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Issue 10.43 | Friday, Aug. 27, 2010 TODAY'S FOCUS ELLIOTT BRACK'S PERSPECTIVE McLEMORE'S
WORLD ARCHIVE FEEDBACK UPCOMING NOTABLE ALSO INSIDE _:: IN THE
SPOTLIGHT: Meet a sponsor |
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TODAY'S FOCUS LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga., Aug. 27, 2010 -- The Gwinnett Board of Commissioners have a history of ignoring the wishes of the public (both trash plans and Hot Lanes on I-85), rushing to make ill-advised decisions (Gwinnett Braves' Stadium), and poor business decisions (Collins Hill Golf Club and trash plan).
The Board of Commissioners tell us they are only investigating the possibility of privatizing Briscoe Field, yet every action they have taken indicates a determination to approve the sale and expansion of Briscoe Field by the end of 2010. The application submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration for privatization includes a time line for signing a contract in December 2010 and turnover date of April 2011. Brett Smith, managing partner of Propeller Investments, stated he has been working with Gwinnett County officials for two years on this project and that if commercial passenger flights were not a reality, he would not be interested in Briscoe Field. The speculation is that Southwest Airlines will be a primary carrier operating from Briscoe. If true, and I believe it is, Delta, AirTran, and other airlines, will establish service at Briscoe also. Southwest Airlines flies Boeing 737 aircraft, almost exclusively. Some airlines may fly regional jets, but as demand grows, larger aircraft will be utilized by all. If Gwinnett County has been active in this project for two years:
No consideration is being given to the loss of individual home value or the impact of declining home values on county and municipality tax bases. The 20,000 jobs and $1.25 billion economic impact quoted by Gwinnett officials, Propeller Investments, and the media, is at best speculation. Government officials are gambling with our tax money and assets. Independent and quantifiable facts are required. Two county commissioners leave office in four months. If the county has only investigated the possibility of privatizing Briscoe Field, would it not be prudent for this decision to be delayed until facts are confirmed and the two new commissioners take office in January 2011? To oppose the expansion of Briscoe Field, a non-profit organization, Citizens for a Better Gwinnett, has been established. Citizens for a Better Gwinnett believes commercial passenger service at Briscoe Field will harm the thousands of homeowners living in a 10-mile radius of Briscoe Field, in the form of increased traffic, higher taxes, decrease property values, noise and air pollution, and lower quality of life in general. There are a plethora of independent studies performed by consultants, Federal agencies, and universities, to document the negative effects of commercial aircraft operation in residential areas on the Internet, too many to quote in this article. Citizens
for a Better Gwinnett needs your participation and support to stop the
expansion of Briscoe Field. Our Web site will launch September 7. Visit
to learn more at www.bettergwinnett.org. Contributions may be mailed to
Citizens for a Better Gwinnett, PO Box 492751, Lawrenceville, Ga. 30049. EEB PERSPECTIVE AUG. 27, 2010 -- The Tenth Commandment says it clearly: "Thou shall not covet ….. anything that is your neighbor's."
With that in mind, we bet there's a lot of coveting and sinning going on in the minds of public football coaches in Gwinnett, as they find some schools outside the county move to artificial turf on their football fields. Egged on by peppy artificial turf salespeople, many coaches are hoping that the Gwinnett Public Schools decide in favor of artificial turf, so that they can be up-to-date and "with it" when it comes to playing fields. We wonder. We've just seen the Gwinnett County Park System spend $810,000 to install artificial turf at the Duncan Park Field (pictured below), paid with SPLOST dollars after heavy pressure from lame-duck Commissioner Keven Kenerly, who never saw a sports request he didn't want to fund. (Yes, they named the place, lo and behold, "Kenerly Field.") We wonder if the case for artificial turf is all that wonderful, and if the schools need to spend money on what may be not only a frill, but perhaps dangerous to the young bodies that pound the rubber-based polymers. While artificial turf was all the rage for a while, now some college and professional teams are raising questions about the ways such fields could inflict more injuries to the players. Some school systems that once used artificial turf have actually replaced such fields, going back to regular grass.
