GwinnettForum | Number 22.42 | June 13, 2023
NATIONAL FINALIST: Gwinnett’s Chamber of Commerce has been named a finalist for the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives Chamber of the Year award. The program recognizes the leadership role that chambers have in their communities and honors them for their organizational strength and community impact. The Gwinnett Chamber leadership team will be attending the annual association convention in Salt Lake City in late July, where an awards ceremony will unveil the winners. This Gwinnett Chamber staff photo was intentionally staged against the backdrop of the LOVE public art mural in Suwanee, as a nod to the organization’s “Gwinnett Chamber Loves Georgia” campaign from its day at the capitol event.
TODAY’S FOCUS: Dentist volunteering where his father-in-law got help
EEB PERSPECTIVE: A troubling aspect: churches losing attendance and members
SPOTLIGHT: The Piedmont Bank
ANOTHER VIEW: County seeks input at workshops for 2045 Unified Plan
FEEDBACK: Send us your thoughts
UPCOMING: County strengthens code for rental properties
NOTABLE: Gwinnett gets funding for three CSX railroad crossings
RECOMMENDED: Until There is Justice by Jennifer Scanlon
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Hayes is now in Georgia Music Hall of Fame
MYSTERY PHOTO: It takes lots of care to keep up this gorgeous garden
LAGNIAPPE: Five members of same family join local SAR Chapter
CALENDAR: Juneteenth celebration in Lawrenceville on Saturday
Dentist volunteering where his father-in-law got help
(Editor’s note: the following is about Truth’s Community Clinic, at 250 Langley Drive in Lawrenceville. Medical services are provided on the first and third Tuesdays of each month; dental services on the first and third Thursdays of each month. The clinic is seeking medical and dental volunteers to serve a few hours each month. For more information, visit www.truthsclinic.org.–eeb)
By Fran Worrall
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga | A local dentist is giving back to the Gwinnett County clinic that once provided healthcare services to one of his own family members.
Worrall
Dr. Thanh “Tom” Tang, who practices at Suwanee Center for Family Dentistry, began volunteering last year at Truth’s Community Clinic in Lawrenceville, a faith-based non-profit clinic that offers non-emergency primary care, including medical, dental and pharmaceutical services. His father-in-law had been treated at the clinic for several years, and Tang wanted to repay the kindness he received there by helping others in need.
Dr. Tang was born in Vietnam. His family immigrated to the U.S. when he was 12 years old, settling in the south Atlanta area. After graduating from Georgia State University, where he received a degree in business administration, he married and got a job in the retail sector. Yet, he wasn’t happy in his career. “I didn’t feel like I was living up to my potential,” he says.
Although he considered going back to school for a master’s degree in business, he made the decision to pursue a vocation in healthcare because he had always wanted to help others. He decided to pursue dentistry because many of his own family members had dental problems, and he saw first hand how oral health affects the entire body. “So many people, especially those without insurance, only see a dentist when they have a toothache,” he recognizes. “Sadly, by that time, there are often much bigger problems.”
Tang
Tang attended the University of Kentucky College of Dentistry in Lexington on a scholarship from the U.S. Navy. Following graduation, he served as a dentist at Norfolk Naval Station in Norfolk, Va., and at Camp Lejeune, N.C. After being discharged from the military, he returned to the Atlanta area, eventually settling in Suwanee.
Tang’s in-laws, also from Vietnam, immigrated to the U.S. in the late 1980s and made their home in Suwanee. When his father-in-law, who worked at a restaurant that didn’t provide health insurance, began having dental problems, a friend suggested he visit Truth’s Community Clinic. At that point, he hadn’t seen a dentist in more than a decade and required extensive treatment. The clinic offered the help he needed. Over the next few years, he visited regularly for dental services and medical care.
In a twist of fate, Tang’s wife phoned Truth’s Community Clinic in early 2022 to ask a question about her father’s care, and an office worker mentioned the clinic’s need for a dentist during the call. Tang contacted the clinic the following day and began volunteering within a couple of weeks.
Volunteer work is a mission of sorts for the Suwanee dentist. “I know what it means to come from an underserved background, and I suffered through a lot of dental problems because of it,” he says. “Now that I’m in a situation where I can give back and make a positive difference in people’s lives, it’s important to me that I do that. Truth’s Community Clinic has given me a way to help people like my father-in-law, who is so grateful for the care he received there.”
What’s more, he says, the ripple effect of helping others can be far-reaching. “What I’m doing today may influence some of the younger people I’m treating,” Tang concludes. “That kid in my chair could end up becoming a dentist or a physician because of the care he or she is receiving. You just never know.”
