TODAY'S FOCUS
Lawrenceville's Tuggle wins top honor from Georgia printers
By PAMELA KEANE
Special to GwinnettForum

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga., Aug. 16, 2011---Graphic Communications Corporation (GCC) President Hoyt Tuggle was honored recently with the 2011 Printing and Imaging Association of Georgia (PIAG) Benjamin Franklin Award. The award is the highest honor presented in Georgia's printing industry and serves to acknowledge individuals for being long-term, major contributors to the graphic arts industry.

Jefferson Riley presents Tuggle with the Benjamin Franklin Award.

Tuggle founded GCC in 1972 with his wife, Marie, and Robert Shelnutt. Today the company is an award-winning, full-service printer that also offers a wide-variety of value-added solutions including creative web design and hosting services, warehousing and fulfillment, point-of-purchase design and printing and graphic design services.

Tuggle says of the distinction: "I am humbled by this award. The print world is such an important part of my life, and it is a great honor to be recognized by my peers. I have been truly blessed over these past 51 years to be associated with so many wonderful people in such a remarkable industry." Tuggle is a former president of the PAIG.

Tuggle, born in Lawrenceville, graduated from Central Gwinnett High School and Georgia State University. He lives in Buford, and he and Marie have two sons and five grandchildren.

"My office is only a few blocks from the house where I was born. I feel so fortunate to have worked and lived in the community where I grew up," continues Tuggle. "I frequently get the opportunity to be around people who have been a part of my life from the beginning, and have truly experienced the sense of community, both in my business life and in my private life."

Ann Stallard, chairman of Graphic Communications, says the company is "very proud of Hoyt. The honor is well deserved and earned. Hoyt is a thought-leader of the industry, one able to survive through innovation. Hoyt has been a mentor for many people in the industry. He is forward looking and a delight to work with. He's a man of principle and integrity. His steadfastness and leadership really set him apart. I'm proud of the PAIG for recognizing Hoyt with the Ben Franklin award."

Since 1958, the Benjamin Franklin Award has been presented to a PIAG member who is successful in their chosen profession and considered a person of high principles and integrity. The individual must be someone who shares their time and talent to work toward the advancement of the printing industry and the betterment of society through civic, community or religious involvements.

Additionally, award recipients are required to have at least 15 years in the printing and imaging industry, with at least five of those years in Georgia.

EEB PERSPECTIVE
Legislature working the lines to create new districts
By ELLIOTT BRACK
Editor and publisher

AUG. 16, 2011 -- We are in debt to Gwinnett Rep. Hugh Floyd for providing us with information about the redrawing the state's Congressional and legislative lines as a result of the 2010 census. The Georgia Legislature began work on that issue on Monday.

Brack

In effect, the Legislature is drawing lines for their own chambers, and also fixing boundaries for adding another Congressional District for Georgia, as the state gains one more seat, to a total of 14, in the national Congress.

As an aside, normally you would think adding another Congressman would be relatively easy. You start out by simply drawing the lines to protect the incumbents (no matter what party), then you do your best to add another district to reflect the views of your party. If that happens, it could mean that Georgia would gain another Republican seat in the Congress.

But that is the civil way to approach matters. Georgia Republicans, never having had a majority at line-drawing time in Georgia's previous history, may want blood. They may seek to disenfranchise the five Democrats from Georgia, drawing the lines to make it tough for incumbent Democratic Congressmen to win any seat at all.

For those of us in Gwinnett, the major Congressional question is: will Gwinnett get to be in an area where it dominates the district, primarily having one Congressman, or will the county be split into several Congressional districts? There are advantages both ways. If we are in several districts, that simply gives local citizens more doors to knock on if they want to talk about national matters with Congressmen. But if in one major district, you can be sure that Congressman will pay more attention to Gwinnett.

But now to turn to the legislative apportionment.

One thing for certain: at least in the Georgia House of Representatives, Gwinnett will have more total seats than ever, springing from its growing 805,000 population. At present Gwinnett is represented in the House with all or parts of 14 different districts. Under the proposed plan that Rep. Floyd provided us with, it appears that Gwinnett will gain four seats, to a total of 18 districts all or partly in Gwinnett. Only four of these districts would be partially in Gwinnett.

