TODAY'S ISSUE
Atlanta area's "invisible pets' need your help to survive
By Jeff Roberts
Executive Director, PAWS Atlanta
Special to GwinnettForum.com

(Editor's Note: The writer of this article is a resident of Gwinnett, from Lawrenceville, and also heads the Paws Atlanta local office.-eeb)

JULY 22, 2005 -- First, let me tell you what I mean by "invisible pets." These are the pets that aren't lucky enough to have a loving home like yours or the safe haven of residing at PAWS Atlanta until we find them a home. Some need medical care, but most just need a place to call their own, with food and water and people to share their days with.

We call them "invisible pets" because most people never see them. They end up in county-run animal shelters where most of them are killed because there are not enough homes. The Atlanta area has over 90,000 "invisible pets" each year.

At PAWS Atlanta, the oldest and largest No-Kill animal shelter in the Atlanta area. we're doing what we can to make a dent in the number. In 2004, we found homes for over 1,000 pets and this year we on target to place over 1,200 in new love homes.

We provide a safe place for 200+ pets at a time, including extensive medical care and spaying or neutering prior to adoption. Last year we spent over $200,000 providing medical care for our four-legged friends-in addition to the cost of food, utilities, staff, insurance, maintenance, vehicles and all the other costs to support our four-acre No-Kill Adoption Center.

The operating costs for our facility are only partially covered by adoption fees and donations we receive. We need your support to continue caring for the pets in our facility. Think about the pets that have been a part of your life and make a donation in their name-a gift to help us today or one that will help us tomorrow, such as a bequest or planned giving.

If you are considering adopting a dog you can take them for a walk on our one-acre walking trail, sit on a bench and spend some quite time and determine if this is the right addition to your household. If you want to visit our cats, then step into one of our four cat rooms where 20+ cats will greet you. They get to roam free and lounge on special cat condo furniture, just waiting for the next petting from visitors.

Our facility is open daily from noon to 6 p.m. Our Adoption Center, located at 5287 Covington Highway in Decatur, is a fun place to visit to adopt, or to just spend some time with our pets. Since we are a No-Kill Shelter, our four legged friends will be with us until we find new loving homes for them. We have many volunteers who visit the shelter on a regular basis and help the staff care for pets.

If you have any questions about supporting PAWS Atlanta, please contact me at 770-593-1155, ext 14 or jroberts@PAWSAtlanta.org. Want to find out more about PAWS Atlanta or volunteer opportunities at our Adoption Center? Please visit us at http://www.PAWSAtlanta.org/.

ELLIOTT BRACK
Duo needs more volunteers for only garden railway in state
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com

JULY 22, 2005 -- Stay around Bob Giselbach long, and he will put you to work. Though retired himself, he seldom slows down….even for a hip replacement.

Last time I saw Bob, he was promoting the Gwinnett Senior Golden Olympics. He is the president emeritus of the Gwinnett unit, and was shepherding the 2005 games. The day the games were over, he went into the hospital for replacement of his left hip. He's had hip replacement surgery four times.

Bob and his wife, Eilieen, have been in Gwinnett since 1981. He's retired after 20 years each from the U.S. Army and the post office (as a police officer). He's originally from Ellwood, Indiana.

These days Bob has re-surfaced with another project, the "G" gauge garden railroad at Vines Garden Park of Gwinnett Parks and Recreation, near Loganville. Though Bob lives in Norcross, he makes the 42-mile round trip trek to Vines at least once a week, sometimes twice

The railroad, the only free admission garden railroad in Georgia, runs over 1,000 feet of track on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. It would be in operation more…. but there aren't enough volunteers. In fact, Bob and Lawrence McFall are about the only volunteers.

Bob credits McFall, who lives in nearby Grayson, as being the person who introduced him to the Vines Railroad.

McFall says his next door neighbor, John Snyder, got him involved. "The railroad was sitting there for year, after John Gibb, who ran the restaurant at the Vines Center, started it. He had the railroad as an attraction for the restaurant. I got there in 2002, and found it in bad shape. It had been abandoned, with weeds grown up, the tracks dirty, and the place not functioning properly.

"I worked on it for 18 months to get it running. Everything was there, but abandoned. Several engines had been in the rain, and were in bad shape. The manufacturer said they were not worth repairing, but I took them apart, cleaned them up, and got them running. Altogether we have six engines."

The units of the railroad, about the size of a loaf of bread, ramble around the three different tracks like on a schedule. They zoom past villages, an airport, cross trestles and a 22-foot long suspension bridge, and even produce their own railroad sounds. It's a beautiful layout, amid the overhanging shade trees in one corner of the landscaped Vines Garden. Several of the railroad layout areas look like villages, with stores, churches, water towers, etc. There are a total of 25 buildings. Bob thinks the suspension bridge could be the longest garden railroad bridge in the country for a garden railroad.

But the duo needs others to enjoy the project, too. "We could have more days for operation, but we need more volunteers to do that," Bob says. McFall adds: "We will take anyone who wants to work at any time. We will train them. It's perfect for retirees like us."