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
A troubling aspect: churches losing attendance and members
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
JUNE 13,2023 | One aspect of our society deeply troubles me, for we see less and less positive in this area. It’s about the smaller and smaller influence that the traditional church has in our society.
Church attendance at Sunday services is dropping in many traditional Protestant churches. The membership is falling, too. And more churches are finding fault with their governance, often considering and even leaving their umbrella church organization. Other independent churches find discontent members forming smaller churches.
Yes, some may leave their previous church, but find contentment in another church, possibly for a picky reason. But all too often, these people do not merely move their membership. Many stop going to services altogether.
The Covid pandemic didn’t help the traditional church. Even when many churches started offering online services through the Internet, since more people had computers, this in some instances backfired. People found that they could stay at home, not worry about dressing up, and watch the services without leaving their homes. Some like it that way, having their services on the computer.
That, of course, destroys the element of “church family” worshiping together. Gone were gatherings in person for the sermon, the morning coffees before or after services, the Sunday Schools, possibly the mid-week services, and the whole concept of a friendly community within the church.
Covid kicked the church severely.
And many have not returned.
Others used this time to stop going to churches altogether. Some realized that the church, in an effort to maintain interest by providing “church on the internet” actually succeeded in encouraging people away from its doors. Many have not returned.
The church is missing in many people’s lives in other ways.
Participation in houses of worship continues to decline, according to studies. Twenty-eight percent of respondents in a national survey said they “seldom” attend religious services, and 29 percent of respondents said they “never” attend religious services. A decade ago, those figures were 22 and 21 percent, respectively.
Besides the falling numbers in church attendance and membership, the church is often not the choice of location for weddings. The newly sprung-up “event facilities” are competing with the churches, offering one location where there can be a service, with a reception after the wedding, often including dinner and dancing.
And have you noticed that not as many people are being buried from the church? Instead of being in the lofty surroundings of the traditional church, we have the antiseptic funeral homes providing this activity, often at a charge on the funeral bill.
There’s also a new way to name churches. They are no long “First Baptist” or “Mulberry Methodist” but are becoming churches with names not using the denomination. In effect, you can no longer figure out in advance what a church believes when it uses a name, that may tell you nothing, and perhaps even confuse you. Recognize that some of these “no denomination worship centers” are huge. This is one element of the church community which is growing.
We (especially in Gwinnett) often accept changes. Our diverse population has given us many ways to see change.
Yet we feel we are losing something, the very heart of our community, when our traditional churches are not thriving, have lower attendance and seem headed lower. Not all is positive in our lives in Gwinnett County.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
The Piedmont Bank
The public spiritedness of our underwriters allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today’s underwriter is The Piedmont Bank, which opened its doors in 2009, and is a full service commercial bank. It has recently closed a merger with Westside Bank with offices in Paulding and Cobb Counties and also recently opened an office in downtown Duluth. Piedmont now has offices in 14 locations, with its home office in Peachtree Corners at 5100 Peachtree Parkway and other locations; at 185 Gwinnett Drive in Lawrenceville; east of Interstate 85 near Suwanee at Old Peachtree and Brown Roads; in Dunwoody at 1725 Mount Vernon Road, in Cumming at 2450 Atlanta Highway and in Cleveland, Gainesville, Jefferson and Blue Ridge, plus another office in Kennesaw. Piedmont Bank has capitalization in excess of $180 million and over $1.8 billion in total assets and is active in making loans to businesses and individuals in its local markets. Piedmont’s board of directors includes local business leaders with strong ties in the communities it serves. Board members include Lamar Black, Ray Black, Robert Cheeley, Paul Donaldson, Kelly Johnson, John Howard, Paul Maggard, Michael Tennant, Ray Barnes and Monty Watson. Deposits at The Piedmont Bank are insured by the FDIC up to $250,000.
- For a list of other sponsors of this forum, click here.
County seeks input at workshops for 2045 Unified Plan
By Neil Duggan
LILBURN, Ga. | Every five years, Gwinnett County reviews and revises its primary document for growth and development, the Unified Plan. The current 2040 Unified Plan is available for viewing here.
Here’s how it works. The county hires consultants to create the new 2045 Unified Plan. The consultants then form a small interdisciplinary committee and schedule a wide variety of public events. The goal is to get as much public visibility and input as possible. In the end, the consultants and the interdisciplinary committee will work to adopt as much of the public input possible into the new plan.
Take a look at the following list of events and topics and try to attend as many as you can. By getting active locally and speaking up, you can have the biggest impact on what happens where you live, work and play.
