TREE LIGHTING: The 24th annual Lighting of the Tree at the Gwinnett Historic Courthouse will start at 5 p.m. Nov. 24, Thanksgiving Day, in Lawrenceville, under direction of the Gwinnett Parks and Recreation Department. The decorated 35-foot Norway Spruce is provided by the Lawrenceville Trade and Tourism Association. The evening will be filled with entertainment, crafts and other activities. Santa Claus is planning a fashionable entrance, thanks to Hayes Automotive Group. The tree lighting is at 6 p.m. This year you may donate a toy to the Toys for Tots program. U.S. Marines will be on hand at the Lighting of the Tree to collect new, unwrapped toys for children birth to 13 years. (Photo by Frank Sharp.)

Issue 11.68 | Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011

TODAY'S FOCUS
:: County's "one day-one trial" for jurors

ELLIOTT BRACK'S PERSPECTIVE
:: On moving judgeship races

FEEDBACK
:: Thoughts on loyalty oaths, more

UPCOMING
:: P'tree Corners elections; art sale

NOTABLE
:: Women's shelter; Vines park contract

ALSO INSIDE

IN THE SPOTLIGHT
:: Gwinnett Federal Credit Union

GEORGIA TIDBIT
:: About pecans

LAGNIAPPE
:: New grads

GWINNETT CALENDAR
:: Lots of activities on tap

TODAY'S QUOTE
:: On Thanksgiving

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TODAY'S FOCUS
County's "One Day-One Trial" juror system is more efficient
By HEATHER SAWYER
Special to GwinnettForum

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga., Nov. 22, 2011 -- Thanks to a recently approved "one day - one trial" option, jury service in Gwinnett County will now be a little easier -- and even less expensive for the County. Last month, Gwinnett County trial judges approved a pilot project with the goal of reducing juror costs and making jury service more convenient for citizens.

Court Administrator Phil Boudewyns says: "Judges were attempting to deal with two issues in creating the pilot project. The first goal was to save unnecessary inconvenience to the jurors and the second consideration was to save money when jurors were not actually needed for a trial."

Under the previous jury system, each individual trial judge summoned a pool of jurors for each individual case. Invariably, however, many fewer jurors were actually needed. Civil cases often settle on the eve of trial and criminal defendants often decide to enter a guilty plea rather than have a jury decide their fate. The jurors called in for those settled cases, after waiting for much of the day in some cases, then would be sent home with instructions to be on call for the rest of the week. Under the prior system, jury duty was a weeklong commitment to remain on call for the entire week even if the juror was never actually needed for a trial.

Developing a plan that would provide all judges with jurors while at the same time allow fewer jurors to be brought to the courthouse took over one year to formulate and was spearheaded by State Court Judge Randy Rich. Rich, who headed the pilot project, says most of the changes are as a direct result of data obtained from new jury management software. The new software was developed and implemented by Clerk of Court Tom Lawler and Chief Deputy Clerk Richard Alexander. Under state law, management of the jury pool is the responsibility of the Clerk of Courts.

"After analyzing the new data, we were able to see the accumulated numbers of jurors that were brought to the courthouse week after week but not used for a trial," said Judge Rich. "We also found that even though the jurors were placed on call for the rest of the week, they rarely were brought back for another trial."

Under the new plan, all judges with trials scheduled for Monday will pull jurors from a general pool, which will reduce the total number of jurors brought to the courthouse by 20%. Jurors may be required to participate in multiple courtroom panels during the course of the day. However, at the end of the day, those not selected for a trial are released for the entire week, while those who are selected will be released as soon as their one trial is complete. The new method saves the county $30 per day for every juror who is not brought to the courthouse. The reductions also will ease parking congestion and reduce long lines for security screenings for jurors coming into the courthouse on Monday mornings.

During the pilot project, the county reduced the jury costs by $4,400 over four weeks. Applied to the calendar year, the projected savings is projected to be in the range of $100,000 annually. The new one day - one trial jury service program began November 1.

EEB PERSPECTIVE
Move any runoff for judgeships to the general election
By ELLIOTT BRACK
Editor and publisher

NOV. 22, 2011 -- You may be wondering why local attorneys are scrambling to announce their candidacy for judgeships in Gwinnett County at this time of year.

