GwinnettForum | Number 22.21 | Mar. 14, 2023
PROVIDING EMERGENCY and transitional housing for unaccompanied minors, the Gwinnett Housing Corporation is partnering with Positive Impact International. Here’s a view from one of its units. For more on this innovative program, see Today’s Focus below.
TODAY’S FOCUS: Two nonprofits partner to house unaccompanied minors
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Hold on Corps of Engineers: keep Sidney Lanier’s name for lake
SPOTLIGHT: The Piedmont Bank
ANOTHER VIEW: In mid 1950s, DeKalb-Gwinnett county line was confusing
FEEDBACK: Another reason for Gwinnett’s growth: Alton Crews
UPCOMING: Two Gwinnettians chosen for Washington Youth Tour
NOTABLE: New SPLOST funds coming for roadways
RECOMMENDED: Jazz by Toni Morrison
GEORGIA TIDBIT: State’s largest industrial complex is at Warner Robins
MYSTERY PHOTO: Facing busts are today’s Mystery Photo
LAGNIAPPE: Peaceful scene behind Collins Hills Public Library
CALENDAR:” Reading is FUNdamental” at Duluth Library on March 25
Two nonprofits partner to house unaccompanied minors
By Lejla Prljaca
CEO, Gwinnett Housing Corporation
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. | Gwinnett Housing Corporation (GHC) is partnering with another nonprofit organization, Positive Impact International, to provide emergency and transitional housing for unaccompanied minors in Gwinnett.
Prljaca
GHC received a $160,000 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grant provided by Gwinnett County to local nonprofits and administered by United Way. Funds are being used to rent three homes and support daily operations. Positive Impact estimates that by the end of the year, they will have served over 60 minors with this grant.
We are thrilled to support a nonprofit with such a significant mission. Our children deserve to be raised in a caring and safe environment so they can focus on their education and extracurricular activities without having to worry where they will spend the next night.
Positive Impact International is the only agency in Gwinnett with a Safe Place license. Safe Place is a national program that provides over 300 emergency youth shelters across the United States and over 5,000 Safe Place Sites where youth can go in the community to receive immediate assistance if they feel unsafe. Safe Place sites are available 24/7 and include Quick Trips, Kroger, Publix, Chick-fil-A, Fire Stations, YMCA, and public schools.
Positive Impact Executive Director Tami Wilder says: “We receive over 300 calls annually from children, teen mothers, DCFS, and school social workers about youth in unsafe situations and needing emergency shelters. Unfortunately, our limited resources often mean that those youth, some in imminent danger, are turned away because we do not have the beds to provide them shelter and support. Turning children away is heartbreaking, and this grant allows us to scale our work.”
The partnership is already reporting an immediate impact due to the additional funding. Wilder also says “This week alone, four teen mothers were able to receive shelter, food, clothing, and additional services that kept them and their children housed together. The ability to say yes to these calls meant these teen moms were able to receive skills and support that minimize the risk of separating them from their children.”
In addition to emergency shelter, Positive Impact provides food, clothing, access to therapy, independent living skills, ensures high school completion, assists with employment, and offers financial literacy classes.
“With this holistic approach, we are decreasing future adult homelessness in Gwinnett by ensuring our children are equipped to become self-sufficient adults. The youth that we have in our program are committed to making the most of their lives, regardless of the hardships that have been handed to them”, adds Wilder.
About Gwinnett Housing Corporation (GHC) was established in 1997 because of the overwhelming need for affordable housing in the area. GHC (formerly known as the Lawrenceville Housing Corporation) is a private, non-profit 501(c)3 development organization with a focus on creation, revitalization, and preservation of housing stock in targeted neighborhoods with physical and economic reinvestment needs. GHC, along with its partners, is in the process of developing 296 rental and 60 homeownership units.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Hold on Corps of Engineers: Keep Sidney Lanier’s name for lake
Lake Lanier sunset. File.
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
MARCH 14, 2023 | “Hold on there,” Army Corps of Engineers and the Army Base Renaming Commission. There’s no major reason for you to rename Lake Lanier.
After all, it’s named for Sidney Lanier, born in 1842 in Macon, who became, of all things, a poet and musician. He dutifully served as a private in the Confederate Army. He was later taken prisoner, spending four months in Baltimore, Md., where he caught tuberculosis, which eventually took his life in 1881.
The rebranding of some military bases which were first named for Confederate leaders was something that many of us could understand. After all, some of the Confederates having posts named for them were not even good leaders.
But Sidney Lanier? After being released to make his way home to Georgia, he was basically a learned man who was a musician, poet and teacher. C’mon now, the Army Corps of Engineers and Base Naming Commission, you want to take away the honor of having Lake Lanier named for Sidney Lanier, a man of letters who found acclaim and accomplishment after the Civil War?
