YOU DON’T SEE IN GWINNETT COUNTY many older buildings like this anymore. This is the Yellow River post office in 1999 before the Gwinnett Parks and Recreation Authority restored it. It was the Mystery Photo in the last edition, which several readers recognized. See Mystery Photo below for more details.
TODAY’S FOCUS: Former Georgia Governor Deal “I Endorses Gwinnett Transit Vote”
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Legislating Housing Activity Gets Ire of Both Cities and Counties
ANOTHER VIEW: Recalling a Trip Across the USA in 1949, Using The Green Book
SPOTLIGHT: Gateway85 Gwinnett
FEEDBACK: Not Seeking to Change Minds, But To Understand Another’s Views
UPCOMING: Gwinnett Stripers and Slow Pour Brewing Announce Partnership
NOTABLE: Junior Players Have New Venue at Life Time Athletic and Tennis
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Georgia Only State Which Was Once Reduced Back to Colony Status
MYSTERY PHOTO: Consider a Different Angle When Trying to Recognize This Mystery
CALENDAR: St. Patrick’s Parade in Lilburn Seeks Lilburchauns
Former Georgia Gov. Deal: “I endorses Gwinnett Transit vote”
By Nathan Deal, 82nd Governor of Georgia
CLARKSVILLE, Ga. | Over the past eight years, the State of Georgia rose to become and remain No. 1 in the nation for business. Georgians have enjoyed unprecedented job growth and wealth creation. The strong business climate of Gwinnett County – home to almost one-tenth of all Georgians – has contributed greatly to our success.
Deal
Much of our prosperity today, however, owes thanks to previous generations of leaders who tackled the county’s needs head-on and invested wisely in education, roads and water infrastructure. Chairman Charlotte Nash and the commissioners have continued this legacy of leadership by crafting a plan to vastly expand transit options. In so doing, Nash is following in the tradition of her predecessors by doing what’s right for Gwinnett County, both today and tomorrow.
Working with Charlotte, I signed into law last year the legislation that allows for the people of Gwinnett to vote on expanding MARTA into the county – a need that’s long past overdue.
The Gwinnett MARTA proposal answers the call to address the gravest threat to Gwinnett’s future: traffic congestion. As governor, I consistently sat across from CEOs who were considering a relocation or expansion in Georgia. In each meeting with a prospect considering the metro area of our state, the first two questions were “Do you have transit?” and “How far is this location from Hartsfield-Jackson Airport?”
More and more, large, high-paying employers would not even consider locations within metro areas that don’t offer robust transit options for their employees. Despite its many offerings, Gwinnett wasn’t considered eligible by many of our 818,000 jobs we created over the last eight years in the state!
As someone who travels and has traveled through the Interstate-85 corridor for more than 40 years, I know the frustration of sitting in miles of logjams day after day. More transit options will improve traffic by taking thousands of cars off the road and helping people to get to work and home to their families faster.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Legislating housing activity gets ire of both cities and counties
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
MARCH 5, 2019 | Ask any statewide association what they spend most of their time on when the Georgia Legislature is in session. We’re certain 95 percent of them will tell you one overall answer: “Negative lobbying.”
After all, dimwits in the Georgia Legislature continue to offer their pet bills year after year. Sometimes they become law. Such pieces of legislation sometimes can be well-intended, but just not thought out.
More often than you think, these measures can also be specifically aimed at some business or industry because this legislator, or their associates, came out on the wrong end of a deal, and this legislator seeks to punish that industry for it. Don’t think it doesn’t happen. It does, time and time again.
Right now a bill moving along in the Georgia House of Representatives seeks simply to tell cities and counties what they can do concerning housing within their jurisdiction. It’s House Bill 302.
Even the bill’s author, Rep. Vance Smith, a Republican from Pine Mountain, has questions about the bill. He wonders: “How far do we go in telling a private property owner and a citizen what they can and cannot do aesthetically with their home? That’s the basic premise that I’m looking at it from.”
But more than anything else, does the Georgia General Assembly have any business trying to dictate such mundane matters as housing looks to the many cities and 159 counties of Georgia? Since we have these municipalities and counties, should not they be the governmental entity that would be the guidance on what and how individual homes should be built?
It also raises two questions: does the Legislature have so little to do that it will reach down into the purview of cities and counties to dictate?
Such legislation also shows why GwinnettForum lists as one of its Continuing Objectives that the Georgia General Assembly needs to meet once every two years, not annually.
One local mayor, Lilburn’s Johnny Crist, commented for publication on House Bill 302, after polling 14 Gwinnett mayors. He found: “The No. 1 response from the mayors is, ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’ The reason our cities are the places you want to live is because of design standards.