Brack

It's because of when we vote on judgeships.

Throughout the state, judges in Georgia are elected at the time of the state primary elections, not during the general elections. The voting for all bench judges, from Superior Court to any vacancies at the state Court of Appeals and Supreme Court, will be on July 31, 2012.

With the announcement that Superior Court Judge Dawson Jackson will not seek election next year, and that State Court Judge Bob Mock is retiring from the bench in 2012, the scrambling has begun.

(In addition, Gwinnett Probate Judge Walter J. (Jim) Clarke has announced that he will retire at the end of 2012. However, since his position is as a constitutional officer, this office will be nominated by party in the primary in July, but the election comes in November.)

The time for elections of judges has been batted around for years. At one time, Georgia voted on judges at the time of the primary; then it was in the fall at the General Election; then again it was moved back to the primary voting, where we have it now.

You may remember that in 2010, there were two statewide runoffs after the General Election…..both for judgeships. Let's use Gwinnett's voting as an example of what happened.

In the race for a seat on the Supreme Court, Gwinnett's Tammy Lynn Adkins and David Nahmias, neither won in the November election, so they faced each other on November 30 in a runoff. Ms. Adkins got 57,535 votes in Gwinnett on Election Day, or 36.5 percent; Mr. Nahmias got 72,505 votes that day, 45.9 percent, and another candidate, Matt Wilson, got 17 percent or 29,996 votes. Statewide, Adkins and Nahmias faced each other in a runoff for the Supreme Court seat.

In Gwinnett in the runoff, Adkins polled 3,374 votes (22 percent), while Nahmias scored 8,641 votes, 78 percent. Nahmias won the seat statewide.

In the other race, that for a Court of Appeals seat, Toni Davis had won Gwinnett on Election date with 34,785 votes, or 24.5 percent. Chris McFadden scored 30,945 votes in Gwinnett, 21.8 percent. They were also the two candidates in the state.

On the day of the runoff, McFadden won Gwinnett with 7,881 votes (73.8 percent ), with Ms. Davis scoring 2,793 votes, or 26.2 percent. Statewide, Mr. McFadden won a seat on the bench.

In the General Primary, there were in Gwinnett nearly 200,000 votes cast. Both judgeships had about 150,000 people voting in these races. But where it really counted, the runoff, only 12,000 people decided the Gwinnett races, similar to low turnouts throughout the state.

Should at least three candidates run for any judgeships, there will be runoffs….with again, a small number of people deciding these races.

How about a better system?

Let's change the rules one more time for judgeship races. Let the first balloting for these races be in the date of the General Primary, as it is now. But if no candidate wins a majority at this balloting, move the run-off to the General Election. This wouldn't cost any more special election funds such as statewide runoffs did last time, and it would insure that a higher percentage of voters determine who sits on the courts.

We say "trust the people," that is, hold the runoff when the most people vote. Move potential judgeship runoffs to November! Who knows? We might get a better crop of judges!

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FEEDBACK
Several readers upset over faculty signing loyalty oaths

Editor, the Forum:

Thank you for your insightful editorial "Loyalty Oaths Unacceptable At Institutions of Higher Learning." I appreciate your comments and agree with your conclusions. As a Shorter graduate, I hope more people will speak out against the current direction of the trustees at Shorter. Let me point out that the chairman of the trustees is not former Governor Joe Frank Harris, but his son, Joe Frank Harris, Jr.

-- Laura Lowe, Evans, Ga.

Dear Laura: thanks for your comment and pointing out our error, which we regret. --eeb

Editor, the Forum:

Churches certainly helped to build some of our great universities and colleges. I think the study of religion can be a valuable part of education. But even the better seminaries in this country and around the world would not impose the kind of narrow-minded doctrine rules that these colleges are suggesting.

Great theologians, great ethicists, great scientists, and everyday run-of-the-mill but sincere religious believers come to very different decisions about some of the issues these colleges are trying to dictate. The dialogue is important, and students need to be exposed to the gamut of ideas.

