Today’s Focus
FOCUS: Hospitals in merger discussions
By Beth Hardy | Northside Hospital and Gwinnett Medical Center have announced that they have approved a non-binding letter of intent (LOI) to begin exclusive discussions to combine their operations.
If a final agreement is reached, the merger would create a major health care system serving rapidly growing areas of the Atlanta Region and North Georgia. Anchored by Northside Hospital in Sandy Springs and Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville, the system also would include hospitals in Canton, Cumming and Duluth, as well as cancer treatment centers, imaging centers, medical office buildings, urgent care centers and other outpatient locations throughout the state.
FOCUS: Suwanee could get $46 million in high-end apartments
By Lynne DeWilde | The City of Suwanee Downtown Development Authority (DDA) has taken initial steps to enter a public-private partnership with developer Terwilliger-Pappas that will create a mixed-use multifamily/retail building at Chicago Street and Buford Highway adjacent to Town Center. The proposed development, on a 3.5-acre tract currently owned by the DDA, is expected to feature a five-story structure with 10,000 square feet of street-level commercial/retail/restaurant space and 235 high-end apartments. The project also is expected to include a parking garage around which the mixed-use structure will be built. The City Council will consider a re-zoning to allow such a project at its September 8 meeting.
FOCUS: Teamwork, respect, communication and attitude are key skills
By Mark Butler, Commissioner of Labor, State of Georgia | According to research conducted by Harvard University, the Carnegie Foundation and Sanford Research Center, well-developed soft skills account for 85 percent of job success. Soft skills, also known as “people skills” or “interpersonal skills,” refer to personal attributes such as teamwork, respect, communication, attitude and more.
FOCUS: Help celebrate 25th year of “Farm Friends” at Gwinnett County Fair
By Sharon Cassidy | In 1991, two 4-H Program Assistants, Audrey Hardin and I, decided Gwinnett 4-H had served enough funnel cakes at the Gwinnett County Fair. We wanted to educate youth and adults about “farm” animals and where and what products come from the farm.
We went to the county extension agent, Bill Baughman, and asked to start the “Gwinnett 4-H Petting Zoo.”
FOCUS: County groups are STEM award finalists
By Tony Cooper, Technology Association of Georgia | The Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) and the TAG Education Collaborative (TAG-Ed) have announced the finalists for the fourth annual STEM Education awards. These awards were created to recognize and celebrate schools, extracurricular programs, public-private partnerships, science agencies and post-secondary education outreach programs for outstanding efforts and achievement in supporting and promoting science, technology, engineering, and math education in Georgia.
FOCUS: Ga-PCOM observes 10th year as medical school in Gwinnett
By Barbara Myers | Ten years ago in August 2005, Georgia Campus of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (Ga-PCOM) welcomed its first class of 75 osteopathic medical students. Now the campus is celebrating this milestone by reflecting on its impact in Gwinnett County and the state of Georgia.
Founded in Suwanee, in 2005 as the only branch campus of the century-old Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in Philadelphia, Penn., Georgia Campus is home to more than 1,000 students and close to 140 faculty and staff members. The campus offers doctoral degrees in osteopathic medicine and pharmacy and the master’s degree in biomedical sciences with plans to expand its program offerings.
FOCUS: Group seeks to have 50,000 conversations about transportation
By Joel Wascher | The week of August 24-28, leaders as well as hundreds of other volunteers in Gwinnett will be focusing on what role transportation plays in shaping Gwinnett’s future, and what they want that future to look like. The program, called the “Gr8 Exchange on Transportation,” was kicked off on August 3 with nearly 100 community leaders starting the conversation on this subject.
Gwinnett Forum | April 4, 2025
“Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t.”
— American novelist, satirist, and poet Erica Jong (1942 – ).
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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