OUT LOOK A glimpse at what 2015 holds for Gwinnett’s government, schools and economy New schools opening in August signal return of growth For the first time since 2010, Gwinnett County Public Schools is opening a new high school in August. The school, Discovery High on Old Norcross Road in Lawrenceville, is the crown jewel of what will be a new cluster and one of four schools opening next school year. Opening the four schools caused the district to redistrict students in an effort to balance enrollment and set new attendance zones. Redistricting affected 33 existing schools, including two schools being reassigned, and about 14,000 students. The Gwinnett County School Board heard criticism late last year about how the redis- tricting plans were made and maps drawn. In part because of the number of critics who attended School Board meetings, the district expanded its passive transfer policies for af- fected schools. The new high school means the district will have a 19th cluster, and its opening signals the end of a relatively slow period of growth in the school district. The district now counts more than 173,000 students as rapid growth has returned in a flurry in recent years. The district has counted more than 8,000 new students in the last two years alone. Since 2005, the district has grown by more than 37,000 students. District officials have said in previous years that the growth slowdown gave them a chance to catch their breath and play catch-up. The gap in constructing new schools was planned and tied to funding. Moore Middle opened in 2011 as part of Phase II of the building program funded by general obliga- tion bonds approved in 2008. Northbrook Middle, which opened in August, was the first new school opening in Phase III, which is funded by the renewal of the special local op- tion sales tax approved by voters in 2011. The 2012-13 school year was the first time in more than a decade that the district did not open a new facility. The new schools that are named after people are named after a former mayor and two long-time educators. The new elementary school at 2136 Old Norcross Road in Lawrenceville will be named after Boyd Quillian Baggett, who was a long-time principal in Gwinnett and retired as a central office administrator. Baggett was principal of Bethesda School from 1948-53, Lawrenceville High from 1954-57 and the first principal of Central Gwinnett High, where he served from 1957-64. In 1986, Baggett was recognized as Gwin- nett’s Senior Citizen of the Year. The new Meadowcreek cluster elementary school at 1700 Graves Road in Norcross will be named for Avery Anderson Graves, who at one time lived on Graves Road. Along with Gwinnett, Graves also worked in DeKalb and Gordon counties. He was a teacher and a coach, and his career began in the 1920s at Glover School, but he also taught at Grayson School in the 1930s. Graves was superintendent of Calhoun City Schools from 1951 to 1959, and credited for restoring the accreditation status for Lilburn School as its principal in the 1960s. The new middle school at 8 Village Way in Lawrenceville will be named for a former mayor of the city, H. Rhodes Jordan, who served as mayor from 1963-68, 1975-78, 1981-84 and 1987-88. He was a World War II veteran and practiced law for 52 years. Construction is finishing up on the new high school in Lawrenceville, Discovery High on Old Norcross Road, one of four schools to open in August. (File Photo) BY KEITH FARNER [email protected]ANNUAL PROGRESS EDITION Gwinnett Daily Post • Sunday, February 22, 2015 INSIDE Education......................................2D Atlanta Media Campus .................2D Gwinnett Courts ............................3D Gwinnett Police.............................3D Gwinnett Coalition ........................4D Gwinnett Arena .............................5D Greater Gwinnett Championship ..6D Gwinnett Tech ...............................7D Georgia Gwinnett College Sports .7D Hospitals .......................................8D Diversity ........................................8D County Government .....................9D
Transcript
OUTLOOKA glimpse at what 2015 holds for Gwinnett’s government,schools and economy
New schools opening in
August signal return of growth
For the first time since 2010, Gwinnett County Public Schools is opening a new high school in August. The school, Discovery High on Old Norcross Road in Lawrenceville, is the crown jewel of what will be a new cluster and one of four schools opening next school year.
Opening the four schools caused the district to redistrict students in an effort to balance enrollment and set new attendance zones. Redistricting affected 33 existing schools, including two schools being reassigned, and about 14,000 students.
The Gwinnett County School Board heard criticism late last year about how the redis-tricting plans were made and maps drawn. In part because of the number of critics who attended School Board meetings, the district expanded its passive transfer policies for af-fected schools.
The new high school means the district will have a 19th cluster, and its opening signals the end of a relatively slow period of growth in the school district.
The district now counts more than 173,000 students as rapid growth has returned in a flurry in recent years. The district has counted more than 8,000 new students in the last two years alone. Since 2005, the district has grown by more than 37,000 students.
District officials have said in previous years that the growth slowdown gave them a chance to catch their breath and play catch-up.
The gap in constructing new schools was planned and tied to funding. Moore Middle opened in 2011 as part of Phase II of the building program funded by general obliga-tion bonds approved in 2008. Northbrook Middle, which opened in August, was the first new school opening in Phase III, which is funded by the renewal of the special local op-tion sales tax approved by voters in 2011.
The 2012-13 school year was the first time in more than a decade that the district did not open a new facility.
The new schools that are named after people are named after a former mayor and two long-time educators.
The new elementary school at 2136 Old Norcross Road in Lawrenceville will be named after Boyd Quillian Baggett, who was
a long-time principal in Gwinnett and retired as a central office administrator. Baggett was principal of Bethesda School from 1948-53, Lawrenceville High from 1954-57 and the first principal of Central Gwinnett High, where he served from 1957-64.
