Forsyth County Schools officials cel ebrated the start of construction Oct.
replace one of the district’s
Midway Elementary,
Mul-
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will have double the
By CHAMIAN CRUZ chamian@appenmedia.com
FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — The SoFo Sports Group is moving ahead with plans for a $143 million sports park in South Forsyth after the Board of Education approved at 10-year tax abatement Oct. 18.
The Forsyth Board of Commis sioners will also consider the abate ment request later this month.
School Board Chairman Wes McCall said that while he doesn’t normally support tax abatements, he thinks the project will benefit the commu nity.
“We took a big step last year and created a capital improvement plan based solely on E-SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax for education), so we pay as we go,” Mc Call said. “We don’t know what that looks like, but this can only benefit it, and so I do support it from this point on.”
By ALEXANDER POPP alex@appenmedia.com
FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — Denmark High School in south Forsyth County is about to get a new next-door neighbor –a whole school full of them, in fact.
School system officials broke ground on the new Midway Elementary School off Mullinax Road Oct. 18, kicking off a project to provide one of the county’s oldest schools a much-needed upgrade.
“It’s a good day for the community,” Midway Elementary Principal Daphne Rogers said at the groundbreaking cer emony. “We are very excited. Our teach ers, our students, our parents, they’re all asking, ‘When is it going to happen?’”
The current Midway Elementary School was built in 1961 off Ga. 9, with capacity for 700 students. Forsyth Coun
ty Schools Superintendent Jeff Bearden said the school has long since outgrown that capacity, and the new building will nearly double the capacity, providing a modern education space for generations.
“It will be much larger, on a very, very beautiful site which we’re excited about,” Bearden said. “This will serve our community probably for the next 60 to 75 years.”
The new Midway Elementary School will be built directly adjacent to Denmark High School, which opened four years ago.
Rogers said being so close, the high school and elementary school will be able to partner and put students of different generations together for clubs and projects, like the school’s robotics club.
“They are truly excited, especially to be able to partner with Denmark, being close to them,” she said.
Paid for entirely through the Forsyth County 2021 Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, school officials said the new Midway Elementary School will be the system’s first debt-free school.
“Back in 2018 our community ap proved a $295 bond where we built a number of schools, but obviously you have to pay that back over the years, with interest,” Bearden said. “That’s not true with this particular school, we’ll build it with [ESPLOST] money, and we do not have any debt when the elementary school is completed.”
Construction on Midway Elementary is expected to be completed in 2024 and will open to students that fall.
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ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Wellstar Health System recently welcomed a new doc tor and surgeon at its Orthopedics and Sports Medicine practice on Upper Hem bree Road in Alpharetta.
Officials with the hospital system said Dr. Eric Kiskad don, a fellowship-trained orthopedic surgeon, recently joined the Alpharetta prac tice after years of practice and research in the orthope dic field.
“I was drawn to Wellstar by the opportunity to build a truly unique joint replacement program, while working with a dedicated and compassionate team,” Kiskaddon said. “I look forward to working with the community of Wellstar physicians and providers to provide a world-class joint replacement experience for our patients.”
his orthopedic surgery residency at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, serving as administrative chief resident and was named an emerging leader by the American Orthopedic Association.
Following residency, he completed a fellowship in adult reconstruction at The Ohio State University.
KISKADDON“He performs direct anterior approach and posterior approach total hip replacement, total knee replacement, partial knee replacement, and revision hip and knee replacement,” officials said. “In addi tion, he manages fractures around prior joint replacements as well as infected hip and knee replacements.”
Kiskaddon received his doctor ate of medicine at the University of Louisville, where he was named to the Gold Humanism Honor Soci ety, officials said. He completed
For more information about Kis kaddon, Wellstar Orthopedic Surgery and Sports Medicine or to schedule an appointment, please visit wellstar.org or call 470-267-0410.
FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — The For syth County Commission voted unani mously Oct. 20 to advance plans for an entertainment complex with mini-golf, bowling, axe throwing, a 53,000-squarefoot hotel, restaurants and retail on Peachtree Parkway.
S1 Properties LLC says the develop ment will mix entertainment, gaming, retail, food and lodging on one 8.8-acre site, broken into several different build ings.
Key highlights of the development include a mini-golf course, a bowling al ley, restaurants, retail shops and a 110 room Hilton brand hotel, said project representative Sean Courtney, of Cum ming law firm Lipscomb Johnson.
Courtney said the developers have been working with residents of the Sentinel Chase neighborhood, which is directly adjacent to the development, to address a number of concerns.
