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TODAY'S
ISSUE
Suwanee Day Festival
moves to new Town Center park
By
Lynne Bohlman DeWilde
Special to GwinnettForum.com
AUG. 27, 2004 -- Lots will be happening at Suwanee Day Festival
coming September 18.
- An expansive and attractive new venue.
- The addition of artworks by some of the area's most talented
fine artists.
- A new 5K road race and parade route.
- A free evening concert with fireworks to boot.
These are just some of the changes to the annual Suwanee Day festival
that promise to make this year's "celebration of community"
better than ever. Suwanee's annual fall festival will be celebrated
from 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday, September 18, at the City's new 10-acre
Town Center Park, with the 5K Suwanee Day Classic race and a children's
festival the evening before. The park is located at the intersection
of Buford Highway and Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road.
A fine arts section, sponsored by the Artists of Berkeley Lake,
has been added to the Suwanee Day landscape.
"We are excited about our partnership with the Suwanee Day
festival," says ABL board member Delicia Reynolds. "We
decided that we wanted to be part of a fun, family-oriented event
where an appreciation of fine art can be combined with other offerings
such as music and children's activities. We hope that our inclusion
will enhance the awareness and appreciation of fine art and artists.
Suwanee Day offers a wonderful venue for our member artists and
other talented artists from across Georgia to showcase and sell
their artwork."
The fine artists as well as other arts and crafts vendors will
be on hand from 10 a.m.-5 p.m., offering an array of handmade and
other quality items. Food vendors, a variety of rides and other
activities for children, as well as a diverse line-up of free entertainment,
including local bands, dance troupes, children's entertainers, and
BMX bike demonstrations, also will be available throughout the day.
A free evening concert featuring the very fun and popular Rupert's
Orchestra will punctuate Suwanee Day. Rupert's Orchestra, in a concert
sponsored by Lanier Honda, will perform pop, rock, and dance favorites
at the Town Center Park Amphitheater beginning at 8 p.m., with an
opening act taking the stage at 7 p.m.
A 9:45 p.m. fireworks display, sponsored by Jolly Development,
also will be part of the evening entertainment line-up.
The BodyPlex annual Suwanee Day 5K Classic, which traditionally
opens Suwanee Day the evening before the festival, also is moving
its starting and finishing line to Town Center Park. The race will
begin at 7 p.m. and wind through the historic Old Town area. Race
organizers also will provide musical entertainment and a children's
carnival at Town Center Park beginning at 5 p.m. For more information
or a race application, contact BodyPlex Family Fitness at 770/614-6140.
The Suwanee Day parade route is changing as well. The 10 a.m. parade
will begin at Stonecypher and Suwanee Dam Roads as it has in previous
years. However, rather than traveling down Main Street, the parade
will march along Buford Highway, ending at Russell Street.
Miss Georgia USA, Caroline Medley, a 1996 North Gwinnett High School
graduate, will serve as this year's grand marshal.
Festival-goers are encouraged to take advantage of offsite parking
and free shuttle transportation, which will be provided from 9 a.m.-11
p.m. Offsite parking will be available at:
- Publix at the McGinnis Crossing Shopping Center located at Peachtree
Industrial Boulevard and McGinnis Ferry Road.
- Shadowbrook Baptist Church, 4187 Suwanee Dam Road.
- Williams Brothers, 365 Satellite Boulevard, at Martin Farm Road.
- Shawnee North Business Center, 305 Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road,
just east of Smithtown Road.
For more information about Suwanee Day, visit www.suwaneeday.com
or www.suwanee.com
or call 770/945-8996.
ELLIOTT
BRACK
Gwinnett
University Center needs president, new status
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com
AUG. 27, 2004 -- The future of the Gwinnett University Center is
solid, but uncertain. The State Board of Regents is expected to
take up the larger question of off-campus centers at a meeting this
fall.
 Two
basic questions will be under consideration, with the questions
somewhat related. Most pressing in our view is the leadership of
the school. The Gwinnett University Center has been without a permanent
leader since July 31, 2002, more than two years. Dr. Rob Watts has
been interim president since then. And while he does an admirable
job, worthy of being made a permanent president, still, he is an
interim president. The school deserves a full-time leader.
The other local question facing the Regents is what to do with
the Gwinnett University Center, and its bulging and ever-growing
student body. This month more than 8,000 students are expected to
register for classes at the Center, which has elements of several
colleges offering classes there. It amounts to the eighth largest
state college campus in Georgia. Yet at what point does GUC become
a full-fledged campus on its own?
Some history might help. Back in 1933, the University of Georgia
began offering courses in Atlanta at an Evening School. It went
through several name changes, and was the Atlanta Division of the
University of Georgia in 1955, when it became Georgia State College
of Business Administration.
Now the point: In 1953-54, it had 3,096 students. By 1956-57, Georgia
State had 3,591 students. (Figures from 1955 are unavailable.) By
the way, Georgia State is expected to enroll 27,500 students this
year, and is the state's second largest campus. Last year Georgia
State enrolled 26,607 in the spring semester.)
Meanwhile, here is Gwinnett University Center with more than twice
the enrolment that Georgia State had when it became an independent
campus!
The Regents currently operate nine college centers for learning
within the state. The Gwinnett Center is by far the largest with
an anticipated 8,000 students this fall. (Last year's GUC fall head
count was 6,961, but had grown to 7,400 by spring.)