Proponents of artificial turf point out that you don't have to have the expense of cutting the grass, and that you can continue to use artificial fields over and over without hurting the field. They note that not only football, but lacrosse, soccer and band practices mean that the fields are often in continued usage, which can hurt real grass. Yet the opposite view is that artificial fields are still unproven. The direct rays of the sun oxidize the polymers, as they degenerate and become brittle. Often parts of the field must be replaced, a costly venture. There's no doubt that the artificial fields are far hotter than conventional fields, up to 150 degrees, some too hot to play on at times. You often must use a sprinkler on the artificial turf to cool it down. What would have been the problems, especially this hot summer, had players been practicing on the artificial grass? Consider another approach: can an athlete's knees and joints stand up better on real grass, or on the artificial material? One source says artificial turf produces 10 percent more injuries than grass. And don't think of knees of just the teenagers. What will the long-term (say 30 years) effect of knees and legs in today's players be? Will there be more long-term damage to players' joints twisting on the artificial field? Think too of the more serious problems that artificial turf could cause when players slide on the field. Won't the burns associated with turf be more serious that real grass bruises? We raise these questions to emphasize: there are many questions on whether to install artificial turf, questions far removed from either the physical properties, or the immediate cost. Just because the football coaches are coveting other areas installing artificial fields, there's no need for Gwinnett to rush toward an immediate installation, especially in these troubled economic times. Let others sin amongst themselves. ABOUT OUR SPONSORS
McLEMORE'S WORLD ARCHIVE
FEEDBACK Editor, the Forum: Just read "Direction our society is going can bother a person" from recent GwinnettForum. As a child, when I encountered a bore, lout or bully, my mother would shake her head and say, "S/he ain't got no bringin' up." When my girls and I were shopping for swim suits, in Target this summer, a woman and her daughter were pushing past us and grabbing things from me. My daughters, Clara and Margaret, watched for a minute or two and then asked the woman, "Why are you being mean to Mama?" Margaret said, "What's wrong?" and patted the woman on the leg. I think they embarrassed her, because she stopped being a jerk. Maybe the trick is to unleash an army of guileless four-year-olds.
Suggests different solution to the problems of today's society Editor, the Forum: Regarding the direction of society is going: the solution presented, sadly, isn't a solution if the generation doing the teaching doesn't understand the workings of good manners, either. It's a complicated problem; and it is a problem. Corporate re-location of families away from the family centers. Greed on an exhaustive scale. Addictions and loneliness and exhaustion. Disrespect from the top, filtering down, down, down. There are a million intertwining problems that have led to the crass and coarse society we've become. But as much as I run into what you describe, I frequently run into small kindnesses and smiles, and people who wish to be helpful or who go out of their way for someone in need. And not just in small towns (we happen to be in one as I type and I've seen a lot of kindnesses here), but also in the big, busy city where we live. One-on-one kindnesses. Door openings. Thank yous. Asking if I would like to move ahead in the line because I use a cane. Those little tiny things lift a spirit and I see it all the time. Maybe I'm looking. But if I could boil it down to just the one thing, to encourage the one thing to help swing the pendulum back to the world we're missing, it would be this: the front porch.
Bemoans lack of public service officials to qualify for "courage" Editor, the Forum: Yours "directions" comment had points well taken and so well put. I would also point out the lack of "Courage" in the political world. There are not too many candidates to be included in a new volume of Profiles in Courage, if one would be published in the future. Standing up for what is right rather than what is politically popular is rather rare these days.
UPCOMING Cool autumn
weather is just around the corner, and The Holy Martyrs of Vietnam Catholic
Church is planning its second annual Fall Festival September 3-4-5. Last
year, over 20,000 people attended the festival, making it the largest
event of its kind in the Southeast. Please bring the whole family this
year and join us for a memorable cultural experience. There will also be food for everyone to enjoy. Visitors will have a chance to sample traditional delicacies such as fall festival rolls, seven-color sweet pudding, autumn harvest cake, a variety of Asian kabobs and many other delicious items. There is no admission fee. There will be plenty of parking and complimentary shuttle service to and from the festival. The Festival will be 6 p.m. until midnight on Sept. 3; 11 a.m. until Midnight on Sept. 4; and 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. on September 5. For more information, contact C.C. Nguyen at (770) 912-9788 or 2010fallfestival@gmail.com. First Ice Cream Festival at Piedmont Park this Saturday The Atlanta Ice Cream Festival is the first festival of its kind in Atlanta that centers on the love affair with ice cream. Along with multiple ice cream vendors, there will be food and beverages and the opportunity to burn off those calories with health and fitness activities. The Festival
will be August 28 starting at 1 p.m. until 7 p.m. at Piedmont Park at
10th Street Charles Allen Drive. Vanilla is the most popular flavor in this country, snagging anywhere from 20 to 29 percent of sales. Chocolate comes in a distant second, with about 9 to 10 percent of the market. Children ages 2 thru 12 and adults over 45 eat the most ice cream per person. For information about the Atlanta Ice Cream Festival, call 404-271-0658. NOTABLE This fall the City of Suwanee plans to install five digital radar - or driver feedback - signs designed to make drivers more aware of their speeds.
"This initiative isn't about tickets, it's about driver awareness," he adds, noting that the signs will not take photos nor will data be used to issue citations. "We simply want to educate citizens and make them safer." Signs will be posted in areas where a high number of accidents and/or speeding violations occur: Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road, McGinnis Ferry Road, Smithtown Road, Main Street, and Settles Bridge Road. Traffic studies indicate that at least 85 percent of drivers along portions of the selected routes travel 11 miles per hour or more over the posted speed limit. The City is contracting with Radarsign for installation of the signs at a cost of approximately $33,000, using public safety-designated SPLOST funds. Duluth resident releases new book in Charleston series Duluth resident John Dillard has released the second book in the Charleston Series, "Low Country Calling." It revolves around a fighter pilot born in Charleston, S.C., who joins the Marines and meets his bride while going through training.
