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TODAY'S ISSUE
Groundbreaking soon for 70-acre park off Graves Road
By Phil Hoskins
Director, Gwinnett County Department of Community Services
Special to GwinnettForum.com

JUNE 10, 2005 -- Construction will begin soon on a new county park between Norcross and Lilburn under an almost $2.8 million contract approved Tuesday by the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners. Located on about 70 acres near the DeKalb County line area south of I-85 and west of Jimmy Carter Boulevard, the new Graves Park will be developed as a passive community park.

Features include a multi-purpose trail, a playground, two tennis courts, a sand volleyball court, an off-leash dog park, restrooms, open meadows, an entrance drive, and parking. Restoration of a stream buffer and wetlands area and eradication of kudzu is also included in the construction contract.

Graves Park will be Gwinnett County's second passive community park, a neighborhood-type park where at least two-thirds of the land will remain undeveloped. Ronald Reagan Park at Five Forks in Lilburn was the first park of its type to open in the county.

A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Friday, June 24 at the site of the park, located at 1540 Graves Road.

A citizen steering committee helped develop the master plan for the park. Gary's Grading and Pipeline, Inc. was the low bidder and received the construction contract.

Gwinnett County purchased the land in 2000 for about $3.8 million from the family of George Graves who bought it around 1880. It is the largest undeveloped tract of land in western Gwinnett, and the Graves family wanted it to be preserved for passive recreation.

Commissioner Bert Nasuti has been a strong supporter of providing a park for residents of the Meadowcreek area. Board Chairman Charles Bannister also expressed his satisfaction, saying the new park "reflects the County's commitment to invest in older neighborhoods to help keep them attractive and desirable."

The planned multi-purpose trail will include connections to adjacent subdivisions. A small pond on the property will become a feature of the park and will also be used for irrigation.

The mission of Gwinnett County Parks and Recreation (GCPR) is to manage 30 open park sites, with 16 more scheduled for future development. The Gwinnett park system's acreage totals 7,791 acres.

ELLIOTT BRACK
Cheers for Bass Shoes, but Bronx cheer for a utility
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com

JUNE 10, 2005 -- A company's image goes a long way in determining just how loyal its customers are.

Take two incidents last week involving two different people with two different firms.

One was a long time developing. A housewife got a bill each month from one of her utilities. And each month, it bugged her. Here's why: the bill would come in with a "due date" of within three or four days for payment.

She says: "They seemed frantic to get payment immediately." That put pressure on the housewife to get off the bill immediately, and set in her mind that the company was "greedy." She always complied with paying on time.

Remember, this had been going on for years. Later on, when the Public Service Commission approved de-regulating this industry. It was possible for this housewife to have another utility provider. Guess what happened?

And then came a phone call from the utility, wanting to know why she changed providers, and would she possibly return to her original provider?

Not only that, but when she began to talk to the caller, the caller began to defend the company, explaining the reasons that the tone of the monthly statement was the way it was, and virtually arguing with the customer. All this, mind you, to a customer who had paid on time for years, and felt she was hounded by the company each month to pay immediately.

The response to that phone call? Let's just say that the customer is pleased to be rid of that company's monthly bill.

This time it's a national shoe manufacturer, and I'll name the firm, Bass Shoes, a division of Brown Shoe Company out of St. Louis.

This guy buys a pair of casual shoes, and enjoys them. But about six-nine months into wearing them not regularly, he finds that the left rubber sole has split across the ball of the foot. The split in the sole is two inches wide. It's not like the shoe has worn out, for the rubber is nearly a half inch thick, deeply cracked, but only on the left shoe. The right shoe shows no sign of this.

After wondering what happened, the guy decided to write to the shoe company, saying: "Is it possible you have some defect in your manufacturing process?" He adds: "So I return the shoes to you so that you may make an evaluation of them, and perhaps, your entire process. I know you do not want shoes to start splitting their soles left and right."

About two weeks later, he finds a letter to him, with a check for $41.40. There's no letter of explanation, but only a check.

How's this for customer service? Clark Howard (who complains of "customer-no-service") would applaud Bass for their customer service!

And compare the Bass reaction to the utility that virtually wanted to argue with their (former) customer?

It makes you proud to find responses like one guy got from his questions about the defect in the shoe. It's good to have these two scenarios together, showing that there remain some firms that take customer relations seriously.

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In 1998 the Republican Congress led by the same people in power today impeached President Clinton for lying about sexual impropriety's which had nothing to do with the official business of State.

Today, now that the Downing Street memo has been made public (without being mentioned once in American media: see: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/) it is now factual that President Bush, Vice-President Cheney and the entire Cabinet was working to create intelligence in order to fit their policy of pre-emptive war in Iraq.

Pre-emptive warfare is a war crime, as is any war really. Thousands of lives have already been lost and thousands more will continue to be lost unless we as Americans hold our leaders accountable for their actions. Bush and Cheney lied about Iraq and the details have been in publications such as Mother Jones, complete with interviews of the participating parties.

I urge all of you to consider signing Rep. John Conyers, Jr. petition for a resolution for inquiry into the Downing Street Memo as the first step to hold the President accountable for his actions. If we fail to act we will continue as citizens to send the message that the American people are easily fooled and do not care to hold their leaders accountable.

There was a constitutional crisis, and it went by unnoticed. The exercise of free will was prosecuted. The exercise of free will was fined.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Wilbanks was the sanest one in this nation, and she was pressured into seeking "help" for her "mental condition."

The sane and insane have indeed traded places. The sane are sent to the asylum while the insane are running the government, media, and all the civic and cultural realms of society.

