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Issue 9.86 | Friday, Feb. 5, 2010 |
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TODAY'S FOCUS LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga., Feb. 5, 2010 -- There were over 3,000 crime incidents of entering autos, or car break-ins, in unincorporated Gwinnett County between April and December 2009.
The Gwinnett
County Police Department (GCPD) work diligently to curtail this increase
of theft and made 112 entering auto arrests during that same time. Once
a pattern is identified, GCPD conducts "directed patrol" in
that area, which generally results in such incidents dropping in that
area and rising in another. In other words, the criminals simply move
around.
Those guns
are now in the hands of criminals, and that makes everyone less safe.
Some of these criminals will graduate from breaking into cars to committing
armed robbery or worse.
Be particularly aware when you are at a restaurant or gym since perpetrators know you are going to be away from your vehicle for an extended period of time and break into your car while you are gone. For bank deposits or withdrawals, always alternate your times and routes, be aware of your surroundings. Never leave cash in the car unattended Many people believe that it is solely law enforcement's responsibility to keep them safe from crime. This is just not the case today. Citizens must take responsibility for helping the police keep them safe. Citizens must "target harden" their environment and stop being volunteer victims. Make yourself
a difficult person to victimize. Every security measure comes with a certain
amount of inconvenience, whether it is an alarm system that has to be
armed and unarmed, a door that has to be locked, or having to carry your
valuables from the car to the house every day. These may be inconvenient,
but are vitally necessary. EEB PERSPECTIVE FEB. 5, 2010 -- It will take super salesmanship to convince Gwinnett voters to approve a Local Option Sales Tax in this fall's election. The Gwinnett commissioners are mulling asking the legislative delegation to seek passage of such a measure to be on this year's General Election ballot.
The commissioners' mouths water to use part of such collection to put into day-to-day operations of the county. The monthly collection would be about $10-12 million, or up to $120 million annually. That would help ease the reduction of taxes collected caused by the recession. Half of the proposed LOST sales tax is a sweetener, in that the county would be required to roll back property taxes by the amount collected. Yet we view this effort by the county commission as nothing less than pure wasted effort, since we see no way that Gwinnettians will vote for passage of an additional sales tax this fall. If we had to put this chance on a sliding scale, it would fall between Slim and Fat Chance. Not only that, but the measure is seriously clouded by the economic plight we are now in, then comes lame duck Governor Sonny Perdue proposing a regional sales tax for transportation for approval this fall. He views this as a good way to relieve traffic congestion in Metro Atlanta, and as a way to finance more road work. There are several reasons why this lame-brain idea won't fly.
First, all over Georgia, people are upset with government per se, and in particular, with record unemployment, and no major plan to solve today's business issues. Trying to convince Georgians to vote for additional sales tax during these days is virtually suicidal. Second, the governor's proposal is not for a state-wide sales tax referendum for transportation, but for a referendum which must be approved individually by 12 regions in the state. Now think back. Have you ever driven on some of the four lane roads in South Georgia? Take any one of these roads:
These are all good routes to take if you are traveling between these cities. But you will find very little traffic. In fact, it's impossible to associate the word "congestion" with these highways. You can sometimes drive 10 miles and not meet another car while on the four lane roads. That's why the regional sales tax for transportation will have a difficult time resonating with voters in Georgia. * * * * Sales taxes are in more use today than ever before, as legislators have taken this route because of the vocal opposition of new taxes from landed property owners, to shift the focus of taxation away from pure property sources. It has been met with general agreement from Republicans. Taxation from sales is not only regressive, it is also unstable. Just look at the fallout from sales tax collections in the current recession. We don't have the answer to solving the current budget woes of this state. But we know that selling a new LOST sales tax in Gwinnett, plus adding a possible new regional sales tax on the same ballot, at the same time Gwinnett already collects two cents on each sale for county and school infrastructure, is a bit much. 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 Brand Banking Company, headquartered in Lawrenceville, where it has three offices, with additional branches in Snellville, Grayson and Flowery Branch. It is the largest privately held bank in Gwinnett, with assets of $1,200,000,000. The bank's main office is in Lawrenceville on the Historic Courthouse Square, plus there is another branch on Hurricane Shoals Road. Other locations are in Grayson, Snellville, Flowery Branch, Buford and Duluth. Member, FDIC and Federal Reserve System. For more information, go to http://www.thebrandbank.com.
