FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — The Discover FoCo Film Initiative announced it has established its first official Film Commission.
Interim Parks and Recreation Director Laura Pate addresses the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners at a Feb. 7 work session. Commissioners approved a new $998,500 sports lighting system at Coal Mountain Park.
FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — The Polo Fields equestrian center may have one last chance at life after the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners voted to reopen bidding on the stables at a Feb. 7 work session.
County commissioners voted 4-0 to
extend bidding through the end of April. The item was proposed by commissioners Todd Levent and Cindy Jones Mills. Commissioner Alfred John was absent. Levent said interested bidders must cover the costs to restore and maintain the facility, like how the United Futbol Academy uses the soccer portion of the fields.
Commissioner Laura Semanson said
the previous issue was not a lack of interest, but it was because the facility cost too much to repair.
Interim Parks and Recreation Director Laura Pate said the county had an eligible bidder, but they had only wanted to lease the facility if the county paid for the repairs.
See COUNTY, Page 7
The nine-member commission, Film Forsyth, was announced Jan. 13 and will assist with sourcing for leads and location scouting for projects in the county’s film industry.
“Our communities in Forsyth have many different unique characteristics, natural settings and a blend of big city and rural community making it an ideal location for productions of all sizes,” County Commission Chairman Alfred John said. “We welcome the TV and film industry to our community and recognize the impact productions have on our local businesses.”
Film Forsyth is composed of county Director of Building and Economic Development Vivian Vakili; makeup
See FILM, Page 7
OPINION
Tasos: Retired nurse/wife saved a life, by George ► PAGE 14
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FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — Forsyth County deputies arrested a man Feb. 2 after reportedly finding marijuana and an array of other illegal substances in his car parked in a median along Ga. 400 near McFarland Parkway.
Deputies found Andre Camarena, 32, of Norcross in the back seat of the parked car.
The sheriff’s report states that Camarena appeared to be overdosing, and deputies noticed the smell of marijuana inside the car and a straw with a white powdery substance on it.
Deputies reported finding a bag of cocaine in Camarena’s pocket. In the glovebox, they reported fining 9 grams of marijuana, five MDMA pills, 17 grams of Psilocybin mushrooms, 10 grams of cocaine and 45 alprazolam pills.
The deputies identified Camarena’s driver’s license as having been suspended for DUI in 2022. A deputy conducted field sobriety tests that determined Camarena was under the influence to the extent that he was unsafe to drive.
Deputies transported Camarena to Northside Forsyth Hospital. After being cleared, Camarena was transported to Forsyth County Jail on charges of possession of marijuana under an ounce, MDMA, Psilocybin, alprazolam and drug-related objects, as well as possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. The deputy said it appeared Camarena also took two blood vials from the emergency room with the intent to dispose of them.
Deputies issued two citations for DUI multiple substances and suspended licenses as well.
FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested a man Feb. 2 who allegedly hit a pregnant woman with his vehicle on Burruss Mill Road then fled the scene.
A caller told deputies they saw the driver intentionally hit the woman with the mirror of his vehicle. The driver then lost control and fled the scene on foot.
Deputies arrested Damian Berryman, 26, of Gainesville after tracking him and pursuing him on foot. Berryman was charged with felony aggravated assault, driving without a valid license, obstruction of law enforcement, reckless driving and hit-and-run resulting in injury.
FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — Forsyth County deputies arrested a man Feb. 7 charged with threatening to kill his daughter’s family some weeks ago.
Deputies received a call Jan. 2 from a man who alleged his father-in-law, John Colera, 60, of Cumming threatened to kill him, his wife and their 3-year-old son.
The man told deputies he and his family live with Colera and his wife at a home on Colchester Creek Drive.
The caller and his wife, Colera’s daughter, gave the elder couple an eviction notice after they had been having problems. After a second eviction notice was issued, Colera’s wife said her husband got angry and said he would kill his daughter and son-in-law.
Colera’s wife said her husband then grabbed two long guns from the wall. She warned the younger couple of Colera’s threat, the sheriff’s report stated.
The daughter and son-in-law barricaded themselves in a bathroom with their toddler, and then called law enforcement. He told deputies on the phone Colera had left in his truck.
Colera’s daughter told deputies her father has been becoming politically radical-
ized and had expressed suicidal thoughts.
Colera is being held at the Forsyth County Jail, charged with felony terroristic threats and acts. Bond has been set at $22,130.
JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — A man reported he was robbed at gunpoint inside his home on Vicarage Walk Feb. 2 by three students taking his certified ethical hacking class.
He said the students came to his home at 12:30 a.m., stating that they needed “urgent help,” the police report said, so the man let them in. They entered his bedroom inside the basement, which is where he hosts the $500 classes. The man said one suspect pointed a gun at him and ordered him to disclose where the valuables were kept. The other two suspects began removing items from the home.
After the first suspect threatened the teacher with a stun gun, they all left.
The man said he delayed calling the police because he wanted to give the suspects an opportunity to return the stolen items. He said he attempted to contact the suspects, and they would not respond.
The suspects reportedly stole thousands of dollars’ worth of guns, ammunition, technological devices, accessories and Viagra supplements. They also stole his driver’s license, debit cards, Social Security card and miscellaneous paperwork.
The man said he did not keep records on his students. But he did provide police with their contact numbers and possible addresses. The man described one suspect as a lighter skinned Black male around 35 years old, wearing a purple long sleeve sweater and 5-foot-10 in height.
He described another suspect as a White male around 35 years old, wearing a red Adidas hoodie and jeans and around 6-foot-2 in height.
The last suspect was described as a dark-skinned Black male with a mustache and beard, around 44 years old, wearing a sports jacket and around 5-foot-9 in height. The identities of the suspect have not been verified, the police report said.
By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com
JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — Gerald Burch, an actualized renaissance man, is compelled to create art. It’s a gift from God, he said, that he sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night with visions of what to create next. One time, Burch said he woke up, took the shirt off his back and used it for a painting.
“My work is not for everybody because it’s not pretty,” Burch said. “Some of the stuff that I do, I don’t even like, but I’m compelled to do it.”
Burch’s tagline, “the Artist is the conscience of a society,” speaks to his overall objective to create a dialogue through art, seeking to ask questions and propose answers on equality and social justice.
