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Duluth mayor cites city advances, what's
coming in 2007
By
Alissa Williams
Special to GwinnettForum.com
DULUTH, Ga. Feb. 27, 2007 -- The Duluth Civitan Club hosted over
160 people at the annual "State of the City" address by
Mayor Shirley Lasseter at the Public Safety Facility located on
Buford Highway on February 13.
Mayor Lasseter highlighted accomplishments in 2006 and gave a view
of upcoming projects for 2007 and beyond. Tours were given of the
new Public Safety Facility. Those attending voiced being impressed
by both the Public Safety building and all the events and activities
that Duluth had going on and planned for the future.
Lasseter |
Key accomplishment of 2006 that Mayor Lasseter highlighted was
the completion of Phase II of the Downtown Redevelopment Plan, which
included new sidewalks, streetscape, lighting, realignment of Main
Street and a decorative fence around the historic cemetery.
Another major accomplishment was the Gwinnett Medical Center-Duluth
opening its doors as the area's first "all-digital" hospital.
Also a key move during 2006 was the hiring of the city's first public
information director, an addition which will help keep the community
informed about activities in Duluth and encourage more community
involvement.
As part of the community involvement initiative started in 2006,
"Cookies and Council Town Hall Meetings" are now being
held quarterly. Citizens can come to ask questions and voice their
opinions to the Council and city staff in a relaxed, informal atmosphere.
E-mails are now also being sent about events and news in the city.
To get these e-mails coming to you, sign up at www.duluthga.net.
The Public Safety Center and Heery International garnered two awards
for Duluth in 2006, the "Best Public Project for the Southeast
Region" and the "Design Build Project of the Year for
the Southeast," presented by the Design Build Institute of
America.
Projects on tap for the city in 2007 and beyond are the completion
of the new City Hall; construction of a downtown Living Memorial;
community participation in a mosaic that will be placed in the entrance
to the new City Hall; road improvements to help traffic flow and
connectivity around downtown and Duluth High School; and the construction
of private sector developments, two of which are mixed use developments
in downtown -- one on the current City Hall block and the other
across from the amphitheater.
The "State of the City" address is an annual event. Sponsors
of the annual address for 2007 were Gwinnett Community Bank, Mickey
Hipps Lumber Company, and George Thorndyke.
Proceeds from the event go back into the community to help fund
worthwhile organizations.
Former Gwinnettian authors new book on Georgia
quilting
By
Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com
FEB. 27, 2007 --When growing up in middle Georgia, during the winter,
quilts were to keep us warm in bed. The colder it got, the more
quilts were piled on, since you measured the weather with the number
of quilts weighing you down. Their heaviness turned me against quilts
at an early age. But they were what we had.
Brack |
Even weighed down with quilts, you still were cold, since there
was little good insulation in housing, no central heat and cotton
quilts that offered little warmth. Cotton doesn't have the insulation
qualities of wool blankets, which we could only covet, for we probably
couldn't afford them. (Southern quilts, we have learned, are heavier
than northern quilts, since northern homes were heated better than
ours.)
We remember the ladies of our family pulling out the quilting frames,
and laboriously hand stitching quilts, getting in a few hundred
stitches each night. Today machines can turn out in five minutes
what took them five weeks. But those women had something the machines
do not: they were stitching their love for their family members
into the quilts.
We never considered the making of quilts as an art. They were just
our cover.
A former Gwinnett resident now in Atlanta, Anita Weintraub, has
done more for quilting in Georgia than any person we know. She organized
the Atlanta Games Olympic Quilts, making sure each nation took two
Georgia quilts home.
Now she's published a beautiful, thorough 304-page book, Georgia
Quilts. The hardback sells for $54.95, and the paperback for 34.95.
There are 200 color and 65 black and white photos, those contributed
by Anita's late husband, Bill.
The book grew out of the Georgia Quilt Project. It showcases the
diversity of quilting materials, methods and patterns used from
the 19th century to present times.
Anita says of her new book, which took 12 years to produce "on
and off."
"We had done too much work to abandon it. It took a year and
a half to get the book back into shape, do the editing, write the
captions and gather the art. Having the UGA Press as the publisher
means the book is accessible for longer than commercial publishers.
"There were difficulties, the multi-author format, people
on different schedules, with different commitments. After 12 years,
people had moved and died; each had to be tracked down."
The Georgia Quilt Project began in 1989 out of the North Georgia
Quilt Council. Eventually they had 76 Quilt History dates around
the state, inviting people to share their quilts, and documenting
10,000 quilts at more than 40 locations. "We had to turn people
away every Quilt History day."