On the Senate side, what has being proposed on paper does not see Gwinnett gaining any influence in number of seats. Under the current proposal, Gwinnett would still have seven Senate seats. However, the proposed plan shows that Gwinnett would dominate five of the seven districts, with only small portions of two districts not being dominant in Gwinnett. (A Gwinnett person could still be elected, but it would not be likely, from the geographic make-up alone.)

So let the fun of inside politicking begin for the Georgia legislature. One thing for certain: through our representative government, the duly-elected legislators have the major responsibility for drawing of these district lines. While we on the outside may try to influence the outcome, it in all essentials boils down to the party in power, and its leadership, making the final decisions. People not in power do not have much influence at all.

At one time, that was it. However, these days the re-districting must go through the Justice Department, and possibly, the courts. But for all intent now, we citizens must sit back and await the decisions of the politicians. Our time will come at the polling place….but for now, the politicians have the raw power.

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FEEDBACK
Says county "fixes" needless roundabout in Berkeley Lake

Editor, the Forum:

The "county" finally "fixed" the unwanted round-about intersection on Berkeley Lake Road. I'm pretty sure no one "asked" anyone what they wanted. The county just waved their magical hands and presto!

Funny, not a peep from anyone about who was responsible for the project, what it cost, what it cost to "fix" it and why they built the "calming devices" in the first place, knowing that they would be ineffective. Perhaps part of the "Put America to Work" program….using the hard earned money of its taxpayers. This was another of the useless projects that are ineffective and unwanted except by a very small group of people, who seem to know what is best for its people, but are unwilling to stand up and admit they screwed up the entire thing.

-- David M. Garramone, Berkeley Lake

• Send us your letters. Our policy: We encourage readers to submit feedback (or letters to the editor). Send your thoughts to the editor at elliott@brack.net. We will edit for length and clarity. Make sure to include your name and the city where you live. Submission of a comment grants permission for us to reprint. Please keep your comments to 300 words or less. However, we will consider longer articles (no more than 500 words) for featuring in Today's Focus as space allows.

UPCOMING
Wickham to be president of Georgia Municipal Court Judges

Norcross Municipal Court Judge Kenneth Wickham has been elected president of the Georgia Executive Council of Municipal Court Judges by the 200 judges from around the State at the annual meeting held in Savannah. Judge Wickham's term will begin in June of 2012.

The Georgia Council of Municipal Court Judges is the governing and oversight body of all Municipal Courts in the State. The President will also hold a voting seat on the Judicial Council of the State of Georgia, which is made up of the presidents of all classes of courts in Georgia including the Supreme Court, Appeals, Superior, State, Probate, Juvenile, Magistrate and Municipal Courts. The Judicial Council of the State of Georgia is the governing and oversight body for all classes of Courts in Georgia.

The Norcross Municipal Court handles over 1,000 cases a month. The court meets Tuesdays through Thursdays the first three weeks of the month.

Prior to being elected president, Judge Wickham held district representative, secretary and vice president positions with the Council. Judge Wickham is serving his ninth term as Municipal Court Judge in Norcross and serves as a visiting judge with the Gwinnett County Recorder's Court as well as being an associate judge with the City of Dunwoody. He has a bachelor's degree in international affairs from Kennesaw State, and a law degree from John Marshall Law School. He also has attended Auburn and Armstrong State College, is a native of Savannah, and resides in Norcross.

Gwinnett County updates Web site with additional info

Gwinnett County is launching an updated and colorful website with a fresh design and user-friendly experience for new and returning visitors to the site.

The Web site features more photos and specialty pages tailored to residents, visitors and businesses as well as a direct link to the county's online services. The newly redesigned Services section offers comprehensive information about the services that Gwinnett County Government and its partner organizations provide to residents. In addition, a Your Money Web page highlights the County's finances and shows residents the value of the services they receive for the property taxes they pay.

In-house County departments worked together develop and launch the Web site makeover. The site's design was developed by Mighty 8th Media in Buford. Visit the new Web site at www.gwinnettcounty.com.

