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TODAY'S
ISSUE
Urges Gwinnettians
to get involved, help renew "SPLOST"
By
Paula Hastings
Chairman, Gwinnett Citizens for SPLOST
Special
to GwinnettForum.com
OCT. 26, 2004 -- As you probably know, the General election is
less than two weeks away, Tuesday, November 2. Not only will we
have the honor to vote for our Presidential choice and many other
important offices. But here in Gwinnett, we are fortunate enough
to once again RENEW the one cent sales tax, aka SPLOST (Special
Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) that has been in place for 20
years and has generated more than $1 BILLION. These funds have
gone to improve our roads, parks, libraries and public safety.
Many of you have asked me in the last few days, what you can do
to help educate our fellow Gwinnettians about the incredible importance
of continuing the SPLOST program in our county. My answer is always,
"Talk it up as much as possible that this is a CONTINUATION
of the same one cent we currently pay (not a new tax) and it will
begin to manifest into a win-win for us all."
An overview: there are four major categories from which the Gwinnett
SPLOST funds improvements:
- Transportation: Improving our intersections, traffic, school
safety projects, bridges, etc.
- Parks and Recreation: Purchasing greenspace, developing park
facilities for our children's sports, recreation, Senior centers,
etc.
- Public Safety: Providing the most up-to-date equipment to
keep our firefighters, police officers and communities safe
and secure.
- Libraries: Funding at least two new and purchasing land for
a future site.
You should also consider:
- The County will collect an estimated $550 million over the
next four years that go directly into our Communities!!
- For the first time Gwinnett's municipalities will receive
20 percent of the funds collected, or approximately $88 million
to fund infrastructure projects within the cities.
- Remember, it is estimated that over one-third of the funds
collected from SPLOST are paid by those shoppers and visitors
living OUTSIDE of Gwinnett!!
Please visit our website for more information: www.gwinnettcitizensforsplost.org.
Please use your resources and pass the message on in any way
you choose. Tell everyone you know who are also concerned about
protecting and improving our quality of life which makes this
such a fabulous place to live!
Thank you so much to each of you for your tireless efforts and
in advance for your assistance in these final days to the election.
Get involved and make a difference!!
ELLIOTT
BRACK
Baseball
could benefit by using instant replay cameras, too
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com
OCT. 26, 2004 -- In Game Six of the Yankee-Red Sox baseball playoffs,
an incident took place which was quickly reversed by referees.
 A
Yankee player, Alex Rodriquez, running to first base on a slow
grounder to the pitcher, knocked the ball out of the glove of
Boston pitcher Bronson Arroyo and was called safe. When the Red
Sox protested, the six referees, after conferring, ruled the runner
out. It was a key point in a close game, and left the score at
4-2, instead of 4-3, since the runner had scored during the play.
Baseball fans all across the country must have been thinking
in unison about this incident: "If baseball had a instant
replay option, this is the place for it.".
In this incident, the television cameras, seeing the play from
several different angles, were in a better position than some
of the umpires. For a while there, before the play had been reversed,
it looked like the Boston team was snake-bitten once again, and
were about to face Fickle Fate again.
Happily for BoSox fans, the umpires ruled correctly, as seen
by the cameras. But it won't always be that way. Baseball should
consider extreme situations when the umpires can have the benefit
of what fans in front of television cameras have, the replay,
to ensure that sports justice is intact.
* * * * *
Denise Majette's run for the Georgia Senate seat is the case
of another woman seeking to become a Senator. Right now there
are 14 women senators. And two states have women as both their
senators. Which states? (Answer below.)
* * * * *
Former Gwinnett School Board Member Pat Mitchell is leaving her
position as an assistant professor at East Carolina University
to become director of economic development for Ashe County, N.C.,
which is in the most northwestward county of North Carolina, amid
the mountains. She continues as an adjunct professor at ECU, teaching
via the Internet. She says: "I have vacationed there every
year for the past 20 years, and have spent the last 19 Thanksgiving
Holidays in Ashe County - the last nine in a log cabin off the
Blue Ridge Parkway." She will leave the University at the
end of the current semester to join Ashe County government. Congratulations
to Pat!
* * * * *
The weather can sneak up on you. A guy returning from the Georgia
coast last week reported the weather so socked in on the interstate
around Macon "that we nearly had to stop."
What to do in situations similarly? Even pulling to the side
of the road can be hazardous, since someone behind can ram you.
One thing motorists can do is to put on their flashing lights.
While this is a simple effort, the flashing light seem to cut
through the haze better than lights on continuously. And, it also
warns the other motorists of the location of a vehicle.
Georgia law requires lights being on, even during daylight, when
it's raining. Switching on your flashers can also help you, and
the other motorists, on the roadway. Use it for your health and
safety.
* * * * *
The two states with women as their senators? California (Dianne
Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both Democrats) and Maine (Olympia
Snowe and Susan Collins, both Republicans).
ABOUT OUR SPONSORS
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public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com
to you at no cost to readers. Today's sponsor is Just Emissions,
a firm performing State of Georgia emission testing as certified
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No appointment is needed.
For a list of other sponsors of this forum, go to: http://www.gwinnettforum.com/about/sponsors.htm.
