Elliott Brack’s Perspective
BRACK: Norcross, Buford homeowners benefit from leaf vacuuming
By Elliott Brack | Norcross and Buford residents enjoy a special “Cadillac service” three months out of the year. These two cities send around a truck to vacuum up leaves raked to the curb. No other Gwinnett homeowners enjoy such a service. The different county waste haulers require homeowners in other areas to bag their leaves before pick up.
BRACK: Being an Eagle Scout started one guy on career path
By Elliott Brack | Rodney Brundidge of Dacula, the chief operating officer of the Northeast Georgia Boy Scout Council, was telling of the various ways his organization helps children, both boys and girls, at a Gwinnett County Rotary meeting Tuesday. Then he asked: “How many in the room are Eagle Scouts?”
BRACK: Gwinnett’s pride shows through its modern fire department
By Elliott Brack | A South Georgia native and attorney, John Mattox, was a good friend of mine. We keep remembering his idea about how any community looked upon itself. John thought anyone could tell a good deal about any town’s pride by the way it took care of two elements in that town: its cemeteries and its courthouse. If you saw either of these run down, the community didn’t take much pride in itself.
BRACK: Sugar Hill’s downtown has amazing growth in 10 years
By Elliott Brack | If you haven’t been to Sugar Hill in a few years, you will find it difficult to believe how much this fourth-largest city in Gwinnett has blossomed. In the last 10 years, the City Council has brilliantly created a new downtown area, now teeming with about 2,000 people living within a half mile of City Hall and enjoying the “Sweet Life.”
BRACK: Proposal concerning private information upsets bankers
By Elliott Brack | A proposal from the Biden Administration got bankers across the country, including those in Gwinnett, all hot and bothered this week. Proposed legislation would have required that the banks and credit unions give far more sensitive banking information to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) about the bank’s depositors.
Gwinnett Forum | April 11, 2025
“But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.”
– American Astronomer and Science Communicator Carl Sagan (1934-96).
Continuing objectives
Gwinnett Forum publisher Elliott Brack suggests Gwinnett County needs a long-range list of continuing objectives for improving the county. His 2025 list:
- Move statewide non-partisan judicial and school board elections to the date of the General Election.
- 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.
- Eliminate single-use plastic packaging and straws in Gwinnett and require instead the use of paper products.
- Gwinnett planners to encourage condos and townhouses instead of apartments.
- County-wide microtransit services.
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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