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TODAY'S ISSUE
The new Cold War: How the Russians stole our Web site
By Holley Calmes
Hudgens Center for the Arts
Special to GwinnettForum.com

OCT. 10, 2003 -- I remember the original Cold War: Khrushchev banging his shoe on a podium, the Bolshoi Ballet booed on Ed Sullivan, our High School cafeteria abuzz during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Those days of drama soon faded with the coming of Glasnost, and suddenly Russia was “Ok.” They wanted to be a democracy, right?

I muddled along with this philosophy for years until one day recently I noticed I had not received any email messages at work for several days. Unusual. We at the Hudgens Center for the Arts are no different from any other business. We live by the computer. Receiving no email messages was unusual, suspect.

Our Curator, Lucy Elliott, noticed the same thing, so we decided it was a system-wide problem. Typically we get a few dozen messages a day inquiring about art classes, special event rentals, and the random artist who wants to grace our gallery walls with his creations.

So I placed a call to our patron who handles our web-site hosting. We had recently renewed our Universal Resource Locator (URL), or so we thought. After much cyber-angst, our host system discovered that our URL now belonged to one Sergei Krsquchercjev from Szlygostanistan, Russia.

How this happened is Byzantine in concept, so I won’t even try to explain. Suffice it to say that Sergei wanted $2,000 American dollars or our URL would be sold to someone who “pandered to indelicate tastes.” Do we abet international Internet pilferage, or do we take a stand against what is surely a crime?

I can picture that Great American icon, John Wayne, swaggering into the Button Gwinnett Saloon. He approaches the bearded foreigner with his lumbering walk and says, “Pilgrim, we don’t cotton to Russkies stealin’ our women’s web-sites. You’ll have to come with me.”

But John Wayne isn’t here anymore, and I need my email! Determined not to buckle under to the Russkey’s evil demands, we simply decide to change our URL.

If you now visit our old address, all one will find is a silly site devoted to New Age philosophies and the pseudo-occult. Like the missiles that never invaded our shores, at least one Russian threat fizzled out with a whimper. However, we had to get a new URL!

Today you can visit the new Hudgens Center for the Arts web-site at
www.artsgwinnett.org. It’s a beautiful site, re-launched after a terrible wait and weeks without “You’ve Got Mail.” Truly this is the type of ordeal only our contemporaries could fathom. The old Cold War gave us bomb shelters. The new Cold War threatens to take away our precious access to the entire world. What could be worse?

This time again the Russians tried their best, but good old American fortitude won out. Nobody, not even the Russian Mafia, can halt my God-given right to instant
communication in today’s universal Internet.

ELLIOTT BRACK
Traditional time to visit apple country around Ellijay
By Elliott Brack
editor and publisher
GwinnettForum.com

Growing up in Macon, my family made what amounted to almost a pilgrimage each fall to the North Georgia mountains “to get apples.”

For many, that tradition continues each fall, with the epicenter of the apple country being Ellijay in Gilmer County. Altogether, there are about a dozen apple houses in the Ellijay
area.

When visiting in the area recently we stopped by the R&A Orchards’ apple shed,
operated by Roger Futch and his son, Andy, who runs the day-to-day apple operation. Altogether they have about 35-40 acres in cultivation. “We don’t want to have more acreage than we can produce and sell,” Futch says.

Besides apples, the Futches also grow peaches, and sometimes fresh vegetables, like corn and tomatoes. Seasonally, their farm can employ up to 25 persons. Their retail operation starts in mid June with peaches, then closes down about Thanksgiving.

While fall is the time many people think about apples, the Futches first apples are on sale in summer. “The first one that comes in is the Lodi,” Roger tells us, “which is a summer apple, much like a Granny Smith. It’s tart, but does not have a long shelf life.” The Yates variety is the apple that he produces which keeps the longest. “It’s real small, but lots of people like them.”

The Golden Delicious and Rome Beauty varieties take up the farm’s most acreage. “We keep rotating the crops through the orchard.” Altogether, they grow about 25 varieties.

A relatively new variety for many people is Mutsu, derived from a Golden Delicious and Indo varieties. It’s an eating apple, not particularly pretty, but has great taste and is gaining in popularity.