His pieces, on display in the Johns Creek Arts Center “Souls Grown Deep” exhibition, have a cohesive theme in how they speak to his experience as a person of color, witnessing a world constructed in oppressive ways.
Born in Albany in 1955, Burch knows the Jim Crow South. He remembers standing in front of two fountains, puzzled. His experience led him to create “Why,” a large mixedmedia painting of a girl in a ’50s style dress looking at a “White Only” water fountain in dismay.
“Does it taste different?” a young Burch asked himself.
‘Souls Grown Deep’
Althea Foster, program director and curator at the Johns Creek Arts Center, said the title for the exhibition comes from a Langston Hughes poem.
“My soul has grown deep like the rivers,” Hughes writes in “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.”
Burch is one of two artists in the exhibition, on display until Feb. 25. Accompanying Burch’s less refined folk style are Ronald Sullivan’s sleek, polished, sophisticated sculptures made of wood and stone.
Sullivan is keen on incorporating themes like spirituality, family, nurture, completeness and balance in his work, according to his artist biography. He believes there to be a “natural warmth and beauty” to carved raw materials.
Foster thinks the two artists complement one another well and speak to two different Black experiences.
On one hand, Burch’s family had worked in the cotton fields and on another, Sullivan immigrated to the United States by way of Guyana and England. Burch went to art school,
while Sullivan started creating after a career in engineering.
“I think it’s a tendency among all people to lump people together and say, ‘the Black experience,’” Foster said. “But the Black experience for people is very, very different … Not all Black people think alike …”
Burch’s work, often visceral, spans different periods of time — from the era of cotton fields, where viewers might see a weary woman in the foreground carrying a satchel of white fluff, to police brutality in the modern day.
In “Suffocating Walls, Closed Windows and Silent Cries” Burch painted the words “I can’t breathe” on a mouth covered by the American flag, harkening back to the 2014 death of Eric Garner at the hands of a New York City Police officer who used a prohibited chokehold. The utterance became a slogan for the Black Lives Matter movement.
The background is busy with 3D white crosses marked “Unknown,” but still, there are many named victims listed across the piece. A miniature Skittles box was created that references Trayvon Martin’s murder in 2012.
Most of Burch’s work is mixed media and incorporates found objects. He’ll go for a walk, look for bottle caps, or cans flattened by cars, pieces of wire, tree bark, leaves, “some of everything.” Burch went to art school, where he was taught a more traditional style. But as he got older, he began to see life as “bits and pieces,” familiar things that everyone can associate with.
“These are the things life is composed of,” Burch said.
In “A Not So Random Act of Violence,” caution tape is strewn across the body of a man that lay sprawled on the ground in a bird’s eye view. His body is covered in script reminiscent of the U.S. Constitution. An old razor cell phone jets out from the painting in the bottom right corner, indicating that the subject may have called loved ones with his last breath. Bullets are scattered about.
Burch described a piece that he was working on, which had little bits and pieces of stuff all over it. He couldn’t find a name for it.
“Eventually, the artwork itself will tell me what it wants to do, or what it wants to be. It’s almost like a little child. And I’m looking at it now, and I ask, ‘What do you want from me?’” Burch said. “Eventually, it’ll tell me. Forgive me for being cryptic, I’m sorry…”
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JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — Georgia State Patrol located a reportedly stolen Nissan Sentra Feb. 6 traveling on Haynes Bridge Road and attempted a traffic stop, but the driver fled.
Police pursuit continued onto Nesbit Ferry Road where the driver drove onto the wrong side of the roadway and attempted a U-turn, according to the preliminary report from the Georgia Department of Public Safety’s Public Information Office.
Johns Creek Police observed the pursuit on Haynes Bridge Road toward Old Alabama Road at around 2:20 p.m., reports said. Police assisted the trooper when they noted he was alone in the pursuit.
Because the Johns Creek Police report is categorized as “Miscellaneous,” it was unavailable on the city’s Police to Citizen portal. Miscellaneous reports must be requested, said Jessica Wise with the Records Division of the Johns Creek Police Department.
Appen Media saw the incident was posted by Johns Creek Police on the department’s Twitter account.
The chase
A lookout had been issued around 1:45 p.m. on a blue Nissan displaying an Alabama license plate stolen out of Gwinnett County, according to the police report.
The trooper used his patrol vehicle to move the Nissan into a driveway on Old Alabama Road, the report said. Once the vehicle came to a stop, police placed their push bumper against the driver side door to prohibit the driver from opening
the door.
Both the trooper and police attempted a felony traffic stop with service weapons drawn, pointed at the male driver, the police report said.
The trooper gave the driver commands to exit the vehicle, the police report said, and then the driver exited through the driver side window and attempted to flee on foot toward Mount Pisgah School.
When the driver tripped and fell in a driveway on Old Alabama Road, he was detained.
The driver received slight lacerations from the fall and reaggravated a slight laceration to his hand. Police requested medical assistance for the driver on scene. He was then treated and released on scene by police but taken into custody by Georgia State Patrol.
The Department of Public Safety could not say whether the driver was charged.
ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Lambert High School student Vinayak Menon of Cumming won the Alpharetta American Legion Post 201’s Oratorical Contest.
The post awarded Menon a $1,000 scholarship for his success in the competition. Menon will move to the next phase of the national competition, where he will speak at the District 9 contest March 4 at the Canton American Legion Post.
The winner at the District 9 level will advance to state on March 5, followed by the national level in
April. The winner of the national final in Indianapolis wins a $25,000 scholarship.
The Constitutional Speech Contest aims to familiarize students with the history of American laws; develop the ability to speak and think clearly; and increase understanding of the duties, responsibilities, rights and privileges of American citizenship, the post said in a Jan. 23 press release.
Phillip Kittila of Milton, a Cambridge High School student, took second place at the competition, earning a $750 scholarship. Jackson Kennedy of Milton, a student at the Wesleyan School, won the third-place award of $500.
JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — Johns Creek Beautification announced it will host its fourth annual Secret Garden Tour May 6, featuring six home gardens at the Autrey Mill Nature Preserve.
“Autrey Mill is home to splendid woodland, butterfly, and fairy gardens, not to mention some beautifully restored and historically preserved buildings throughout the property,” the organization stated.
