GwinnettForum | Number 22.89 | Dec. 15, 2023
IF YOU WANT A DIFFERENT VACATION, and you take a trip to Greenland, you can spend the night in an igloo. This is the view you would have. Read more of one trip to Greenland in Today’s Focus below.
TODAY’S FOCUS: Consider this area for your vacation: Greenland!
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Regulate Activity at Bars in Early Morning Hours
SPOTLIGHT: Walton Gas
ANOTHER VIEW: Rowen project on track to be completed in 2024
FEEDBACK: Herding cats falls short in two-party warring factions
UPCOMING: Gwinnett Stripers attendance continues upward
NOTABLE: JEMCF contribution includes $72,000 to local area
RECOMMENDED: Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Former Fort Gordon now named Fort Eisenhower
MYSTERY PHOTO: Check out today’s unusual photograph
CALENDAR: Christmas program at Mary Our Queen Church tonight
Consider this area for your vacation: Greenland!
Note the housing in Greenland. Photos provided.
(Editor’s note: looking for a different vacation? Laura Ballance, director of the Hudgens Center for Art and Learning, has returned from a vacation trip she put together herself: Greenland. Now, that’s a destination that is distinctive!–eeb)
By Laura Ballance
DULUTH, Ga. | On a Tuesday morning in late November, my husband and I sat at a boarding gate in Copenhagen, looking out at the bright red Airbus A330-800 neo, Air Greenland’s only jet aircraft, which runs twice weekly flights to Kangerlussuaq. Five hours later, I found myself in what is often referred to as “the world’s strangest international airport.”
Ballance
Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, is a town of 200 people. In the two-hour time period when the flight from Copenhagen lands, unloads passengers, and boards the return flight back to Denmark, the population of Kangerlussuaq easily triples. As I walked across the tarmac to the airport’s only gate, I was immediately struck by the quiet cold and the jagged icy rock landscape in the dark days of Greenland’s winter. It seemed like landing on the moon.
As of 2020, Greenland had 36 American residents (presumably, researchers), four beehives and three motorcycles. Greenland is the northernmost area of the world and the largest island, with a land mass equivalent to the larger Midwest, stretching into Mexico. More than 80 percent of that land mass is an ice shelf with such a harsh environment that only microbes are able to survive there.
My husband and I had pieced together a seven-day trip, with our first three nights in a glass igloo, tucked into the rocks above a fjord just outside the capital city of Nuuk and hoping for a glimpse of the Northern Lights. With roughly 18,000 residents, Nuuk is home to most of those who live in Greenland. While there, the temperature was between 4-25 degrees F., and snowed often.
A cultural center is the heart of Nuuk, where residents gather for movies, festivals, or beers while watching their beloved national handball team on a large screen TV. The city’s shopping mall opened in 2012, with much fanfare, apparently, and boasts 11 stores, one of which is the grocery store. It takes less than ten minutes to walk the entire mall but, when it’s cold enough outside, you can stretch it to an hour, if needed.
Menu options in Nuuk and throughout Greenland include musk ox, reindeer, seal, narwhal, walrus, Beluga and Minke whale, and even polar bear during certain times of the year. The fish market in Nuuk is a small room where people gather to buy whatever is brought in that day.
The Labrador Sea is Greenland’s highway. We spent the latter half of our trip on a passenger and cargo ferry, the Sarfaq Ittuk, that travels up the coast once per week. It is the only connection to the outside world for most of Greenland’s small settlements. Its bow has survived more than a few icebergs.
Stopping at towns with no more than a couple hundred people, the Sarfaq Ittuk hauls mail, groceries, and medical supplies, among other things. We saw the week’s trash get picked up – from one town, it was just three bags. It’s a truly special thing to get a glimpse of everyday life in a world so different from the one we know. We chugged up the coastline, 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle.
Making our way through Greenland proved to be a profound experience, the kind that opens you and changes you forever, for the better. We never saw the Northern Lights. They remain elusive, like so many other things. Though we never got what we came for, that feels right, in a way.