Gwinnett’s three-part “Speak Up!” speaker series is where attendees will hear from local and national experts on innovative ideas and solutions to foster healthy, connected, and livable communities. The kick-off event was held on June 1 at Central Gwinnett High School. A recording of this event will be available soon.
All events are free and open to the public.
The first Speak Up! event will tackle two important topics for building and maintaining strong communities: housing and economic development. Across the country, thought leaders have been advancing conversations about how these two fields are inextricably linked. How can forward-thinking approaches in both fields be applied in our community?
Speakers will showcase best practices and case studies, providing inspiration for Gwinnett County and beyond. In addition, representatives from Gwinnett’s Department of Planning and Development will provide a brief update on the current state of housing and the county’s affordable housing initiatives.
Details about this and future events are:
- June 17 Pop Up Event, Juneteenth Celebration, Rhodes Jordan Park in Lawrenceville.
- June 21, at 5 p.m. at the Centerville Senior Center, Land Use Workshop No. 1.
(Other workshops on Land Use are planned for June 29, July 20, 26 and 27, at sites to be announced later.)
- June 28 at 6 p.m. at Aurora Theatre in Lawrenceville: How Infrastructure Can Keep Gwinnett Green and Healthy. Participants include Kristin Ihnchak, Greenprint Partners, and Dan Burden, Blue Zones.
- July 12 at 6 p.m. at Red Clay Music Foundry in Duluth: Connecting Communities Through Redevelopment. Participants include Joe Minicozzi of Urban 3, and Tony Jordan, Parking Reform Network.
A full list of events and related information on our project website, GwinnettCounty.com/2045UnifiedPlan under Upcoming Events.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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.
County strengthens code for rental properties
Gwinnett Commissioners have amended the county’s ordinances to strengthen enforcement on residential rental properties by adopting the International Property Maintenance Code. This development follows a review process since the proposal was last before the board in February.
The adopted International Property Maintenance Code and its associated amendments aim to establish minimum standards for interior conditions at residential rental properties. The code focuses on key areas such as structural maintenance, light, ventilation and occupancy, plumbing, heating and electricity and fire safety. By incorporating these standards, the Board is taking a proactive approach to enhance the overall safety and quality of residential rental properties within the county. In turn, this policy change allows Gwinnett County code enforcement officers to work directly with tenants.
In addition to the adoption of the code, the Property Maintenance Ordinance has been updated in several other areas. Notably, the section pertaining to swimming pools, spas and hot tubs has been revised to align with current safety standards, ensuring that these recreational facilities meet the highest safety requirements for the benefit of residents and visitors.
The revised ordinance introduces new sections dedicated to specific property maintenance aspects. These include the maintenance of lighting on non-residential, hotel and multifamily properties; the upkeep of properties in a clean and sanitary condition; the maintenance of canopies and building extensions; and the maintenance of chimneys and towers. The new amendment goes into effect on July 31.
Chamber renovating offices, aims for completion in January
The Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce has begun the largest renovation project in its history demolishing the first and second floor offices to begin construction of a newly envisioned regional center for business. The new floor plans reveal an open design with sizable collaboration space and a new outdoor event venue that utilizes the organization’s iconic pinwheel logo in its layout. Visionary renderings of the new space and its amenities will be unveiled to members via email on June 26 and posted to our renovation web page at GwinnettChamber.org/Renovation.
As a reminder, membership, finance, and administration departments for the Gwinnett Chamber have temporarily relocated operations to the second floor of the building in suite 260. The remaining staff are working remotely in various partner locations throughout the community for which the team is ever grateful.
The entire project is on target for completion in January 2024.
Gwinnett gets funding for three CSX railroad crossings
Three Georgia counties – including two in metro Atlanta – will receive more than $3.2 million in federal funds for projects aimed at eliminating crashes and blockages at railroad crossings. Gwinnett County is funded for $888,000 for a feasibility study of construction alternatives for three CSX railroad crossings. The county will provide a 20 percent match for the grant. The two other counties getting this funding include DeKalb and Chatham counties.
The provided funding will be used to assess the current CSX crossings at Arcado Road, Oak Road/Gloster Road, and Hosea Road with the goal of identifying the most suitable methods for grade-separating each crossing.
The funding is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Railroad Crossing Elimination Grant Program, which is providing more than $570 million for 63 projects in 32 states in this first of four years of annual grants. The program is part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
The dangers of intersections of roads and railroad tracks have been highlighted in national media stories in recent months. Train collisions with motor vehicles are one danger. Another is lengthy road blockages by stopped trains, which can prevent first responders from helping people in emergencies, among other impacts.