If you would like to join in the fun of being around a garden railroad, call Bob at 770 441-1682. Or get in touch with Lawrence McFall at 770 554 9697. You could introduce yourself to the distinctive world of garden railroading.

Bob points out: "Membership in our group doesn't cost anything. We just hope people will spend some time with us."

ABOUT OUR SPONSORS

The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today's sponsor is Gwinnett Banking Company, with offices in Lawrenceville and Alpharetta. The bank, organized in 1996, has assets over $350 million and specializes in great rates and friendly, dedicated people. The U.S. Small Business Administration, having the highest total dollars in 7(a) loans in Georgia, also named Gwinnett Banking Company Georgia's "Lender of the Year". Check out its web site at www.gwinnettbanking.com, or send an email to info@gwinnettbanking.com.

For a list of other sponsors of this forum, go to: http://www.gwinnettforum.com/about/sponsors.htm

McLEMORE'S WORLD
7/22: Revealing DMR policy

Another great cartoon by Bill McLemore:

FEEDBACK
7/22: Court rulings often help determine local and state laws

Editor, the Forum:

Though we now know who the Supreme Court nominee is [NOTE: This was submitted prior to President Bush's nomination of Judge John Roberts], I want to make a comment regarding your article in the July 15 edition regarding that nomination. And while I don't disagree with what you said, I think there is another issue at play that is important and needs mentioning.

That issue is "competitive federalism." If you define public policy as everything a government does and does not do (as noted scholar Thomas Dye often defined it), who gets to determine policy? We think that legislative bodies make laws/determine policy ---- Congress, state legislatures, city councils, and boards of commissioners or education.

Pre-New Deal, we were in an era, generally speaking, of "dual federalism." Branches and levels of government (local, state, national) were fairly well separated, compared to today.

I would argue that we are in an era of competitive federalism, where various branches and levels of government now compete to determine public policy. For instance:

• In the Supreme Court eminent domain case, four Justices ruled to overturn what a Connecticut city council had determined.
  
  
• In the election of 2000, what had been previously left to the state courts was now determined by the Supreme Court.
  
  
• No Child Left Behind legislation, which is actually the reauthorization of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, lets federal government determine local school policy.
  
  
• And perhaps one of the most far-reaching cases of determining local and state policy (again, thought to be the province of local and state legislative bodies) was the civil rights acts.

Affirmative Action is another such issue - should UGA determine their admissions policies or should the courts?

While you can never say for sure how a Judge or Justice will rule, their rulings are more than the interpretation of law. It is often the determination of local, state and national law.

-- Pat Mitchell, West Jefferson, N.C.

NOTABLE
Chamber announces 21st class of Leadership Gwinnett

Names have been released of the 21st class of Leadership Gwinnett, the nine month program offered by the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce. The class will begin in Augusta and is chosen from 300 or more nominations. The class has 36 members.

The program is comprised of seven, one-day symposia covering government, health and human services, power, growth, education, justice and regional relations, in addition to monthly study groups and other activities.

The 2005 - 2006 Leadership Gwinnett Class include:

Salmaan Ajani, Ajani Investments, Inc.
Craig Barlow, Riverside Elementary School
Hector Baro, Scientific - Atlanta, Inc.
Mike Beaudreau, Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners
David Bowen, Bowen Family Homes
Diane DeGaetano, Merial, Ltd.
Scott Duncan, Andersen, Tate, Mahaffey & McGarity, PC
Amy Emling, Connolly Realty Services, Inc.
Jaime Espinosa, Lanier Middle School
Bernard Ethridge, Edward Jones
Todd Evans, Jackson Electric Membership Corporation
Scott Haggard, Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners
Chris Hayes, Madison Ventures, Ltd.
Doug Haynie, Anderson Insurance
Eddie Hazan, Tara Fine Jewelry Company, Inc.
Terri Jondahl, CAB, Incorporated
Anna Jones, B. B. Harris Elementary School
Victoria Kidd, Gwinnett County Public Library
Pamela Kramer, Emory Eastside Medical Center
Mani Krishnaswamy, Synergy America, Inc.
Phyllis Lamme, McFarland-Dyer & Associates, Inc.
Pam Ledbetter, Accent South Media
Donna Ledford, Susan Stripling Elementary School
Wayne Lloyd, W. B. Lloyd & Associates
Debbie McMinn, United Way in Gwinnett
Gerald Mitchell, Georgia Power Company
Lori O'Brien, Atlanta Special Events
Mark Richardson, Richardson Housing Group, Inc.
Maria Schiaffino, MD, FAAFP, Maria A. Schiaffino, MD, LLC
Sally Sherrington, SW Gwinnett Village CIA
Michael Shirley, Platinum Place Properties
Glenn Stephens, Gwinnett County Law Department
Mitch Stephens, John D. Stephens, Inc.
Linda Storey, Storey Residential Properties, Inc.
Chuck Warbington, Pond & Company
Lee Wood, A. L. Grading Contractors, Inc.

