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TODAY'S
ISSUE
Lawrenceville to
ring in the New Year -- family style
By Dr. Phylecia Wilson
Special to GwinnettForum.com
LAWRENCEVILLE, DEC. 9, 2005 -- Looking for something you can
do on New Year's Eve that the whole family can enjoy? Look no
further. Lawrenceville Rings, an alcohol-free, family-oriented
New Year's Eve Celebration, will be the place to be for fun for
all ages on December 31. Produced by the Lawrenceville Tourism
and Trade Association (LTTA), the event promises to be bigger
and better than last year's first time celebration which attracted
8,000 people from across the Atlanta region.
Although other venues are located on the Historic Square, Lawrenceville
Rings begins this year at 7:30 p.m. with a free children's venue
at the Lawrenceville Church of God. With help from the Gwinnett
County Library, KidzArt and the Buford School of Art, there will
be puppet shows and arts and crafts. Fred Kirkland and The Wizard
of Odd will awe with their magic tricks and Miss Teacup the Clown
will be adding her artistic talents with extraordinary face painting.
Add Music Time Learning, The Gwinnett Choral Guild and Atlanta
Youth Choir and you'll find something to please children of all
ages. Most performances are schedule to run three times, so there's
a chance to enjoy a little bit of everything before the venue
closes at 10:30 p.m.
Activity on the Historic Square begins at 7:30 p.m. with a return
performance by several of the bands that were so popular last
year, including the Big Peach Swing Band at the Historic Courthouse
and Ryan Casper's Country Rock outside at the Gazebo. Soul Purpose
Band is also back with their music favorites. The Lionheart Theatre
Company will be joined by other local community theatre groups
to add excellent theatrical performances.
An international food court with twice as many vendors as in
2004 will tempt the taste buds while listening to the international
sounds of Celtic, Irish, German and Scottish music.
Ice skating at Lawrenceville on Ice will be present again this
year. Several of the restaurants around the square will have their
own bands, food and drinks. (While the event is alcohol-free,
restaurants that have a license will serve alcohol, as usual).
Giant inflatables for kids and a mule drawn hay ride for all ages
will add to the fun. While there is a charge for these activities,
there is no admission for any of the Lawrenceville Rings music
and theatre events. Noise makers, hats and other fun 2006 items
will be for sale.
Finally, The Countdown to the New Year will include a laser show
that will ring in 2006 in grand fashion.
With limited parking around the Historic Square, a shuttle will
be running every 15 minutes from the Church of God's huge parking
lot. It will take revelers to and from the square from 7 p.m.
until 1a.m. Parking and a shuttle also will be available at the
Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center (GJAC).
ELLIOTT
BRACK
Bill Barry retiring after 17 continuous
years as councilman
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com
LILBURN, DEC. 9, 2005 -- He's the longest continuously serving
Lilburn city councilman, and soon will be stepping down after
17 years on the City Council of Lilburn. He's Bill Barry, who
will be honored Monday night at a reception following what is
supposed to be an abbreviated meeting of the Lilburn City Council.
Get there about 8 p.m. to greet Bill.
Barry decided against running this year, as he will devote more
time to his field of real estate. He was first elected to the
council in 1988.
"I first got interested in politics back in 1984, when I
got my across-the-street neighbor and best friend, Calvin Fitchett,
into politics. I was his campaign manager. A few years later,
he got me to run also for Council."
Later on Mr. Fitchett would become mayor. Today the City Hall
is named in his honor after Fitchett's untimely death in 2000.
"One of my most satisfying of all my municipal work was to
see the city hall named for Calvin. When he was elected mayor
in 1990, we knew we had to do something about the old city hall,
so we tightened our belts in all areas, and set aside $300-350,000
each year knowing we had to build a city hall shortly. We built
and finished it in 1995, and we had the reserves to pay for it
in cash.
"Today the City has more money from many sources, notably
SPLOST, but that first year I was in office we had a budget of
under $1 million. Today it's $5.5 million and climbing. And we
don't have all that many more people, perhaps 3,000 more, to about
22,000 now, than we had 17 years ago."
Barry |
Another element of his tenure that Barry is proud of is obtaining
the first sidewalk on U.S. Highway 29 back in 1991. "Charles
Bannister, then a legislator, and Chief Ron Houck and I met with
Hal Rives, the Department of Transportation chief, and got a sidewalk
put in 3.5 miles from Rockbridge Road to Pleasant Hill Road. The
state paid for most of it, with a little county and city money
in it. It was the first sidewalk on a major road in Lilburn. Since
then we've added lots of sidewalks."
