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TODAY'S
ISSUE
Suwanee park opening
this weekend features top performers
By
Lynn DeWilde
City of Suwanee
Special to GwinnettForum.com
AUG. 10, 2004 -- Suwanee's Town Center Park is about to live up
to its billing as the community's new gathering place in a grand
way.
August 14 grand opening festivities for the 10-acre downtown-style
park, which was completed late last year, will feature performances
by Atlanta-based Drivin' N' Cryin', a regional favorite well-known
for its Southern-infused rock/blues sound and energetic live performances,
as well as a surprise national recording artist. "Everything's
gonna be alright" when this Grammy-nominated artist, who also
is from Atlanta, takes to the recently completed Town Center Park
amphitheater stage at about 9:15 p.m.
This headline performer will be preceded by Drivin' N' Cryin's
performance at about 7:15 p.m. Grand opening festivities will begin
at 5:30 p.m. with a performance by a popular local acoustic duo.
Suwanee's Town Center Park grand opening celebration is sponsored
by the City of Suwanee, Bowen Family Homes, and Wild Wing Café.
Town Center Park is located at the intersection of Buford Highway
and Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road.
These performances are free and open to the public. Offsite parking
and free shuttle transportation will be provided from 5-11 p.m.
Offsite parking is available at several businesses along Satellite
Boulevard, just south of Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road, as well as
at Shawnee North, located on Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road, just east
of Smithtown Road. Look for the yellow and black "event parking"
signs.
As part of the event, a variety of foods and beverages from area
restaurants will be available for purchase. For this reason and
for security considerations, no coolers will be allowed in the park
for the grand opening. No alcoholic beverages may be brought to
the park; all beer and wine must be purchased and consumed within
a designated area. Picnic dinners, tables, and chairs will be permitted;
however, no table and chairs will be allowed within the terraced
amphitheater seating area.
Town Center Park, the first park completed through the City of
Suwanee's bond-funded open space initiative, is designed to be the
anchor of a vibrant new mixed-use area that will be the focal center
of the Suwanee community and the City's primary gathering place
for special events, shopping and eating, and to simply enjoy the
park. The three interlinking elliptical pathways, large planters
and garden areas, classic styling with brick and granite, and terraced
amphitheater seating are among the elements that give Town Center
Park a distinctive look.
The grand opening performances will take place on the recently
completed 1,500-foot Town Center Park amphitheater performance stage.
The attractive brick and granite stage backdrop is covered with
a curved steel roof, and decorative, partially covered trellis areas
adorn each side of the stage. The facility also includes public
restrooms and a "green room" for performers.
The August 14 grand opening celebration is the first of several
events, including the annual Suwanee Day festival on September 18,
that are planned for Town Center Park over the next couple of months.
ELLIOTT
BRACK
Could
chairman be nominated by 2 percent of voters?
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com
AUG. 10, 2004 -- In a runoff, all that counts is who returns to
the polls the second time."---- Old political axiom.
 *
* * * *
As Gwinnett votes in the runoff primaries today, the leader in
the first round is not necessarily comforted by his first place
showing.
Even the guy who made it as the second place finisher in the first
round of voting worries perhaps a little harder than the top vote
getter.
But both fret, wondering if "their" people will think
enough of them to return to the polls. It can be a scary thought
for the politicians.
For the ordinary citizen, the runoff is scary from another viewpoint:
the few people who go to the polls.
Take the race for county commission chairman. In the voting on
July 20, only 54,488 of the registered 270,213 voters cast ballots
in this race. Chairman Wayne Hill had 21,012, or 39.1 per cent.
Charles Banister registered 16,723, and Marcia Neaton scored 16,490,
meaning Bannister made the runoff by 233 votes.
But only 20.2 per cent of people voted! And in today's runoff primary,
perhaps only half that amount will turn out to vote.
That essentially means that if the winner scores 15,000 votes,
that amounts to 2.14 per cent of all the people in the county to
qualify for the General Election for chairman! Or putting it in
better light, the winner would have scored 5.5 per cent of the total
registered voters!
Run-offs, you recall, require that the winner get a "majority"
of votes cast. Yet a low turnout can make a virtual mockery of the
winner having any sort of mandate of the people.
All this makes a person wonder about the reasonableness of requiring
50 per cent plus one vote to qualify as a winner of an election.
A few years back in Georgia, the election laws in primaries and
special elections was changed, so that a candidate need only score
a plurality of 45 per cent of the vote to be declared the winner.
In some states, a candidate must get 40 per cent of the vote to
be declared the winner. In other states, the candidate who scores
the most votes wins, no matter what per cent. That's how popular
ex-governor (and independent) Angus King of Maine first won the
governor's race in 1994, scoring 34 per cent in a three way race.
That's close!
That same year, in Pennsylvania, Tom Ridge won the governor's post
with a 45 per cent victory. Going back some, in 1966 Nelson Rockefeller
won in New York for governor with 44.6 per cent.
It makes you have questions on whether the absolute 50 per cent
plus one vote is the best way to settle elections. If Georgia had
a 40 per cent rule, like in North Carolina, Congressman Denise Majette
would have won the Georgia primary three weeks ago, as she polled
42 per cent of the vote!