McLEMORE'S WORLD ARCHIVE
FEEDBACK Editor, the Forum: I know why exactly the Census office in Norcross is named "Duluth. I recently completed a contract for Unisys to supervise the installation of the IT equipment in various Census offices in three states, Alabama, Florida and Georgia. Several of the offices were originally designated with a name and a four digit reference number based on where they "would" be located. The space and leasing process, however isn't a short or exact science. When the end of the contracting process was complete, the Cocoa, Fla. office was in Palm Bay, (that's quite a distance), the Daytona Beach, office was in Holly Hill, (a suburb), and the Miami East office was in an empty lot with homeless people pushing shopping carts! There are many others that followed this "model." My handlers did eventually find me the real address for Miami East, but the homeless population still was much in evidence, with all the attendant overhead ( such as watching where you're going early in the morning on the loading dock, so you don't step on people sleeping there). I didn't install the "Duluth" office; one of my comrades did. (So much for efficient travel: I also made trips to Boise, Idaho, Fort Wayne, Indiana and Baltimore, Maryland.) However, the process to count everyone no matter where they may be on April 1, Census Day (from hiding in Miami under a ratty sleeping bag to people living in Country Club of the South who won't answer their doors) is important to our American process of representation. What's really a shame though is the odd media coverage it's been getting, from uninformed reporting on Fox News to just plain wrong coverage elsewhere. Our government is spending an additional billion dollars to get this done, AND yet there are General Accounting Office claims that this may not be done efficiently. Go figure. The plan to integrate a greater amount of technology this time failed, costing us at least $300 million, if not the $2 billion, according to one report. Where's your coverage of this important decennial event? I urge you to speak to the local office so you can put out a good comprehensive follow-on information with what we as Gwinnettians can do to lower this cost in our district. The least one can do is to return the easy 10 question form promptly, and collaborate with Census officials to track down those people who try to avoid being counted. I want every single government dollar to which we're entitled, and I don't want to be subjected to a mountain of fluff that keeps the general population blind as to what they could or should be doing.
Concerned that county bring run so much by lobbyists Editor, the Forum: About 15 years ago I was invited to speak at a gathering of business people in the state of Oregon. They asked me to talk about ways to get their voices heard in Washington, D.C. I told them that laws about important issues were not being decided by elected officials, but by lobbyists. As two examples, I told them that the American Medical Association was deciding what laws were needed in healthcare, and the National Rifle Association was determining what laws were needed concerning guns. This country still is being controlled by lobbyists, and they do their work for money, not for the future of our country. Now the National Rifle Association and all gun manufacturers have been given a big boost by the Supreme Court's decision to remove their restrictions in campaign finance. Unfortunately, too many voters are paranoid and easily frightened. They can't study the facts and make their own decisions.
Feels the need for limits to be put on fully-automatic guns Editor,
the Forum:
Loves simplicity, writing style of Brian Mock submission Editor, the Forum: The article by Brian Mock, "Government needs to heed words of backwoods farmer" (GwinnettForum, February 2) should be sent to EVERY politician in our state!! Well written and simple enough for everyone to understand.
Feels need for warning sirens in her area of county Editor, the Forum: I have some feedback that might interest your readers. I live where the city of Tucker starts, off South Norcross-Tucker Road in Tucker, on the edge of Gwinnett County. This is a densely- populated area with multiple families who live in apartment complexes, with a few houses. Nearby Jimmy Carter Boulevard is also very densely-populated. This area needs some type of warning system, to prepare us for violent storms or similar incidents to warn people living in this area. I believe that there should be a warning siren or two on Jimmy Carter and Singleton, and another on Norcross-Tucker near the apartments to alert enough people about these matters.
UPCOMING The 62nd
annual dinner of the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce is Friday night at 6
p.m. at the Gwinnett Civic Center. Annual awards will be presented, as
well as hearing Chamber Chairman Bartow Morgan of Brand Bank share his
vision on the Chamber's works for the year.