Loyalty oaths of the kind these colleges are embracing are based on fear - fear that the ideas they believe in won't win. Frankly, that's a risk they ought to have the courage to take, if they believe in what they claim. And, by the way, I once refused to sign a loyalty oath saying I was not a Communist when I was a student editor at a certain large state university. That was a long time ago, and I guess it's OK to say now I wasn't a Communist. But my loyalty was to the search for truth, and it still is.

-- Keith Graham, Atlanta

Editor, the Forum:

We feel that Shorter is a good university. But regarding their Personal Lifestyle Statement: so a Shorter employee cannot go to Applebee's, for example, and have a drink because a student (who might be of legal drinking age and drinking himself) might be there and see them? Incredible!

Seems to me that if Shorter is serious, then the students should sign the Personal Lifestyle Statement, not just employees. Perhaps all Shorter employees should be required to wear a badge so students can avoid seeing them drink in a restaurant, otherwise how would they know if they are an employee or not and to be avoided.

Interesting that the employee statement says that the employee is to agree that various sexual practices are 'unacceptable,' but does not commit the employee to NOT engaging in them, while requiring adherence to the no drinking idea.

-- Name Withheld because of ties with the school

Editor, the Forum:

My peeve of the moment concerning Loyalty Oaths is that obedience is not a virtue. Indeed, trying to impose it is abusive, if human rights and individual integrity are to have any meaning. People would not need to be disobedient, civilly or otherwise, if other people weren't trying to coerce them.

I'd even go so far as to suggest that obedience is the handmaiden of abuse--part and parcel of a negative pattern of behavior that gets transmitted from person to person and generation to generation.

Why are cops being abusive? Because they've been abused in their training. Ditto for our "fungible" troops.

-- Monica Smith, St. Simons Island

Peachtree Corners committee vows to watch new city closely

Editor, the Forum:

By now everyone knows the November 8 vote to incorporate Peachtree Corners passed. The Peachtree Corners Ballot Committee (PCBC) takes this opportunity to thank those for support during the past weeks. Many of you went out of your way to contribute time and treasure to get signs, submit op-eds and distribute fliers. Some even printed fliers and signs at their own expense.

Without this grassroots participation this effort would not have been as successful. Although disappointed at the final outcome, we are all proud that in just ten weeks we went from no organized opposition to garnering 43 percent of the vote. The supporters of cityhood had many years of preparation, significant financial backing and considerable support from the political establishment. With your help, we were able to bring to the forefront many issues that concern the residents of the area.

In response to the many inquiries as to the future of the PCBC, let's just say that the PCBC will continue to work for the betterment of Peachtree Corners especially as regards keeping the intent of the limited services city as promised. If you are interested in being a part of this effort please let us know.

Over the next few weeks we will be announcing new Facebook pages, websites, blogs and email addresses toward that goal. We look forward to working with all of you to ensure that Peachtree Corners stays the great place to live, work and play that attracted us all here in the first place.

-- Bob Martell, president, Peachtree Corners Ballot Committee

• 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
Qualifying opens for Peachtree Corners city races on Nov. 28

The new city of Peachtree Corners is buzzing on who will run for its new offices. The Gwinnett County Election's office announces that qualifying to run for mayor and council open November 28 and ends at November 30 at 12 noon.

Those wanting to become candidates should visit the Elections office at 455 Grayson Highway, Suite 200, Lawrenceville to submit their qualification form and payment. The fee to run is three percent of the annual salary for each position. For the mayoral race the cost to qualify will be $270 based on a $9,000 salary as stipulated in the city's charter. Charge for each of the six council members positions is $240. Early voting begins Jan. 20, 2012, with March 6 set as Election Day.

Hudgens Art Center offers open house for local art works

The gift shop at the Hudgens Center for the Arts in Duluth is holding a Holiday Open House from Tuesday, December 6, through Saturday, December 10, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. There will be extended hours on Thursday, December 8, until 8 p.m. Visitors are invited to browse the selection of unique and individual art works from some of the area's most popular and highly sought-after artists. The shop has pottery, hand blown glass, original works of art, one-of-a-kind jewelry, women's accessories, baby gifts, children's educational toys, holiday ornaments and home accessories.

NOTABLE
New cold weather emergency shelter for women open here

The SaltLight Center, Gwinnett County's only cold-weather emergency shelter for homeless women and children, welcomed its first four guests last week.