FEEDBACK
10/26: Feels like
being misled, and in addition, unsafe in America
Editor, the Forum:
Vice President Cheney has once again misled the American Public.
The fact that the Vice President can manipulate with something
that was an outright lie from the beginning is terrifying. As
an American citizen, for the first time in 54 years, I am afraid
of my own government leadership.
The Washington Post shows that Vice President Cheney has,
on numerous occasions made statements to link Saddam Hussein to
September 11 and those statements have been proven false by many
sources.
To lie and mislead about something so important that lead us to
war is almost too much for the mind to comprehend. Then to say
that he had not met John Edwards before the debate demonstrates
that this administration cannot and will not tell the truth. We
cannot trust this administration. I am afraid that they will continue
on the same path of "strike first" if they are re-elected
and choose Iran as their next target.
I do not feel safer today with the current administration.
How can I feel safe with someone who would look me in the eye
and lie to gain their own ends? It leaves me to face mounting
hostility in the world, the loss of my ability to work and feed
and cloth myself, the lack of health care, and the loss of a secure
retirement, and all done within four years. That's why we don't
need four more years of these lying leaders.
-- Pat Greene, Snellville
10/26: Hit the mark with comments about patriotism
Editor, the Forum:
You hit the mark with your remarks about patriotism. I still
read you, and appreciate the Forum. Things are a bit quieter in
Tarpon Springs now, apparently hurricane season has passed. And
I certainly miss all my contacts and men and women of Snellville
Police Department.
-- Jimmy Davis, Tarpon Springs, Fla.
(Editor's Note: Mr. Davis is the retired chief
of the Snellville police.-eeb)
NEWS
Duluth High band
cops awards at Warner Robins competition
Editor, the Forum:
Thought you might want to know that over the weekend the Duluth
High School Band competed in the Warner Robins Heart of Georgia
Band competition. There were five bands in our division and 23
in total. The Duluth Band scored all superiors for every aspect
of performance - drum majors, color guard, percussion, brass,
woodwind, and overall band performance. The Band also took second
place in our division overall as well as percussion, brass and
woodwind, and first place for color guard. The color guard also
won first place out of all 23 schools.
How about a "Way to go!" for the Wildcat Marching Band!
-- Marsha Bomar, Duluth
Gwinnett parks, staff and volunteers win state awards
Gwinnett County Parks & Recreation (GCPR) was named Agency
of the Year by the Seventh District of the Georgia Recreation
and Park Association (GRPA) at its annual awards banquet on October
20 at the Oconee County Civic Center in Watkinsville. The Agency
Award is the top honor recognizing excellence in the field of
parks and recreation.
GRPA made the selection based on criteria that demonstrate a
parks and recreation organization's involvement in facilitating
and enhancing recreation in the state of Georgia. Gwinnett County
Parks & Recreation was selected from other county and municipal
nominees with populations over 80,000.
Gwinnett County Parks & Recreation took home four additional
awards from the GRPA District 7 awards banquet.
- Recreation Manager Tina Fleming received the 2004 Roy Hammond
Leadership Award, the highest honor awarded to an individual
in the field of recreation by GRPA District 7.
- Sheree Penn, recreation coordinator, was named Programmer
of the Year.
- Rex Schuder, project manager/principal planner, was named
Parks and Outdoor Distinguished Professional of the Year.
- GCPR volunteers Bob and Eileen Giselbach of Norcross and Al
and Iris Sandham of Snellville also received honors as Volunteers
of the Year.
BOOK
RECOMMENDATION
- 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
10/22: State purchases
Jekyll Island via condemnation for $675K
John Eugene DuBignon and his brother-in-law Newton Finney were
the early developers of the Jekyll Island Club. Between 1879 and
1885 the two men reacquired Jekyll with the idea of forming a
hunting club for wealthy northerners. Finney easily found 53 individuals
willing to become members, among them Marshall Field, Henry Hyde,
J. P. Morgan, Joseph Pulitzer, and William K. Vanderbilt.
 In
1886 Finney, as a representative of the newly formed Jekyll Island
Club, purchased the island for $125,000. Ground was broken on
the clubhouse building in mid-August 1886, and the club officially
opened its doors in January 1888. Between 1888 and 1928 these
wealthy northern industrialists built their winter homes, or "cottages"
as they called them. These cottages, which exemplify Victorian
architecture, have been restored and are open to the public.
The Jekyll Island Club flourished into the 1930s, but the Great
Depression began to change many people's priorities. World War
II was the final blow to the life of the Jekyll Island Club. It
opened as usual for the 1942 season but closed early because of
financial problems and the strain the war placed on the labor
situation.
The club's president hoped to reopen the club after the war,
but in 1946 the state of Georgia entered the picture. The revenue
commissioner, and later governor, Melvin Thompson, wanted to purchase
one of Georgia's barrier islands and open it to the public as
a state park. Finally on October 7, 1947, the state purchased
the entirety of Jekyll Island through a condemnation order for
$675,000.
THOUGHT OF THE DAY
One guy's view of
why some people have dogs for pets
"I loathe people who keep dogs. They are cowards who haven't
got the guts to bite people themselves."
-- Swedish dramatist August Strindberg, (1849 - 1912)
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