Other centers and their fall, 2003 enrollments are in Warner Robins,
1,732; Alpharetta, with 1,571 students; Dublin, 1,147; Robins Residence
Center, 587; Camden County Center, 512; Liberty County, 496; Brunswick,
486; and Coastal Georgia in Savannah, 337.
Note that none of these off-campus centers approach the enrollment
of the Gwinnett Center.
Already the Regents treat the Gwinnett University Center Campus
a little differently. For instance in June a new GUC classroom building
was added to the Regent's capital building list. This is the first
time that a facility for a university center, not a campus, has
even been added to this capital program list.
Dr. Thomas C. Meredith, chancellor of the Board of Regents of the
University System of Georgia, said this week that "The mission
and the future of GUC is currently being studied as part of a statewide
assessment. No search (for a university president) is planned until
that is completed."
That means if the Regents take up this subject in the fall, a search
will take at least six months. It amounts to having a full-time
leader of the Gwinnett University Center no earlier than fall, 2005.
That would make it without a permanent leader for three years….or
more.
Maybe this fall the Regents will find it wise to determine that
Gwinnett is worthy, with its growing enrolment, to warrant a stand-alone
campus, and bring in a president at the same time. We hope so.
Efforts by local leaders to secure a stand-alone University System
campus has been going on for 30 years. It can't happen too soon.
We urge the Regents to consider just how successful such a campus
will be, and to move for its inception at the earliest possible
date.
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CARTOON
8/2: An Olympic moment
Another great cartoon from Bill McLemore:
FEEDBACK
8/27: Can't imagine
any swift boat not coming under fire
Editor, the Forum:
I served in the Vietnam era and faced transfer to a swift boat
or possibly a troop barge from my NAS Corpus Christi, chaseboat
duty station. I was sent to a sub-tender (USS Howard W. Gilmore,
AS-16) in Charleston, S.C., instead, and breathed a big sigh of
relief.
I am confident of John Kerry's accounting (and the US Navy's) of
his service performance and the medals he'd earned under fire. I
am in awe that this man volunteered for duty I faced with white-knuckle
fear. I can't imagine any swift boat on patrol that never came under
fire.
-- Charlie B. Bechtold, Norcross
NEWS
Tibs Group to host Red Cross Blood drive on
Aug. 30
The Rotary Club of Gwinnett is holding a blood drive Monday, Aug.
30 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the offices of Tibs Group on Martin
Farm Road in Suwanee.
The local blood supply is currently very low, and donations from
the community are desperately needed to keep the metro-Atlanta area's
blood supply in check. To make the process quick and simple, call-ahead
appointment times are being offered. Each donor can expect to spend
only 15 - 20 minutes to make a significant difference in someone's
life.
For more information, directions or to make an appointment for
the blood drive, please call Cheryl Dillard at 678-546-2695.
Consider signing up for your part in Great Days of Service
By
Paige Havens
Chair,
Gwinnett Great Days of Service
It's time once again for me to encourage your participation in
this year's Gwinnett Great Days of Service. It will be held October
22-23.
The Gwinnett Coalition for Health and Human Services envisioned
Great Days of Service five years ago in the spirit of Gwinnett's
slogan "Success Lives Here". The event is designed to
increase community awareness for the many agencies and organizations
that the Gwinnett Coalition represents and supports. Getting involved
with Great Days of Service is easy. Visit the website at www.gwinn
Great Days of Service address specific needs in the county through
volunteers who complete much-needed service projects for local nonprofits
and schools. These projects build community while educating citizens
and leaders about the needs around them.
Last year, with your help, we had over 75,000 volunteers, including
large corporations, schools, small businesses, individuals, church
groups, and families. We were able to complete 167 service projects,
which made this event one of the largest volunteer initiatives in
the country.
You may sign up on the web as an individual or as a team. You can
also find out how to sponsor the event, or if you are a nonprofit,
submit a project of your own. There are even projects you can do
from the comfort of your own office or home. Think of the groups
you are involved with (church, schools, scouts, ball teams, etc.)
and gets those around you involved or volunteer this year as a family
on Saturday we've got something for everyone!
If you have additional questions, please contact Rachael Shaikun
at info@gwinnettgreatdaysofservice.org
or call her at 770-995-3339. We look forward to your involvement
and in helping make this year's Great Days of Service a great success!
ENCYCLOPEDIA
TIDBIT
8/27: Georgia strawberry
crop valued at $4.4 million annually
The Georgia strawberry industry primarily consists of small family
farms that offer fresh, "vine ripe" berries as a pick-your-own
or direct-sales crop. In 2002 there were 60 direct-sales and two
wholesale-only farms in operation. About ten growers are involved
in distant shipping of strawberries. Total acreage is about 300,
and the 2002 farm gate value (the value of the crop as it leaves
the farm) was about $4.4 million.
 Chandler
and Camarosa, developed in California, are the two most popular
strawberry cultivars grown in Georgia. Both produce large, tasty
fruit. Normally strawberries are grown as annuals in Georgia, with
drip irrigation under plastic mulch. The raised beds and plastic
mulch help to keep the leaves and fruit clean, reducing plant diseases
and improving fruit quality. The crop ripens primarily from March
through May in south Georgia and from April through June in north
Georgia.
THOUGHT OF THE DAY
Exactly when is the
time for you to apologize
"It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort
of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean
advantage of them."
-- Author P. G. Wodehouse (1881 - 1975), The Man Upstairs (1914)
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