Each garden on the tour will include a musical ensemble or solo performer and visual artists. Volunteers will be available to provide information about the gardens.
The tour costs $30 for those who purchase a pass March 1-31. Beginning April 1, the cost will be $35.
Proceeds from the tour support public art in the city, as well as a citywide daffodil planting that will raise awareness of cancer survivors. Proceeds will also honor veterans by planting daffodils in Newtown Park.
The nonprofit seeks to provide landscaping enhancement or preservation, architectural installations and public works of art in common areas and medians to improve the visual and physical comfort of Johns Creek.
Johns Creek Beautification is seeking artists and entertainers and volunteers for parking and education. Volunteers must be at least 18 years old, and they will receive a complimentary pass for the tour.
Those interested can apply on the Johns Creek Beautification website or email Jennifer.schau@ johnscreekbeautification.org.
Continued from Page 1
artist Melanie Steele; EWISE Marketing and Communications President Joanne Sanders; and Tim Hopkins of Keller Williams Realty.
“It is an honor to be chosen to serve on this commission,” Vakili said. “The film, TV and video production industries have made an incredible impact on Georgia’s local economies over the past decade, and I am excited to see even more impact here in Forsyth County in the years to come.”
Others on the commission are the Georgia Film Academy’s High School Summer Camp Director Jason Hanline; Forsyth County Schools Chief Communications Officer Jennifer Caracciolo; Bottoms Tree Farm owner Nathan Bottoms; and Jimmy and Martha McConnell, co-presidents of the Historical Society of Cumming/Forsyth County.
Bottoms said it is an honor to serve on the commission, and he hopes Film Forsyth can grow potential film opportunities in the county. His farm was the filming site of an OshKosh B’gosh and a tractor com-
Continued from Page 1
In 2022, commissioners voted to demolish the stables. Assessments showed the facility had extensive water damage and black mold issues.
Former county Parks and Recreation Director Jim Pryor said at a Nov. 22 County Commission meeting the cost to renovate the facility would be between $600,000 and $800,000. Meanwhile, the estimated cost of demolition would run $175,000.
Residents asked commissioners at a Feb. 2 public hearing to preserve the equestrian side of the field and to continue the bidding process.
mercial, as well as photoshoots for several businesses.
Discover FoCo Director of Tourism Joni Buford said the county has hosted confidential series from Disney+, Marvel and Netflix; commercials from OshKosh B’gosh, Georgia Lottery and Popeyes; the CBS and Paramount+ series “True Lies”; and 20th Television and ABC’s “Will Trent.”
In 2022, Forsyth County hosted nine productions, and it received over 28 leads. Buford said there are as yet no quantified estimates on the economic impact the film initiative had in 2022.
“Most of these projects utilize privately owned residences, spaces and businesses, directly pouring into our community via its residents,” Buford said. “This is why often times people don’t even realize filmings are going on. They’re often tucked away and in-and-out pretty quickly.”
Some leads and projects are confidential, Buford said, but they range from small indie and student films to large production studios.
Film Forsyth has 12 location listings, including Lake Lanier, local businesses, the Cumming Fairgrounds and the Forsyth County Jail.
In other matters at the work session, commissioners approved $1.1 million in improvements at the Antioch Water Treatment Plant. The amount includes construction, completion of the Ozone System Replacement Project and part replacement.
The commission previously voted in favor of a $2.3 million treatment system at the plant at a Jan. 24 work session.
Commissioners also unanimously voted to replace the sports lighting at Coal Mountain Park. The new lighting will cost $998,500, and it has remote control and energy-saving capabilities, Pate said.
Commissioners approved $86,000 in improvements to the park at a January work session.
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You can hire waitresses, you can hire cooks, but anybody that goes behind the bar has to come in front of me because they are the ones that drive the business.
By ALEXANDER POPP alex@appenmedia.com
DUNWOODY, Ga. — On a dreary, rainy day, what could be better than a nice pint of lager or stout in a cozy pub?
You needn’t get on a plane or travel thousands of miles to feel the charms of a British-style pub when the King George Tavern in Dunwoody offers meals, drinks and atmosphere to anyone who graces its doorstep.
Located just north of I-285 on Chamblee Dunwoody Road, adjacent to a nail salon, massage parlor and Subway, the King George Tavern is a hidden gem that might be overlooked by a careless passerby. But considering its charms and reputation, to pass it by out of hand would be a mistake.
Opened in 2015 by local restaurateur Huw Thomas, who in the 1990s pioneered the Dunwoody Tavern as one of the state’s first British-style pubs, the King George Tavern has earned a loyal following of both locals and travelers coming off I-285.
“We get a lot of travelers, and it’s something unique for them that they haven’t really seen before,” said Britney “BK” Keane, King George Tavern general manager. “We have a lot of chains around here. So, it’s nice to have something a little bit more aesthetic and homey.”
That aesthetic is what Thomas and Keane agree makes a good British pub and fosters a loyal customer base. But none of that would happen without the right people in place, they said.
“You can hire waitresses, you can hire cooks, but anybody that goes behind the bar has to come in front of me because they are the ones that drive the business,” Thomas said. “When you put a drab person
behind the bar, it just destroys the bar.”
“You can go anywhere for $9 Tito’s … they come to specific bars for the people behind the bar,” Keane said.
When Thomas opened the Dunwoody Tavern in 1996, after a previous restaurant in California and a foray into the real estate world, he said the concept of a British pub was basically unheard
of in the Atlanta area.
In the years since, with an onslaught of new pub experiences, people have become almost desensitized to the aesthetic. But Thomas said for a little while it felt like they were doing something truly unique, that everyone wanted to be involved with.
“It was great because no one was
trying to duplicate me, now everybody does fish and chips and we used to be the only ones doing it,” he said. “Years ago, it was like, ‘what’s fish and chips?’ Now you go into swanky restaurants and get it.”
At the King George Tavern, you can still
See TAVERN, Page 9
Continued from Page 8
get authentic fish and chips, along with other pub food staples like bangers and mash, cottage pie and a selection of British beers.
But they’ve also adopted their menu for the American palate, discarding classic British pub items that didn’t sell well, like pub curries or scotch eggs (deepfried hardboiled eggs wrapped in ground sausage and breading).