The Greenlandic language doesn’t have past or future tense. Everything is lived in the moment. Coming home, it was hard to let go of that moment. It’s an incredibly special place.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Regulate activity at bars in early morning hours
(Editor’s note: The following column was first published in this space on Jan. 30, 2009. Though crime has grown through the area since, little has been done to curb activities around late-night establishments. We continue to advocate for changes in this area to make Gwinnett County a safer place. Closing bars earlier is one of GwinnettForum’s Continuing Objectives. —eeb)
By Elliott Brack
Editor and publisher, GwinnettForum.com
DEC. 15, 2023 – Consider, if you will, what sort of activity goes on in Gwinnett between the hours of 2 a.m. and 5 a.m.
How about this description: “Not much good!”
Some law-abiding citizens may get home from work routinely at 2 or 3 a.m. (We feel for them.) We know some early-birds who arise at 5 a.m. We suppose they are just built that way.
Yet there are others among us who are still not in bed by 2 a.m., and in fact, make it their normal routine to be out and about during these morning hours. We find that the way the law is written in Gwinnett, many establishments that serve alcoholic beverages are staying open well past the deadline for halting the sale of alcoholic beverages. One such outlet, pictured here, advertises it as staying open until 5 a.m.
Gwinnett ordinances read that if the establishment serves alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises, they can only serve between the hours of 9 a.m. until 1:55 a.m. Monday through Saturday. On Sundays, they may serve from 12:30 p.m. until midnight, but only at places which derive at least 50 percent of their annual gross sales from prepared food or from overnight lodging.
Now let’s go into this further. If these establishments (some may be known in the vernacular as “bars,” or even by other terms, such as “joints”) have to halt sales at 1:55 a.m. at the latest, what happens from then until 5 a.m.?
Of course, we suppose a person could order another drink at 1:50 a.m., or two or three, and sit around and consume those (maybe warm) drinks well past 1:55 a.m. Perhaps some sit there and drink until 5 a.m. (Code Section 6-93.)
Far more possible, we suspect, is that the bulk of heated discussion, arguments and perhaps fights and gunshots, take place between 2 and 5 a.m. than at other times. And there is no telling what else those in attendance at such joints will get into after the technical end of serving time. We would be more literal in suggesting that what goes on at these late hours could not, in many ways, be considered “pretty” or “wholesome” or even “nice.” You perhaps can imagine some such shenanigans. You could also probably correlate unusual activities during these hours with calls to the police to come to these establishments.
All this, you understand, without even mentioning other possibilities, such as activities with drugs, taking place during this time slot.
Yes, we would like to see change:
- Requiring all places serving alcoholic beverages to completely close by 3 a.m. at the latest.
- Better still, move the time up by an hour for the “last call” of drinks, say until 12:55 a.m., with closing by 2 a.m.
- Far closer regulation of these establishments.
Gwinnett is not a good-time convention county. We see no reason for our county, one where most people like to say that they believe in “family values,” to routinely allow long, after-midnight activity in places serving alcoholic beverages.
Governments have long used the tool of regulation for establishments serving alcoholic beverages. We feel Gwinnett needs to get tougher in this area. The county commission is the authority in these matters. It should investigate just what goes on between 2-5 a.m. at these places.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Walton Gas
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Rowen project on track to be completed in 2024
By Brian Brodrick
AUBURN, Ga. | One year ago, the Rowen Foundation hosted its formal groundbreaking and tree-planting ceremony to mark the beginning of Georgia’s first-ever foundation-led knowledge community. Since then, tremendous progress has been made on the 2,000-acre site, with Phase 1 infrastructure on track for completion in 2024.
Since Governor Brian Kemp and Gwinnett Chairwoman Nicole Love Hendrickson joined hundreds of leaders and dignitaries at the ceremony, grubbing, clearing and grading has been completed for much of the project’s first phase of infrastructure, which includes more than two miles of environmentally friendly complete streets, paths and sidewalks. Nearly half those roadways have been paved, requiring more than four million pounds of rock and 37,000 cubic yards of dirt to be moved in balancing the site. Thanks to more than 36,000 man hours of work, the bioretention pond, curb and gutter installation, and storm drainage have all been installed.
Rowen Foundation CEO and President Mason Ailstock says: “We are extremely pleased with the exciting progress we’ve seen on-site, and even more importantly with the progress we have made building relationships with economic development leaders from across the nation. While many have believed in our vision, having the opportunity to see the site activated and to enjoy the natural beauty that surrounds us is creating tremendous energy with our neighbors and prospects. Rowen offers a tremendous opportunity to bring innovation-focused jobs and economic development to our region, the entire state and beyond.”
