NOTICE: The holiday schedule calls for the next GwinnettForum on January 4.

TODAY'S ISSUE
Fire stations, Home Depots, places for recycling Yule trees
By Connie Wiggins
Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful
Special to GwinnettForum.com

DEC. 28, 2004 -- After your Christmas tree has done its holiday duty, don't just dump it! Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful, along with other local sponsors, will put those tired trees to good use in the new year by recycling them into valuable mulch.

The average Christmas tree weighs 20 pounds and fills up almost as much landfill space as a washing machine! Start the New Year right by contributing to the protection of the environment, instead of to our overflowing landfills.

Through January 9, most Gwinnett County fire stations will be accepting Christmas trees (free of lights and decorations) for recycling. In addition, select area Home Depot stores will accept Christmas trees on January 8 only. Ask them for your free hardwood tree seedlings, while supplies last. Participating fire stations and Home Depot stores are listed below, and on our website, www.gwinnettcb.org.

Once the trees are collected, community volunteers will chip them into mulch at the annual 'Bring One for the Chipper' event, scheduled for Saturday, January 15th. Most of the mulch will be used to help beautify local schools and parks. County residents wanting free mulch for home use, may call Davey Tree Expert Company, 770-451-7911.

Please give this last gift of the holiday season. It will help conserve vital landfill space and reduce soil erosion in Gwinnett County next year, and for years to come.

Event Sponsors include: Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners, Downey Trees, Inc., Georgia Power, Jackson EMC, Gwinnett Technical College, Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Atlanta, Home Depot, The Davey Tree Expert Company, The Georgia Department of Community Affairs, WXIA-TV (11 Alive)

DROP-OFF SITES IN GWINNETT COUNTY:

Buford:
Fire Station #14 - 1600 Highway 23.

Dacula:
Fire Station #17 - 2739 Brooks Road;
Fire Station #18 - 3600 Braselton Highway;
Jan. 8 ONLY - Home Depot - 2120 Hamilton Creek Parkway/

Duluth:
Fire Station #5 - 3001 Old Norcross Road;
Fire Station #19 - 3275 North Berkeley Lake; Road;
For City of Duluth residents ONLY, until February 1, 2005 - 2450 Chattahoochee Drive.

Grayson:
Fire Station #8 - 2244 Highway 20.

Lawrenceville:
Fire Station #9 - 1900 Five Forks Trickum Road;
Fire Station #15 - 275 South Perry Street;
Fire Station #20 - 1801 Cruse Road;
Fire Station #25 - 3575 Lawrenceville Highway;
Jan. 8 ONLY - Home Depot - 875 Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road.

Lilburn:
Fire Station #2 - 12 Harmony Grove Road;
Fire Station #3 - 4394 Five Forks Trickum Road;
Fire Station #22 - 2180 Stone Drive;
City Maintenance Facility - 107 Railroad Avenue;
Jan. 8 ONLY - Home Depot - 4121 Highway 78.

Loganville:
Jan. 8 ONLY - Home Depot - 4141 Atlanta Highway.

Norcross:
Fire Station #4 - 5550 Spalding Drive;
Fire Station #11 - 5885 Live Oak Parkway;
Fire Station #23 - 4355 Steve Reynolds Boulevard;
Jan. 8 - Home Depot - 4136 Jimmy Carter Boulevard.

Snellville:
Fire Station #6 - 3890 Johnson Drive;
Snellville Recycling Center - 1000 East Park Drive;
Jan. 8; ONLY - Home Depot - 1670 Scenic Highway North.

Suwanee:
Fire Station #21 - 474 Old Peachtree Road;
Town Center Park - 370 Buford Highway;
Jan. 8 ONLY - Home Depot - 1380 Suwanee Boulevard.

ELLIOTT BRACK
Gwinnett cities need to adopt anti-smoking ban like county's
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com

DEC. 28, 2004 -- With Gwinnett getting three new members of its commission next year, one effort you can count on in 2005 will be another try to modify Gwinnett's solid anti-smoking rules. Even though not only a majority, but virtually a mandate of more than 75 per cent of the county residents are against smoking, still this limited minority will try to change the recently-passed rules.

We hope they falter in their efforts. After all, we're talking about a recognized health hazard in smoking.

These pro-smoking efforts, led mostly by bar owners wanting to accommodate their smoking customers, maintain that it is a "civil liberty" issue.

Baloney: pure unadulterated baloney. We think the introduction of the civil liberty aspect is nothing more than a big red herring. It allows these bar owners to squawk "keep government out of private business", when what they really mean is that they want to shore up their own pocketbooks by appearing as a "Defender of the Issue" to their smoking customers.

Consider this: the country of Ireland has an accepted a ban on smoking in public places. And Ireland, you may remember, is a place of many public houses (pubs), where a pint of Guiness or stout is often regularly consumed, previously in a haze of heavy smoking. No more. Now their government has led the way with banning smoking in places like pubs.

The smoking ban has been super successful in Ireland. Some pubs have directed smokers to outside facilities. But the inside of the pubs are now clear of smoke, more healthy, and finding a new crop of customers who like it this way.

Instead of modifying the Gwinnett smoking ordinance, we urge the remaining Gwinnett cities to pass tough anti-smoking ordinances themselves. Make Gwinnett cities have air as clean and smoke-free as the county establishments!

We also applaud County Commissioner Bert Nasuti for suggesting to the local delegation that the Georgia Legislature adopt strong stateside anti-smoking laws. It would make the state a more healthy place, the air will be cleaner, and all the people can enjoy public facilities even more.

And Big Tobacco will have lost another round. Stronger anti-smoking laws are the answer.

* * * * *

Let's give credit where it is due: to BellSouth, which has recently delivered new telephone books.

