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Issue 9.17 | Friday, May 29, 2009 | Forward to your friends! |
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McLEMORE'S
WORLD ARCHIVE FEEDBACK UPCOMING NOTABLE ALSO INSIDE ___::
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TODAY'S
FOCUS NORCROSS, Ga., May 29, 2009 -- The Norcross History Center continues momentum, gathering oral histories from long-time residents, adding artifacts, and archival materials to growing collections. Although lacking a permanent home, the NHC has found guest exhibit space at the Duluth Strickland House Museum. Stop by and see us at their Open House on Saturday until 4 p.m. The Norcross History Center (NHC) is sponsoring a Photography Contest through July 30, 2009. Winners will be announced by August 30 on the website. Old photos taken in and around the city of Norcross up through the 1950's are eligible. The NHC will scan entries and return originals to the owners. An entry form is available on the website. Contest Categories include: Antiquities- Oldest Photograph; Oldest Family Portrayed; Oldest Wedding Photograph; and Oldest Military Service Photograph; Landmarks- Schools and Churches; Downtown, Most Compelling Landmark; Transportation- Best Train, Automobile, or Wagon Photograph; People, Events: Children, Notables of Norcross; Best Event; Best Before and After. The History Center is leading the year-long project researching and filming oral histories of long-time residents as part of the "The Martha Miller Adams and Irene Ewing who were co- authors of the book, Norcross. Both were past presidents of the Norcross Woman's Club, and Founding Board Members of The Norcross History Center. On April 25, memories of Norcross were recorded by a professional videographer in a day-long filming session held at Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church. The NHC has purchased its own video camera, allowing home visits to shut-in seniors wanting to participate. The Norcross History Center's Museum still hopes for its own stand-alone location in Norcross. The 2007 Norcross City Council gave a unanimous resolution of support, but plans have not materialized for $1-a-year lease in either of two vacant historic houses that the City of Norcross owns. Most recently, the current Norcross Mayor and one of the five City Councilmen announced that the smaller historic house at 189 Lawrenceville Street will become the city's Welcome Center for the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) Economic Development and multi-purpose offices, with the city running its own municipal museum. The other 100-year-old historic house adjacent to the Cultural Arts Center remains unused for public facilities; its purpose for two years has been storage of city records and surplus computers. The NHC presented its Traveling Exhibit "Children of Norcross: Toys of Yesteryear" at a book signing for Norcross resident Elliott Brack held April 14 by The Duluth Historical Society at the Duluth Museum's historic Strickland House. The exhibit featured school children from the 1920s through 1950s and a collection of turn-of-the-century toys. Spanning
Colonial to Present times, Start-up Collections include Americana (Homelife,
Founding Families, Famous Sons and Daughters, Early Education, Veterans);
African-American Experience; Transportation and The Railroad; Baseball
History; Native Americans, Women's Studies, Political Life, Industry and
Agriculture, and Lore. The Norcross
History Center is a fully incorporated 501 (c) 3 non-profit. For information
on Norcross vanishing houses and history, see www.SaveHistoricNorcross.com. ELLIOTT
BRACK MAY 29, 2009 -- He punted.
That's what we gleaned out of the press conference of Commission Chairman Charles Bannister on Thursday, when he announced a delay in adopting the county's 2009 budget until a later date. Essentially, he heard the uproar over the county's budget, and sought to buy more time. Remember, with a punt, he's only given up the ball for a while, but he is still in the game. Many residents of Gwinnett were puzzled over why the Gwinnett County Commission was so dead-set to raise taxes drastically during recessionary times. We have stated before that we might understand a slight raise, in the face of continued growth of the population during a time of reduced taxes from the economic slowdown. But a 25 to 30 percent raise on the millage rate in these times? Preposterous! Digging into the matter of "why," the proposed increase brings to mind only one element: the commission for the last five years has "lived beyond its means," with heavy spending over revenues causing it to dip into its reserve funds. When the Bannister Commission came into office, there was a "rainy day" balance of $100 million in the General Fund. That's been essentially wiped out by deficit budgets. And so the scramble now to raise taxes. The Bannister Commission would have been more prudent to have raised taxes slightly in previous years, yet that's something difficult to do when members are facing election every two years.