At complete build-out, Rowen is projected to bring nearly 100,000 jobs to Georgia, contributing $8 to $10 billion to the state’s economy annually. The site continues to build on the land’s rich history of environmental stewardship by utilizing green building approaches throughout the construction process. Five of Georgia’s top institutions of higher education are engaged as Foundation board members, including Emory University, Georgia Gwinnett College, the Georgia Institute of Technology, Spelman College and the University of Georgia.
Partnership Gwinnett Vice President of Economic Development Deven Cason says: “Rowen will be pivotal to not only the economic development of Gwinnett, but the state as a whole. Watching the project actually come to life with such an abundant history and an impactful future ahead has been an honor. We are eager to continue championing Rowen and its future success.”
The mixed-use community aims to bring together entrepreneurs, researchers and innovators in the fields of agriculture, medicine and the environment and many aligned technologies. Rowen is poised to be a global leader in knowledge, innovation and collaboration while leveraging a uniquely qualified and diverse labor pool that stretches from Metro Atlanta into Hall and Athens-Clarke Counties.
- To learn more about Rowen, see updated renderings of the site and stay up-to-date on the construction progress, please visit rowenlife.com.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Herding cats falls short in two-party warring factions
Editor, the Forum:
Let me agree with Andy Brack about the function of the Republican Party and the handling of the Speaker position. I heard it referred to as “circling the firing squad” rather than circling the wagons.
I believe the division in both parties just exposes the various activism in each party and the passion each has leads to commitment to their position. The multiple segments have been glued together in the past by demonizing the opposition. Now both parties are full of factions that won’t settle for anything less than their way.
Herding cats falls short in describing the job of getting the factions to work together. In other countries, the expected end would be multiple new parties. These other countries form coalition governments.
The political power structure we have shudders to consider such a thing. It complicates the situation greatly. Our two-party system has its benefits, but it is like carving a turkey with a chainsaw in our multiple segment society.
– Byron Gilbert, Duluth
Obamacare is merely a vote-buying scheme
Editor, the Forum:
Obamacare is nothing but a vote-buying scheme. Those I know who have it can’t afford to use it, and a lot of them are in the medical field.
The mention of the border under Trump to knock it suggests we have a Democrat commenting on talking points. The border was secure then and would have been even shut down if it were not for Democrats. Now it’s open to terrorist killers and gang members and there are more deaths that fall back on illegals than ever in our history. We are a republic and not a socialist government, so health care needs to be solved on a non-political nature.
– Ronald Schwartz, Dublin, Ga.
Dear Ronald: Haven’t heard from you in a long time. Wow, for this one point, we agree: health care needs to be solved on a non-political basis. You probably even wish the Republicans would do that. –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, 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.
Gwinnett Stripers attendance continues upward
The Gwinnett Stripers continued a trend of growth at the gates in 2023, the club’s 14th season as the Triple-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. The Stripers welcomed 231,044 fans to 71 home dates at Coolray Field, the ballpark’s largest single-season attendance since 2015. With an increase of 14,867 fans over the 2022 campaign, Gwinnett has raised its attendance in consecutive seasons for the first time in history.
Overall ticket sales increased over 14 percent in 2023, with the surge highlighted by a sell-out crowd of 10,067 for the July 4 game against Omaha. It was the eighth-largest attendance for a game in Coolray Field history, the largest since July 4, 2014.
The Stripers have now increased their year-over-year attendance in three of the past four seasons dating back to 2019, with the only outlier happening during the reduced-capacity 2021 campaign.
General Manager Erin McCormick says: “The 2023 season was a resounding success in so many ways for the Stripers. The increases we saw this year are not only a testament to our hardworking staff, but also to the unending support of all Gwinnettians and our neighbors across the state. We are so proud to be the community gathering place for so many and look forward to seeing even more fans at Coolray Field for our 15th season in 2024.”
Stripers’ Manager Matt Tuiasosopo has been named to Atlanta Braves coaching staff, following three seasons with Gwinnett, Tuiasosopo will now become the Braves’ third base coach.