You may remember that we've not been so happy when BellSouth tried to downsize the Gwinnett books (we think as an experiment) last year. They cut the dimensions of the books at one point in half, which meant that they reduced the size of the type to the point of where the already small type was impossible to read.

Telephone subscribers howled so much that even the giant utility relented, saying they would revert to the full-size book in Gwinnett this year. And they did.

Recently BellSouth delivered the new Atlanta white pages and Yellow Pages to Gwinnett customers, in regular size. Hurrah for that aspect!

But they also distributed something else: a special Hispanic Yellow Page version. That is immediate smart marketing, appealing to Hispanics through their own Yellow Pages. It is also a good long term move to encourage use of the Yellow Pages by the Hispanic community. And it recognizes the Hispanics for the tremendous value they are contributing to the economy of Atlanta.

Let's hear it for BellSouth. Good move, BellSouth!

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McLEMORE'S WORLD
12/28: Rumsfeld's Christmas

The latest from cartoonist Bill McLemore:

NEWS
Lunch to honor Gwinnett Chamber volunteer ambassadors

Gwinnett Chamber Volunteer Ambassadors will be honored at an Ambassador Appreciation Luncheon January 12 at 11:30 a.m. at Laser Quest in Duluth. Sponsorship for the event will be provided by Laser Quest and Boudreaux's Cajun Seafood Market.

"Volunteer Ambassadors are key to Gwinnett Chamber success. We are pleased
to be honoring these dedicated individuals at our upcoming event," says Lisa Zaken, membership director, Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce.

Volunteer Ambassadors are a Gwinnett Chamber core of volunteer leaders providing members with an opportunity to make valuable business contacts, publicize their respective companies and receive added value for their membership investment through volunteer activities. Four committees including Events, New Member, Member Relations, and Insurance assist with providing hospitality through greeting at events, phone calls and personal visits.

Event is by invitation only. Ask about becoming a Gwinnett Chamber Ambassador today! Contact Angelia Risher at (770) 232-1273 or
angelia@gwinnettchamber.org.

13th annual King celebration set at Morehouse Jan. 13

The 13th annual King Celebration will take place on January 13, 2005 at 8 p.m. at Morehouse College. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, National Public Radio, The King Center, Morehouse College and Spelman College are presenters of "A King Celebration." It is the orchestra's 13th annual musical tribute to the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The concert will take place on the Morehouse College campus at the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel.

Besides, the Symphony, the program features the Morehouse College Glee Club, directed by Dr. David Morrow; the Spelman College Glee Club, directed by Dr. Kevin Johnson and lyric soprano Theresa Hamm-Smith, who recently made her San Francisco Opera debut as Sister Rose in the world premiere of Dead Man Walking. Since its inception in 1992, this annual event has become a celebrated national musical tributes to Dr. King and the African-American experience.

The concert will be broadcast to more than 250 public radio stations nationally on NPR's daily classical music program, Performance Today®. NPR's Fred Child will host. For nationwide station information and broadcast times, please visit NPR's website at www.npr.org.

Tickets for "A King Celebration" are $25 for reserved seats and $7 for seniors and students. To purchase single tickets, call the Woodruff Arts Center Box Office at 404.733.5000 or visit www.atlantasymphony.org.

For details about other King Holiday events being held in Atlanta and across the nation, please visit The King Center site at www.thekingcenter.org.

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
12/28: Bell bomber plant in Marietta transformed Atlanta area

Georgia's remarkable economic progress in the late 20th century started with the influx of federal dollars for welfare and defense in the Franklin Roosevelt presidential era (1933-45). Between 1942 and 1945 the Bell Aircraft Corporation transformed Marietta from the small seat of rural Cobb County to one of the main industrial centers of the Sunbelt.

After assembly lines began functioning in the spring of 1943, Bell employees supplied the U.S. Army Air Forces with 663 Boeing-designed B-29s, the first of which were delivered before the end of the year. The government-owned plant closed immediately after the end of World War II and sat idle until 1951, when it became home to Lockheed-Georgia (later Lockheed Martin).

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Roosevelt Administration decided to build additional aircraft-manufacturing facilities in the nation's interior, away from vulnerable coastlines. With its excellent railroad network and established airport (Candler Field), Atlanta seemed a likely spot for defense industries. Less than 20 miles from downtown Atlanta, Marietta was connected by streetcar, by the Dixie Highway, and by the state's first four-lane highway, U.S. 41, then under construction.

Based in Buffalo, New York, the Bell Aircraft Corporation had only about 1,000 employees when the United States entered World War II. About two weeks after Pearl Harbor, Bell learned that the government had selected his company to build B-29s in the Atlanta area.

Originally estimated as a $15 million project, the War Department put $73 million into the plant by the war's end. The total project encompassed almost 4.2 million square feet, making it the largest business facility ever constructed in the Deep South. Bell Bomber reached its peak employment of 28,158 workers in February 1945.

After the war, the government used the massive B-1 building to store abandoned machine tools. The population of Cobb County reached 62,000 by 1950, up more than 60 percent from the total a decade earlier. In that year the United States found itself in an undeclared war in Korea, and in January 1951 the air force invited the Lockheed Corporation to reopen the plant, with its first task the refurbishing of B-29s for the conflict. What Bell had started Lockheed continued, tuning a formerly sleepy county into one of the most rapid growing in the nation.

• To access the Georgia Encyclopedia, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
  

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
What happens when you do little jobs very well

"Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves."

--- Andrew Carnegie, via Roy McCreary, Dacula.

• Another invitation: What's your favorite saying? Share with others through GwinnettForum. Send to elliott@gwinnettforum.com.
  

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