“If you did a real English pub in America, it would go out of business,” Thomas said. “We do what Disneyland does; we give you what you perceive is a [British] pub, but it’s not.”
But whenever they can, Keane said they still try to offer as many authentic touches as they can to their menu and aesthetic, because there is a surprisingly large British population in the Dunwoody community.
“They want to come in and this is like their home,” she said. “Everyone who walks in here, I know what they drink as soon as they sit down. They don’t even have to talk to me if they don’t want to.”
Visit the King George Tavern at 4511 Chamblee Dunwoody Road in Dunwoody. Learn more about the Dunwoody Restaurant Group’s other locations at www.dunwoodyrestaurantgroup.com.
with them, whether they’re loyal regulars or first-time visitors.
By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com
ROSWELL, Ga. — Sandra Taylor remembers taking the bus with her mom in the 1950s from Roswell to Atlanta to shop. She would go down the aisle, notice empty seats on the bus and ask her mother if they could sit there.
“She would say, ‘Hush’ and just squeeze my hand and drag me to the back of the bus,” Taylor said.
Taylor and Charles Grogan, Roswell’s Black historian, added details to Roswell’s Black history that original documents couldn’t offer during a Feb. 2 presentation led by Roswell Historical Society Archivist Elaine DeNiro.
While no longer residents, Taylor and Grogan gave the packed audience in a Roswell Public Library conference room intertwining first-hand accounts of what it was like to grow up Black in a racially segregated city.
In “Black History: Honoring Our Past,” DeNiro described ledgers, news articles and photographs – some that included Taylor, Grogan, their family members and even some audience members, who would then bolster the history with their own experiences, or the experience of those that came before them, gathered from oral tradition.
Around the room, some uttered, “... Not much different than today.”
Pleasant Hill Baptist Church
DeNiro began the account with the
Cherokee Nation, which owned slaves based on an 1833 census. She followed up with the history of Roswell’s founding families, who reintroduced slaves to the area from the coast.
The enslaved were given land in 1855, DeNiro said, to establish a place of worship — Pleasant Hill Baptist Church. Grogan remembered visiting with his uncle, whose parents were buried there. According to the cemetery’s description, the congregation dates to 1847.
In 1922, land was purchased where the current church building sits. The Rev. Joshua Grogan headed the church at the time, but years later, he baptized Taylor when she was 9. The reverend was her cousin.
“I remember him telling me to close my eyes, to hold my breath, that ‘I’ll take care of you,’” Taylor said.
Grogan and Taylor recalled segregated movie theaters. The Roswell theater was off limits, so Taylor went to the one in Marietta, but upstairs. The bottom floor was reserved for Whites only.
“I don’t think they ever cleaned upstairs,” Taylor said. “You would step on popcorn boxes and sticky soda on the floor.”
Grogan went to the theater in Alpharetta, also confined to the upstairs space. He worked as a cleaner at the Roswell theater, but he couldn’t attend a show.
See ROSWELL, Page 20
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On a normal weekend you could find me...
Going to a music show, roller skating or taking my spritely, old dog for a walk
On a long weekend you could find me…
Somewhere far enough into Appalachia to feel like I’m not in a society
Something I want to do but am just not very good at: Playing an instrument
On a normal weekend you could find me...
Thrift shopping, walking the Atlanta BeltLine or eating oysters.
On a long weekend you could find me…
Visiting my family in Florida or driving out to Athens.
Something I want to do but am just not very good at: Running
amber@appenmedia.com
Early bird or night owl?
Night owl
When folks come to town, I know I’ll take them to eat at...
Restaurant Cafeteria Tia Roseta or Lucky’s
A movie I could quote start to finish…
None, I think I have diagnosable memory loss
On a normal weekend you could find me...
Working on my house or on the couch with a good book.
On a long weekend you could find me…
Up in the North Carolina mountains hiking or relaxing in my hammock.
Something I want to do but am just not very good at: Flyfishing.
delaney@appenmedia.com
Early bird or night owl? Night owl
When folks come to town, I know I'll take them to eat at...
Jerusalem Bakery & Grill or Roswell Provisions.
A movie I could quote start to finish…
“Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”
On a normal weekend you could find me...
Unwinding and watching movies with my boyfriend Jimmy.
On a long weekend you could find me…
Trying out new restaurants with friends.
Something I want to do but am just not very good at:
Going to the gym and maintaining a self-care routine.
On a normal weekend you could find me...
Relaxing at home either drawing, writing stories or watching YouTube videos.
On a long weekend you could find me…
Riding around the North Atlanta area or walking at the Roswell Riverwalk.
Something I want to do but am just not very good at: Painting
dionna@appenmedia.com
Early bird or night owl?
Night owl
When folks come to town, I know I’ll take them to eat at... Flatlands. My family is Creole, so we love that there is a great place to get Cajun food in the area.
A movie I could quote start to finish…
“Spider-Man 2.” It’s my favorite childhood movie that I used to watch all the time with my dad.
On a normal weekend you could find me...
Visiting any record shop or indie bookstore in Metro ATL.
On a long weekend you could find me…
Getting out in the sun, visiting friends and family or blasting records.
Something I want to do but am just not very good at: DJ-ing
alex@appenmedia.com
Early bird or night owl? Night owl.
When folks come to town, I know I’ll take them to eat at...
Shri Krishna Villa in Cumming or LA Sushi in Johns Creek (The best sushi in the metro Atlanta area.)
A movie I could quote start to finish…
“The Usual Suspects” or “Return of the Jedi.”
shelby@appenmedia.com
Early bird or night owl?
Night owl
When folks come to town I know I’ll take them to eat at...
Butcher & Brew
A movie I could quote start to finish…
“Pride & Prejudice” (2005)
A dish I’m known for making is...
Creamy pumpkin chorizo pasta.
jacob@appenmedia.com
Early bird or night owl?
Early bird
When folks come to town I know I’ll take them to eat at...
Circle Sushi, Bawarchi Biryanis and of course Waffle House.
A movie I could quote start to finish…
“The Princess Bride”
A dish I’m known for making is...
Sweet and spicy chili
On a normal weekend you could find me...
Outside, working in my garden.
On a long weekend you could find me…
Hiking up Amicalola Falls
Something I want to do but am just not very good at: Play piano
Early bird or night owl? Early bird
On a normal weekend you could find me...
