By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | Returning from South Georgia after attending a funeral this week, we got off the Interstates for a while, and enjoyed the less stressful driving on the back roads. All in all, it‘s much more enjoyable, too, as you see how the crops are doing (the Vidalias are green topped and ready for harvest), check out the small communities, and see Georgia in a way as it was in the past.
By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | At least two times a year, we make a circular tour of Gwinnett County, to keep up with the continued change in the landscape. Every time we travel this route, we find new activity.
This week we found some overnight activity: a Tuesday night storm inflicted tree damage all around the county, as we encountered Georgia Power and Jackson EMC (and surely Walton EMC) crews around Gwinnett repairing damage from the storm. The damage was scattered, but seen through much of Gwinnett.
By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | A Peachtree Corners bank is expanding into three additional Northeast Georgia communities by acquiring the Mountain Valley Community Bank of Cleveland.
The Piedmont Bank, for which Piedmont Bancorp, Inc. is the holding company, has entered into an agreement with Mountain Valley Bancshares Inc., the holding company for Mountain Valley Community Bank, with a plan to merge the two companies. It is expected that the merger will be completed in the third quarter of 2017.
By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | In a constitutional republic where new legislation is constantly being pushed by many elements, all citizens must be vigilant.
For every time you gain a victory, that doesn’t mean that the victory will last. You may have to go all-out to insure that the victory remains in place, since there are usually major opponents to almost every bit of legislation.
By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | There’s a new mug shot looking out at you today. And there’s a story behind that.
It goes back years ago to my days publishing a weekly newspaper in South Georgia. During the political season, many of the candidates would come in for the editor to help them in writing their “political announcement,” which would be a paid advertisement for the candidate in the newspaper up until the election.
By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher, Macon, Ga. | We ventured “back home” to Macon Thursday at Wesleyan College to be present for three prominent Georgia women, all now deceased, who were inducted in the Georgia Women of Achievement Hall of Fame.
One who was a particular friend is Carolyn MacKenzie Carter of Moultrie, the first female photographer for The Atlanta Constitution. The other two are Clermont Huger Lee, one of Georgia’s first female landscape architects; and Lucile Nix, the first library head for the state of Georgia who led significant library expansion across the state.
By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | For those of us who are baseball purists, and for most everyone enjoying baseball these days, there is growing discomfort with the length of baseball games.
As baseball begins, it’s spring training, we thought we might consider some suggestions for improving the game. Most of these comments came from a long story in the New York Times recently, as they had suggestions from people all over the country about improving the game.
By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | Here we are just into March, and we get an announcement about the Snellville Farmers Market’s upcoming season. Snellville is now accepting applications from vendors and scheduling entertainment for its upcoming eighth season. Wow! Eight years. Seems only yesterday.
The Snellville market will be each Saturday, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., June 3 through Sept. 30. The market is located on the Towne Green at the intersection of U.S. Highway 78 and Oak Road. Also: The Wall That Heals, more.
By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | Every now and then, in the course of routine matters, an event takes place that makes you catch your breath. That happened to me about 1970, when Georgia Power Company was building its nuclear Plant Hatch near Baxley.
The reactor vessel for the plant was built in Chattanooga, Tenn., then shipped by barge down the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers to the Gulf of Mexico, across Florida, and eventually up the Altamaha River to Baxley.
By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | It was a terrific blow to the Gwinnett economy recently when WestRock Company announced that it was moving its company home office from its Thrasher Street location in Norcross to Sandy Springs. With this announcement some 800 jobs will be lost to Gwinnett County.
“I do not have a psychiatrist and I do not want one, for the simple reason that if he listened to me long enough, he might become disturbed.”
— American Humorist James Thurber (1894 – 1961)
Gwinnett Forum publisher Elliott Brack suggests that Gwinnett County needs a long-range list of continuing objectives for improving the county. His list:
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