In 1986, Baggett was recognized as Gwin-nett’s Senior Citizen of the Year.
The new Meadowcreek cluster elementary school at 1700 Graves Road in Norcross will be named for Avery Anderson Graves, who at one time lived on Graves Road. Along with Gwinnett, Graves also worked in DeKalb and Gordon counties. He was a teacher and a coach, and his career began in the 1920s at Glover School, but he also taught at Grayson School in the 1930s.
Graves was superintendent of Calhoun City Schools from 1951 to 1959, and credited for restoring the accreditation status for Lilburn School as its principal in the 1960s.
The new middle school at 8 Village Way in Lawrenceville will be named for a former mayor of the city, H. Rhodes Jordan, who served as mayor from 1963-68, 1975-78, 1981-84 and 1987-88. He was a World War II veteran and practiced law for 52 years.
Georgia Gwinnett College Sports .7DHospitals .......................................8DDiversity ........................................8DCounty Government .....................9D
outlook 20152D SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2015 • gwinnettdailypost.com
Critics demand changes to AP history classDiscussions about
Advanced Placement U.S. History have moved from classrooms full of juniors in high school, and are now underway at school board meetings and under the Gold Dome.
At issue is what critics have bellowed is at the very least an omission of key facts, and could be a biased and inaccurate view of many important facets of American history. The AP U.S. History course, commonly called “APUSH” is administered by the College Board, which in recent months has solicited
feedback to “propose evidence-based changes to the AP U.S. History curriculum frame-work.”
Discussion of the merits of the course have been raised in a State Senate resolution that “demands revision of the course.” That resolution labels the revised framework as a “radically revisionist view of American history that emphasizes negative as-pects of our nation’s history while omitting or minimiz-
ing positive aspects.”The resolution also
adds that the framework minimizes discussion of the founding fathers, prin-ciples of the Declaration of Independence and religious influences in the nation’s history.
Several Gwinnett residents have attended the last three Gwinnett County Board of Education meetings and echoed the sentiments in the Senate resolution.
“The new APUSH cur-riculum portrays all the bad and ugly, never the good about U.S. history,” resi-dent Kathy Hildebrand said in December. “The result is
an America that is riddled with racism, violence, hy-pocrisy, greed, imperialism and injustice.”
Also in December, resi-dent Bruce Duncil spoke about the textbook “Out of Many,” which gives students “the worldview they are forced to swallow, regurgitate and acknowl-edge.” Duncil gave School Board members a one-page handout that outlined his concerns with the book and how he said it contradicted founding documents and misrepresents the nation’s founding principles.
He also called it pro-paganda that furthers a political agenda that is pro-
Marxist and anti-American.These opinions have
grown since the framework was revised in 2012. In Colorado, South Caro-lina and Texas, there have been similar resolutions or protests that demand changes. The Republican National Committee has also adopted a resolution that denounces it.
New State School Super-intendent Richard Woods has joined the chorus. In a statement, Woods said he has “deep concerns” about the framework and sup-ports the Senate resolution.
“Any opportunity for our academic or our nation’s historical integrity to be
eroded must not be al-lowed,” Woods said. “One important issue to note in Georgia is that all students, including our Advanced Placement students, must take the state end of course test in U.S. History. That means, regardless of what may be missing from the AP frameworks, our students will be taught the foundational principles found in our Georgia stan-dards and will be required to demonstrate that knowl-edge on our state test. This will provide our state the ability to address some of the APUSH shortcomings. However, more must be done.”
By Keith Farnerkeith.farner @gwinnettdailypost.com
Richard Woods
Atlanta Media Campus to take large leaps in 2015
If things go as planned, 2015 will be the year that Gwinnett County officially becomes home to the larg-est American movie studio outside of California.
Atlanta Media Cam-pus, a sprawling 114-acre development near the Norcross intersection of Jimmy Carter Boule-vard and Interstate 85, is scheduled to be up and running later this year. The project will include a movie studio, film school, student housing, residential space, offices, hotels, retail and, according to officials involved, the largest studio backlot in the country.
A specific timeline has not been released — and attempts to touch base with project leader Jacoby Development were unsuc-cessful — but the plan is to have a large portion open sometime this summer.
“The school wants to be open, big players want to be up and operating in June,” Jacoby Development chairman Jim Jacoby said last year. “Probably in early summer, we’ll be able to do
something major.”Several movies have al-
ready filmed at the site, which is home to fiber optic cable manufacturer OFS, and California-based Manhattan Beach
Studios has signed on to handle marketing, leasing and management duties.
That said, the $1 bil-lion project is far from complete. Previously
released renderings show a series of futuristic-looking buildings that are yet to be built, and new construction on the site is relatively non-existent at this point.
When it’s all complet-ed, officials believe it will serve as an attractive incentive for production companies and add to the movie industry momen-tum that’s already build-ing across the state. Doz-ens of big-name movies have been filmed in Georgia — and Gwinnett County — since Gov. Nathan Deal introduced tax credits to capture the industry’s attention.
Jacoby has previously claimed that the Norcross development could create as many as 18,000 jobs in metro Atlanta, includ-ing 9,800 in Gwinnett. Total economic output, Jacoby claimed, could eclipsed $2.2 billion.