He said they were able to alleviate some concerns over the proposed hotel through talks with the community, relocating its proposed location closer to Peachtree Parkway. In addition to that measure, Courtney said they agreed to a “community outreach protocol” that would allow residents to speak with the business directly to report nuisances, like lights and noise.
The public hearing drew a group of citizens speaking in opposition to the development, citing traffic, privacy and safety concerns on the busy roadway.
“Today already we have to wait a long time to make a U-turn to get to our community,” said Pavan Maremanda, a resident of Sentinel Chase neighbor hood. “It’s going to be like a Formula 1 pit stop … we are trying to get in as they are trying to get out.”
The proposal was greeted favor ably by the Forsyth County Planning Commission Sept. 27, with some small tweaks to the variances requested for the project.
“I feel like we’ve tried to strike a bal ance between addressing the concerns of the adjacent property owners while still bringing forth a very desirable commer cial use on Peachtree Parkway,” District 2 Planning Commissioner Stacy Guy said. “It’s not going to make everybody happy, but I think at the end of the day, these are the types of things that we want in our community.”
The project also saw support from the Forsyth County Chamber of Com merce, which praised the hotel portion of the development.
“We’re very much appreciative to the developer for including this hotel prod uct, something that we desperately need
The Forsyth County Board of Commis sioners approved a development in south Forsyth County Oct. 20 that will include an indoor/outdoor entertain ment complex, hotel, restaurant and retail.
here in Forsyth County,” Slade Gulledge, vice president of Economic Development for the Forsyth County Chamber of Com merce, said.
Commissioners approved the pro posal Oct. 20 without discussion.
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WOODSTOCK, Ga. — Lemonade stands, those cliche starter projects for busi ness-minded kids, are typically isolated on some neighborhood intersection, without the educational experience of surrounding competition.
But, at Kid Biz Expo, young entrepre neurs are empowered to go “beyond the lemonade stand,” through workshops and markets where they can sell goods around same-aged peers. Dedicated to expanding a kid’s entrepreneurial spirit, Kid Biz Expo serves ages 8 to 18. Co-founder Renee Dierdorff said middle school ages are the “sweet spot.”
Ten-year-old Avery Adcock sold bracelets with her business AdorAble You at the Oct. 1 Kid Biz Expo in Milton — the two A’s are purposefully capital ized to refer to Avery’s initials.
Mom Kimberly said they set up a lemonade stand over the summer.
“Mom buys the lemonade. Mom buys the bracelet kit. And, then they just get to make a little bit of money for that hour or two,” Kimberly said. “But for this, it was really about investing in her table … and kind of being responsible for all of those aspects of the marketing, the business and learning that you get out of it what you put in.”
Kevin Peppers homeschools his daughter Clara, a crafty 11-year-old who also participated in her first expo. She
sold an array of accessories, like home made earrings, crocheted scrunchies, quilted keychains and fabric lipstick holder keychains.
Kevin said he’s been watching Kid Biz Expo from day one.
“[The expo] is such an exercise in un derstanding entrepreneurship,” he said. Entrepreneurship is a concept he
built into Clara’s homeschool lesson plans. Before attending, he and wife Angela sat down with Clara to go over product inventory and pricing, profit and loss.
The expos are also a great chance for Clara and her mother to work together crafting, Kevin said.
Ainsley Ro, a 12-year-old artist, was another first-timer at the Kid Biz Expo in Milton. She sold canvas and glass paint ings along with homemade stickers.
Her mother Cyndi Ro said Ainsley has ADHD and struggles in school and that art has always been an important outlet for her. Ainsley started her own Etsy shop when she was 11. It didn’t get a lot of traffic. But Kid Biz Expo changed up the dynamics.
“She always says she’s not a real art ist. That’s like her tagline,” Cyndi said. “But, this really helped her because she sold so much merchandise. She was like, “Wow, people actually like what I do.”
Dierdorff and friend Amy Guest came up with the idea for Kid Biz Expo a few years ago, when Guest’s middle daugh ter Avery started selling cotton candy and Guest’s other daughters, Aidyn and Austyn, wanted to start something of their own. Guest’s oldest is best friends with Dierdorff’s oldest, so Dierdorff’s two daughters, Layla and Harper, got involved, too.
After using Cherokee Connect to poll interest, Dierdorff and Guest organized their first event in a church parking lot
in August 2021. There, 27 kids set up shop and more than 400 people at tended.
There isn’t much engagement be tween sellers and customers at a farm ers market, Dierdorff said. But at the first expo, visitors asked the kids a lot of questions about their products.
“It was just a very positive environ ment that day,” Dierdorff said. “You can’t replicate it anywhere.”