Fatzinger to be fellow of American Council on Education

Dr. Jim Fatzinger, Georgia Gwinnett College's associate vice president for Student Affairs, has been selected to participate in a nationally recognized training system aimed at sharpening leadership skills through first-hand experience.

Fatzinger

Fatzinger will be an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow for 2011-2012. For up to one academic year, Fatzinger will be mentored by a president or senior administrator at another institution of higher learning. Through observation and participation, he will develop strategic planning and leadership insights regarding all aspects of how administrators direct colleges and universities.

Fatzinger received his doctorate of education from Vanderbilt's Peabody College of Education and Human Development in Nashville, Tenn., and his bachelor's and MBA are from the University of Miami at Coral Gables. In addition to serving as the associate vice president for Student Affairs at GGC, he is an assistant professor in the School of Business. He has completed post-graduate work in history, politics and society at the University of Oxford in England. He also completed the Harvard University Institute for Management and Leadership in Education.

NOTABLE
Wife funds scholarship honoring ex-Police Chief Carl White

A Gwinnett County author, Jaclyn White, has endowed a memorial scholarship at Georgia Gwinnett College in honor of her late husband, former Gwinnett Police Chief Carl D. White, Sr.

Chief White

The Carl D. White, Sr. Scholarship Fund will provide support for students who are dependent children of full-time employees of the Gwinnett County Police Department, the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office, city police jurisdictions located within Gwinnett County or Gwinnett County Public Schools resource officers. Preference will be given to students who demonstrate financial need. Recipients must maintain a minimum grade point average and may renew the scholarship for up to four years.

Mrs. White

Mrs. White says: "My husband worked in law enforcement in Gwinnett County for 30 years. He loved his work, but on or off the job, he was always concerned about helping other people. He'd go out of his way to assist a neighbor, or even a stranger, and never expect anything back. I thought establishing this scholarship in his name would be a great way to combine his career in law enforcement with his dedication to helping other people."

As an endowment, the Carl D. White Sr. Scholarship Fund will provide a permanent source of scholarship support for the college.

Eastside Hospital wins association's accountability honor roll

Eastside Medical Center in Snellville has been named to the Georgia Hospital Association's (GHA) Partnership for Health and Accountability Quality Honor Roll.

Eastside Medical Center is one of 24 hospitals in Georgia to be placed in the chairman's category, the highest on the list. The honor roll is based on clinical data provided by the federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS), which administers the nation's Medicare and Medicaid programs. The data was collected from January 2010 to December 2010.

All acute care hospitals are required to submit care data to CMS. This data details how well a hospital's caregivers adhere to a list of eight Appropriate Care Measures (ACM), which are the clinical processes of care that are known to be the most effective methods of treatment for patients who have suffered heart attacks, heart failure or pneumonia. The ACM is a composite measure that determines whether or not a patient received the right care at the right time.

Kim Ryan, chief executive officer of Eastside Medical Center, says: "It is our mission to ensure that each of our patients receives the right care at the right time and this recognition validates this. This honor is a tribute to the hard work and dedication of our staff who are constantly working to make excellent care even better."

RECOMMENDED

• 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 ENCYCLOPEDIA
Variety of flora and fauna included in Blue Ridge Mountains

(Continued from previous edition)

Georgia's Blue Ridge Mountains are part of a longer geologic system that forms an almost unbroken wall running down the eastern edge of the Blue Ridge province from Virginia. Rarely more than a few miles wide in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, the Blue Ridge mountain range turns to the west and widens up to 60 miles in some places within Georgia.

The geology and topography of the Blue Ridge are the results of mountain-building processes that began more than 500 million years ago. The processes include rock folding, faulting, upward thrusting, and a great collision that took place about 300 million years ago between the North American and African continents in a process called plate tectonics. The collision buckled the Earth's surface and pushed huge masses of rocks westward, causing them to pile up.

Geologic resources of the Blue Ridge include copper, gold, marble, talc, and other minerals. Gold was mined at Dahlonega in Lumpkin County in the early 1800s; a branch mint there produced gold coins from 1838 to 1861.