Earlier commissions had operated with a goal of maintaining a three month balance in the General Fund. While being conservative in the approach of funding government, this also had allowed Gwinnett County to have one of the highest credit ratings of any county in the United States, an AAA rating from all three credit reporting agencies, the so-called "triple-triple" designation. Gwinnett was the first county in Georgia to attain such a rating. Now even this rating is threatened by the manner in which the current commission is handling funding. What also baffles Gwinnett residents is why the county is seeking to operate its police force within the corporate limits of the nine cities which have their own police forces. This would, of course, amount to double taxation for city residents. This development seems to grow out of the drawn-out negotiation between the county and the cities over what should have been a simple reaffirmation of the Service Delivery requirement of the state. Meant to ensure no duplication or taxation of services between cities and counties, it has grown all out of proportion as the county has sued the cities, when it should be sitting down at the table and working out an agreement with them. The upshot is the county determination to provide police patrols in all cities, a costly venture that would require, we've heard, at least 172 new police officers. Since the cities' response time to police calls is 2-4 minutes, and the county response time is much more (at least 10-15 minutes longer), citizens have naturally erupted with disapproval of this proposal. Mainly, it's something cities do not want, and cities now do better. In short, it is baffling. Perhaps this budget hiatus will find that county-wide policing is not included in the next budget presentation. One more thought: what's the county doing trying to establish a budget in the fifth month of the budget year? Why weren't the budget hearings held in the last quarter of 2008, and the budget not adopted in December of last year instead of halfway through the year in June? Makes no sense for good government. Out of all these ramifications, is it any wonder that none other than State Sen. Don Balfour is the first to open the question of recall in a story on Thursday? Perhaps the Balfour words had more impact on Charles Bannister than anyone else.
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McLEMORE'S
WORLD ARCHIVE
FEEDBACK Atlanta's
annual nonprofit "summit" was held downtown recently and the
news was as expected: donations are down for all non-profits, the economy
is affecting everyone, hunker down and hang in there...things'll turn
around but we don't know when. It was not especially uplifting. When I
got back to my office and walked into the reception area, there were boxes
full of paper towels, toiletry items, art supplies.
UPCOMING Duluth Historical Society will hold an Open House of its museum in the historic Strickland House, 2956 Buford Highway in Duluth on Saturday, May 30 from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.
There will be balloons, food, entertainment, and free tours of the museum and grounds. A ribbon cutting ceremony will be held at 12 noon, with the cutting led by Mrs. Alice Ziegler of Gainesville, the granddaughter of Alice Harrell Strickland. Mrs. Zeigler previously lived at the house, and her family was instrumental in making the house available to the Historical Society. The Duluth Historical Society, an all-volunteer organization, was chartered in 1999 as a 501 (c) 3 corporation, to preserve our rich heritage in Duluth. The 110 year old home is a museum unto itself, having been designed and built by Alice and Henry Strickland Jr. Mrs. Strickland was mayor of Duluth in 1923, the first female mayor in Georgia. The home also served as Duluth's first hospital. It sits on three acres of original growth forest, with many of its trees over 100 years old. Come "Put your Footprints on History" at the Duluth Historical Society on Saturday. For more information call 770-232-7584, or 770-633-7952. Or visit the web site at http://www.duluthhistorical.org. GGC sponsoring hands-on computing camp for youth Georgia
Gwinnett College is sponsoring a hands-on computing camp for middle school-aged
children in June. The camp is sponsored by Information Technology Faculty
in the School of Science and Technology of Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC).