JEMCF contribution includes $72,000 to local area
A $7,500 Jackson EMC Foundation check to Joshua’s Voice, Inc., Buford. At the check presentation were, from left, Jill Wilson, Joshua’s Voice board member; Jennifer Fennell, Jackson EMC Gwinnett district manager; Beauty Baldwin, Jackson EMC Foundation board member; Shawnette Good, executive director of Joshua’s Voice; Dee Anderson, Jackson EMC Foundation board member; and, Kenny Lumpkin, Jackson EMC Foundation representative.
The Jackson EMC Foundation board of directors awarded a total of $114,500 in grants for organizations during its recent meeting, including $72,000 to organizations serving Gwinnett County.
- $15,000 to Peachtree Christian Health, Inc., Duluth, which supports caregivers and their loved ones by providing a compassionate care center for its Caregiving Financial Assistance Program.
- $15,000 to St. Vincent de Paul Society – Flowery Branch, to fund direct aid for housing assistance for Hall, Barrow, Gwinnett and Jackson County families in crisis and food for their food pantry.
- $15,000 to St. Vincent de Paul Society – Lawrenceville (Grayson Highway) for its financial assistance program that provides funds for rent and mortgage to Gwinnett County families in crisis.
- $10,000 to CHRIS 180 (Creativity, Honor, Respect, Integrity and Safety) for its Gwinnett Counseling Center, with a mission to heal children, strengthen families and build community, to assist children, teens and families in Gwinnett and Hall counties receive trauma-informed counseling.
- $7,500 to Athens Parent Wellbeing for its Mental Health Support for Pregnant and Postpartum Parents Program to provide 100 therapy sessions for mothers and their families in Barrow, Clarke, Gwinnett, Jackson, Madison and Oglethorpe counties.
- $7,500 to Joshua’s Voice, Inc., Buford, for its Autism Spectrum and Sensory Processing Disorder Awareness, Training and Tools Program to purchase sensory kits and educational materials for first responders.
- $2,000 to Tiny Stiches, Inc., Suwanee, to provide materials and supplies for its network of volunteers to handcraft a 28- to 32-piece layette of clothing and blankets to keep an infant warm and dry for the first three months of life, donated to mothers in need in Gwinnett, Clarke and Hall counties.
Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson
From Sara Burns, Duluth: Elon Musk, a visionary, abused, manic-depressive, impulsive, hands-on, sleep-deprived and suspected-Aspergers genius, wants to save the world. Fear of climate change, potential for another world war, and other world crises inspire him to reach for Mars as an alternative home. Climate change has driven him to pursue electric cars and homes. His fear of the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI) induced him to co-found OpenAI as an alternative to Google’s and other AI systems; Musk fears other manufacturers are not taking human safety seriously in the battle for our minds. In 2021, Musk was Time Magazine’s Man of the Year; he also appeared on Saturday Night Live, answering critics: “To anyone I’ve offended, I just want to say, I re-invented electric cars and I’m sending people to Mars in a rocket ship. Did you think I was also going to be a chill, normal dude?
- 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
Former Fort Gordon now named Fort Eisenhower
Fort Eisenhower is a major military installation located southwest of Augusta. It is the home of the Georgia Cryptologic Center, the U.S. Army Signal Corps, the U.S. Army Cyber Command, and the Cyber Center of Excellence.
The post was originally named Camp Gordon in honor of John B. Gordon, who was a major general in the Confederate army, a Georgia governor, and a U.S. senator. On March 21, 1956, it was redesignated Fort Gordon. On October 27, 2023, its name was changed again to Fort Eisenhower in honor of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who often vacationed in Augusta.
In mid-1940, with the threat of war looming, army officials began looking for sites that would be suitable for a division training area. By May 1941 an area in Richmond County had been selected for one of these new training areas. In July the U.S. War Department approved a contract to construct facilities on the new installation; the cost was estimated to be $24 million. An official groundbreaking and flag-raising ceremony took place in October.
The bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, brought the United States into World War II (1941-45) and forced the army to open Camp Gordon earlier than expected. On December 9 Colonel Herbert W. Schmid, camp commander, moved his small staff from his temporary office in the Augusta post office building to the incomplete headquarters building at Camp Gordon. At the same time the 4th Infantry Division began moving to Camp Gordon, establishing the installation as one of the army’s significant training facilities.