Lanier, via Wikipedia.
The honor given Sidney Lanier in naming the lake which provides Gwinnett with its drinking water, was well deserved as Lanieer lived a peaceful and distinguished life after the Civil War. He is also commemorated by the naming of a bridge in Glynn County for him. The Sidney Lanier Bridge, the state’s largest cable-stayed bridge, opened in 2003.
Why was Lanier commemorated with the naming of a lake and bridge after him? Both are tied directly to his poetry, The Song of the Chattahoochee and the Marshes of Glynn.
Some feel the Marshes of Glynn is Lanier’s masterpiece. The poem begins with a rhythmic description of the thick marsh teeming with wildlife “as the narrator feels himself growing and connecting with the sinews of the marsh itself.” His vision expands as the marshes and sea, in their vastness, are the expression of “the greatness of God” and are filled with power and mystery.
Yet to us, even more powerful is the Song of the Chattahoochee. Anyone familiar with the Chattahoochee River will be moved by the lilting and rhythmic phrasing of Lanier’s poem, which jumps and bounces and and reverberates along in such a way that you can almost feel the waters flowing so bountifully. It is mighty! The first verse of that poem:
Out of the hills of Habersham,
Down the valleys of Hall,
I hurry amain to reach the plain,
Run the rapid and leap the fall,
Split at the rock and together again,
Accept my bed, or narrow or wide,
And flee from folly on every side
With a lover’s pain to attain the plain
Far from the hills of Habersham,
Far from the valleys of Hall.
The Corps of Engineers and Base Naming Commission rightfully fulfilled their duties in changing the name of some of our Army bases which memorialized unworthy people. Now these two units have paused their consideration, but are asking for input on whether to change the name of Lake Lanier.
We insist on a loud “NO” to this re-naming.
Let Sidney Lanier’s name and reputation remain intact in recognition for his work and his career in his peaceful and productive life as a poet, musician and teacher after the Civil War.
- 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, 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 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 opening soon. 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.
In mid 1950s, DeKalb-Gwinnett county line was confusing
(Editor’s Note: the author is a retired veterinarian.)
By Ray Dunahoo
BERKELEY LAKE, Ga. | During the middle 1950s, there arose property tax issues along the DeKalb-Gwinnett County line. The property owners, mainly farmers, were receiving property tax bills from both counties.
Dunahoo
After a period, some of the owners declared that they would pay no taxes to either county until a property line was established. Finally, then Gov. Marvin Griffin commissioned Barrow County Surveyor Horace L. Dunahoo, my father, giving him full authority to study platt documents and establish a county line between the two counties. (I worked with my dad many days during the process.)
Prison labor was used to place monuments along the established line. On one occasion while researching county records at the courthouse in Lawrenceville, my father found a document stating that the county line ran along the left buggy tract of the Old Hightower Trail.My father mused: “I wonder which way the buggy was going.”
On another occasion, a farmer bitterly complained that the new county line placed his home in one county and his barn in the other county.
Such were the problems encountered in establishing the final 32 miles, over a period of six months.
As an aside, in 1914 Gwinnett, Walton and Jackson counties came together at a point located now in Winder, Barrow County. Ga. Today a concrete marker located across the street from the courthouse in Winder denotes where the three counties came together. On July 3, 1914, Barrow was formed from the other three counties. Horace L. Dunahoo, my father, was the first white child born in Barrow County.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Another reason for Gwinnett’s growth: Alton Crews
Editor, the Forum:
In the commentary from the late Jim Hood, three reasons were given for Gwinnett’s growth. (Having a water intake into Lake Lanier, a good highway system, and a county circular water loop, plus being in the Atlanta toll-free telephone areas.)
A big fourth reason that Gwinnett grew was because of Alton Crew’s served as superintendent of Gwinnett schools from 1977 to 1989. His leadership definitely and directly helped improve the school system, which then encouraged families to move from DeKalb and other parts of the area to Gwinnett.
– Virginia Klaer, Duluth
Dear Virginia: Absolutely. Alton Crews was the visionary who set the schools on its paths to success. We’re still benefiting from him being here.—eeb
Wants to hear from some of the right-wingers in the area
Editor, the Forum:
This guy (Ashley Herndon) gets more foolish every time he spouts his left wing nonsense. Surely reasonable people, by whatever political persuasion can see through him. He probably thinks the FBI is unjustly accused of political preferences. Come on editor, you can find a left winger who is not so biased. How about a rabid right winger to balance the view. I myself am in the middle
– S. Scott Batterton, Lilburn
Dear Scott: All beliefs are welcomed to send material. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to get a right-winger to commit on paper. All are welcomed.—eeb
Appreciated article about Gwinnett’s early growth
Editor, the Forum:
Good article in the last issue about Jim Hood. It is so near my heart for Gwinnettian to be kind to developers and builders. We love Gwinnett County for its diversity and growth.