The expo’s success led Dierdorff and Guest to establish the idea as a nonprof it. After applying in December last year, Kid Biz Expo became an official 501(c)(3) in March.
The nonprofit’s flagship is the Kid Biz Expo, where kids can register for a spot for a $45 fee. Kid-preneurs bring their own 10x10 tent, signage and other supplies.
Dierdorff and Guest also started host ing workshops in January, to total nine for the year. The workshops, which are on business-related topics, are scheduled between the expos for preparation.
Dierdorff recalled a recent workshop about brainstorming business ideas. Oth ers have been about developing a pitch, goal planning and digital marketing.
Next year, Dierdorff plans to launch Kid Biz Coach and Kid Biz Connect.
Arranged in a conference style, she said Coach will be like “workshops on steroids.” There, kids will be able to connect with people from industries that
KIMBERLY ADCOCK/PROVIDED Avery Adcock, 10, accepts payment from a customer at the Kid Biz Expo Oct. 1 in Milton. Avery sold bracelets from his business, AdorAble You.It was just a very positive environment that day. You can’t replicate it anywhere.
are specific to their business and stay in touch with them throughout the year.
Kid Biz Connect will be a kid-to-kid networking event.
Dierdorff also has plans for Kid Biz Tech and Trade, which will be for kids whose businesses are service based, like dog walking, as well as for those inter ested in careers like coding.
Now, Kid Biz Expo has a board of nine directors, including Dierdorff and Guest, each offering a unique perspec
tive to operations.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” Dierdorff said.
While Dierdorff doesn’t get paid through Kid Biz Expo, her efforts are rewarded in other ways.
“On the days of the expos, I think the biggest thing that warms our hearts is the confidence and the smiles from the kids,” Dierdorff said. “As the day goes on, especially if they’re new to it, and they’re maybe a little timid in the begin ning, but quickly, they see how engaging and positive the people that come are … their confidence just soars.”
For more information about Kid Biz Expo, visit www.kidbizexpo.com.
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Formerly proposed as Winners Circle Park, the SoFo Sports Park could help boost commercial revenues in the county tax base and ease the burden for residents. Forsyth County’s commercial digest currently sits at approximately 18 percent.
Developer Rick Nielsen told the School Board at its Oct. 11 work session that he has been working closely with Nathan Turner, athletics and activities coordinator for Forsyth County Schools, to come up with ways to partner and help students and families get the most out of the development once it is com pleted in 2024.
The project will span 62 acres along Peachtree Parkway and Brookwood and Caney roads. It will feature nine turf fields for baseball and softball, 21 pick leball courts, eight basketball courts, 125,000 square feet of indoor sports space and a training facility, an enter tainment complex with two restaurants, and greenspace for the public similar to Halcyon and Avalon.
The indoor sports center, which will be operated by Sports Academy, can be converted for volleyball, a sprint track, an athlete lounge, classrooms and office
space. Now close to a $50 billion indus try across the country, Nielsen said they also plan a dedicated space for esports that students can use for tournaments or events.
“Talking to Mr. Turner and hearing your guys’ success as a county with the schools was really motivating for us,” Nielsen said. “I think we can work together to grow that program for you guys and hold some cool events.”
Nielsen said some of the ways they plan on working with the community and schools is by creating leagues and clubs across all sports and age groups, setting aside time for open use and rentals for local pickup games and recreational use, and granting prior ity access to high schools as a backup location for games in case of inclement weather and as a venue for state cham pionships.
The list of possibilities, Nielsen said, will probably triple when it’s all said and done. The development group is working with local sports celebrities, such as Tom Glavine, Chipper Jones and Dominique Wilkens, in overseeing the project.
Overall, officials expect the park to draw 975,000 visitors and $151 million in annual revenue to the county from club teams and tournaments, court rentals, sports performance training
and streaming video subscriptions, retail, restaurants and concessions. It is expected to create about 550 full-time jobs.
Joe Stein, a member of the Forsyth County Development Authority, said the park’s impact is equivalent to every single economic development project Forsyth County has had in the first seven months of 2022.
“Everyone has looked at this and really highlighted the fact that this has the potential to be a catalyst project and something that is very unique to the county,” Stein said. “It’s some thing that we’ve been lacking for a long time.”
But, with the size of the project and economic times, Stein said SoFo Sports Group is asking for help to ensure the park’s success during its first few years after opening.
Stein said the idea is for the developers to finance $13 million of the $143 million project themselves and to receive $30 million in bank financing. The development authority and county would then back a $100 million bond without putting out any money.
“It’s basically a guarantee that should things go wrong, the county would take over the project, per se, including the additional $43 million investment from other sources, which
by itself, would not be a bad deal,” Stein said.