A native of Maysville, Ky., Barry moved to the Atlanta area in
1979, running a manufacturing plant of an automobile supply firm.
He got into real estate in 1985, and has centered on commercial
property. He is an independent contractor in Grayson working with
Bill Perdue at ReMax Greater Atanta. He and his wife, Cheryl,
have two children, daughter Robyn expecting a child soon, and
son, Chip, about to be wed soon.
Being from Kentucky, Bill attended the University of Kentucky,
and graduated from Morehead State. He and his family are "diehard
Kentucky basketball fans." For about eight years, the family
previously spent their vacation attending Southeastern Conference
basketball finals. "Kentucky won all but one game for eight
years," he remembers. He still attends three-four games a
year.
The future could see the Barrys moving toward Loganville "to
be closer to our daughter," Bill says. It would also be closer
to his office.
Current Lilburn Mayor Jack Bolton says of Barry: "I've worked
with him on Council now for 11 years of his 17 consecutive years,
and I must say, it's been a pleasure. He's always thinking for
the residents of Lilburn, always concerned about what is best
for the interest of the city. I will miss him tremendously, for
I leaned a lot on him. We wish him well."
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 Hayes Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep
of Lawrenceville, Gainesville and Baldwin. General Manager Mike
Hayes of Lawrenceville, Tim Hayes of Gainesville and Robin Haynes
of Baldwin invite you into their showrooms to look over their
line-up of automobiles and trucks. Hayes has been in the automotive
business for over 30 years, and is North Georgia's oldest family-owned
auto dealership. The family is the winner of the 2002 Georgia
Family Business of the Year Award. Hayes Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep is
affiliated with Hayes Chevrolet in Cornelia. Check out their web
site at: http://www.hayeschrysler.com.
For a list of other sponsors of this forum, go to: http://www.gwinnettforum.com/about/sponsors.htm
McLEMORE'S
WORLD
12/9: Generic Christmas
The latest cartoon from Bill McLemore:
FEEDBACK
12/9: Says retired
state employees should speak up more
Editor, the Forum:
We retired state employees need to wake up and see what is being
done. From the responses of the last feedback, we can clearly
see that present and retired state workers will suffer from the
proposed changes.
Please, I encourage all retired educators, PAGE and GAE members
who haven't expressed their thoughts, to do so and make a difference.
United Healthcare is definitely out to make money. All you have
to do is check their stock market record.
Do you really think they have the State of Georgia employees-teachers
in their best interests?
-- B.W. Justice, Leesburg, Ga.
UPCOMING
New Year's Eve event
to benefit Arts Center and Aurora
A New Year's Eve event for adults will combine food, entertainment,
casino-style gaming, and all in one settings at the Hudgens Art
Center.
Originated in 2003 by Aurora Theatre, the New Year's Eve Cabaret
and Casino Night has outgrown the capacity of the theatre. This
year with a bigger venue at the theater we will be able to double
the size of the audience, but double the fun too.
Hotel packages are available to help make this a fun and safe
event. Having sold out in 2003 and 2004 and with a new location
adjacent to Gwinnett Arena, reservations are strongly recommended.
Proceeds go to benefit the Hudgens Art Center and Aurora Theater.
Tickets are $85 per person. Activities will begin at 8 p.m.
Reservations may be made through the Aurora Theatre Box Office
at 770 476-7926.
NOTABLE
Duluth area to get road improvements to
help traffic flow
Motorists in the Duluth area will get some relief from traffic
congestion after the completion of two road construction projects
approved by the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners this week.
A contract for $5.5 million for widening and improvements to
North Berkeley Lake Road from Peachtree Industrial Boulevard to
Buford Highway went to low bidder, E.R. Snell Contractor, Inc.
of Snellville. A center turn lane and deceleration lanes will
be added along with a new bridge over Norfolk Southern Railroad
and intersection improvements at Buford Highway and Industrial
Park Drive. There will be a sidewalk on the north side and a multi-use
path on the south side that will eventually tie to Shorty Howell
Park to the east and to the Western Gwinnett Bikeway to the west.
Another contract covers improvements at the intersection of Albion
Farm Road and State Route 120, also known as Abbott's Bridge Road,
to the south and Duluth Highway to the north. Michael Thrasher
Trucking Co., Inc. was the low bidder at just under $800,000.