“This is very exciting for the entire community, for metropolitan Atlan-ta,” Gwinnett Chamber President Dan Kaufman said in August. “It really is going to cement Georgia’s place in the film industry.”
The OFS site at Jimmy Carter Boulevard and Interstate 85 will soon be home to a 114-acre movie campus. (Artist Rendering)
outlook 2015SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2015 3D •gwinnettdailypost.com
New accountability court to serve veteransThere are roughly 80
military veterans currently housed at the Gwinnett County jail. They’ve lost their way and run afoul of the law, sure — but Karen Beyers believes they’ve earned as much help as can be provided.
“I think we owe it to our veterans to give them every opportunity to get healthy,” the Gwinnett County supe-rior court judge said.
Beyers is the leader of Gwinnett County’s mental health court — an alter-nate-sentencing, treatment-based accountability pro-gram — and, as the wife of an Army Ranger, has a soft spot for veterans. She also knows that the overwhelm-ing majority of servicemen and -women who wind up in legal trouble can directly attribute their problems to the residual effects of their time in the military.
So, with the help of the district attorney’s office and several other inter-ested parties, she started a veteran’s court.
“We’ve evolved,” Beyers said, “to realizing that we need to do something other than locking people up and throwing away the key.”
The new program, which started in January, follows in the footsteps of other Gwinnett accountabil-ity courts — drug, DUI,
mental health — and in many ways will operate similarly: veterans who have committed felony crimes due to drug, alcohol or mental health issues will have the opportunity to avoid jail time while getting the treatment they need. Group meetings, self-help classes and court dates will be involved.
Like mental health court, the new program will take participants at
least 18 months to com-plete, but it will have several aspects geared toward helping veterans in particular. The inclu-sion of fellow veterans as mentors will be key, as will helping servicemen and women navigate the complicated VA benefits system.
“It’s hard to do that all by yourself, especially when you have a drug problem or when you have a mental illness,” said Priscilla Daniels, the director of Gwinnett’s ac-countability courts.
Daniels said earlier this month that the program currently has two pend-ing referrals. Beyers said capacity will eventually be set at 30 participants.
Ellen Gerstein is the director of the Gwinnett Coalition, which re-cently launched a veteran resource center. She said she wasn’t familiar with the ins and outs of the new
accountability court but called it a “great concept” and “a way for us to honor those who have given to our country and recognize some of their particular unique issues because of that service.”
Retired U.S. Army Sgt. Maj. Greg Kendall, the public affairs officer for the Atlanta VA Medical Center, also praised veter-ans court programs.
“I think veterans courts provide a great service, especially considering that a majority of veterans had no criminal history before joining the military,” Ken-dall wrote in an email. “A major part of the program are the mentors, veterans themselves — who often saw combat — who spon-sor the veterans outside of court. This kind of the camaraderie really helps.”
Officials expect to see a lot of veterans from recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, though Beyers
said they’re also consider-ing a potential participant who served in the 1970s. Though veterans accused of committing “major” crimes will not be consid-ered, the alleged offenses of participants will likely run the gamut, from as-sault and theft to drug possession.
The expectation is that most will be tied to drug and alcohol abuse as a result of post-traumatic stress disorder.
“We work with the VA hospitals, local treatment agencies to get these veterans involved in treat-ment, to get these veterans the benefits that they’re owed,” Daniels said. “And to work through all of these issues that they’ve had in order to help them get the treatment that they need, get the medications that they need, get the help that they need so they can become productive mem-bers of society.”
New chief attempting to tackle GCPD’s attrition issues
Butch Ayers took over as chief of the Gwinnett County Police Department in October. A 30-year vet-eran of the force, he likes to tell folks he “jumped off into the deep end of the pool.”
“You never know exactly what’s involved in a job un-til you actually step into it,” he said recently, laughing. “It’s made for long days.”
Ayers may not have known the specific ins and outs of the job before taking the leap — but he was well
aware of the biggest issue he would be facing.
For sev-eral years now, the Gwinnett
County Police Department has been battling the tide of attrition, embodied by a steady wave of officers leaving for higher pay of-fered by other metro Atlanta agencies. During last fall’s budget hearings, Ayers told county officials that the de-partment had a total of 109
vacancies.Four months later, he fig-
ures that number is roughly the same.
The hope, though, is that a 4 percent raise for officers, approved in the 2015 county budget, will get things mov-ing in the right direction. It’s the department’s first pay-for-performance raise in years and, when coupled with last year’s 3 percent cost of living bump, Ayers is optimistic it will help keep cops in Gwinnett.
“Is it gonna stop (attri-tion) in its tracks?” Ayers said. “We’re only in the
beginning part of February. Ask me again in 10 months and I’ll be able to give you a better answer.”
Ayers said during the aforementioned budget hearings that GCPD’s starting salary of $38,777 for certified officers was the second-lowest among a survey of 14 metro agencies. Gwinnett County puts aspir-ing officers through training, a process that takes up to 12 months. Smaller depart-ments don’t do that, Ayers said, meaning they can often devote more money to salaries.
Officials estimate that, in salary and benefits alone, it costs the county some-where between $34,000 and $49,000 to replace officers poached by other depart-ments.