By guaranteeing the bond, develop ers are eligible for a lower interest rate. As for the 10-year tax abatement, they would pay 10 percent of the tax bill for the first year and increase that by 10 percent each year.
The 62-acre property currently generates $231,000 annually in prop erty taxes, 70 percent of it to the school board. Stein said the developers have agreed to pay a pilot payment to the county each year of $231,000 while the project is up and running to ensure that there is no detriment to the schools or students.
“When this project is realized and full, the estimation … is that this will generate $1.5 million per year in tax revenue for the county,” Stein said. “In addition to that, with $150 mil lion worth of annual direct invest ment coming here, you can count on about $1.5 million per year coming to the Board of Education through E-SPLOST. So the benefits, it seems to us are exceedingly good for the schools as well as for the county it self.”
Superintendent Dr. Jeff Bearden said that if this were to come to fruition, there is no question it would benefit athletes throughout Forsyth County.
Every time I drive by The Silos pocket park in Alpharetta I think of Jake Hughes, and I wish I had known him. Successful entre preneur, farmer and friend to all, Jake was the definition of an overachiever.
Jacob William Hughes (1898-1987) was one of 13 children raised on a cotton farm in Neeces, South Caro lina. He was a natural born business man. In his mid-20s, he decided that the future was in transportation. He borrowed seed capital from the local bank and bought a used eightseat Buick with a luggage rack on top. He painted “Bus” on the sides and launched his first real business, hauling passengers from Columbia to Charleston, SC. Later in 1933, he and friend Lon Shipman (1900-1988) joined forces with a small bus line and founded Southeastern Stages. To this day, the company provides scheduled and charter motor coach services throughout the Southeast.
Jake’s son Bill worked his way up in the company and served as CEO until 2020 when he retired. He is currently chairman emeritus.
The founders weathered the Great Depression and moved operations to Atlanta in the late 1930s. During World War II, the company made a lot of money
transporting soldiers around the state. But Jake and Lon had farming in their blood, and both bought farmland. Lon bought 60 acres in Sandy Springs and became a weekend farmer. Jake began accumulating land in old Milton County, eventually more than 1,000 acres. Jake’s brother C. A. Hughes managed the farm while Jake continued to live in Buck head. On weekends, he would come up to his farm from Buckhead and cut hay where the North Farm subdivision is today.
Never one to sit still, Jake started several farm-related businesses. Toward the end of WWII, he established the Jake Hughes Hereford Farm and began buying Hereford cattle by bidding on the best cattle specimens at cattle auctions. In March 1945, the Atlanta Constitution commenting on “the new and budding” Hereford industry, reported that at one auction where 45 of the finest cattle in the state were sold, Jake bought one of the two top specimens Clybel Princess 1st for $1,500. The following month, he sold a Hereford, Millie Domino III, for the top price of $1,300 at an auction where 75 Herefords were sold. Sometimes he would have as many as 100 Herefords
Our local news is free to read but not to produce. Forsyth Herald relies on advertisers to keep the lights on, pay our reporters and publish your news. That’s why we want to say thank you to all the advertisers, large and small, who have stuck by us through thick and thin. Consider giving them your business, just as they have done with us.
Buy local, eat local, read local.
Blue light therapy, also called pho todynamic therapy (PDT), is a treatment that can help eliminate precancerous lesions and lower one’s risk of skin cancer. A PDT treatment involves ap plying a medicine called aminolevulinic acid (ALA) to a patient’s skin and then shining blue light on the treated area to activate the medicine. ALA is an organic, naturally occurring amino acid that our bodies use to make hemoglobin. When applied to the skin and acti vated by blue light, ALA preferentially kills pre-cancerous cells that make up lesions called actinic keratoses (AKs). Patients can often feel their own AKs by running their fingers over sun damaged areas such as the tip of the nose, the tops of the ears or the scalp. AK’s usually feel rough or hard and will sometimes bleed if picked. AKs can develop into skin cancer if untreated.
PDT has a “season” because most precancer treatments leave the skin tempo rarily irritated and paradoxically vulner able to the sun’s rays for a period of a few days to a week as healing takes place. Good cells need time to heal into the place previously occupied by bad cells. After a PDT treatment, a patient needs to avoid the sun for a few days. If a patient is go ing to see a child or grandchild’s baseball game, go fishing, golfing, boating or other wise be in the sun, then many dermatolo gists would recommend waiting to perform preventative skin cancer treatments until a less sunny time of year when it’s easier to avoid the sun’s UV rays.