Georgia's Blue Ridge Mountains enjoy one of the world's most botanically rich mixtures of temperate climate plants, with northern U.S. species mixing with their southern kin. Biologists contend that the Blue Ridge mountain range and its parent chain, the southern Appalachians, have the greatest mixture of temperate climate plants in the world, except for eastern temperate Asia, located at about the same latitude. Forests account for nearly 90 percent of the land cover in the Blue Ridge, a higher percentage than in any other region of the state. Agriculture and other land uses are limited primarily to the flat floodplains of creeks and rivers.

Black bear, grouse, songbirds, turkey, wild boar, whitetail deer, many species of amphibians and reptiles, thousands of species of invertebrates, and a variety of small mammals are found in the Blue Ridge.

This richness in flora and fauna is presumed to be the result of several factors, including rainfall, climate, and soil types. Many areas average more than 60 inches of rainfall a year; higher elevations may get as much as 80 inches. Temperatures in mountain valleys average six to eight degrees cooler than the nearby Piedmont in the summer months. At higher elevations the difference can be ten to twelve degrees.

(To be continued.)

• Click here to access the Georgia Encyclopedia

LAGNIAPPE
Buford progress

Work is well underway on the Buford Town Park, Community Center and Theatre, at the corner of South Hill Street and the Gainesville Highway. The $15 million structure is expected to be completed in near the end of spring in 2012. Among its features will be a 300-seat theatre and a ballroom seating another 300. Work is being done by Charles Black Construction Company of Cleveland. The facility is designed by BRPH Architects of Atlanta. There are rental rooms available, plus computer lab, and commercial catering kitchen. An programmable lighted interactive fountain will be on the front side of the building for water play. The Museum of Buford will also have a 1,800 square foot space in the facility. A three-quarters walking trail will be on the property perimeter.

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© 2011, Gwinnett Forum.com. Gwinnett Forum is an online community commentary for exploring pragmatic and sensible social, political and economic approaches to improve life in Gwinnett County, Ga. USA.

TODAY'S QUOTE

Widespread beliefs are not necessarily sensible

"The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible."

-- Philosopher Bertrand Arthur William Russell (1872-1970).

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GWINNETT CALENDAR

Comedy Night in two shows: 7:15 p.m. and 9:15 p.m., Aug. 19, Aurora Theatre, Lawrenceville. Appearing on the Funny Friday Stage will be Atlanta comedy legends, Jerry Farber and Johnny Porrazzo.

Seventh Annual Craft Market: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Aug. 20, Pinckneyville Park, 4758 South Old Peachtree Road in the Medlock Pavillion No charge for admission. Market features jewelry, pottery, paintings and other crafts. For more information or to become a vendor, call 770-417-2200.

Second Annual Duluth Music Festival on three stages. Starting 2 p.m., Aug. 20, downtown Duluth. Featured recording artist is Trent Tomlinson. For details, visit www.duluthga.net or call 770-476-3434.

Reforming the food and farming system in Georgia will be the subject at the 7 p.m. Aug. 21 meeting of the Gwinnett Group of the Sierra Club at Berkmar High School. Leah Garces, with the Compassion in World Farming, will be the speaker.

Brunch and Book signing with author Evelyn Coleman: Aug. 27 at California Pizza Kitchen in Norcross. Sponsored by Friends of Gwinnett County Public Library. Tickets are $25 for each child. For more information, visit www.friendsgcpl.org.

8th Annual Legacy Awards, honoring Gwinnett’s exemplary women: 10 a.m., Aug. 27, Gwinnett Place Marriott. Sponsored by United Way Leadership Council in Gwinnett. More info.

Taste of Duluth: 6:30 p.m., Sept. 15, Payne Corley House in Duluth. For more information, go to www.duluthfallfestival.org.

Meet the Author: 7 p.m., Sept. 21, at the Norcross Cultural Arts and Community Center. Author Stuart Woods will discuss and sign his books. Sponsored by Gwinnett County Public Library. For more information, visit www.gwinnettpl.org or call 770-978-5154.

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