The 56,000-acre training site was home to three divisions during the war: the 4th Infantry, the 26th Infantry, and the 10th Armored. After undergoing training at Camp Gordon, these units were shipped to the European theater of operations, where they each served with distinction. From October 1943 to January 1945 Camp Gordon served as an internment camp for foreign prisoners of war. From May 1945 until April 1946 Camp Gordon’s U.S. Army Personnel and Separation Center processed nearly 86,000 personnel for discharge from the army.
From early 1946 to June 1947, the U.S. Army Disciplinary Barracks for convicted criminals was located at Camp Gordon, and the installation was scheduled for deactivation. However, the cold war brought an increased emphasis on military preparedness and gave new life to the camp. In September 1948 the army relocated the Military Police School from Carlisle Barracks, Penn., to Camp Gordon, and in October 1948 the Signal Corps Training Center was activated.
On March 21, 1956, the camp became a permanent military installation and was redesignated as Fort Gordon. From the 1950s through the 1970s the fort served as a basic-training facility and provided advanced individual training for troops. During the Vietnam War (1964-73), personnel who were headed for Southeast Asia trained in one of two mock Vietnamese villages at Fort Gordon. On October 1, 1974, all signals training was officially consolidated at the fort, followed by the arrival of the army’s Computer Science School during the 1980s.
(To be continued)
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Check out today’s unusual photograph
For today, we present an unusual Mystery Photo, and will take some sleuthing to make an identification. Send your thoughts to elliott@brack.net and include your home town.
For the most recent photo, Jay Altman of Columbia, S.C. wrote: “This was the Chesterfield Inn, a historic hotel located on Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach,S.C. The Inn consisted of two three-story, rectangular buildings constructed in 1946 and 1965. The 1946 building was of frame construction with a brick veneer exterior, with an end to front gable roof, and a raised basement foundation. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. It was removed from the list in October, 2013 after being demolished to make way for a miniature golf course in 2012.mOf all the travesties, this historic building was demolished to make room for a mini-golf course! Karma intervened when the mini-golf course closed in 2017.” The photo recently appeared in StatehouseReport.com.
Also recognizing this structure were George Graf, Palmyra, Va.; Stew Ogilvie, Lawrewnceville; Lou Camerio of Lilburn (“Can you believe it was torn down to be replaced by a miniature golf course?”) and Allan Peel of San Antonio, Tex.
This beautiful building was the Chesterfield Inn at Myrtle Beach. Can you believe it was torn down to be replaced by a miniature golf course.?) and Allan Peel of San Antonio, Tex.
- 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.
Christmas program at Mary Our Queen Church tonight
Experience the magic of Christmas at Mary Our Queen Catholic Church’s service of lessons and carols on December 15 at 7 p.m., located at 6260 The Corners Parkway, Peachtree Corners. It will feature an array of talented choirs and musicians, weaving together scripture and song to illuminate the story of the Nativity.
Wreath laying will be Saturday, December 16 at noon at the Duluth Church Cemetery, 3290 Hill Street, as the William Day Chapter, National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, will host Wreaths Across America. This annual ceremony honors veterans, by placing wreaths at over 100 graves. Join the DAR, along with their partners, Mayor Nancy Harris, Duluth High Junior ROTC and Deloitte and Company in this ceremony.
Wreaths Across America will be marked at the Duluth Church Cemetery, 3290 Hill St, Duluth, on Saturday, December 16 at noon by the William Day Chapter, National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The community is invited to this annual ceremony honoring veterans, as well as participating in the placing of live wreaths upon over 100 graves. Join this spirited group along with guests and partners, the Deloitte Company, Duluth High School Junior ROTC, the Duluth Cemetery Committee, and Mayor Nancy Harris.
Poll workers needed: Gwinnett County is seeking residents as poll workers for the 2024 election season. A hiring event will be on Monday, December 18 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Dacula Park Activity Building. The county is particularly seeking Spanish-English speakers. Poll workers earn up to $390 per election.
Groundbreaking for a new program center at Annandale Village will be held Friday, January 5 at 10 a.m. at 35oo Annandale Lane in Suwanee. A light breakfast will be served.
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