Dillard and his family are members of Sugarloaf United Methodist Church. They have two children, 18 and 15. Dillard is a native of Atlanta and a CPA for 30 years. Three generations of Eagle Scouts gather in Suwanee
RECOMMENDED
GEORGIA ENCYCLOPEDIA
Louisville, the county seat of Jefferson County, also served as Georgia's third capital from 1796 until 1807. The town grew as the result of both large-scale immigration to the Georgia upcountry after the American Revolution (1775-83) and the desire of many Georgians to enhance the state's commercial prosperity. By the mid-1780s the new upcountry settlers outnumbered those in the older coastal counties, and upcountry legislators demanded a state capital in a more western location than Savannah.
On January 26, 1786, the assembly passed a law appointing Nathan Brownson, William Few Jr., and Hugh Lawson as commissioners charged with finding a site for the seat of government. Legislators also specified that the new capital would be named Louisville in honor of King Louis XVI of France, America's Revolutionary War ally. Organizers envisioned Louisville as a trade center, and Commissioners Brownson, Few, and Lawson purchased 1,000 acres on the south side of Rocky Comfort Creek near the Ogeechee River to take advantage of the river transportation. The original city plan, modeled after Philadelphia, Pa., included a raised statehouse in the central square, with streets and town blocks radiating out from that focal point and forming right angles. War debt and the threat of a large-scale conflict with the Creek Nation delayed the official opening of the Louisville statehouse until May 1795, when delegates convened there for a state constitutional convention. In 1796 the Georgia legislature gathered in Louisville amid the political uproar caused by the 1795 Yazoo Land Fraud. Arguments over the issue frequently spilled out to the streets of the new capital. But political violence did not deter growth. Tobacco and, later, cotton served as the major cash crops during Louisville's first decade. Merchants brought commercial trade to the town, and city leaders sought to expand the navigational potential of the Ogeechee River. The legislature
briefly considered making Louisville the home of the University of Georgia
but decided to build the Jefferson, or Louisville, Academy there instead.
It served as one of a series of schools established to train young men
for a university education. By the end of the 1790s Louisville had acquired
a cosmopolitan atmosphere, offering a coffeehouse, a debating society,
and traveling shows, as well as dancing, fencing, and French lessons.
Residents kept in touch with events through the State Gazette and Louisville
Journal; the Louisville Gazette, which briefly expanded to the Louisville
Gazette and Republican Trumpet; the Independent Register; and later, the
Louisville Courier. By 1806 the town had grown to nearly 100 homes with
approximately 550 free and slave inhabitants. (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
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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. © 2001-2010, Gwinnett Forum.com is Gwinnett County's online community forum for commentary that explores pragmatic and sensible social, political and economic approaches to improve life in Gwinnett County, Ga. USA. PHONE: 770.840.1003
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Attendees
can sit back and enjoy the sounds of the DJ and the Atlanta School Drummers,
cheer along with local cheering squads, and step up with State Championship
Step Teams. 
"Our
hope," says Police Chief Mike Jones, "is that these signs will
bring awareness to drivers and that they'll voluntarily slow down. Lots
of times, drivers aren't paying enough attention to their speed. These
signs will make them aware. 
Ride
in the cockpit as the pilot completes feats never before done in an F-18
but he is ultimately downed and forced to ditch his plane in the Iraqi
desert. While running from terrorists who would claim his life, he hears
God's call to be a full time pastor. Come along as he answers God's call
back to the low county of Charleston
Three
generations of Eagle Scouts gathered at the Suwanee Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints. From left are Evan Bradham (21), Provo, Utah.; Garrett
Bradham (26), Columbia, S.C.; Spencer Bradham (15), Ned Bradham (52),
Suwanee; Trevor Bradham (15), Lawrence Jeppson (84), Salt Lake City, Utah;
and Grant Bradham (18) and Taylor Bradham (24, both of Provo, Utah. The
three from Provo are at Brigham Young University Trevor and Spencer received
their Eagle Scout award August 14. For their Eagle projects, For their
projects, Trevor logged 300 hours building a 105 foot handicapped boardwalk
for Lanier Middle School and Spencer collected approximately $5,500 donations
of clothing, and toiletry kits for the Samaritan House in Atlanta. Both
boys go to North Gwinnett High School in Suwanee.
"This
is a great book about eating healthier and more natural and nurturing
food which can help heal your body. There is a lot of great wisdom in
eating local foods in season, eating a variety of colors of food, and
trying out new vegetables. The author says you need to eat things that
are more nutrient dense, that is, going green. The author includes many
fun and healthy recipes as well. It is most encouraging and inspires you
to want to do right by your body."