“We spend millions of dollars to put utilities underground. Why? We don’t have to. But it attracts. It builds quality, which attracts builders to come build in our city. Non-standards are against the very issue that we’re about. I’m telling you, (paint) color is not a burdensome regulation. Style is not a burdensome regulation.
“Standards protect our property values. Standards protect our economic development plan in our city. This would be a race to the bottom. Builders will build cheap, they’ll build mass, and they’ll leave town. And they’ll make us mayors to clean up the mess.”
By the way, the Georgia Municipal Association and the Association County Commissioners of Georgia also oppose House Bill 302. But so far, it’s clear sailing, coming out of the House Agricultural Committee and headed for the Rules Committee.
Hopefully the negative lobbying can stop such measures. But it and such bills demonstrate why we suggest the Georgia General Assembly needs to meet less often. After all, we get nervous, wondering what they will propose.
Legislation, such as HB 302, is just another reason to consider the Legislature should meet once every two years. If the big state of Texas can gets its legislative business done meeting once every two years, why not Georgia?
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Recalling a trip across the USA in 1948, using The Green Book
(Editor’s note: One of our regular contributors, Karen Harris of Stone Mountain, mentioned that her parents on their honeymoon took a trip across the country, using The Green Book as a guide for their trip. Karen’s father, Paul B. Harris Jr., is 94, and his wife, Wanda Parsons Harris, is 90 and they still live in Dayton, Ohio, where they were married. He is a retired stockbroker, industrial psychologist and pastoral counselor. She retired from being a human resources manager, and also the pianist for the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra. –eeb)
By Paul B. Harris Jr.
DAYTON, Ohio | At the behest of my daughter, Karen, I was asked to write a description of her mother and my experiences on our honeymoon using The Green Book, which has recently been brought to the attention of movie goers. The Green Book won The Academy Award for best picture in 2018 which depicted the trials and travails of an African American traveler in the United States in a period that preceded the Civil Rights laws of the 1960s.
Paul and Wanda Harris
It began on June 25,1949: our wedding day, in Dayton. We arrived in Springfield, Ill. at two a.m. Our destination was a rooming house near a railroad track where the proprietor wanted to know how much time would we need, “An hour or so?” After gently informing him that we would be staying the night, we were ushered to our room with an open window where we listened to the trains coupling and uncoupling during the rest of the night.
The next stop was Davenport, Iowa, where we lodged in a bare bones motel in an industrial area. The African American manager was a congenial person who directed us to a restaurant which would serve us breakfast.
After driving for several days, we reached Blackfoot, Idaho where we visited a Green Book listed motel, which was actually a group of small cabins. The owner acknowledged us but said: “Don’t mind your being here, but I’d appreciate it if you would stay out of sight; a lot of Southerners come here.”
Next stop was Salt Lake City, Utah. A college acquaintance from Salt Lake City bragged about how great it was: “It’s God’s country.”
I foolishly assumed that all was well for people like me. We cautiously followed our Green Book listing and found an accepting motel in Salt Lake City. As we drove around the city we noticed an upscale Chinese restaurant and decided to go there later for dinner. When we entered the restaurant, we were seated in the foyer where we saw many couples coming and going. After an hour, a young Chinese man approached and said: “We are sorry, we cannot serve you. The Mormons control everything. If you like Chinese food, there is another Chinese restaurant down that street. “
After this experience in Salt Lake City, we headed to San Francisco. In Nevada, as we approached a village, here was wooden building reminiscent of old western movies that had a sign that read “Saloon.” As I entered the saloon hoping to cash a traveler’s check, I noticed a sign on a wall that read “NO NIGGERS OR DOGS ALLOWED.”
In the corner of the room I noticed three rugged-looking white men glaring at me. I took a breath and asked the bartender if he would cash a Traveler’s check. He cashed it and I left. We later visited in San Francisco and Los Angeles, Calif. before heading back East. We trusted The Green Book on that honeymoon trip.
Regarding our experience in Salt Lake City, I quoted verbatim the words of the young Chinese man regarding Mormons and the inference that they demanded the exclusion of people like us from that restaurant. His words left an indelible impression in my memory.
