Elliott Brack’s Perspective
BRACK: “Mass timber” is new use of Georgia’s many acres of forests
By Elliott Brack | Forestry is mighty important to Georgia. With about two-thirds of the state covered in forests, Georgia has more plantation acres, more total timberland acreage and more privately-owned timberland acreage than any other state in the United States. And the forests provide 55,089 forest industry jobs.
BRACK: Lilburn artist, a “Wall Dog,” paints mural in Oregon
By Elliott Brack | A Lilburn artist is part of the team “The Wall Dogs,” an elite international group, which selects a town each year where they paint murals on walls of that town, transforming it beautifully. He is Sonny Franks, who has produced two wall paintings in Lilburn, the “Lilburn Tunnel Bridge” on the Cofer building, and “Butterflies” on the Lilburn Park Rest Room.
BRACK: Abortion will drive a change in the 2022 elections
By Elliott Brack | Have you detected a major shift in the national political world? If it proves as big as we think it is, there will be some blockbuster surprises come this fall’s election results. It centers around abortion, and women of all races, in all sections of the country, and old and young, do not want career politicians dictating control of their bodies at either the state and national level.
BRACK: Clinicians, police have successful intervention program
By Elliott Brack | A public health program with a 98 percent success rate that began in Conyers has been expanded to Gwinnett County and beyond. The counties forming Gwinnett Newton Rockdale Public Health Department, working with View Point Health of Lawrenceville, originally started the program with the Conyers Police Department.
BRACK: Do your duty, commissioners: Revalue all real property
By Elliott Brack | Gwinnett County Commissioners can avoid raising taxes in future years, even with a growing budget, if they will take a step now to ensure fairness among the county taxpayers. That’s because real property owners of Gwinnett are being reassessed this year, meaning most everyone will soon see an increase in their taxes. Property tax notices went out last week, but that tax was based on the previous year’s assessments.
Gwinnett Forum | Nov. 26, 2024
“Bureaucrats write memoranda both because they appear to be busy when they are writing and because the memos, once written, immediately become proof that they were busy.”
— Editor-in-chief of the Washington Monthly Charles Peters (1926-2023).
Continuing objectives
Gwinnett Forum publisher Elliott Brack suggests that Gwinnett County needs a long-range list of continuing objectives for improving the county. His list:
- Move statewide non-partisan judge and school board elections to the General Election.
- Adoption of the 2023 Transit Plan for Gwinnett.
- More creative efforts to support the arts in Gwinnett.
- Advancement and expansion of city historical societies.
- Require establishments that serve alcoholic beverages to halt sales of such products at 1 a.m., and close by 2 a.m.
- Require the Georgia Legislature to meet only once every two years.
- 21st century salary for the Gwinnett County Commission members.
- Remove chewing gum on sidewalks at entrances of post offices and other governmental buildings.
- Eliminate single-use plastic packaging and straws in Gwinnett and require instead the use of paper products.
- Condos instead of apartments for Gwinnett.
Interested in Gwinnett history?
Now re-printed in its third edition, Gwinnett: A Little Above Atlanta, the award-winning history of Gwinnett County, is once again available for purchase. It sold out of its first two printings. The book won the 2010 Award of Excellence in Documenting Georgia History from the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board. The book is available at Old Town Antiques at 93 Main Street in Lilburn.
- The history of Gwinnett is also available as an e-book from Amazon or Barnes and Noble for $9.95.
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