Taking my Frenchie to the park or strolling through Lenox Mall.
On a long weekend you could find me…
Camping, visiting friends or in Athens
Something I want to do but am just not very good at:
Skateboarding
On a normal weekend you could find me...
Playing taxi driver for my 3 children and their various activities.
On a long weekend you could find me…
At Saint Simons Island
Something I want to do but am just not very good at:
Fishing
Early bird or night owl?
Aspiring early bird
pat@appenmedia.com
When folks come to town, I know I'll take them to eat at...
Café Efendi
A movie I could quote start to finish…
“Miller’s Crossing”
A dish I'm known for making is...
Goulash with red, yellow, orange and green peppers
One thing that can instantly make my day…
A Steven Wright joke
carl@appenmedia.com
Early bird or night owl?
Night owl
When folks come to town, I know I’ll take them to eat at...
The Rusty Nail, Hibachi Express or Café Intermezzo
A movie I could quote start to finish…
“Troy”
Six Flags or White Water?
Six Flags
These days the Appen Media newsroom is looking a little different. First and foremost, it’s growing. This winter we added two new positions. Our Perimeter reporter will lead coverage of two new city councils. A second news designer will help our reporters’ stories get the presentation they deserve. Together the additions will help our newest publicationthe Sandy Springs Crier - get off the ground. Hopefully, there are more to come.
Pat Fox continues to helm our editorial staff, but most faces are new. So, we all wanted to take a moment and introduce - or reintroduce - ourselves.
If you’re out and about and see someone with a red Appen Media press pass around their neck, say hello. You can also come by July Moon Bakery in Alpharetta on Feb. 22 at 9 a.m. for the first Appen Press Club event of 2023. It’s free to attend and open for everyone.
Hope to see you around town.
— Carl Appenhans@appenmedia.com
When folks come to town I know I’ll take them to eat at...
Anywhere in downtown Alpharetta
A movie I could quote start to finish…
“The Departed”
A dish I’m known for making is...
Cereal with milk
One thing that can instantly make my day…
Coffee
When the University of Georgia won the college football national championship, lots of fans, with good reason, figured it was time to bust out some dance moves.
Certainly, there were some who danced and thought their talents would stir up memories of Paula Abdul in her Laker Girl heyday.
But what if it came time to celebrate and there was no getting out of neutral?
What if you went to bed and took up more than your share of the Serta and refused to relinquish the covers to the woman you’ve been married to for 35 years, no matter how much she pleaded?
Being stubborn or contrary was never part of the equation.
On that January night, George Meisner simply couldn’t move.
Realizing there was no joviality coming from George, when he said he couldn’t move, Cynthia, a retired nurse, went back to work.
She unretired in those critical moments and it probably saved George’s life.
George was being typically manly in his insistence on Cynthia not calling 911. He wanted her to drive him to Northside Forsyth.
“There was no way. I couldn’t lift him,” Cynthia recalled.
George was dead weight, and if Cynthia hadn’t recognized what was happening with George, he might have been just plain dead.
George was having a whopper of a stroke, and 20 minutes after everything began, he was being treated in the Northside ER.
The Forsyth doctors were wise enough to know that George needed a little something extra.
George was transported via helicopter across north Georgia to Kennestone Hospital, where he was treated by a team better equipped to get George out of this crisis.
And that was what happened!
There’s still a laundry list chock-full of items that need to tended to. Maybe a
ramp or two to be built by his sons.
George figures he can supervise any project. Doing things for others fits squarely in his wheelhouse.
In years past, my son Greg and Will were classmates and teammates on the Forsyth Central baseball team.
As Bulldog Booster Club president, there was a gargantuan checklist of “to-do” items that stretched for miles. One glaring necessity was more seating capacity, figuring a “Field of Dreams” scenario: “If you build it, they will come.”
The existing rickety bleachers just wouldn’t do. So naturally, we went large and bought a pair of sizable grandstands. They were going to be beautiful.
Except for the fact that the grandstands arrived in dozens of boxes that contained thousands of widgets, screws, gromets and enough assorted materials to fill a Home Depot.
As someone who breaks out in a cold sweat if ever forced to buy anything other than a flashlight at Home Depot, I needed some help.
As you probably surmised, George, have tool belt will travel, put together a crew that assembled the bleachers and fashioned a place where Central baseball fans could show off the new digs.
But that’s not all. All those fans needed to be fed.
Cynthia being a mom with ravenous teenagers, took over the concession stand.
No, she didn’t sell bags of peanuts. Instead, she used her wiles as a shopper to stock quality food.
Burgers, bratwurst and hot dogs sold like hot cakes. Any clue as to who was in charge of the grill and did way more than his fair share of cooking? George manned the grill like he owned the place.
I’m not sure what George and Cynthia need right now. Prayers sure couldn’t hurt. Getting Cynthia to ask for help is like getting one of King Arthur’s friends to ask a friend to pull a sword out of a rock.
The Meisners are neighbors, and George’s adventures wouldn’t have been known if Cindy hadn’t shared the story on social media.
Thank you, Facebook.
George is at home now, with lots of therapy ahead of him. At one time, he was able to put together a crackerjack crew to build grandstands. Now there is another project on the horizon.
Here’s hoping those friends will come through again.
If that happens, no way I’ll be building anything. It would be a disaster.
But count on me to go buy the coffee and donuts.
Mike Tasos has lived in Forsyth County for more than 30 years. He’s an American by birth and considers himself a Southerner by the grace of God. He can be reached at miketasos55@gmail.com.
Here’s a bit of news trivia for you: The locations at the start of articles (you know, the ones that look like this: SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — ) are called datelines. They’re used to show readers where the story is taking place. Some newsrooms use them to indicate a reporter had boots on the ground.
The last few weeks Appen Media has had some special datelines. We’ve published stories that start with GREENVILLE, S.C.; CHATTAHOOCHEE HILLS, Ga.; ATLANTA, and now OPELIKA, Al.
Using them means Appen Media had boots on the ground in all those places.
Most of our city governments go on “strategic retreats” every year. The whole city council and administrative staff will pack up and head out of town for a few days. They offer a range of reasons – to visit a downtown they want to model, team building or really buckling down to focus on
the issues.
The meetings aren’t recorded or streamed online, and most city “notes” are scant. Last year Roswell went to Greenville for five days and came home with a plan to revise the city’s charter.