Today I am happy to say that there are many African-Americans practicing the Mormon faith including individuals in the higher echelons of the organization. I might add that this is true for most of the dominant religious faiths in the United States.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Gateway85 Gwinnett
The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Gateway85 Gwinnett and is a self-taxing community improvement district that includes just over 800 commercial property owners with a property value of over $1 billion. Gateway85 includes the southwestern part of Gwinnett County including properties along Jimmy Carter Boulevard, Buford Highway, Indian Trail, and Beaver Ruin Rd. Gateway85 is one of six CIDs to be created in Gwinnett County and is the largest of all CIDs in the state. The community is an economic powerhouse that helps fuel the regional economy. More than 3,600 companies (employing roughly 36,000 people) call Gateway 85 home. The jobs in the district account for almost 12 percent of Gwinnett County’s total employment and support $2 billion in annual payroll. Gateway85 Gwinnett‘s mission is to improve property values through increased security, a decrease in traffic congestion, and general improvements to the curb appeal of the area. The CID moved their offices to 1770 Indian Trail-Lilburn Road, Norcross and recently rebranded to reflect the strong future of this area. It was previously known as Gwinnett Village Community Improvement District. For more information visit https://www.gateway85.com/ or call 770-449-6542.
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Not seeking to change minds, but to understand another’s views
Editor, the Forum:
For every story there is about the horrors of late-term abortion can be matched with similar stories of women being forced to give birth to children who die almost immediately after birth.
If Roe v Wade is overturned, the choice over giving birth to babies who will never, ever live a life of quality is taken away from the mother and father who have to make these heart-wrenching choices. Thinking that people just order up an abortion because they were told there is a problem with the baby and that’s that….well, let me say, each mother who has had an ultrasound and problems are discovered are given that choice to terminate the pregnancy or continue on. Every effort is made to try and fix the problem while the baby is still in the womb.
Do you think any insurance company is going to finance the parent’s choice to continue the high-risk pregnancy? Where are the anti-choice people with their pocketbooks and wallets to help this couple continue with the pregnancy? Well, some are standing outside of Planned Parenthood protesting a women’s clinic for healthcare.
As for harvesting organs from aborted fetuses, some make it sound like that’s the only reason to abort. People donate their organs all the time to save another’s life, so why shouldn’t the parents donate their dead baby’s organs if it can save another child’s life? No one gains from the donation, except for the good feeling of helping another person live.
As for accusations about “death squads” for the elderly, I hope everyone will live a long, healthy life and never have to see the inside of a Nursing Home. If not, all better hope Medicare or the money you saved to live on never runs out.
Everything isn’t black and white; life is made up of grays mixed in. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if everything was simple and rainbows and sunshine? Try walking in other people’s shoes before you come after someone who wishes to remain Anonymous because that person can probably spot hostility from a mile away. I’m not looking to change any minds, but to try and understand another person’s point of view.
— Sara Rawlins (previously Anonymous), Lawrenceville
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. We reserve the right to edit for clarity and length. Send feedback and letters to: elliott@brack.net
Gwinnett Stripers and Slow Pour Brewing announce partnership
The Gwinnett Stripers have partnered with Slow Pour Brewing Company of Lawrenceville to launch the new “Slow Pour Brewing Taproom” at Coolray Field. The three-year partnership through 2021 unites two Gwinnett icons: The Stripers, Triple-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves, and Slow Pour, the first brewery in Gwinnett County.
The Slow Pour Brewing Taproom, located on the main concourse behind home plate, will be a place for baseball fans and craft beer connoisseurs alike to gather during all Stripers home games. The Taproom will feature eight of Slow Pour’s signature craft brews on draft.
The Taproom will include new décor and signage that fits with the style and theme of Slow Pour’s Tasting Room location in Lawrenceville. Also new this season, a 15-foot movable garage door will replace the glass windows, making it possible to quickly change the Taproom from a cozy indoor hangout to an inviting outdoor space that will feature high-top tables. The Taproom will continue to honor Baseball Hall of Famer and legendary Atlanta Braves knuckleballer Phil Niekro, with several displays of Niekro and his accomplishments throughout his 24-year Major League career.
Slow Pour’s partnership with the Stripers will extend beyond the Taproom and into the team’s communications and marketing efforts. Stripers’ social media platforms will feature the “Slow Pour Starting Pitcher” and “Slow Pour Mound Visit” throughout the season. A new monthly video feature called “Slow Pour Conversation” will pair radio broadcaster Tony Schiavone with a Stripers player or coach for an interview to be held inside the Taproom.
The three-year partnership between the Stripers and Slow Pour continues a relationship that began in 2018.
Gwinnett Stripers Vice President and General Manager Adam English says: “We are thrilled to partner with a strong, community-focused local business like Slow Pour Brewing Company. This partnership will provide more exposure for Slow Pour’s excellent lineup of craft beers while also enhancing the experience for fans at Coolray Field.”