“This is not something that you’re gonna solve through just hiring more people,” Ayers said. “You can hire people all day long, but if you don’t address the other end of the issue, then you’re not gonna make very much headway.”
To that end, Ayers said the department has rein-stated tuition reimbursement
programs for officers who wish to go back to school. There are also salary bumps for officers with associates, bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
Ayers, touting himself as the fourth consecutive police chief that began his career with GCPD, said his depart-ment has plenty to offer — top-notch equipment and mobility within the depart-ment included.
“At the end of the day,” he said, “we do a very good job with the tools and the personnel that we have at our disposal.”
The Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center is now home to a veterans accountability court. (Special Photo)
outlook 20154D SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2015 • gwinnettdailypost.com
Gwinnett Coalition focusing on three themes
The Gwinnett Coali-tion for Health & Human Services has been working to improve the community for over 20 years with the mission to facilitate col-laboration that improves the community’s well-being.
The organization runs a number of programs including the Gwinnett Neighborhood Leader-ship Institute, the leader-ship initiative The CEO Roundtable and the Gwinnett Helpline, which receives 25,000 calls a year. The Coalition also founded Great Days of Service 14 years ago The event started with 10 proj-ects and 100 volunteers and grew to include 300 projects, 129 participat-ing schools that collected 85,000 food and personal care items, 68 participat-ing agencies and 27 spon-sors in 2014.
According to Associate Director Regina Miller, even though a lot has been accomplished throughout the years, there is still a lot of work ahead. The Coalition has set 13 main goals in its 2014-2018 strategic plan, but Miller said over the next year the community will see a strong focus on three areas — homelessness, poverty among senior citizens and child sexual abuse and sex trafficking.
“We have a huge homeless problem and one of the things that’s inadequate right now is our resources for these folks to be able to go,” Miller said. “You do have agencies that are meeting the needs like Rainbow
Village and other centers helping to meet the needs but it’s never enough until we can help every fam-ily that’s living in their
vehicle or having chal-lenges.”
The Coalition’s strate-gic plan states they plan to address homelessness
within the community by ensuring all Gwinnett individuals, families and communities have access to housing. The organiza-
tion will accomplish this by working to increase the number of available emer-gency housing beds and transitional housing units over the next few years.
“Many of our agencies are also trying to address the increase of seniors, and we have a huge popu-lation here in Gwinnett. On the flip side of that we have a large population that’s low-income poverty seniors,” Miller said.
The Coalition will partner over the next few years with committees like the Senior Issues Action Team to ensure Gwinnett senior citizens have an information resource of affordable and accessible housing. They will also work with the Emergency Assistance Action Team, utilizing community gardens and co-ops to help provide food for low-income seniors.
The Coalition helped
launch the Child Sexual Assault Prevention initia-tive last year in order to address the growing issues of child sexual abuse and eventually sex trafficking in Gwinnett. The initiative is work-ing to provide Darkness to Light’s Stewards of Children training, which offers practical evidence-informed prevention train-ing, to adults in Gwinnett. The CSAP has set the goal of training 28,531 adults in Gwinnett, and as of January they had trained 2,139 stewards, which is 7.5 percent of the total goal.
“This is an issue we are really trying to put out there because we know it’s critical and not only to get it (the training) into the schools but also Parks and Rec., mentoring pro-grams, to everyone who comes into contact with a child,” Miller said.
Miller believes it takes more than one person to tackle an issue, it takes an entire village. She said it’s important to continue to grow leadership in Gwinnett over the next year, especially among the younger generation.
“We are trying to grow leadership at that grass-roots level but also we’re meeting that generation of students coming through. It’s amazing to see what these students are doing,” Miller said. “They are find-ing so many unique ways to utilize technology and that’s going to really push service and take it into the next stage.”
For more information about the Gwinnett Coali-tion for Health & Human Services, visit gwinnettco-alition.org.
A group of eighteen including students, faculty and staff from Gwinnett Technical College and community volun-teers work to beautify the Salvation Army community garden during the 2014 Gwinnett Great Days of Service event. (Staff Photo: Katie Morris)
Brittany Nguyen, 14, and other volunteers trek through the woods while cleaning around Jackson Creek near Lucky Shoals Park in Norcross during the 2014 Great Days of Service. (Staff Photo: David Welker)
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outlook 2015
Fans wait for Eric Church to take the stage during his sold-out concert at the Arena at Gwinnett Center December 2014. (Photo: Kyle Hess)
Arena to continue offering diverse entertainment acts
Since its grand opening 12 years ago, the Arena at Gwinnett Center has brought a mix of entertain-ment to the community, from sporting events and concerts to cultural and spiritual conferences. According to Gwinnett Center general manager, Joseph Dennis, the num-ber of events the popular venue hosts in a year has remained steady, but it has seen growth in certain areas.
From 2013 to 2014, the Arena increased the amount of family-friendly entertain-ment events — audiences were offered family shows like Nickelodeon’s The Fresh Beat Band, Disney On Ice Celebrates 100 years of Magic and “Marvel Uni-verse Live!” in 2014. This year, local families will be able to catch shows like Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s “Legends” and Disney On Ice’s “Worlds of Fantasy.”