Director Carol Love Karpf says: "We served two mothers, one with a four-year old girl, and the other little girl was 16 months. The women were very grateful to have a warm place to stay and to be able to have a worry free night of rest."

The opening of the SaltLight Center was delayed a week from its November 7 target date because of a lack of volunteers to stay overnight. SaltLight exists to serve single women and women with children as part of Family Promise of Gwinnett County, an Interfaith Hospitality Network of 30 local congregations that provide shelter and support services for homeless families in Gwinnett. It is part of a national network that includes 171 affiliates in 41 states.

The SaltLight Center works with the Gwinnett Helpline (local information and resources helpline), a service of the Gwinnett Coalition for Health and Human Services, to provide information and screening to homeless women and children seeking shelter. Those seeking shelter should call the Gwinnett Helpline at 770-995-3339 by 2 p.m. to apply.

A Lawrenceville church is volunteering space for the shelter. To encourage potential clients to go to the Helpline, SaltLight is asking that the church's location not be disclosed. The center will start with 12 beds but hopes to grow.

County upgrading Vines Park pavilion and trails near lake

Gwinnett commissioners have approved a major renovation project for Vines Park near Grayson in southern Gwinnett. The project will replace the existing pavilion with a new one located closer to the lake, replace the existing trail around the lake and add a new lake overlook.

In addition, crews will remove the old wooden structures and bridges that existed on the original residential property when the land was donated to the County in 1990. These structures have presented maintenance issues over the years.

The County signed a 20-year lease agreement in 1997 allowing Georgia Fine Restaurants, Inc., to operate Vines Mansion on the park property but Hoskins said the rehab project does not include the leased property.

The Board awarded the $1.07 million project to low bidder Rescom of Georgia, LLC, using funds from the 2005 SPLOST sales tax program. Vines Park opened to the public in 2005.

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
Georgia farmers latecomers to pecans but now top nation

Although the pecan has a long history in North America, Georgia farmers were relative latecomers in realizing the benefits of this tree nut. By the 1950s, however, Georgia had become the country's leading producer of pecans. As of 2006 Georgia remains the largest pecan-producing state in the nation.

Pecan (Carya illinoensis) is a common name for a species of hickory in the walnut (Juglandaceae) family. According to archaeological and historical evidence, Asian species of the hickory tree arrived in North America before the first humans crossed the Bering Strait from Asia about 10,000 B.C. Other species are native to the Mississippi River valley.

The tree typically grows to a height of 75 to 100 feet and is well adapted to Georgia's sandy loam soil with clay subsoil. The term pecan is also applied to the tree's edible fruit. The nuts have a rounded, oblong shape and vary in weight from 25 to 100 to the pound.

While there may have been wild pecans in some of Georgia's river valleys, the nuts are generally regarded as non-native to the state, and their value as a potential cultivated crop was not recognized until the late 19th century. By that time landowners began to regard pecans, long a staple of wild native trees from Iowa and Indiana to Texas and Mexico, as a commercial crop. Commercialization of pecans allowed the nut crop to expand into a number of southeastern states (including Georgia) and to New Mexico and California.

In the late 1800s, several individual Georgia landowners near Savannah began producing and marketing pecans on a small scale (about 97 total acres by 1889). By 1910 a "pecan boom" began when southwest Georgia landowners started planting what became thousands of acres of pecans. The orchards, however, were not looked upon as a commercial agricultural venture but as a real estate enterprise. Most of the acreage planted during the 15-year boom, from 1910 to 1925, were sold as five- to ten-acre units for homes or small farms. Most of this acreage was concentrated in Dougherty and Mitchell counties.

Those early-20th-century plantations consistently remain the center of Georgia's pecan-producing counties today. Modern orchards with plantings of scientifically improved pecan varieties now yield what are called "papershell" pecans, so named because the nuts are easy to crack and shell.

By the 1920s Georgia was producing 2.5 million pounds of pecans. As of 2006 Georgia pecan orchards range in size from just a few trees to several thousand acres, with more than 142,500 acres planted. Georgia is also fortunate to have an early harvest date compared to other pecan-producing areas, which often results in good prices for Georgia growers. They produced about 45 million pounds in 2004 and 70 million pounds in 2005. The farm-gate value for the crop in 2004 was more than $121 million.