John Reynolds, co-founder of Slow Pour Brewing Company, responds: “We are very excited to be entering into this partnership with the Gwinnett Stripers. At Slow Pour, we aim to create experiences that are centered around community and conversation, and what better way to do that than with beer and baseball.”
Quince Girl EXPO coming to Pinckneyville Park on March 10
A Quince Girl EXPO will be held on Sunday, March 10 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Pinckneyville Park Community Recreation Center. The center is located at 4650 Peachtree Industrial Boulevard in Berkeley Lake.
Party planning professionals will offer interactive demonstrations and share ideas on planning a Quinceañera celebration. The event is free to attend and will feature an expo hall with exhibitors for decor, bakery, fashion, accessories, makeup and more.
Attendees will enjoy fashion shows, entertainment, hair and makeup demonstrations, and food concessions.
There will be door prizes and a grand prize drawing for a party room rental for a lucky Quinceañera girl.
Quinceañera is a celebration of a girl’s 15th birthday in the Hispanic culture, marking the transition from childhood to young womanhood. For more information, call 678-277-0920.
Junior players have new venue at Life Time Athletic and Tennis
An aeriel view of Life Time Tennis in Peachtree Corners
Well known for its top-notch junior tennis academy, Academia Sánchez-Casal and Life Time Athletic and Tennis, a premier facility with over 25 courts in Peachtree Corners, have announced a partnership to offer junior tennis players a venue for those who aspire to play at the college or even professional level.
Academia Sánchez-Casal (ASC) is led by world renowned coach and former No. 1 doubles player, Emilio Sánchez Vicario. The academy, founded in 1998 and headquartered in Naples, Fla., has locations on three continents, Europe, Asia and North America.
To celebrate the partnership, ASC and Life Time Tennis are hosting a grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday, March 8 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. The public is invited to attend the event which will feature a world class doubles exhibition with Emilio Sánchez Vicario, Pavel Slozil, Luke Jensen and Mikael Pernfors. Then on Saturday, March 9, a complimentary junior clinic will be held from 9 a.m. to noon.
Bill Rennie, Life Time’s general manager, says: “With its strong ALTA presence, the metro area has long been known as the tennis capital of the South with a number of strong junior players. We are extremely pleased to partner with ASC on providing a premier junior tennis academy.”
Both Life Time and ASC have developed numerous tennis players of all levels and are well-known for their unique training systems. ASC, which has international hubs in China and Spain, has developed several elite players including Svetlana Kuznetsova, Andy Murray, Grigor Dimitrov and Daniela Hantuchova.
Life Time Athletic and Tennis at Peachtree Corners is one of over 140 Life Time facilities in the U.S. and Canada. The Peachtree Corners location offers 28 indoor and outdoor tennis courts and a 2,600-seat outdoor tennis stadium.
Life Time Tennis is located at 6320 Courtside Drive in Peachtree Corners\. The ASC-Life Time Tennis Academy will begin training junior players on April 15. For more information visit: https://www.sanchez-casal.com/.
Five GAC students win awards in mock trial competition
What sets Mock Trial apart from the many co-curricular teams at Greater Atlanta Christian School (GAC) are the volunteer attorney coaches who support it. Coaching the students were Joi Fairell and the Fairell legal firm, and Judge Tangela Barrie of the Superior Court of DeKalb County. Faculty coaches were Gary Crane and Mary Lynn Huett.
The GAC students placed second in the region. and several students earned individual awards. They include:
- Eunice Park, two Outstanding Attorney Awards;
- Parker Hallock, two Outstanding Attorney Awards;
- Jena Vo, Outstanding Witness Award;
- Jessica Israel, Outstanding Attorney Award, Championship Round; and
- Vincent Huynh, Outstanding Witness Award, Championship Round.
Reflecting on the season, Mary Lynn Huett says she loves being a Mock Trial coach, mainly due to the incredible growth she sees in her students as a result of the experience. “When they arrive for individual tryouts, students are visibly nervous just to ask or answer a couple of questions. Five months later, participants deliver a flawless, five-minute statement to a jury of adults with clear passion. Or we get to see witnesses testify with great confidence, artfully keeping opposing attorneys from discrediting their stories. These moments are always an amazing glimpse into the future of these young people.”
Georgia only state reduced back to colony status
Late in 1778 Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell was dispatched by the British commander in chief in North America, Sir Henry Clinton, to proceed against Savannah. Through his Georgia campaign, particularly his capture of Savannah and Augusta, Campbell achieved one of the few unqualified British successes in the American Revolution (1775-83).