The city and county in question should have been the ones fined, prosecuted, and persecuted. The last of mankind is dying. And the darkness is just now consuming Ms. Wilbanks. It's a sad day.

The Southwest Gwinnett Village Community Improvement Association (SGVCIA) Kick-Off Reception will be held on Tuesday, June 14 at 6:30 p.m. at the Greater Atlanta Christian School on Indian Trail. Property owners in the Jimmy Carter Boulevard/I-85/Buford Highway/Indian Trail/Beaver Ruin area are encouraged to attend the kick off and become involved in the revitalization effort.

State Sen. Curt Thompson (D-Norcross) will deliver the keynote address for the first public organizational meeting. He said: "This will be the first opportunity for property owners within the district to sign on as members of the CID. Everyone is urged to come out and receive information about the CID program, which is vital to the future of the area."

Emory Morsberger, CIA president, says: "This is an incredible opportunity for the property owners in this area to do something about improving the property values and overall appeal of this area." He added: "Our goal is to create a Community Improvement District (CID) which will plan and finance transportation improvements, beautification and clean-up projects, streetscape improvements, and crime reduction efforts. This effort will avert the decline of our area and bring about the property value increases that have resulted from the creation of other CID's in the Atlanta area."

If approved by the required percentage of property owners, the Southwest Gwinnett Village CID will be Gwinnett County's third self taxing district. The Highway 78 CID was formed in 2002, and has been extremely successful in raising federal and local funds for improving the 7-mile stretch along Highway 78. The Gwinnett Place CID, formed in March 2005, is on well their way to improving the Gwinnett Place mall area in central Gwinnett.

According to Morsberger, the Southwest Gwinnett Village CIA is the largest and most diverse proposed CID to date.

"We want to make this the most successful CID in Gwinnett County and to do that, we need the help of all in the area," Morsberger said.

Gwinnett County Public School Board Member Louise Radloff, who has agreed to chair the CID effort, says she is excited to be working with the group because of the need for improvement and because it is a large international community. "This CID will be as unique as any that has been done," she said. "I am hoping the effort will draw people at large to help this community. We will all be winners by having it."

Additional information is available at the CIA website at www.gwinnettvillage.com or you can call the CIA office at 770.449.6515.

A recruiting campaign aimed at finding more school bus drivers for next fall is being launched this week through joint efforts of Gwinnett County government and the Gwinnett County Board of Education.

The need for additional school bus drivers for next fall is critical in some parts of the county, according to Susan Lee, human resources director for the county government.

County Administrator Jock Connell said fliers will be distributed with water bills and advertisements will run on the government-access cable channel, TV Gwinnett..

The starting salary hourly rate is $11.80. Prior driving experience is helpful. Paid training is provided. Benefits are included. Applicants are required to have a good driving record and a valid state of Georgia driver's license. Interested candidates should register for an information meeting by calling (770) 513-6855 extension 210.

A Joint Study Task Force proposed by Commissioner Kevin Kenerly recently made recommendations to improve collaboration between the Board of Education and the Board of Commissioners. "I think this effort of the county to recruit bus drivers is a good example of how we can help each other," Kenerly said. The two boards are separate by law, with each having the authority to set a portion of the property tax bill for Gwinnett County home and business owners.

ENCYCLOPEDIA TIDBIT
Archibald Bulloch was early political leader and patriot

Archibald Bulloch was a Revolutionary soldier, a leader of Georgia's Liberty Party, and the state's first chief executive and commander in chief.

Bulloch was born in Charleston, S.C., in 1730. His father, James Bulloch, had immigrated to South Carolina in the 1720s from Scotland. His mother, Jean, was the daughter of a Puritan minister. Archibald Bulloch was the great-great-grandfather of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States.

Bulloch was educated in Charleston and began his political career in South Carolina while he practiced law. In 1758 the Bulloch family relocated to Georgia. In October 1764, after Bulloch moved to Savannah, he married Mary De Veaux, daughter of Judge James De Veaux, a prominent Savannah landowner. Bulloch quickly became a leader of the Liberty Party, guiding it during the resistance to the oppressive measures of the British colonial government. The success of Bulloch and the other candidates of the Liberty Party in this election prompted the South Carolina Gazette to note approvingly that "Liberty prevailed."

Bulloch was one of the signers of the invitation to meet at Tondee's Tavern in Savannah on July 27, 1774, to discuss the "critical situation" resulting from the recent acts of the British Parliament to tax the colonies "without the consent of the people." The 1775 Provincial Congress of Georgia, meeting at the tavern, elected Bulloch to be its president, thus formalizing the leadership role that he had thus far assumed in the conflict with Britain. It also elected him as one of Georgia's representatives to the Continental Congress.

At the Continental Congress, Bulloch immediately impressed the delegates from the other colonies when he arrived wearing homespun clothes, symbolizing Georgia's commitment to the embargo on British goods.

In addition to his political posts, Bulloch also fought in the American Revolution. In March 1776 he served under Colonel Lachlan McIntosh in the Battle of the Rice Boats. On March 25, 1776, he was entrusted with leading a dangerous expedition to Tybee Island. Bulloch and his men destroyed facilities used by the British and killed and captured British marines and supporters. On June 20, 1776, Bulloch became the first president and commander in chief of Georgia under the new state's temporary Republican government. He held this post until his death eight months later.

On February 22, 1777, in the face of an invasion by the British from Florida, Georgia's Council of Safety requested that Bulloch "take upon himself the whole Executive Powers of Government." Just two days after he was handed what amounted to dictatorial powers, however, he died. Though some have speculated that he was poisoned, the cause of his death remains unknown.

"In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted."

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