Back during the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, where Anita was living
then, "It hit me that in four years the Olympics were going
to come to Atlanta, and we needed to do something special. One letter
to Billy Payne started it all. We ended up getting 400 people to
sign a pledge to make quilts, giving two to each country, one to
the head of the mission and the other to the flag bearer. We wanted
it to be a person-to-person gift." Each of the quilts was 54x70
inches, and cost the quilter an estimated $100."
Today Georgia quilts are no longer plain bed coverings, but artistic
and beautifully designed interpretations of life. If you're into
quilts, you'll love Anita's book. It's a tremendous legacy for the
future, documenting what one idea can do to help present Georgia
quilt art to the world.
 The
public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com
to you at no cost to readers. Today's sponsor is First National
Insurance, located at 1689 Duluth Highway, Lawrenceville. The
firm, with roots going back to its founding in 1995, offers multi-lines
in insurance and financial services, including auto, home, recreational,
commercial and group benefits programs. It is the representative
of several old-line insurance companies, including Travelers, Hartford,
Auto-owners, Allied, Blue Cross-Blue Shield and Zurich firms. Call
First National Insurance at 770 513-2264.
Questions Forum saying
U.S. "bought" California land
Editor, the Forum:
I demand that you an apology for publishing that falsehood that
the United States of America had gone about "buying land."
They did no such thingy for California.
They bought out Mexico's claims to administer that property, and
I use the word "that" reluctantly. It was years later
when two surveys were made to determine the border, and those, of
course, did not agree. You might want to publish that story, since
there are now so many thousands of parcels in Gwinnett County.
The above matter was definitively settled previously in Georgia,
whose claims of administration extended to the Mississippi River.
After the United States made (falsely) treaty with the Cherokee
people, they intimidated many pioneers to pay into the US treasury
for every acre, every fence, every cleared acre, every building
, etc, on what was obviously the private property of those pioneers.
(My family, on most of all eight sides were some of those early
pioneers, going back maybe to 1700 . Back then, migration was in
groups of families, and to this very day, I am well acquainted with
many of their descendents. (I think the easiest way to ruin friendship
among families is to intermarry!)
Well, I think I am writing to you about the union political movement.
Many of those pioneers who double, and fifteen times PAID for the
same identical property, successfully got the officers of the United
States to realize their mistake of having thought they had bought
any land at all.
Therefore, in "the purchase of the Louisiana territory, the
USA dropped that ridiculous notion that you might try to resurrect:
i.e., that they had purchased any land.
Elliott, if you don't shape up, I think I will recall Mimi Boaz
to sing at The Aurora another round of This Land Is Your Land, This
Land Is My Land. That song was originally written by the Prophet:
Tenskwatawa. You might be willing to know that he is prophet, because
his words have endured from the year 1805.
Now, please make the hasty retraction , before some boogie woogie
gets played at the Aurora.
Oh! I wish I was still in Oakwood, Gwinnett County!
-- Howard H. Finch, Bremen
Dear Howard: Glad you are reading closely. I
agree with you, especially since I am reading Howard Sides' Blood
and Thunder, which tells of Fremont and Kearney's forays into
California, and how that acquisition came about. I misspoke, and
apologize to you and other who might have felt uncomfortable about
it. --eeb
Remembers German POW
camps at his hometown of Jesup
Editor, the Forum:
Going through some of your commentary, I re-read the one about the
prisoner of war camps in Georgia.
There was one in Jesup, in the area where the Farmers Market is
now located. We kids would ride our bicycles down to the overpass
on U.S. Highway 301, (called First street now) and wave to the prisoners
as they passed in trucks headed to the fields in Wayne County, on
work details.
It was very exciting for nine year olds! The Germans always waved
back. Of course, we were always patriotic, but felt sorry for the
men so far from home.
-- David Earl Tyre, Jesup
County
offers symposium for potential suppliers April 13
Gwinnett County's Purchasing Division will hold an all-day symposium
on April 13 to acquaint potential suppliers with the County's procurement
procedures.
Purchasing Director Scott Callan says: "Gwinnett County is
a $1.3 billion dollar-a-year consumer and it is time that the business
community takes note. Businesses that bid to provide goods or services
have a stable consumer in us."
Beginning at 9:30 a.m. at the Gwinnett Justice and Administration
Center Auditorium, the morning session will focus on how to do business
with the County. In the afternoon, participants will break into
smaller groups focusing on construction and capital projects, small
business opportunities, and technology and procurement.
Callan says: "Our commitment to the taxpayers of Gwinnett
is to spend their money wisely, so we're working to increase the
number of suppliers vying for our business." The symposium
will introduce potential suppliers and vendors to buyers and contracting
officers and explain the local government's bidding procedures and
requirements.