We appreciate those that were here before and helped the county to grow to where it is today. I just wish more Gwinnett residents understand how they benefit from those before them and perhaps will return the favor for further residents.
Again thank you for your wonderful article.
– Tim Le, Peachtree Corners
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.
Two Gwinnettians chosen for Washington Youth Tour
Two Gwinnettians have been chosen by Jackson Electric Membership Corporation (EMC) as delegates for the 2023 Washington Youth Tour, scheduled June 15-22.
Winter
Endalk
Orit Endalk, a junior at Archer High School, and Luke Winter, a junior at Greater Atlanta Christian School, were selected for the all-expense paid leadership development experience sponsored by Georgia’s electric cooperatives and organized by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA).
Jackson EMC President/CEO Chip Jakins says: “Our delegates represent the values of Jackson EMC with their commitment to community service, high standards of integrity, and a spirit of cooperation.”
Endalk is the daughter of Martha Tekle Negash and the late Endalkachew Abayneh of Lawrenceville. Endalk plays violin in the Archer orchestra and is an accomplished pianist. She is vice president of her school’s Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America chapter, and a member of Future Farmers of America (FFA), Mu Alpha Theta, and Science National Honor Society. She founded the Fiction Writing Club at Archer, and she competes on the varsity tennis team. She is a volunteer for several local and national music clubs.
Winter is the son of Terra and Anthony Winter of Lawrenceville. He is a member of the National Honor Society and Beta Club and competes on both the varsity football and varsity baseball teams. He founded the Share Table initiative in Gwinnett County schools to address food insecurity and volunteers with Bears Make a Difference, a recreational baseball league for children with disabilities.
High school counselors and teachers in the Jackson EMC service area were invited to nominate students for the competition, and students could apply directly. Four delegates were selected based on academics, community service, oral and written communications skills, letters of recommendation and a personal interview.
The other two Jackson EMC delegates selected were Lanier Ashley, junior at Jefferson High School, and Kendis Parks, junior at Jackson County High School.
New SPLOST funds coming for roadways
The Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners gave the green light to several new SPLOST-funded items earlier this week. Here are some highlights:
New sidewalks: The Board approved a contract to install new sidewalks from Old Suwanee Road to Buford Highway to connect residential homes and a retail center. Sidewalks will be placed on either side of Chatham Road, and the road will be widened to a standard two-lane width. The project also includes curb and gutter as well as drainage improvements. A portion of the $2.2 million project is paid for by the 2017 SPLOST program.
Resurfacing: Neighborhood roads across the county will soon get a facelift. A recently approved contract will resurface County-maintained subdivisions and streets to keep up road quality and fix any existing issues. The $39.7 million contract is funded by the 2017 SPLOST program.
Sugarloaf Parkway study: With Gwinnett’s population growing, a study will look at the need to widen Sugarloaf Parkway from Scenic Highway to Old Norcross Road. The County partnered with the Georgia Department of Transportation on the project and will contribute $187,500 from the 2017 SPLOST program. GDOT will fund the remaining $750,000 toward the study.
Town Center Park upgrade: Gwinnett will help upgrade the park for the Suwanee Town Center on Main project. The Intergovernmental Agreement with the city is part of the Jointly Funded Parks and Recreation Projects program. The County’s contribution of a little more than $820,000 is funded by the 2017 SPLOST program.
Jazz by Toni Morrison
From Karen J. Harris, Stone Mountain: Joe Trace, a middle aged black man in Harlem in 1925, has a fevered affair with 18-year-old Dorcas, an adventurous young woman who is looking for a good time. He shoots her in a fit of jealousy resulting in her death. When his wife, Violet, learns of the affair and shooting, she comes to the funeral and defaces the corpus of the girl. The story presents formative events in the lives of Joe, Violet and Dorcas, including the trajectory of the courtship of Joe and Violet. Black urban life is superbly described in this moving and affecting novel. The reader will also see the effects of racism that blights the lives of all of the characters. Lyrically stunning and descriptive, Jazz is a reading experience that will be savored by those willing to step into a time where life was filled with clouds, sunshine, and uncertainty of survival.
- 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
State’s largest industrial complex is at Warner Robins
Warner Robins is located in the northern part of Houston County, about halfway between Macon and Perry, in the geographic center of Georgia. The town has evolved from a railroad stop in the midst of farmlands to a military community and the home of Georgia’s largest industrial complex, Robins Air Force Base.