Corbin becomes Certified Economic Developer
Corbin
Norcross Economic Development Director William Corbin has earned the designation of Certified Economic Developer, a national recognition that denotes a mastery of skills in economic development, professional attainment and commitment to personal and professional growth. With 13 years of economic development experience, William manages the city’s economic development programs and services by partnering with the local business community and ensuring all business needs are met by the city. He has helped to stimulate more than $500 million of investment in Norcross, including commercial restaurant/retail projects and 2,000+ units of residential development across the price point spectrum.
Until There is Justice by Jennifer Scanlon
From Karen J. Harris, Stone Mountain: This is a look of the African American experience and the goal of achieving equality in America. Born on July 17, 1899, in Marshalltown, Iowa, Anna Arnold Hedgeman grew up in Anoka, Minn. Her family lived in an area where race was not much of an issue and were insulated from the world beyond. Anna was the first African American to graduate from Hamline University in Minnesota. For 60 years, she was a teacher in Mississippi. She worked in YWCA in Harlem. A leader and participator in numerous events including the March on Washington, she interfaced with historical figures including Harry Truman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr. Malcom X, and Lyndon B. Johnson to spread the word that until all people had opportunities and freedom, no one in the country was free. I met her only once, when I was about 12 years old and could feel her intensity. The book’s full title is Until There is Justice: The Life of Anna Arnold Hedgeman.
Please note: We are running way short on reviews and recommendations. Get busy and send us your recommendation before the next issue or we may not be able to have one for you.
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
Hayes is now in Georgia Music Hall of Fame
(From previous issue)
When touring Europe in October 1923, the tenor Roland Hayes was introduced to Countess Bertha Katharina Nadine Colloredo-Mansfeld, a wealthy white woman of Hapsburg ancestry. The two had a passionate and turbulent relationship that spanned several decades. On February 12, 1926, the couple had a daughter, Maria “Maya” Dolores Franzyska Kolowrat-Krakowsky. The Countess never divorced her white husband, however, and spent most of her life at a chalet in southern France. The romantic relationship between the Countess and Hayes dissolved in the mid-1930s. Nevertheless, he maintained a correspondence with Maya and visited her when in Europe. Later in life, Maya married and had six children, including twin boys Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff, who would become well-known French television personalities and eccentrics.
Back in America, Hayes married Helen Alzada Mann in 1937, and they had a daughter, Afrika. Hayes and his wife maintained residences in Brookline, Mass., and in Curryville, where they owned a 600-acre farm. Hayes’s mother had been an enslaved laborer on the farm, and Hayes had been born there.
An unfortunate racial incident involving Hayes’s family occurred in Rome, Georgia, in July 1942 and made national newspaper headlines. After Hayes’s wife and daughter sat in a whites-only area of a shoe store, they were thrown out of the store. Hayes later confronted the store clerk, and he and his wife were arrested by the local police. Hayes was also beaten. About a week later, in response to the incident, Governor Eugene Talmadge warned Blacks who didn’t agree with segregation “to stay out of Georgia.” Talmadge promised, “We are going to keep the Jim Crow laws and protect them.” Although Hayes claimed that he was not bitter, he and his family left Georgia not long afterward and eventually sold their farm in 1948.
In 1962 Hayes gave a concert at Carnegie Hall to celebrate his 75th birthday and raise funds for the American Missionary Association College Centennials Fund. He spent his later years encouraging young musicians by serving as a mentor, giving freely of his talent, time, and financial resources to help them. He also taught at Boston University and received many honorary doctoral degrees and numerous awards, including the NAACP Spingarn Medal. Hayes gave his final concert in 1973 at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massa. He died on January 1, 1977, in Boston and is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Dorchester, Mass.
In 1991 the Georgia Music Hall of Fame inducted Hayes posthumously. In 1995 the Georgia Department of Natural Resources erected an official historic marker in Hayes’s honor in Calhoun. The city of Calhoun chose to place the marker on property adjacent to the Calhoun Civic Auditorium because Hayes had performed in the old auditorium that had once stood there. In 2000 the Roland Hayes Museum opened in the Harris Arts Center in Calhoun, where concerts are held annually in his honor.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
It takes lots of care to keep up this gorgeous garden
Today’s Mystery Photo is a gorgeous garden, which takes lots of tender care from the people tending it. There may be no clues from the vegetation, so this could be difficult to determine. Send your thoughts of where this garden is located to elliott@brack.net and be sure to include your hometown.