Gwinnett Chamber seeking entrepreneur-friendly community

The Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce has partnered with the Georgia Department of Economic Development and Georgia Tech EDI to seek to become the first county in the metro area to receive recognition as an "entrepreneur-friendly" community. This community-based program helps communities build an entrepreneurial culture and environment that will encourage local business growth.

With the support of a committee, the Gwinnett Chamber is currently striving to meet the qualifications of becoming an "entrepreneur-friendly" community. This includes an assessment of 250 local entrepreneurs in Gwinnett and identifying the strengths and weaknesses that may exist in the process of further assisting economic growth in Gwinnett. The committee will be assisting in interviewing local entrepreneurs on their start-up experience, markets, future plans and what type of support they have received from the community.

The Gwinnett Chamber's Economic Development team, along with the support of the committee, will work to assess the current entrepreneurial conditions in Gwinnett County, raise awareness of the importance of entrepreneurs and small business development and create a culture of effective programs that support small businesses.

Those interested in finding out more about this recognition as an "entrepreneur-friendly" community should contact Stephanie Hopkins at 770-232-1174 or shopkins@gwinnettchamber.org.

RECOMMENDED READ
The Love List

"My husband and I are currently reading The Love List, by authors and relationship experts, Les and Leslie Parrot. This gem of a book is both entertaining and encouraging and lists many things you can do to build joy and love into your relationship, however healthy it is right now. They break it down into things you can do daily, weekly, monthly and so on. I am looking forward to our future even more with this information there to teach us things that will help us be even happier.

"Next, I look forward to reading The Creative Call by Janice Elsheimer."

-- Cindy Evans, Duluth

• An invitation: What Web sites or books have you enjoyed? Send us your best recent read along with a short paragraph as to why you liked it, plus what book you plan to read next. --eeb
  
  
  

GEORGIA ENCYCLOPEDIA
Vandiver led Georgia through turbulent years

As governor of Georgia from 1959 to 1963, Ernest Vandiver (1918-2005) implemented sweeping changes in Georgia's segregation policies and revised the county unit system for nominating officeholders. Without increasing the state's tax base, Vandiver made significant improvements in the areas of services, building programs, tourism, business and industrial development, educational expansion, and mental health. As part of his legacy, Vandiver served as the catalyst that propelled Georgia from the holds of a scandal-ridden "good-old-boy" network to an administration lauded for fiscal responsibility, honesty, and a progressive framework.

Samuel Ernest Vandiver was the only child of Samuel Ernest Vandiver Sr. and Vanna Bowers. Vandiver's father was a prominent businessman, farmer, and landowner in Franklin County. Vandiver attended public schools in Lavonia, as well as the Darlington School in Rome. He graduated from the University of Georgia with A.B. and LL.B. degrees, then served as a bomber pilot in the Army Air Force during World War II. He married Sybil Elizabeth "Betty" Russell, who was a niece of U.S. senator Richard B. Russell Jr. The Vandivers have three children: Samuel Ernest III, Vanna Elizabeth, and Jane Brevard.

Elected mayor of Lavonia in 1946 at the age of 27, Governor Herman Talmadge appointed him state adjutant general, the youngest in the nation. Elected lieutenant governor in 1954, Vandiver was elected governor four years later by one of the largest margins in the state's history.

Among accomplishments during the Vandiver administration, the state expanded its port facilities, substantially beefed up its tourism efforts, actively promoted business and industrial development, expanded vocational-technical programs, and improved its treatment of the mentally ill.

Vandiver promised in his gubernatorial campaign to carry out the legislature's mandate if desegregation occurred in the state's schools. Soon after he took office black plaintiffs filed suit to desegregate the Atlanta public school system. In response the legislature created the Sibley Commission, headed by Atlanta banker and civic leader John A. Sibley, to hold hearings throughout the state. The commission ultimately recommended that the voters in each school district be allowed to determine whether their schools would remain open. Before the impending showdown occurred in Atlanta, however, a federal district court ordered the admission of two black students, Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter, to the University of Georgia. Despite strong opposition from many of the state's top leaders who favored closing the school instead of integrating it, Governor Vandiver refused to defy the federal court, and the university was desegregated.

A suit had also been brought in federal court against Georgia's county unit system, which dated back to the turn of the century. Vandiver called a special legislative session to convene for the purpose of revising the system. In so doing he hoped to keep the county unit system from being invalidated by the Supreme Court. The legislature adopted a Vandiver revision plan, which was based on county population instead of county representation in the lower house. A federal district court held this plan to be unconstitutional. Vandiver refused to continue the fight and directed the state Democratic Party's executive committee to hold its 1962 primary election on a popular-vote basis.

After leaving the governorship, Vandiver practiced law in Atlanta but eventually moved his business to his hometown of Lavonia. Also a farmer, he served as president of the Georgia Seed Company. From 1976 to 1977 he was president of the Independent Bankers of Georgia. Vandiver died at his home.

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

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
Sometimes our inaction outweighs what we say

"After all has been said and done, much more will have been said than done."

-- the late Dr. Fred Davison, former president of the University of Georgia, via Craig Spinks, Evans

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

MORE: Contact Gwinnett Forum at: elliott@gwinnettforum.com

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