Houston County was created in 1821 from land ceded to the state by the Creek Indians in the Treaty of Indian Springs. For nearly 50 years the farm community was known as York. After the Civil War (1861-65) the Georgia Southern and Florida Railroad planned a rail line between Macon and Perry. The chief engineer, William H. Wells, became friends with a plantation owner, Henry Feagin Jr., who donated 100 acres for a train station. Feagin named the station Wellston, after Wells. For the next 60 years the area remained a whistle stop surrounded by dairy farms, corn fields, peach orchards, and pecan groves.
Led by Macon Mayor Charles Bowden and Macon Chamber of Commerce Chair Lee Trimble, and supported by U.S. Congressman Carl Vinson of Milledgeville, the middle Georgia business community invited the U.S. Army to locate an aviation logistics depot and flying field in the region. In June 1941, the War Department announced that it would build the depot on land 16 miles south of Macon along Georgia Highway 247.
The city of Macon and Bibb County purchased 3,108 acres from 47 local farm families for just over $97,000 and donated the property to the army air forces in August 1941. Formal groundbreaking took place in September. The government purchased more land totaling 2,700 acres for $93,870 in early 1942.
Wellston town leaders, led by postmaster Charles Watson and his brothers, donated land for the town’s first school and other civic buildings. Wellston Housing Company constructed 2,000 affordable homes in 1942. Construction of Robins Manor began on July 30, 1942, and over the next three years, thousands of new homes sprung up.
The first depot commander, Colonel Charles E. Thomas, sought to rename the depot for his late mentor and one of the air corps’ first logisticians, Brigadier General Augustine Warner Robins. The citizens agreed, and on September 1, 1942, Wellston became Warner Robins.
During World War II (1941-45) Robins Field employed 23,670 personnel, and Warner Robins thrived. Following the war, the workforce was reduced to just 3,900. In 1947 Robins Field was redesignated the Warner Robins Air Materiel Area, Robins Air Force Base. The Berlin Blockade and Airlift (1948-49), the Korean War (1950-53), and the cold war escalation of the 1950s and 1960s created jobs in Warner Robins, and the workforce grew to more than 15,000, while the city’s population topped 20,000.
Today, Robins Air Force Base is the largest industrial complex in Georgia. Dozens of aerospace and technology companies, including Boeing, Northrop Grumman, TRW Radio Systems, and SAIC, have located major facilities in and around Warner Robins. The city is also home to the Macon campus of Central Georgia Technical College.
According to the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 80,308, an increase from the 2010 population of 66,588.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Facing busts are today’s Mystery Photo
Today’s Mystery Photo is of two busts facing one another. Identify the guys in the busts and tell us where this photograph was made. Send your answers to elliott@brack.net, and include your hometown.
Allan Peel of San Antonio, Tex. gives us details on the recent mystery: “Today’s mystery photo is of the Lonja del Comercio (Commerce Market) building, located in the Plaza de San Francisco de Asís in Old Havana, Cuba. Built between 1907 and 1909, it first opened as a Stock Exchange and Commodities Trading building on March 28, 1909, and continued to serve in that role until the 1959 Cuban Revolution.
“It was renovated in 1995 after years of neglect, and is currently an office building housing foreign companies with joint ventures in Cuba, including the Brazilian Embassy, news agencies like CNN Havana Bureau, and the Havana Radio Station. It also houses a cafe-restaurant, El Mercurio, named after the bronze statue of the god Mercury, the Greek god of trade, that sits atop a dome on the roof.”
Jay Altman, of Columbia, S.C., told us: “The main part of the building is a perfect square.”
Others recognizing the photograph include Stew Ogilvie, Lawrenceville; George Graf, Palmyra, Va.; Lou Camerio, Lilburn.
>>> 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.
NESTLED BEHIND the Collins Hill Public Library are two picnic tables, perfect for a reader to take a break in this relatively quiet peaceful setting, as captured by Roving Photographer Frank Sharp. A grassed bank helps cut off the rest of the world and provide even more privacy.
Gwinnett County Conservation District will hold its monthly meeting Wednesday, March 15 at 9:30 a.m. in-person at the Gwinnett Senior Service Center at 567 Swanson Drive, Lawrenceville.
Reading is FUNdamental: Building Speech, Language, and Emergent Literacy Skills will be Saturday, March 25 at 11a.m. at the Duluth Branch of Gwinnett County Public Library. Do you believe reading is FUNdamental? Would you like to learn how to build your child’s speech, language, and emergent literacy skills while reading together? If so, this series is for you!
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