The last mystery photo was the shield of the City of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. It is apparently on several buildings within the city. George Graf of Palmyra, Va. gave this account: “Knew this one right away from the three “X’s”. The three crosses of St. Andrew denote the three virtues of the city: valor, firmness and mercy, and their connection with the three threats to this city is widespread among the people: water, fire and epidemic. This is the Walekerkpoort gate. This Ancient gate was built in 1616 by Hendrick de Keyser, functioning as an exit gate from the Waalse church for funeral processions, hence the skulls. The gate was renovated around 2006, skulls that had disappeared from the original were added once more, and then again in 2014, a crown was added and the skulls were placed lower.”
The photograph came from Chuck Paul of Norcross.
Others recognizing it include Molly Titus, Peachtree Corners; Jay Altman, Columbia, S.C.; Lou Camerio, Lilburn; Laura Goode, Santa Rosa, Calif.; Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill; a Allan Peel of San Antonio, Tex.; and Lindsay Borenstein, of Atlanta.
- SHARE A MYSTERY PHOTO: If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send to: elliott@brack.net and mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.
Five members of same family join local SAR chapter
It was a momentous event in its 24-year history when the Button Gwinnett Chapter, National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, inducted five members from three generations of the Stoecker family recently. Although it is not uncommon to induct new members, it is unusual for five members from one family to join together. From left are Chapter SAR President, Tom Jacques; new members Benjamin Stoecker, Winston Law, John W. Stoecker, Christopher Stoecker and John C. Stoecker, plus Georgia State Society SAR President Dr. David Ludley, who was also the guest speaker on the topic of “Colonial and Revolutionary Art and Related Works.” John Stoecker’s father was also a SAR member, having first joined the Children of the American Revolution (CA.R.) in 1923 at the age of eight. Their common Revolutionary War Patriot is Thomas Helm, a lieutenant in the 3rd Virginia Regiment in Capt. Philip Francis Lee’s Company under Colonel Thomas Marshall.
Juneteenth celebration in Lawrenceville on Saturday
Volunteer wanted: To be the theater critic for GwinnettForum. Experience preferable but not necessary. Enjoy contemporary theater in the Atlanta area with this assignment. All volunteer work with no pay, but it will extend your thought process, and give you many good outings. Send your resume to elliott@brack.net, include a picture and examples of your writings.
Grant workshop: In partnership with Georgia Council for the Arts, the Fox Theatre Institute will host two in-person workshops designed for organizations to learn more about their preservation grant program and application process. One will be on June 13 in Athens at Hotel Indigo, while the other will be on June 14 at the Fox Theatre. The Fox Theatre will again offer 2023/2024 grants in the four categories when the new grant cycle begins in July 2023. The application deadline this year will be August 1, 2023.
Juneteenth, a day of fun for the whole family, will be observed Saturday, June 17, from noon to 6 p.m. at Rhodes Jordan Park in Lawrenceville,sponsored by the United Ebony Society of Gwinnett and Gwinnett County government. . Juneteenth holds significant historical importance as the oldest celebrated commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States. It will feature historical presentations, performances, music, games, and food trucks. Rhodes Jordan Park is located at 100 East Crogan Street in Lawrenceville.
Writers’ Workshop with the Atlanta Writers Club will take place on Saturday, June 18, at 12:45 p.m. at the Duluth Branch of the Gwinnett County Public Library. Learn more about writing, network with other writers, and listen to accomplished authors. Daniel Black and Meg Leader will each give presentations and offer tips to improve your writing.
Rooftop solar workshop will be Wednesday, June 21, at 6:30 at the Five Forks Branch of the Gwinnett County Public Library. Learn about the benefits of switching to solar energy to save money on your power bills and reduce your environmental footprint.
GwinnettForum is provided to you at no charge every Tuesday and Friday.
Meet our team
- Editor and publisher: Elliott Brack, 770-840-1003
- Managing editor: Betsy Brack
- Roving photographer: Frank Sharp
- Contributing columnist: Jack Bernard
- Contributing columnist: George Wilson
More
- Mailing address: P.O. Box 1365, Norcross, Ga. 30091
- Work with us: If you would like to learn about how to be an underwriter to support the publication of GwinnettForum as a community resource for news and commentary, please contact us today.
Subscriptions to GwinnettForum are free.
- Click to subscribe.
- Unsubscribe. We hope you’ll keep receiving the great news and information from GwinnettForum, but if you need to unsubscribe, go to this page and unsubscribe in the appropriate box.
© 2023, Gwinnett Forum.com. Gwinnett Forum is an online community commentary for exploring pragmatic and sensible social, political and economic approaches to improve life in Gwinnett County, Ga. USA.
Follow Us