Dennis also said there has been growth in the amount of non-traditional events hosted at the Arena like the Governor’s Inau-gural Ball, Leadercast and a talk from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. There has also been an increase in the number of events hosted at the Gwinnett Convention Center and Gwinnett Per-forming Arts Center, largely due to repeat clients.
“We are seeing more and more events come back to the facility because we work with each event individually to provide excellent customer service,” Dennis said in an email response. “We also saw our holiday and corporate social events more than double in the past two years. We do everything we can to make the process as simple as possible from the initial walk-through to the day of the event.”
More and more big name artists such as Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Ed Sheeran and Eric Church are choosing to bring their sold-out shows to the Arena. Dennis said the Arena does get a lot of recognition from perform-ers that have played the venue.
“We are also focused on creating strong relation-ships with event promoters and agents, and it’s through those relationships that we are able to secure great shows for the community,” Dennis said.
Patrons can expect another diverse lineup of events and performers next year including The Who, Barry Manilow, The Gwin-nett Gladiators, Atlanta Steam, Leadercast, Cheech & Chong and War and more shows will be added throughout the year. Den-
nis said they are always researching and building programming based on trends and interests within the market.
“While the event mix could change year-to-year, our mission remains the same and that is to stimu-late the economy of Gwin-nett County by providing a vehicle for the presentation of cultural, educational, entertainment, sporting and social events,” Dennis said.
According to Dennis, the Gwinnet Center is continually being updated and renovated in order to offer the best experience possible and also stay relevant within the conven-tion industry. Last year, the campus-wide bandwidth was upgraded and free Wi-Fi is offered in public areas of the convention center. He said the Center recognizes its patrons’
desire to “partcipate” at events through tweeting, posting images and sharing content on social media, so the efforts to provide a convenient, fast connection will continue moving into the new year.
“The Arena at Gwinnett Center has been a great venue for the community to gather with friends and family and enjoy top-notch entertainment for the past 12 years,” Dennis said. “We enjoy seeing our guests create memo-ries, whether it’s a child seeing an elephant for the first time or a first date at an Eric Church concert or watching your child gradu-ate, we plan to continue to enhance guest experiences for years to come.”
For more information about the Arena at Gwinnett Center, visit gwinnettcenter.com.
By Katie Morris
katie.morris @gwinnettdailypost.com
Eric Church performed a sold-out concert at the Arena at Gwinnett Center in December 2014. (File Photo)
Circus artists from around the world will perform daring stunts and bring audiences wonderous thrills when The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey presents “Leg-ends” at both The Arena at Gwinnett Center and Philips Arena this February. (Special Photo)
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2015 5D •gwinnettdailypost.com
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Greater Gwinnett Championship aiming higher
When professional golf returned to Gwin-nett County with the Champions Tour’s Greater Gwinnett Championship in 2013, organizers had a distinct plan on building the event’s profile.
“We’re in year three of our initial four-year contract,” said Stan Hall, executive director of the Gwinnett Sports Commis-sion. “The object (dur-ing the life of the initial contract) was to start a little slowly and then build every year.
“From spectator and attendance standpoints, I think this will be the biggest year ever. It takes a while for a new tourna-ment to establish itself, but everyone I’ve talked to says there’s more buzz about the tournament this year than ever before. That’s encouraging and exciting.”
Fans attending this year’s tournament, which tees off April 17 at TPC at Sugarloaf, and surrounding events will notice a few changes.
The most cosmetic of these changes has to do with the look of the 18th green, which will feature additional skyboxes, as well as new skyboxes for the 17th hole.
Others will be more widespread, such as the addition of Mellow Mush-room and QuikTrip to the list of the tournament’s corporate sponsors.
And Hall says both new sponsors will be paramount in new features that will appeal to a wide variety of fans.
“They’re really going to market it hard,” Hall said of Mellow Mushroom’s participation. “They’ve come up with something called the Chill Club, which is a fairly large-scale hospitality venue. … We’re very excited about it.
“We’ve also partnered with QT, (which) has also been active in (promoting the tournament) in all its retail locations.”
The Chill Club tent will be available to fans for $40 for a one-day pass and $95 for a three-day pass, and will include one compli-mentary beverage and Mel-low Mushroom meal.
Meanwhile, QT will sponsor a hospitality area of its own dedicated to veterans called the Patriots Outpost.
“It’ll be a nice place for (veterans and their families) to rest and relax during the tournament,” Hall said.
The Patriots Outpost is one of several initiatives for current service men and
women and veterans that the tournament is imple-menting this year.
In fact any current ac-tive duty personnel in the military, as well as national guard or reserve, can gain free admission for them-selves and their immedi-ate families with proper military ID cards.
In addition, military personnel will be able to purchase up to two guest tickets to $10 apiece. More information is available on the tournament’s website, greatergwinnettchampion-ship.com.
This year will also fea-ture the tournament’s first Media Day in which tour-nament organizers will in-vite many different media outlets from around metro Atlanta and beyond in an attempt to get the word out about the tournament and surrounding events.
While Hall is confident all the new features will make this year’s event even more fan friendly, the tournament’s success ulti-
mately comes down to the quality of golf played.
And like the first two years of the tournament, some of the top names on the Champions Tour are expected to be among this year’s field.