* * * * *
Meanwhile, the flood of endorsements toward Wayne Hill in the chairman's
race probably won't relieve Mr. Hill until the last vote is counted.
He certainly scored heavily from endorsements, primarily from one
of his opponents, Marcia Neaton. However, to get not only endorsements
from many major players in Gwinnett, and then from the sitting governor,
is high praise indeed.
But the question remains: will it influence enough of Mr. Hill
constituents to return to the polls and grant him an unprecedented
nomination for a fourth term of office?
We'll know tonight.
* * * * *
One last thought: Remember, anyone registered may vote in the runoff,
even though they did not vote in the first primary. However, you
cannot switch from one party primary to another for the runoff,
but must vote in the same party primary as you voted in the first
round. If you did not vote on July 20, you may vote in either party
primary today.
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and Decatur and has 28 employees. On the Internet: http://www.wheelerkolb.com
For a list of other sponsors of this forum, go to: http://www.gwinnettforum.com/about/sponsors.htm.
FEEDBACK
8/10: Realtor community
lost good person in Bob Wood
Editor, the Forum:
I read your article about Bob Wood and I agree. I started in real
estate by going through Bob's real estate school. I spent my first
two years in the industry working with Bob.
He was one of the smartest and most innovative people I have ever
met. Many of the
practices he started have been adopted by other real estate firms.
And, to debate with him was a privilege and a constant challenge
because he was so sharp!
I saw him monthly at our NAMAR Board of Directors meetings and
he really kept us on our toes. He was running for office when I
worked with him and he was running for office now. He thought it
was our duty to be involved in our community.
The Realtor community has lost a very good man and friend and Gwinnett
has lost a caring, hard-working neighbor.
-- Barbara Grastat, Lawrenceville
8/10: Asks if free
trade is meant only for the wealthy
Editor, the Forum:
The Bush administration has spent too much time and money focusing
on the pursuit of international agendas.
We need a leader who will secure the jobs of Americans, not encourage
businesses to send them overseas with some rhetoric that somehow
prosperity will dribble down to the unemployed. This sounds like
that famous quote of Marie Antoinette" "Let them eat cake."
If free trade is so beneficial, then why are not everyday citizens
and the elderly encouraged to buy prescription drugs from Canada?
If they buy their expensive prescription drugs in Canada, cannot
this practice bubble up and help big business, using the rationale
of the Bush Administration?
Is free trade only for the wealthy?
-- Marie Schnell, Lilburn
8/10: Calls Michael Moore "loony," says he deserves a
spanking
Editor, the Forum:
The movie, Fahrenheit 9/11, is not a documentary; it is
the longest and most malicious negative campaign I've ever seen,
and I've seen many! The film-maker raises the art of innuendo and
guilt by association to greater heights than ever proposed by Senator
Joseph McCarthy.
Moore deserves a good spanking in the rear. He is like a spoiled
child who runs around saying outrageous things to impress his dim-witted
parents. Moore isn't even cute; he is very dangerous. To imply that
9/11 could have been prevented is ludicrous. Michael Moore's anti-American,
rhetorical bomb throwing is very ill-timed.
He is just what we need, an arrogant loudmouth who represents a
loony, paranoid, tiny faction of the population. Hey, it's not that
loony Rush Limbaugh; it's Michael Moore, the biggest loony to come
down the pike!
-- Roy McCreary, Dacula
BOOK
RECOMMENDATION
8/10: From Perry Tindol
of Allgood Services
"From the in progress category, I'm about to finish "Good
to Great" by Jim Collins and like many, I find it to be
a powerful book that every business person should read.
"I also recently finished a book released in 2000, "The
List" written by Robert Whitlow. This book was a Christmas
gift that my wife gave me because she knew how much I like Grisham
and Grisham-type books of which this was to be one. The book combined
an inspirational message with a legal drama in a manner that kept
my attention.
"I plan to read Dr. John Maxwell's "Today Matters"
next. I would expect this book like most of his books to provide
me with practical thought that I will find beneficial from both
a business and personal perspective."
- An invitation: What books have you enjoyed? Send us
your best recent book along with a short paragraph as to why you
liked it, plus what you plan to read next. --eeb
ENCYCLOPEDIA
TIDBIT
8/10: Branch U.S. Mint
established in Dahlonega in 1838
 From
the beginning of the gold rush in Georgia, trade in the gold region
suffered from a limited circulation of currency. Merchants insisted
on immediate payment in cash or gold, and it was the merchants who
determined the gold's worth.
What the miners needed was a local mint where they could have their
gold assayed and exchanged for gold coins. Congress soon authorized
the establishment of a federal Branch Mint at Dahlonega, and in
1838 the new mint went into operation. It coined more than $100,000
worth of gold in its first year, and by the time it closed in 1861,
it had produced almost 1.5 million gold coins with a face value
of more than $6 million.
THOUGHT OF THE DAY
About how to conduct
about any campaign
"Carry the battle to them. Don't let them bring it to you.
Put them on the defensive. And don't ever apologize for anything."
-- Harry S Truman (1884 - 1972)
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is an online community commentary for exploring pragmatic and sensible
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