Courses are taught by GGC faculty and staff. For questions about the camp,
please contact: Betty Wood, (678) 407-5431 Local auto dealership sponsors school back pack program When Steve Kendrick, general manager of Infiniti of Gwinnett, found out that Gwinnett County would have more than 1,500 homeless children attending school one year, he took action. He asked his employees if they could all get behind at effort to provide these children with something that would give them hope, trust and self esteem for the future.
From this, the Infiniti of Gwinnett Back to School Back Pack Program was launched. With the help of employees from Infiniti of Gwinnett and Subaru of Gwinnett, other local dealerships, and citizens within and outside of Gwinnett County, the program was able to supply more than 1,500 Back Packs and School Supplies to Gwinnett County homeless children in 2008-09 school year. The company's goal is to provide 1,500 back packs with school supplies and personal care items each school year. By adding more back packs, school supplies and personal care items, the budget for the 501(c) charity has increased from $60,000 to more than $75,000. The Back to School Back Pack Program is a non-profit public 501(c) charity incorporated in the state of Georgia. Its website is http://backtoschoolbackpackprogram.org. The dealership will have two events this year, a golf tournament and a charity raffle. The golf tournament is to be held on Tuesday, June 23 at the Hamilton Golf Club. At the golf tournament, the dealership will kick off its raffle ticket promotion to win a seven night/six day eastern Caribbean Cruise for two aboard the Emerald Princess. The cruise vacation will include first class airfare and ports-of-call including St. Maarten, Grand Turks, and St. Thomas. The winning ticket will be drawn on Aug. 7, 2009. Lake Lanier group to hear engineering consultant June 3 The 1071 Coalition will hold a public forum on June 3 at 6 p.m. at the Legacy Lodge and Conference Center of Lake Lanier Islands Resort. The evening will feature a presentation and discussion with Jerry Barnes, special assistant and director of the Southeast Water Manual Update for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The retired Corps executive was retained by the Corps as a consultant to head the study to update the operating manual.
Barnes will give an update on the work at the June 3 event. Coalition leaders will report on the progress of the coalition and will present the details of the Economic Impact Study which is being funded by the coalition and currently being conducted by the Bleakley Advisory Group. The 1071 Coalition is a non-profit organization dedicated to maintaining water levels in Lake Sidney Lanier that sustain water supply, recreation, and economic prosperity through the advocacy of appropriate, science-based water releases necessary for the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river basin. NOTABLE The United Way of America, the nation's largest non-profit organization, has elected a Gwinnett businesswoman as its board chair. She is Ann Stallard, chief executive officer of Graphic Communications of Lawrenceville. She previously was a United Way of America three year board member and former chair of the United Way Women's Leadership Council. The election took place at the board's recent meeting in Detroit.
Previously she has spearheaded within the United Way system to raise the level of women's participation as major United Way contributors and decision-makers. Her business firm is one of Metro Atlanta's top high-tech, full service printing companies. Graphic Communications has succeeded based on their reputation for quality work, leadership with integrity and customer focus, the same traits and qualities she brings to the United Way Board. Ms. Stallard has been recognized often for her entrepreneurial leadership in Metropolitan Atlanta and nationally. The US Small Business Administration named Ms. Stallard as Georgia's Women-In Business Advocate of the Year in 1991. She has served on the White House National Initiative on Women's Business Ownership Task Force and she was the national volunteer president of the YWCA, 1991-1996. Baron's and Money Magazine voted the YWCA one of the top 5 non-profits in the USA during this period. Prior to joining the national board, Ann served as a board member for United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta. She says: "As an owner of a printing business in tough economic times, I understand the urgency to be competitive, invest in people and technology and think boldly about our business. Likewise, during my tenure, I will work with my United Way colleagues to make certain we are both relevant and competitive; we are investing contributed dollars to improve education for children, stabilize income for families and improve health. We must and we will provide the greatest impact possible in