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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.

EDITOR'S NOTE

GwinnettForum will observe the Thanksgiving holiday. The next edition will be published on Nov. 29, 2011. Happy holiday! --eeb

TODAY'S QUOTE
Thinking about Thanksgiving in a different manner

"Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow."

-- Editor, writer and humorist Edward Sandford Martin, (1856-1939), via Cindy Evans, Duluth.

MORE COPIES AVAILABLE NOW
Second edition of history
makes great Christmas gift

Previously out of print, Elliott Brack's 850-page history, "Gwinnett: A Little Above Atlanta," is now available again. Since its original publication, the book was declared the winner of the 2010 Award of Excellence for documenting Georgia history by the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board.

The book includes 143 demographic and historic tables, with more than 4,000 names in the index, and 10,000 names in the appendix.

Two versions of the book are available. The hardback edition is priced at $75, while a softback edition is $40. Books are available at:

• Books for Less, Buford
  
• Gwinnett Historical Society, Lawrenceville
  
• Parsons Gifts and Cards, Duluth
  
• Vargas and Harbin Gallery, Norcross

You can also order books through the Internet. To do that, go to www.elliottbrack.com to place your order. For mail orders, there is a $5 shipping and handling fee. Purchases are also subject to the 6 percent Georgia sales tax.

SEARCH GWINNETT FORUM

GWINNETT CALENDAR

New Exhibit, "Lateral Thinking," is up now through Jan.14 at Kudzu Art Zone, 116 Carlyle Street in Norcross. Admission is free. Artists were challenged to construct images from a list of unrelated objects to explore their reaction to disparate items.

"Still Life," an exhibit of the work of the last year of David Gentry, is open at the Pinckneyville Park Community Recreation Center, 4650 Peachtree Industrial Boulevard. His work includes memory snapshots in ceramics, metalwork, painting, drawing and photography. A reception will be held Dec. 1 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. For more info, visit www.gwinnettparks.com.

Colored Pencil Odyssey exhibition of six artists: Now through Nov. 25, St. Edward's Episcopal Church, 737 Moon Road in Lawrenceville. These 24 drawings are from members of the Atlanta chapter of the Colored Pencil Society. The gallery is free to the public, with viewing hours 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. on Sunday. For more information, call 770-963-6128.

(NEW) Old Town Holiday Festival and Caboose Lighting: 6:30 p.m., Dec. 2, in Suwanee. Choral performances, hot chocolate, cookies and hot dogs, plus Santa's arrival.

(NEW) 30th Anniversary Production of The Nutcracker by the Gwinnett Ballet Theater: Dec. 2 through Dec 18, Gwinnett Performing Arts Center in Duluth. Over 150 dancers will be on stage for the 16 shows, with cast members from age 4 to adults. For more information, contact the GBT office at 770-978-0188 or visit the Web site at www.gwinnettballet.org.

(NEW) A Christmas Carol: The Radio Show: Dec. 2 through Dec. 18, New London Theatre in Snellville. WFAT Diet Radio in Snellville has hired a new theatrical troupe to put together a lively holiday version of the Christmas classic. For more details and to buy tickets, call 770-559-1484 or email here.

(NEW) Civil War Holiday Program at McDaniel Farm Park: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Dec. 3. This fourth annual program takes guests back to December, 1862, as Gwinnettians are on furlough to spend Christmas with their family. This is presented by the Gwinnett Environmental and Heritage Center. Admission is $5 per person, with children under three free. For details, visit www.gwinnettEHC.org.

(NEW) Safe Teen Driving Course: 6:30 p.m., Dec. 6, Suwanee Police Department. This is a two-hour course to encourage safe teen driving habits. Applications are at www.suwanee.com, and are due by November 28; space is limited.

(NEW) Appreciation Reception for retiring Duluth City Councilman Doug Mundrick: 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., Dec. 12, Duluth City Hall Community Room.

(NEW) Georgia Leadership Luncheon: 11:30 a.m., Dec. 14, at The Gwinnett Center. Speaker will be Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle. Sponsored by the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce.

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