Baptized at Inveraray, Argyllshire, Scotland, on August 24, 1739, Archibald Campbell was the third son of Elizabeth Fisher and James Campbell, commissary of the Western Isles. An engineering officer, Campbell served in Guadalupe, Dominica, and other West Indies islands before becoming chief engineer for the British East India Company in Bengal, India, from 1768 to 1772.
With the outbreak of revolution in America, Campbell recruited for and received a commission of lieutenant colonel in the 71st (Fraser’s) Highlanders. Captured by patriot forces in Boston Harbor on June 16, 1776, he was exchanged for Ethan Allen on May 6, 1778.
On November 8, 1778, Campbell received unexpected orders to take command of 3,000 men sailing the next day from New York to invade Georgia. The expedition captured Savannah in late December. He next led a column into the interior and captured Augusta on January 31, 1779.
When Georgia Loyalists failed to appear there, Campbell began a withdrawal on February 14. While awaiting transportation from Savannah to England to marry Amelia, daughter of the artist Allan Ramsey, Archibald Campbell restored the colonial government under his commission as civil governor. Thus Georgia became the only part of the United States ever reduced back to the status of a colony.
Campbell continued his distinguished career. He ended the American Revolution as lieutenant governor and major general in Jamaica (1779-81). In 1782 he was appointed governor of Jamaica. He became a Knight of the Bath in 1785 and served as governor of Madras from 1786 to 1789. Campbell died March 31, 1791, in London and is buried in Westminster Abbey.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia online, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Consider a different angle when trying to recognize this mystery
How about looking at something familiar in a different way? That’s what today’s Mystery Photo accomplishes. Start scratching your head to see this distinctly. Send your ideas of today’s mystery to elliott@brack.net, and be sure to include your hometown.
Last edition mystery was easy for some, with Lou Camerio of Lilburn being the first to recognize the Yellow River Post Office, sent in by Beverly Paff of Dacula.
Allan Peel of San Antonio, Tex. got the right answer, but also included a 1999 photo of the structure (see above) before it was restored by Gwinnett County. The property came to the county through an anonymous gift. Later it was found that the donor was the late Philanthropist Scott Hudgens.
Peel writes about the building: “The Yellow River Post Office and General Store at the Hudson-Nash Farm near Lilburn. Thomas P. Hudson operated this general store and post office across from his home from 1846 until his death in 1862. Now located in a five-acre park a short distance from its original location, it is a good example of what farming and commercial activity was like in rural Georgia in the mid-19th century. The building once served as a post office, general store, sharecropper’s house and a school. There is also a slave cabin and a barn at the park.
“The existing five-acre site is but a small fraction of the original Hudson-Nash farm which, at its largest extent before the Civil War, included 562 acres. In spite of its small size, the present site contains seven of the eleven structures that were included as being a historically significant part of the Hudson-Nash farm’s listing in the National Register of Historic Places.”
Among others recognizing the photo were Rick and Sandy Krause, Lilburn; George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; Kim Sheley, Sugar Hill; Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill; Emmett Clower, Snellville; Mandy McManus, Lilburn; and Bob Foreman, Grayson;
ANNUAL PLANT SALE, from the University of Georgia Extension Service, runs through March 6. Plant experts are offering a host of fruit shrubs and trees. Purchasers must pick up their prepaid order on March 14 at the Gwinnett County Fairgrounds, 2405 Sugarloaf Parkway in Lawrenceville. No orders are shipped. For order forms or for more information, visit www.ugaextension.org/gwinnett, or call 678-377-4010.
Southern Wings Bird Club will meet Monday, March 11 at 7 p.m. at the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center. Speakers will be Kathy and John Shauger, who will present photos on their recent birding trip to Trinidad and Tobago.
Sustainability Workshop: Join Gwinnett County Public Library and Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful Tuesday, March 12, at 6:30 p.m. at the Five Forks Branch, 2780 Five Forks Trickum Road, Lawrenceville. This workshop will teach you how you can help make your community sustainable for now and the future. Learn about the resources and services available in Gwinnett to help residents with recycling, reducing litter, and beautifying their community. Also, create a “self-watering” seed starter by bringing an empty two-liter bottle. For more information, visit www.gwinnettpl.org or call 770-978-5154.
Lilburchaun Parade: Dress in your most festive St. Patrick’s Day attire for the Lilburchaun Parade in Lilburn City Park on Saturday, March 16. A bagpipe player and stilt walker will lead a walking parade inside the park! This family friendly event will include live entertainment. Prizes will be awarded for the best Leprechaun look-alikes, also known as the first ever Lilburchauns! The event starts at 4 p.m. and the walking parade will begin at 4:15 p.m.
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