That starts with 2014 champion Miguel Angel Jimenez, who was a big hit with the gallery in winning his Champions Tour debut last year, has already com-mitted to return to TPC at Sugarloaf to defend his title.
“Our fear was that since he is (primarily) a European Tour player, he wouldn’t be back,” Hall said of Jimenez. “But he’s already confirmed that he will be back this year.” Other players tentatively scheduled to compete for the title this year include former majors winners Larry Mize, Bob Tway, Sandy Lyle and Bernhard Langer, who was also the winner of the inaugural Greater Gwinnett Champi-onship in 2013.
By DaviD FrieDlanDerdavid.friedlander @gwinnettdailypost.com
Spectators at this year’s Greater Gwinnett Cham-pionship golf tournament at TPC Sugarloaf in Duluth will have the op-tion of purchasing tickets to watch the tournament from Mellow Mushroom’s open-air tent. (File Photos)
Professional golfer Miguel Angel Jimenez competes in the second round of the Greater Gwinnett Championship golf tournament at TPC Sugarloaf in Duluth.
outlook 2015SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2015 7D •gwinnettdailypost.com
New Gwinnett Tech Alpharetta campus to meet health care, IT needs
On a piece of land in Northern Fulton County, construction continues on the newest location for Gwinnett Technical Col-lege. The area off of Old Milton Parkway in Al-pharetta will serve as a bit of a homecoming for the school, which previously only welcomed students to the Lawrenceville campus.
Gwinnett Tech served the area between 1984 and 2000 before Lanier Techni-cal College opened.
A groundbreaking
celebration, originally scheduled in November, is rescheduled for next month as officials hope for a better weather forecast. They will dig shovels into is a 25-acre parcel that will eventually be home to a 95,000-square-foot building, the heart of a $24 million campus set to open in January.
The campus will start with about 1,500 students and eventually count 10,000 in three buildings.
This first campus building will have three stories for classrooms and administrative offices.
The building will have 35 classrooms, including sev-eral “technology enhanced active learning rooms,” seven computer labs, three science labs, a library, bookstore, two 75-seat lecture halls, a “learning success center” and study areas on all three floors, plus offices for advising, financial aid and recruit-ing.
The campus is designed to meet the needs of a pre-viously underserved com-munity, Technical College System officials have said.
New Gwinnett Tech President D. Glen Cannon
has said one of his priori-ties is for the new campus to expand the school’s brand and reach across the north metro Atlanta region. It will allow the school to be a “regional power-house” in the Southeast and expand health and IT programs.
“Companies are looking for a sustainable qualified workforce and that’s our goal,” Cannon said. “To put people to work.”
When Gwinnett Tech’s service area was expanded to include North Fulton County in June 2010, the college indicated its inter-
est for a campus in the area.
In 2011, Gwinnett Tech began offering continuing education programs like building operator certifica-tion and patient care tech-nician. At the time, more than 250 residents took courses in Gwinnett Tech’s adult education program at the former Milton High School.
Its expanded course of-ferings with adult educa-tion, dual enrollment for high school students, a health IT program and soon plans to have a source coding program.
Cannon and officials from the Greater North Fulton Chamber of Com-merce have indicated that the needs for the area are IT and health care. That means courses to train lab technicians, and classes in imaging and nursing will be offered.
Other course offerings will include early child-hood care and education, computer sciences, life sciences, criminal, ac-counting, business admin-istration technology, basic science, patient care and assisting, and hotel, restau-rant and tourism.
By Keith Farnerkeith.farner @gwinnettdailypost.com
An artist rendering is pictured of a 95,000-square-foot building on a 25-acre parcel in Alpharetta that will serve as a new $24 million campus for Gwinnett Technical Col-lege set to open in January. (Special Photo)
GGC sports teams standing on a national stage
LAWRENCEVILLE — Last May, propelled into the NAIA world series in just their first season of play-off eligibility, the Georgia Gwinnett College Grizzlies were reminded not to take it for granted.
“You don’t know if you’re ever going to get there again,” GGC baseball head coach Brand Strom-dahl said. “It’s special and you better enjoy the mo-ment. Hopefully it gives our guys a taste of what we can do again.
“We told our guys from the day we won the region-al, in that dog pile on the mound, that this is a special opportunity. There are 10 teams that go to the World Series and 200-some odd teams in the country. It’s a special thing. But at the end of the day, that’s our goal.”
It was an impressive 2014 for the Grizzlies fledg-ling athletic program.
Six teams in four sports began competing for GGC in 2012-13 and none were playoff eligible that season. Last year, it wasn’t just the baseball team exploding into prominence.
Both tennis teams brought home national titles and are off to strong starts in defense of those champi-onships.
“I think winning the na-tional championship upped the bar for everybody,” tennis head coach Chase Hodges said. “In a way, it’s made us work harder. Be-cause I think it’s harder to defend a title that win one. We’ll find that out.”
The tennis teams were ranked No. 1 in the country in the preseason poll and are looking at a schedule which features matches against NCAA Division I opponents, top-ranked teams in both Division II and Division III as well
as some of the best teams in NAIA. In all, the two teams will take on over 20 opponents that are currently ranked in their respective division.
“Last year, the men had an undefeated season,” Hodges said. “If that was to
happen again, it’s going to be extremely difficult. I do know, especially with the schedule, we can’t overlook anybody.”