Current projects open for bidding are available online at www.gwinnettcounty.com
under the Financial Services department along with explanations
of bidding procedures.
Sorority reactivation
soirée set in Gwinnett on March 24
The Upsilon Alpha Omega Graduate Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority,
Inc. is preparing for their annual Reactivation Soiree on Saturday,
March 24, at 1 p.m. at the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center.
Alpha Kappa Alpha will mark 100 years of service in 2008. It was
the first African-American Greek letter organization for college-
educated women and was founded on the campus of Howard University
in 1908.
Upsilon Alpha Omega Graduate Chapter was chartered in Gwinnett County
in 1994. For more information log on to www.upsilonalphaomega.com
or contact Mary Matthews at 770-808-6606 or Andria Freemont at 678-468-1869.
Dream
House of Lilburn gets $15,000 from Jackson EMC
Caring for any child is a serious responsibility, and caring for
a child with special healthcare needs requires training and special
skills to provide the necessary quality of care.
From
left are Dream Jeff Jansma and Linnea Roe, accepting a $15,000
check from Jackson EMC Gwinnett District manager Roger Willis
and Jackson EMC Foundation board members Beauty Baldwin and
Joyce Britt. The funds will be used by the Lilburn organization
to provide skills training to those who care for special needs
children. |
Jeff Jansma of Dream House for Medically Fragile Children, a Lilburn
organization that provides education and support to those who care
for such children, says "There is no other training like this
in our state to help care for special needs children."
Dream House for Medically Fragile Children has been awarded a $15,000
grant from the Jackson EMC Foundation for its "Family for Keeps"
program. Started in 2005, the program provides training and a skills
lab for family members, foster parents, teachers and others who
are or plan to be caregivers for special needs children.
Skills lab training covers operation and maintenance of medical
equipment, food and medicine schedules and identification of problems
that require a physician's care. Dream House graduated almost 70
caregivers from the program in 2006.
Jackson EMC Foundation grants are funded by the "spare change"
from the Operation Round Up program, which rounds up participating
cooperative members' monthly electric bills to the next dollar amount.
Over 90 percent of Jackson EMC's more than 189,000 individual accounts
participate in Operation Round Up.
Grant applications from organizations and individuals are reviewed
and grants awarded by the Foundation's volunteer board of directors.
Since the beginning of the program in October 2005, the Foundation
has awarded more than $1,115,660 in grants to 99 organizations and
34 individuals.
- 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
GALILEO
is comprehensive online library service
GALILEO
( an acronym for "GeorgiA LIbrary LEarning Online"), a
project of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia,
has provided online access to library materials to the state of
Georgia since 1995. GALILEO is Georgia's virtual library, with electronic
books, periodicals, journals, magazines, newspapers, such reference
materials as encyclopedias, and special collections, and access
to Georgia's library catalogs. Through collaboration and resource
sharing, GALILEO provides universal access to library materials
and information for all Georgia citizens. It does not replace the
library but complements the services offered by libraries.
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The primary objective of GALILEO is to utilize available technology
to electronically deliver uniform and universal access to extensive
educational resources to everyone in Georgia. The intent is to make
it easier for libraries to share resources and to equalize access
to information throughout the state. Through the use of sophisticated
technology, GALILEO connects all of Georgia's communities regardless
of location or economic considerations.
GALILEO's history began in August 1994, when the University System
of Georgia's chancellor, Stephen Portch, asked his advisory staff
to consider how they would spend $20 million. The staff and system
librarians suggested that funds be allocated to enhance systemwide
library services, especially databases offering full-text materials-a
complicated idea that librarians had long been pursuing. The chancellor
was excited by the prospect of providing vastly improved, wide-ranging
information services and superior library access to system students,
faculty, and staff, and potentially to all Georgia citizens.
GALILEO made its debut on September 21, 1995, just 150 days after
the governor and legislature approved funding. Initial access was
for University System of Georgia faculty and its more than 200,000
students. The founders anticipated that in later years other educational
entities would want to participate. Because GALILEO was instantly
popular, however, within six months some private academic institutions
requested to join the GALILEO family. All Georgia citizens now have
access to GALILEO from school libraries, public libraries, and home
computers. GALILEO has been hailed as one of the earliest and most
comprehensive statewide library systems in existence in the United
States today.
Thoughts about mad
dogs, mad women, mad notion
"Every man is wise when attacked by a mad dog; fewer when
pursued by a mad woman; only the wisest survive when attacked by
a mad notion."
-- Canadian Author Robertson Davies (1913-1995)
Send your thoughts, 55-word short stories, pet peeves
or comments on any issue to Gwinnett
Forum for future publication.
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MORE: Contact Gwinnett Forum at: elliott@gwinnettforum.com
© 2007, 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.
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