
The Supervisors of the Gwinnett County Soil and Water Conservation District will be conducting their regularly scheduled public meeting on Wednesday, January 19, 2022 beginning at 9 a.m. Because of COVID concerns, this public meeting will be held via Zoom. To join the Zoom meeting, click here.
Project RESET 2.0 Emergency Rental Assistance Program will be held on Wednesday, January 19 at the Norcross Branch Library and Wednesday, January 26 at the Centerville Branch Library. Both programs will start at 10 a.m. and finish at 3 p.m. Bring a sandwich and learn. Project RESET 2.0 will provide rental, utility, and internet services relief for eligible renter households who have become housing insecure as a direct result of the impacts of COVID-19.
Day trips in Georgia: Learn more about exciting and educational Georgia day trips for you and your family on Sunday, January 30 at 3 p.m. at the Suwanee Branch Library, 361 Main Street, Suwanee. Author Tom Poland will revisit disappearing traditions in his book, The Last Sunday Drive: Vanishing Traditions in Georgia and the Carolinas. Books will be available for sale and signing at the event.
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