The GGC programs continue to make a name for themselves. The softball team aims to improve on
a 2014 which included 39 wins, an all-American selection for Cassidy Little-field and a postseason berth.
The soccer teams fol-lowed that up with record-setting seasons this fall.
The men, at one point ranked No. 9 in the country
went 12-3-2 and claimed their second Association of Independent Institutions title. In so doing, the Griz-zlies became the first league team to successfully defend their crown since Simon Fraser in 2010.
The NAIA awarded GGC
the No. 12 overall seed in the national tournament, which allowed the program to host Northwestern Ohio in the opening round. The Racers won the meeting and ultimately advanced to a national semifinal, but the match still signified yet another milestone for the young GGC program.
The women’s team was propelled to a third double-digit win season by a record-breaking offense
Paced by the goal-scoring ability of Nikki LeFevre and Grayson grad Mary Vernetti, the Grizzlies tal-lied a program-record 54 goals over 18 matches on the year, which accounted for the 16th-best per-match mark in the country. An eye-popping 18 different Grizzlies found the back of the net at least once, help-ing the Green and Gray to a 10-6-2 record and a second straight berth into the AII championship tournament.
In a short period, GGC has announced its pres-ence on the national stage and the Grizzlies have no intention of dropping the ball now.
“I think our expectations are always to win the World Series — whether or not you’re prepared right away,” Stromdahl said. “Last year’s team did an unbelievable job and they just had a huge amount of heart. It wasn’t necessarily talent that rode us through the playoffs. That team bonded. That was the good part about not being eligible that first year. The guys were hungry last year.
“The foundation has been laid. We have to build on that and try to exceed those expectations. Which is dif-ficult to do. Once at you’re at the top, sometimes it’s harder to stay there than it was to fight your way there in the first place. It’s a great place to be. I wouldn’t want it to be any other way.”
By Christine troyKechristine.troyke @gwinnettdailypost.com
Georgia Gwinnett’s Alex Roberts (25) delivers a pitch during Friday’s college baseball game against the Blue Moun-tain College Toppers at Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville. (Staff Photo: David Welker)
The Georgia Gwinnett College baseball team celebrates Thursday’s regional championship win which propelled the Grizzlies into the NAIA World Series.
outlook 20158D SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2015 • gwinnettdailypost.com
Gwinnett hospitals growing in 2015Gwinnett County’s hos-
pitals are poised for growth in 2015.
Both Gwinnett Medi-cal Center and Eastside Medical Center are beefing up their operations to give residents — and students — more options locally.
At GMC, the Law-renceville-based hospital plans to welcome its first class of five internal medi-cine residents in late June. More than 1,300 applica-tions came in for those five positions, according to the hospital. Residents will work at Academic Internal Medicine Partners, a new clinic, which opened Jan. 20, and is offering pre-op assessments for patients with complex health is-sues.
Eastside is also starting an 18-week nurse residen-cy program, beginning this month. Twenty-five spots were opened for the first class. Another class will follow in coming months. With new CEO Scott Schmidly and the chief nursing officer, the Snell-ville hospital has also been putting a general focus on improving nurse moral.
GMC administration also recently announced the further expansion of services at its Hamilton Mill campus in Dacula. The location now includes primary care, cardiac and women’s services and
walk-in care in addition to imaging facilities.
“Our mission is to
provide quality health services to our commu-nity,” Phil Wolfe, president
and CEO of GMC, said in a statement. “Based on that, it was important that
we grow along with the Hamilton Mill community to continually provide convenience and options in medical care.”
Notable additions in-clude the GMC Specialty Center, which provides cardiology physician ser-vices, cardiac testing and lab services for patients.
“Our lives can be so incredibly complex and sometimes medical care can be less of a prior-ity,” Dr. Manfred Sandler, GMC’s medical director of cardiovascular services and cardiologist, said in a statement. “It’s impor-tant our community have neighborhood access to experts who treat complex conditions.”
Eastside also has brag-ging rights from recently-released customer satisfac-tion ratings.
In January, the hospital reportedly ranked in the 87th percentile among hospitals nationwide for patient satisfaction, ac-cording to Press Ganey HCAHPS survey results. Hospital officials say this is the first time in the hospital’s history its ever ranked that high.
HCAHPS surveys are administered to a random sample of adult inpatients between 48 hours and six weeks after they leave the hospital.
Eastside officials say the feat was in part accom-plished by engaging “team members to help us build a culture of service excel-lence.”
“When patients turn to a hospital in times of need, they want to know they will be provided with very good care and will be treated with the utmost respect and compassion,” Stuart Downs, chief nurs-ing officer at Eastside, said in a statement. ”Our team at Eastside understands this and we work daily to make our patients healthy and happy. These results demonstrate our team’s commitment to building a culture of service excel-lence at Eastside.”
GMC recently got a few similar feathers in its proverbial cap.
The Lawrenceville loca-tion was given a women’s choice award and named the No. 1 “large” hospital in the state by Georgia Trend magazine.
By Joshua sharpejoshua.sharpe @gwinnettdailypost.com
Gwinnett Medical Center patient Lisa Stauffer, left, undergoes a stress test as Wyly O’Brien, a cardiac specialty tech at GMC’s Hamilton Mill location, observes. (Special Photo)
Gwinnett police reaching out to Hispanic community
Pick a city, any city.Norcross, Duluth,
Lilburn, Buford, Peachtree Corners, any of the more than a dozen with land in Gwinnett County.