The juiciest apple, Futch feels, is the Winesap. “But that’s not really fair, for all apples, if good, are firm and juicy. The Winesap is a little heavier, and has a little more water and juice than some of the others.”

Among the products sold by the Futches is apple cider. “There are only about two cider mills left running, one in Blue Ridge, and the other in Ellijay. We use both of them.”

Futch, now 58, is a native of Hazlehurst, Ga. who moved to the Ellijay area “When I was a young man” to work for the telephone company, where he is still employed.

“My wife and I started the farm, and then turned it over to our children. Farming started as a sideline, but it’s full time for my son.” Futch is also a director of the Gilmer County Bank.

Throughout the day, Futch promotes apples. “Any apple cooks good. It just depends on what you are going to use it for.”

IF YOU GO: R&A Orchards is located on Georgia Highway 52 four miles east of the Highway 515 four-lane.

NEWS
10/10: Gwinnett's Settles Bridge Park to expand by 51 acres

Settles Bridge Park in Gwinnett is expanding by 51 acres after an agreement between the Gwinnett County Commission and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

The state will lease the 51 acres to the county at no cost to the county for a term of 50 years. The county currently owns a 217 acre tract of land southeast of the state-owned site. Another 79 acres of federal parkland also is adjacent to the state and county parkland at Settles Bridge. This is located in the northwest portion of Gwinnett County by Riverside Elementary School. The state's 51 acres, acquired through the RiverCare 2000 Program, includes riverfront acreage, which Gwinnett County will now manage for the state.

Phil Hoskins, director of Gwinnett County's Department of Community Services, says that the park master planning is to begin in mid-2004 for the site, which will now become 268 acres of Gwinnett County parkland.

NAMES IN THE NEWS
Among speakers in Gwinnett will be lieutenant governor

Time magazine used to say (maybe they still do) “Names make the news. This week these names made the news.” So here are names making the news in Gwinnett this week:

Ed Baer, chief information officer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, will give a special presentation on "Technology in a Major Metro Newspaper" at the Gwinnett Technology Forum, October 21 at the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce in Duluth. The meeting will be held from 7 until 8:30 a.m.

Mr. Baer has been with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution since 1985. He is responsible for all computer, communication, network and telephone systems at the newspaper. Prior to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Mr. Baer worked in the systems organization at the corporate office of Northwest Industries in Chicago, a Fortune 100 diversified holding company. Mr. Baer is a graduate of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor

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Jennifer Mott has joined Quantum Bank as a Business Development Officer, according to Chris Fluehr, president. Ms Mott comes to Quantum National Bank from SunTrust Bank with eight years of banking experience. She received her BBA in Finance from the University of Texas at El Paso and got her Masters of Business Administration in Leadership Development from Brenau University. Jennifer and her family reside in Flowery Branch. Quantum National Bank is a $165,000,000 asset Gwinnett-based community bank specializing in serving small businesses throughout metro Atlanta.

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Charlotte Nash, Gwinnett County administrator, is to be the focus of a feature story in the upcoming issue of Georgia Trend magazine. Wayne Hill says she will be cited for being the “best administrator in the business” in Georgia.

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Lt. Governor Mark Taylor will be the guest speaker at the monthly Norcross Business Association meeting, October 28, at Foghorn Grill, 3230 Medlock Bridge in Norcross at 6 p.m. There is no charge to attend. For more information, call 770-262-6491.

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Harold Reheis, senior vice president with Joe Tanner & Associates and former director of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, will be the special guest speaker for the Gwinnett Chamber's Transportation and Environmental Forum, on Tuesday, October 14 at 8 a.m. at the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Reheis will discuss his current role and insights into the Tri-State water resources negotiations. It will be moderated by Wayne Shackelford, with an opportunity for questions and answers following the program.

The Transportation and Environmental Forum meets the second Tuesday of each month to provide insight into the issues, opportunities, and successes related to transportation and the environment in Gwinnett County and the metro Atlanta region. There is no charge to attend the meeting. The meeting is open to the public.