The meeting minutes – the official record of what took place that week – was 34 words long. If you’ve ever been to a Roswell City Council meeting, you know they speak more than one word every four hours.
Of course, by law these meetings are open to the public. Any time a quorum – or voting majority – of elected officials gather for city business, discussion, research or action, you’re allowed to be there.
But if the meeting is in Greenville, who is going to drive three hours just to go along and be in the room?
Well, us, I suppose.
When the Johns Creek City Council traveled to Greenville, S.C. for the weekend, Amber Perry went along too. Shelby Israel woke up at dawn on a Sunday to be in Chattahoochee Hills for the Alpharetta retreat. Then she did it again the following day.
Alex Popp had it easy. Sandy Springs held their retreat in Sandy Springs.
Delaney Tarr is spending the weekend in Opelika, Alabama, to cover the Roswell City Council retreat.
She really got the short end of the stick. The City Council is staying at the Auburn Marriott Opelika Resort & Spa at Grand National. I tried to get her a room there too, but the entire place was booked. So, each day Delaney is making a quick drive over from Opelika’s Hampton Inn. Imagine that.
On behalf of city officials and staff, taxpayers are footing the bill for these excursions.
For the reporters in the room – and I assure you, we’re the only ones – that bill falls squarely on our shoulders. Your local newsroom. (So maybe after all, it’s a good thing every room was taken at the Grand National.)
We’re glad to do it.
In fact, Managing Editor Pat Fox and I think it’s pretty special that you can open up the local newspaper and see a dateline from South Carolina because there’s a newsroom willing to follow local officials there.
We have problems getting metropolitan dailies to show up at city council meetings to cover the city council.
Local news is not always local. Just because Roswell is strategizing in Opelika doesn’t mean what they do there happens in a vacuum.
Chattahoochee Hills is not Las Vegas. What happens there comes home.
Shelby was in the room when Alpharetta approved requests for funding increases.
Amber got to walk along the Reedy River with the Johns Creek City Council as they took notes on Greenville’s public art, civic partnerships and cohesive branding. Now those are all lessons the city will hope to implement as the Johns Creek Town Center moves forward.
I can tell you this much, Delaney’s report from Opelika is going to be a lot more comprehensive than the one that comes from the city.
So, we think it’s important to go.
If the Johns Creek City Council is meeting, the Johns Creek Herald should be in the room. Even if we have to pay our own way.
Columnist
A small community of Black families lived along Barfield Road in Sandy Springs from the 1920s until commercial development in the 1960s. The area was known as DeWald’s Alley, likely named for property owner George DeWald and his family. DeWald was a stockbroker with a home on Peachtree Dunwoody Road.
Christine Burdett Melton and her brother Lee H. Burdett, known as Jimmy, recalled DeWald’s Alley in a 1993 oral history. They described the road as an unpaved street off Barfield Road. Most of the residents worked at nearby homes and businesses. (Sandy Springs Historic Community Foundation, 1993 oral history of Lee H. Burdett and Christine Burdett Melton)
Willie and Pearl Jones and several other families are listed on Barfield Road in the census of 1940. Willie Jones did landscape work to support his family. Lucius and Dorothy Mae Spivey, Melvin and Willa Mae Peters, and DeLee Morehead and Katherine Morehead lived along DeWald’s Alley. DeLee Morehead was a laborer in the building industry, and Katherine Morehead worked as a servant in a private home.
Other families listed include the Brown, Blonson and Harris families. Henry Harris worked as a cook at a tearoom, and Moses Harris worked as a yardman at various homes.
One of the categories on the 1940 census listed whether the individual was in school and how many years of school were completed. Some of the children are listed as having attended school in 1940. Schools were segregated, so unfortunately the children would either have traveled to a Fulton County school for Black children some distance away, or the community may have operated their own school.
Several families appear in the 1950 census, living on Barfield Road between Mt. Vernon Highway and Hammond
Drive. Tommy and Maggie Bains and Douglas and Flora Bacon are listed. Tommy did landscape work and Douglas worked in a local drug store.
The family of Jessie and Grace Pruitt are recorded on the census, with Jessie working at a steel plant and Grace working as a house cleaner. The Austin family included William and Marilyn. William worked as a cook at a college, most likely Oglethorpe University. The Moon, Jones, Heard, and Lloyd families were also living in DeWald’s Alley in 1950.
Melvin Pender recalls that his parents moved from Dalton, Georgia, to his grandparents’ Sandy Springs home temporarily in 1937 in anticipation of his birth. He was born
From left, Dorothy Garrison , Gwin Loyd and Hazel Lloyd play along DeWald’s Alley in the 1960s.
Olympics, winning a Gold Medal in 1968 for the 4 x100 relay. (“Expression of Hope: the Mel Pender Story,” by Melvin and Deborah Pender)
Captain Pender moved into the home of his grandparents in 1949. They had moved to Lynwood Park in Brookhaven. According to “Stories of Lynwood Park” by Veronica Menenez Holmes, some residents of DeWald’s Alley, including Pender’s grandparents, relocated to Lynwood Park. Pender’s mother helped bring a church from the Sandy Springs community to Lynwood Park. That church was Mt. Mary Baptist Church.
Riding along Barfield Road today, one would never know that the community of DeWald’s Alley existed. The people who lived there and their efforts in difficult times to provide for their families should be remembered.
Oct. 31 at a segregated Grady Hospital. Pender went on to become a captain in the 82nd Airborne, serving two tours during the Vietnam War. He also represented the U.S. in the 1964 and 1968
Award-winning author Valerie Biggerstaff is a longtime columnist for Appen Media and the Dunwoody Crier. She lives in Sandy Springs. You can email Valerie at pasttensega@gmail.com or visit her website at pasttensega.com.
WSB’s 100th anniversary celebration last year reminds us how much the extraordinary invention of the radio has contributed to society. The South’s first radio station, WSB, began operations in 1922 with 100 watts of power, about the same as an average light bulb, versus 50,000 watts today.
In today’s column I will discuss radio’s history and how some local people, members of the Southeastern Antique Radio Society, help keep alive one aspect of the amazing history of this medium.