Take a look at these plac-es and the unincorporated areas in between and you’re likely to see a trend in many spots. Immigrants from all over the world — especially the Hispanic world — have made this place their home in numbers that have in turn made Gwinnett synony-mous with diversity.
According to U.S. Census estimates, 20.4 percent of the county’s population in 2013 was Hispanic, which was more than double the percentage for the state of Georgia as a whole.
This, of course, isn’t news to many in the county, and this year will be yet an-other of work and outreach for organizations like the Gwinnett County Police Department.
The police department has for the last few years been using its Crime Free Multi-Housing Program, which aims to limit crime in apartment communities that happen to have large populations of Hispanic immigrants, to create bonds between residents and police.
In 2015, those efforts are continuing and taking more shape.
“We are partnering with organizations to provide community outreach and other community informa-tion to some of the partici-pating CFMH apartments,” said Cpl. Jake Smith, department spokesman.
The program, which has
resulted in large decreases in crime in the Duluth area, is also getting started in Peachtree Corners.
This is only the beginning of the department’s efforts.
GCPD will also host its second annual multicultural festival in May and is mak-ing it a point to reach out more to Spanish-language radio and television stations
to make public service an-nouncements.
“These sorts of events aren’t new, but they are important,” said Smith. “Gwinnett has a large Latino community and it’s important for them to be en-gaged and informed about GCPD.”
According to Gwin-nett Coalition Executive
Director Ellen Gerstein, the county ended up with such a large population of Hispanic immigrants in part because of the housing boom before the Great Recession.
“Our biggest influx was from Mexico and with the construction business when it was at its height,” said Gerstein, whose organiza-tion also works to help the
immigrant population.In the past few years,
Gerstein said much of the migration to Gwinnett has slowed down due to less construction, but many of those who came to the county for work remain.
“We still are one of the most diverse communities in the country and definitely in Georgia,” she said.
By Joshua sharpejoshua.sharpe @gwinnettdailypost.com
In this October 2013 file photo, Gwinnett County police Cpl. Chris Deming speaks with an employee of a drive-thru restaurant during a campaign to encourage crime reporting in the Hispanic community.
Both Gwinnett Medical Center and Eastside Medical Center are beefing up their operations to give residents — and students — more options locally. (File Photos)
Our mission is to provide quality health services to our community”
— Phil Wolfe, president and CEO of GMC
“
outlook 2015SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2015 9D •gwinnettdailypost.com
County lists pay increases on list of improvements
The $1.42 billion budget approved by the Gwinnett Board of Commission-ers for 2015 will facilitate many developments for the county.
A new fire station is planned for near Georgia Gwinnett College. The 67-acre Level Creek Park is set to open in Sugar Hill, featuring a multipurpose field complex, walking track, six lighted tennis courts, an “interactive” fountain and more. New staff positions are being created, and enhancements are planned for the county transit service.
But when asked about the most notable develop-ments this year, the county put pay increases for em-ployees first in the list.
Commissioners ap-proved reinstating a 4 percent step increase for public safety personnel and a 4 percent pay-for-performance pay increase for other county employees who have received positive performance reviews. The programs were discon-tinued during the Great Recession.
Bringing the raises back marked yet another sign of recovery for Gwinnett and will “help departments recruit and retain quality employees,” according to the county.
“Employee recruitment and retention continue to be one of the biggest concerns we heard while developing the 2015 budget,” commission chairwoman Charlotte Nash said. “Whether we’re talking about police or fire
recruits, lab technicians, or any other county employ-ees, training is a major investment that we have to carefully guard. Funding performance increases for employees is one way to help us recruit and keep good employees.”
Gwinnett County Police Chief Butch Ayers has said the latest wage bump is a step in the right direction.
“We had to start some-where to stem the attri-tion,” he said. “I think it
will be very beneficial.”Ayers, who took over his
post from longtime chief Charles Walters in 2014, appealed to officials for more money for officers in September, before being named the new chief.
He said GCPD was losing good officers to other departments be-cause the pay rate offered in Gwinnett had fallen behind the curve. Nearby police departments offered salaries ranging between
$39,060 and $47,741 per year for certified officers, while Gwinnett’s salary of $38,777 was less competi-tive.
“The department that hires or recruits from us basically gets a per-son or an officer that’s highly trained, so that new department has to spend little or nothing on train-ing costs,” he said at the time.
Fire Chief Casey Snyder was also optimistic about
the impact of the increased pay when commissioners approved.
“I think it’s a good start,” he said. “We’ve got a very young department with the retirements we’ve had and with the turnover we’ve had. This gives people a chance to grow their lives which I think is very good news for us.”
Capt. Tommy Rutledge, spokesman for the fire department, said the raises have already had an affect
on morale.“Absolutely our folks
are excited about it,” he said. “We’re very fortunate and blessed. That helps us recruit and retain quality personnel.”
Rutledge said the increase, particularly in to-day’s complicated econom-ic times, was a “testament” to the strong support the county’s talented firefight-ers have from county staff, commissioners and residents.