The evening will celebrate the exceptional accomplishments of the following honorees:
Among the Gwinnett Chamber's top priorities for 2010 are a renewed focus on attracting and keeping high-wage jobs, attracting and growing high-growth entrepreneurial firms and small businesses, and passing legislation to secure critical funds to address the region's and state's transportation crisis. The annual dinner will also celebrate a record-breaking year for the Chamber. Successful recruiting trips to Asia and Europe have resulted in the Gwinnett Chamber opening its first international office in Wuxi, China and with the Republic of South Korea opening its first U.S. Small and Mid-Size Business Office in the Gwinnett Chamber headquarters. NOTABLE Gwinnett
officials have opened the first section of Sugarloaf Parkway extension
to traffic. The roadway extends Sugarloaf Parkway from Georgia Highway
20 south of Lawrenceville to a new interchange at New Hope Road. The project
also includes over 1.5 miles of upgrades to existing roadways surrounding
the extension. The extension
is the first major roadway to have opened in the last 10 years. It came
in a week ahead of its projected schedule, and from $21 million in SPLOST
funds plus $2.5 million from Georgia DOT. E.R. Snell Contractor, Inc.
was the general contractor and Precision Planning, Inc. was the engineering
firm for the project. Moreland Altobelli Associates, Inc. managed the
project. Brookwood Athletic Group gives $30,691 for Bethesda Park Gwinnett
County received a $30,691 donation from the Brookwood Athletic Association
for part of improvements to the seven youth baseball/softball fields at
Bethesda Park in Lawrenceville. RECOMMENDED
"Historian David McCullough said in a speech to a North Carolina audience in 2006 that he considered Gen. Nathanael Greene to be the most brilliant strategist for the Americans in the Revolutionary War. Suckered in by this intriguing comment on a podcast, I picked up reporter Gerald Carbone's acclaimed 2008 biography, Nathanael Greene: A Biography of the American Revolution. It was well worth it. Carbone described how Greene, an asthmatic with a limp who most today would probably ignore as "leadership material," was a natural leader who took over the command of America's Southern Army in late 1780. Then he turned a ragged bunch of militia and soldiers into a fighting force that outwitted and outmaneuvered the better-trained and larger British army. Greene's strategic engagement and disengagement with the British guided Lord Cornwallis to Yorktown and the eventual British surrender. Carbone's book is lively, entertaining and filled with a history about how the South's involvement in the war was crucial to the colonies becoming an independent country."
GEORGIA ENCYCLOPEDIA
(Continued from previous edition) While the tourist industry around Tallulah Falls flourished, the hydroelectric industry was just beginning to expand in Georgia. Just after the turn of the century, several corporations vied for the right to develop Tallulah Falls; the Georgia Power Company eventually emerged as the only company capable of completing the project.
Helen Dortch Longstreet, widow of Confederate general James Longstreet, and a resident of nearby Gainesville, feared that the construction of the dam would destroy the falls and detract from the area's beauty. In 1911 she organized the Tallulah Falls Conservation Association to stop construction of the dam and turn the area into a state park. This was one of the first conservation movements in Georgia. In 1912 Longstreet successfully lobbied the state legislature to force the attorney general to bring suit in an attempt to stop the dam. Even before Georgia Power officials defeated Longstreet's efforts in a jury trial in Rabun County in the spring of 1913 and in an appeal to the state supreme court, construction had proceeded on the largest hydroelectric development in Georgia. When completed later that year, the dam was a masonry structure 116 feet tall and 400 feet long, and it created a lake with a surface area of 63 acres. An underground tunnel 6,666 feet long, blasted through solid rock, took water from the lake to a holding area above the powerhouse, where it fell 608 feet and was converted into electricity. The Tallulah project became the centerpiece of a multi-dam project on the Tallulah and Tugaloo rivers, which provided electricity for Atlanta and the rest of north Georgia. The dam was once the largest single producer of electricity in the state, and is still in operation, but is now a minor component in a huge system. In 1992, nearly 80 years after the completion of the dam, the state, in partnership with Georgia Power, created Tallulah Gorge State Park, one of the most popular in the state park system. Visitors enjoy activities on the lake and hiking through the gorge, and controlled releases from the dam allow them to hear the roar of the falls on selected weekends in the spring and autumn. In 1999 the trail around the gorge was named for Helen Dortch Longstreet. 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
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TODAY'S QUOTE "It is true that I was born in Iowa, but I can't speak for my twin sister."
Those interested in the history of Gwinnett need to know that the recently published book: Gwinnett: A Little Above Atlanta, has sold fast, with the first editions about sold out. Get yours before they're gone. Go to http://www.elliottbrack.com/ to order, or buy the book at a local bookstore shown on the site. The books are available at:
MORE RECENT COMMENTARY
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 770-497-1888, or email to info@gwinnettforum.com. ABOUT US GwinnettForum.com is a twice-weekly online community commentary for exploring pragmatic and sensible social, political and economic approaches to improve life in Gwinnett County, Ga. USA. Contact us today. SISTER PUBLICATIONS We encourage you to check out our sister publications:
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