In 1893, Nikola Tesla, a Serbian immigrant, demonstrated a wireless radio to audiences in St Louis. He later developed and marketed the first successful long distance wireless telegraph. In 1894, Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian engineer, received the first wireless telegraph patent in England where he spent most of his working life. In 1901, Marconi broadcast the first transatlantic radio signal. More than 700 people survived the Titanic disaster in 1912 thanks to his wireless telegraphy device.
While men such as Tesla and Marconi were responsible for the practical application of radio waves, their highly recognized achievements were based on theoretical work by many uncrowned pioneers, such as the physicist Heinrich Hertz whose experiments in 1877-1888 in Frankfurt, Germany, paved the way forward.
Broadcasting voice signals to general audiences by combining sound and radio waves, as opposed to point-to-point wireless transmissions using dots and dashes, had its start in the early 1900s. The next 50 years were marked by amazing and rapid achievements. By 1915, telephone conversations were broadcast across the Atlantic. In 1920, America’s first commercial radio station, KDKA in Pittsburgh, broadcast live election returns and the news that Warren G. Harding had won that year’s presidential election. Subsequently, the station also broadcast sporting events, baseball scores, time signals and market reports. Grand Ole Opry began broadcasting in 1925 and is the longest running radio broadcast in the world. By that year, there were 1,400 commercial radio stations in the U.S. Today there are more than 15,000.
The first radio receivers were sold with headsets because loudspeakers had not been invented yet. Radio sets were battery operated. In the early 1920’s modifications and improvements came in rapid order. Constant improvements in tube design in the 1920s improved reception, volume and sound quality.
Radio News, published from 1919 to 1971, began as a magazine for amateur radio enthusiasts but gradually became focused on the technical aspects of radios and electronics. Looking at the ads and articles in old technical magazines is a good way to track developments in the fast-changing radio and related industries.
This peacetime research and development by communications equipment manufacturers contributed mightily to the success of our fighting forces in World War II. Portable communications systems and switchboards, field telephones and shipbased communications systems helped change the nature of the battlefield. The precursor to today’s cell phones occurred in 1946 when Bell Laboratories launched the country’s first mobile radio telephone system.
Collecting antique radios is a popular hobby with dozens of clubs in 35 states. The Southeastern Antique Radio Society is a Georgia example. The organization publishes a quarterly newsletter and holds monthly dinner meetings. Their annual winter swap meet and radio show
will be held on Saturday, March 4, at the American Legion Post, 201 Wills Road in Alpharetta, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. This is their website for further information: https:// www.sarsradio.com. Free to the public. Everyone is welcome.
Collectors tend to specialize in specific aspects of the radio industry: attractive radios of old, technological breakthrough models, colorful transistor radios from the 1950s and 1960s, advertising, even tubes and the artistic boxes they came in.
Jim Del Principe, past president and current vice president of the Southeastern Antique Radio Society, said he thinks the club is “a way to reach back to a simpler time. Musical styles were limited, and families would gather to listen to music. There were daytime programs for house-
“Genuine Plastic Radios of the Mid-Century,” published by Schiffer Publishing in 1998, provides 219 pages and hundreds of photos of collectable plastic radios. Early models were by Bakelite and Catalin. Following WW II, many electronic companies produced inexpensive plastic radios. Companies such as Emerson, Motorola and Zenith turned out beautiful, colorful and imaginative designs. Catalin radios are generally the most valuable today because the colorful plastic used in their manufacture tended to shrink and crack from the heat generated by the radios.
wives such as the ‘Lux Radio Theater’ and ‘Queen for a Day,’ evening programs for the kids like ‘The Shadow’ and ‘Tarzan’ and adventure programs at night.” Most radio operators were amateurs who made it possible for Artic and Antarctic explorers to maintain contact with people back home before commercial services were available.
Another former president of the Georgia club is Milton resident Gordon Hunter who is the proud owner of 450 antique (at least 100 years old) and vintage (at least 50 years old) radios dating from the 1920s to the 1970s. He notes that early radios often had beautiful wood cabinets, creative designs and in the 1930s colorful Bakelite and Catalin plastic cases. Bakelite “the material of a thousand uses” and Catalin plastics were used in a wide variety of consumer products. Because of the way Catalin plastic was produced, over time radios developed cracks due to the heat they generated, making surviving radios rare, highly collectible and very expensive. According to Hunter, “collecting old radios, especially small ones, is addictive. There is usually something at a swap meet that fits perfectly in one’s collection.”
By the way, WSB, has a meaning, Welcome South Brother. The station is owned by Cox Media Group.
Bob is director emeritus of the Milton Historical Society and a Member of the City of Alpharetta Historic Preservation Commission. You can email him at bobmey@ bellsouth.net.
The title of this column really sums up the transformation of our horticultural education over the past three years. Prior to the pandemic shut down in March 2020, we presented each of our seven gardening classes in person at three different locations in North Fulton County (Sandy Springs, Alpharetta, and Roswell). We typically attracted about 300 attendees to all 21 classes.
During the spring 2020 Lecture Series, life as we knew it came to a standstill. On March 13, in response to COVID-19, we announced the cancellation of the remainder of our in-person classes.
Our team quickly pivoted and learned how to record classes using Zoom. We created a YouTube channel. We recorded one of our cancelled classes using Zoom and uploaded this first video in May 2020. This Hydrangea lecture has 1402 views to date.
In 2020, we Zoom pre-recorded and posted 13 gardening lectures to our YouTube channel. To date these classes have been viewed more than 5,600 times.
In the spring of 2021, feeling brave, we transitioned to live Zoom webinars. Our team executed an extensive marketing and social media campaign. We held 10 live webinars – streaming live to both Zoom and Facebook and afterward, we posted the recordings to those same sites. The Spring Gardening Lecture Series has had over 11,000 views, of which 2,500 were viewed live on Zoom and Facebook.
Continued from Page 10
“It never dawned on me,” Grogan said. “That’s just the way life was.”
Taylor and Grogan also spoke about their time attending Bailey Johnson, a school once named the Alpharetta Colored School.
Grogan attended for three months and said that his 1965 graduating class was the largest ever at 14 students.