The project will provide a left turn lane for vehicles turning
from SR 120 into River Mill Drive, Parkway Circle and Albion Farm
Road. There will also be sidewalks and drainage improvements in
the area.
Early project complete
on Venture Drive for CID district
A much-needed community beautification project is now complete
with a totally new landscape visible along Venture Drive at Pleasant
Hill Road.
Prior to the efforts of the Gwinnett Place Community Improvement
District (CID) and Imagescapes Inc., a large landscape island
on Venture Drive consisted mostly of bare dirt, debris and haphazard
ground cover.
The CID funded a "plant and shrub makeover" completed
by Imagescapes. The traffic island is now home to a variety of
attractive and well-maintained plants, including rose bushes.
Gwinnett Place CID Executive Director Dave Rosselle: "Our
upcoming landscape projects will include the corner of Satellite
Boulevard and Commerce Avenue as well as the southbound ramp areas
of I-85. Landscaping for the Pleasant Hill ramps will be planned
when the upcoming I-85/316 interchange project is complete."
Imagescapes Inc., a professional landscape maintenance company,
mows along community roadways and the I-85 ramp areas in the district.
Ongoing weekly maintenance includes picking up an average of 10
bags of trash per week and illegal signs.
Information on CID projects is available online at www.GwinnettPlaceCID.com.
RECOMMENDATION
- An invitation: What
Web sites, books or restaurants have you enjoyed? Send us your
best recent visit to a restaurant or most recent book you have
read along with a short paragraph as to why you liked it, plus
what book you plan to read next. --eeb
GEORGIA
TIDBIT
Elias Boudinot plays crucial role in Cherokee
Naiton
Elias
Boudinot was a formally educated Cherokee who became the editor
of the Cherokee Phoenix, the first Native American newspaper
in the United States. In the mid-1820s, the Cherokee Nation was
under enormous pressure from surrounding states, especially Georgia,
to move to a territory west of the Mississippi River. Ultimately,
the Cherokee Nation was divided, with the majority opposing removal,
and a small but influential minority, including Boudinot, favoring
removal. As an educator, an advocate of Cherokee acculturation,
and editor of the Phoenix, Boudinot played a crucial role in Cherokee
history during the decades preceding the Nation's forced removal,
often referred to as the Trail of Tears.
Boudinot |
Elias Boudinot was born in Oothcaloga, in northwest Georgia,
about 1804. He was called Gallegina, or the Buck, and was the
eldest of nine children. His father enrolled Gallegina and a younger
son, Stand Watie, later a Confederate general, in a Moravian missionary
school at Spring Place, in northwest Georgia. In 1817, young Gallegina
was invited to attend the American Board of Commissioners for
Foreign Missions school in Cornwall, Conn. On his journey there,
Gallegina was introduced to Elias Boudinot, the aged president
of the American Bible Society, and adopted his name in deference
and tribute.
Earlier in the spring of 1826, Boudinot had embarked on a national
speaking tour to elicit financial, spiritual, and political support
for the Cherokee Nation's continuing progress in the "arts
of civilization." Boudinot proved remarkably effective at
fund-raising. By 1827 the General Council of the Cherokee Nation
was able to purchase a printing press and Cherokee typeface for
the publication of a national newspaper, with Elias Boudinot as
its editor. The groundbreaking first issue of the bilingual periodical,
known as the Cherokee Phoenix, appeared on February 21, 1828.
In the years following the Indian Removal Act (1830), Boudinot
also began to publish editorials in favor of the voluntary removal
of the Cherokees to a territory west of the Mississippi River.
But his opinions were at odds with those held by the majority
of the Nation, including the General Council. He resigned as editor
of the Phoenix in August 1832 but continued to take an active
role in the removal crisis and even printed a pamphlet attacking
anti-removal chief John Ross. He ultimately signed the New Echota
Treaty (1835), which required the Cherokees to relinquish all
remaining land east of the Mississippi River and led to their
forced removal to a territory in present-day Oklahoma. Soon after
moving west with his family in 1839, Boudinot and two other treaty
signers (his uncle Major Ridge and cousin John Ridge) were attacked
and stabbed to death by a group of Ross supporters.
Boudinot was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame in
2005.
THOUGHT
OF THE DAY
One way to have Christmas
all around the year
"A clear conscience is a continual Christmas."
-- Benjamin Franklin, via Cindy Evans, Duluth.
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