every community we serve across America." Foundation grant helps Impact! Group with homeless The Community Foundation for Northeast Georgia has awarded The IMPACT! Group $10,000 to help serve homeless families in Gwinnett. The grant will support the IMPACT! Transitional Housing Program, which provides working families with subsidized housing and intensive case management to address the causes of their homelessness. Now in its 13th year, the program has helped over 225 families achieve financial stability and permanent housing. Tom Merkel, Executive Director of The IMPACT! Group, says: "This grant comes at an important time for homeless families in our community. With rising unemployment and many families losing their homes to foreclosure, this program helps stabilize entire communities by helping families reduce their reliance on outside assistance." At any one time, IMPACT! can serve 22 homeless families through its Transitional Housing Program. Families that enter the program receive a variety of supportive services, including day care for their children, basic health care and screenings, basic home furnishings, career development, and credit repair counseling. In the program, the heads of households work with an IMPACT! case manager to develop a case plan with specific goals to address the barriers holding a family in homelessness. To date, some 92 percent of the families that complete IMPACT!'s program remain in stable, independent housing over a year later. Established in 1992, The IMPACT! Group serves over 4,500 residents annually. To learn more about the agency's work, visit IMPACT!'s website at www.theimpactgroup.org. RECOMMENDED
"Witness by Lee Hollingsworth of Roswell is an exciting chronicle of one man's threatening descent into a success-fueled, addictive abyss. His was finally broken, his family scarred, witness his slow rise to spiritual awareness, and the development of strength through humility and service. A very private revelation, Lee tells a story of hope and rebirth. Hollingsworth applies his professional knowledge to humanitarian projects around the world and recently formed the Help Us Help Vets Organization to guide veterans through too often baffling rules and regulations."
GEORGIA
ENCYCLOPEDIA The Andrews Raid of April 12, 1862, brought the first Union soldiers into north Georgia and led to an exciting locomotive chase, the only one of the Civil War (1861-65). The adventure lasted just seven hours, involved about two dozen men, and as a military operation, ended in failure.
In early spring 1862 Northern forces advanced on Huntsville, Alabama, heading for Chattanooga, Tenn. Union general Ormsby Mitchel accepted the offer of a civilian spy, James J. Andrews, a contraband merchant and trader between the lines, to lead a raiding party behind Rebel lines to Atlanta, steal a locomotive, and race northward, destroying track, telegraphy lines, and maybe bridges toward Chattanooga. The raid thus aimed to knock out the Western and Atlantic Railroad, which supplied Confederate forces at Chattanooga, just as Mitchel's army advanced. On April 7 Andrews chose 22 volunteers from three Ohio infantry regiments, plus one civilian. In plain clothes they slipped through the lines to Chattanooga and entrained to Marietta; two men were caught on the way. Two more overslept on the morning of April 12, when Andrews's party boarded the northbound train. They traveled eight miles to Big Shanty (present-day Kennesaw), chosen for the train jacking because it had no telegraph. While crew and passengers ate breakfast, the raiders uncoupled most of the cars. At about 6 a.m. they steamed out of Big Shanty aboard the locomotive General, a tender, and three empty boxcars. (To be continued) CREDITS GwinnettForum is provided to you at no charge every Tuesday and Friday. If you would like to serve as an underwriter, click here to learn more. Send your thoughts, 55-word short stories, pet peeves or comments on any issue to Gwinnett Forum for future publication.
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TODAY'S
QUOTE "Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy."
MORE RECENT COMMENTARY
MODERN HISTORY OF GWINNETT
NOW IN STORES! You can purchase the book now at several locations:
Or order directly from elliottbrack.com and get a signed copy. The book consists
of 850 pages, including more than 143 demographic and historic tables,
with more than 4,000 names in the index, and 10,000 names in the appendix. Here are some other good reads that you might want to consider reading:
FOR CHARITY. You can give "A Gift of Laughter," a great book of cartoons by Bill McLemore, to help raise money for Rainbow Village. At just $20, it's a fun way to help. To order, call 770 840 1003, or 770 446 3800, or email to info@gwinnettforum.com. SISTER PUBLICATIONS We encourage you to check out our sister publications:
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