Black fellowship
DeNiro spoke about Grove Way Community Center, which Taylor said
“Garden Buzz” guest columnist is Lee Tanenbaum, a master gardener since 2011. Lee is NFMG’s Communications co-chair for Publicity and Marketing as well as the current interim chair of the NFMG Gardening Education Team. Lee is a retired speech-language pathologist and public health professional, a mother of three, and a grandmother of nine. Lee loves to garden and travel, especially with her grandchildren.
The 2021 David Gibby International Master Gardener Search for Excellence Awards recognized the North Fulton Master Gardeners for our efforts in the face of a global pandemic in successfully providing horticultural education to the North Fulton community and beyond through virtual webinar technology. The First Place Award in the Workshops/Presentations category was made on Sept. 15, 2021, during the virtual International Master Gardener Conference. View our video at https://youtu.be/_1hSJfpsFS0.
We are pleased that more than 5,800 people have attended one or more of the 43 free NFMG Garden Lectures livestreamed on Zoom or Facebook since May 2020. An additional 25,000 people have viewed the videos on the NFMG YouTube video library at youtube.com/ northfultonmastergardeners.
Our class registrants hail not only from North Fulton County but also from throughout Georgia and the United States, Canada and a smattering of other countries! Thirty to 40 percent of each class are Master Gardeners from throughout Georgia and neighboring Southeastern states.
As society opened after the early months of the pandemic, we surveyed our class attendees to determine wheth-
was a haven for Black people to have a good time and fellowship in a safe place. Grogan had his 16th birthday party there.
But Grogan’s “most important thing” was the Josh Gibson Baseball League, later named the Roswell Flames, then the Southern Flames. The Black baseball league was organized by Grogan’s uncle, Charles Grogan, and two other men, Alonzo Allen and Estee Strickland. Games were held on Woodstock Road.
Grogan joined the team at age 15.
“That was the thing I loved the most — that Negro league,” Grogan said.
Taylor also remembered going to the games. Her dad was a baseball fanatic.
“It was such a joy to see him and
Learn more about the North Fulton Master Gardeners
• linktr.ee/NFMG
• http://nfmg.net/communityclasses.htm
• facebook.com/northfultonmastergardeners
• twitter.com/NFMGardeners
• youtube.com/northfultonmastergardeners
• instagram.com/northfultonmastergardeners
er they were ready to transition back to in-person gardening classes. We learned that 90 percent of the 355 people who responded to our spring 2022 survey at the end of each class prefer viewing our classes through Zoom and Facebook Live streaming, while an additional 6 percent of respondents prefer to view the classes later at their leisure through our YouTube channel. Amazingly, only 4 percent of respondents tell us that they prefer to attend in-person classes in North Fulton.
The decision is clear! Post pandemic learners prefer virtual learning. So, the North Fulton Master Gardeners in collaboration with UGA Extension in Fulton County will continue to provide horticultural education to the North Fulton community and beyond through free virtual gardening education programming.
The Spring 2023 Gardening Lecture Series begins Sunday, March 5, and will again be available through live Zoom webinars and Facebook Live as well as viewable for later viewing several days later through our YouTube channel.
Each class emphasizes practical gardening activities at the time of year that is best suited for that activity. You may register for all five classes
his brothers and other Black people get together and have fun,” Taylor said. “The kids could watch and run around and eat the good food from the concessions … It was just the love for the game and for the people.”
Throughout the ’70s, Roswell remained a small, Southern town with little diversity, DeNiro said.
Young Black adults moved out of town to find housing and employment.
In 1971, Taylor and her new husband had a hard time finding housing, despite a fair housing law that should have gone into effect years before. While White people were told there were vacancies, Black people were told a different story, she said.
“A lot of the Black people that grew up in Roswell and wanted to stay in
or just pick specific classes. Please register in advance at https://bit.ly/ Spring2023NFMG-GardeningLectureSeries to assure your place. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about how to join the webinar. If you cannot attend the live webinar, you can register anyway so you will receive a recorded link to the class.
Don’t miss these incredible opportunities to learn more about gardening in metro Atlanta.
• Walk in the Woods with Spring Wildflowers - Observing the Beauty of Nature, Sunday, March 5, 2023, at 2 p.m.
• Figs at Home: An Introduction to Growing Figs in the Southeast for the Home Gardener, Sunday, March 12, 2023, at 2 p.m.
• Insect Allies: Predators and Parasitoids in the Garden, Sunday, March 19, 2023, at 2 p.m.
• Ferns of the Southeast, Sunday, March 26, 2023, at 2 p.m.
• Annual and Perennial Plants for Water Gardens, Sunday, April 2, 2023, at 2 p.m.
For more details, visit https:// mailchi.mp/nfmg/nfmg-februaryupdate.
Happy Gardening!
North Fulton Master Gardeners, Inc. is a Georgia nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization whose purpose is to educate its members and the public in the areas of horticulture and ecology in order to promote and foster community enrichment. Master Gardener Volunteers are trained and certified by The University of Georgia Cooperative Extension. Learn more at nfmg.net.
Roswell moved to Atlanta, College Park, DeKalb County, Cobb County because we could not get housing in Roswell,” Taylor said.
The dynamic changed in the ’80s and ’90s, DeNiro said, when there was an influx of northern Black families.
By 2000, the city’s historically Black neighborhoods had been threatened by development, DeNiro said, showing side-by-side photos of Webb Street. The picture from 2022 was drastically different.
Grogan and Taylor grew up on Webb Street, only feet away from one another.
“Growing up on Webb Street was fun because you knew everybody on the street,” Taylor said. “Everybody looked out for each other.”
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The full-time Client Services Specialist greets visitors to NFCC and assists them with obtaining services. In addition, this person conducts followup interviews, enters data and may participate in additional follow-up activities. A high school degree or equivalent is required along with at least one year in customer service or other relevant experience. Discretion and strong written and verbal communication skills in English and Spanish are also required. For a complete job description, please visit https://nfcchelp.org/work-at-nfcc/
NFCC needs a reliable driver to work part-time picking up scheduled donations. The person in this role may also assist with facility maintenance and must maintain accurate vehicle maintenance records. It is crucial that they represent NFCC with a professional and friendly demeanor. 1-2 years of box truck delivery experience is preferred. Candidate must maintain a valid Georgia driver’s license and be free of any traffic violations for the past three years. Work on Saturdays or Sundays may be required occasionally. For a complete job description, please visit https://nfcchelp.org/work-at-nfcc/
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