Now that the days are getting shorter and the sun is less intense, it’s time to start thinking about skin cancer preven tion again. Multiple treatment options exist to help prevent skin cancer includ ing in-office treatments like PDT as well as at home creams that a patient applies such as fluorouracil, imiquimod, diclof enac and tirbanibulin. A dermatologist can help a patient choose the best, per sonalized treatment.
PDT and the best topical treat ments can eliminate 75% or more of one’s actinic keratoses and dramati cally decrease the number of times a patient has to have spots frozen or
cancers cut out. Our experience is that thoroughly treated areas that were growing skin cancers at the rate of one per year often go multiple years without another skin cancer after PDT treatments.
Cosmetically, PDT can be part of a skin rejuvenation regimen. On the face of men and women and on the upper chest “décolletage” area of women, PDT treatments can address the pre cancerous component of sun-damaged skin, and then laser treatments (such as 532/1064nm Nd:YAG laser) can help address aesthetic components of sun damage. These treatments allow many rough, red or brown spots to be eliminated resulting in medical and cosmetic benefit.
If you would like to repair sun damaged skin and treat actinic kera toses or are simply overdue for a skin exam, consider Premier Dermatology and Mohs Surgery of Atlanta. Dr. Brent Taylor is a fellowship-trained and board-certified dermatologist and Mohs surgeon. Kathryn Filipek, PA-C has greater than 15 years of experience in dermatology and has expertise in medi cal dermatology, cosmetic injectable treatments, sclerotherapy, external laser treatments and more.
I had a client come into the office this week. His parents were 91 and 94 years of age. They were still living indepen dently, mostly. Their kids and one other caregiver came in almost every day to help. We talked about the Medicaid EDWP Program – Elderly & Disabled Waiver Program – which provides care givers in the home and could supple ment the assistance they were receiving privately. We also talked about skilled nursing care since Dad had fallen recently and the children thought it would be only a matter of time until he fell again and wouldn’t be able to live safely in an independent setting.
Their son asked if they could simply sell the home. Houses are excluded as a resource when you apply for Medic aid. The problem with houses is that, when you sell a house, you no longer have an excluded asset. You have a big pile of money. That big pile of money is countable. Considering Mom and Dad’s age, we don’t have the option of giving away property to an asset protection trust, for example, because they would likely need help within five years. As an alternative, I suggested renting their
home if they moved to assisted living or later to skilled nursing care. Rental income would provide additional cash to pay for care privately and allow Mom and Dad to qualify with the house still being counted as an excluded asset. I know a few great prop erty managers who can help if kids don’t want to mess with tenants. We can help you create a team of professionals to support you.
“What if your income is over the Medicaid limit with the rental in come?”, their son asked. You can use a special bank account that allows you to have more income than Medicaid allows so long as Medic aid is the beneficiary of income remain ing at your death. At Wilson Legal, we look at your situation or your parents’ situation – financial, health, family and where they want to live. Sometimes it’s better to rent than to sell. Our Eldercare Roadmap Strategy Session is designed to find the best options for your situation. How will you (or your parents) live your best life?
Michelle Wilson, Attorney (770) 205-7861 Wilson-legal.com
As the last quarter of another year moves along, the days get shorter, and holiday festivities ramp up, it is very common to feel sad. It is also common to tell ourselves just to think happy thoughts, push through, and avoid any of the mental or physical signals this very useful emotion brings. New re search studies are finding people experi ence physical relief, emotional calm, and improved relational connection when they allow themselves to observe, name, and work with rather than against sad ness. There is also a benefit to recogniz ing when normal sadness is shifting into depression and choosing to take steps to help your body and brain respond.
Here are three suggestions that can help when you notice feeling sad:
1. Get Curious. Every emotion has a set of body and brain cues. Emotions also have valid and natural purposes, including sadness. When you feel tired, sluggish, teary, or have a lack of motiva tion, pause and get curious. Instead of judging the moment, get curious about why it is showing up today or in this season. See the helpful reminders to honor the loss of someone or something important. Reflect on losses or goals not achieved this year. Getting curious about sadness often provides a new ap preciation for the people and experiences that still bring you meaning and value.
2. Get Active. Sadness signals its presence with a set of automatic natural body cues. All of us at some point experience sadness as a range from tiredness and low energy to feeling pain or hollowness in the gut. We also can easily forget the positives in life. These cues are hard-wired into our
brain and body to signal a need to pay attention and make a possible change. First, we need to check if the sadness is justified and helpful. If it is not justified or helpful, act opposite the sadness by reaching out to a trusted friend, dis tracting with positive or upbeat music, pray, walk outside, or text encourage ments to three people. If the sadness is justified and it would be helpful to engage it, get active by allowing your self to remember and grieve. The key to working with the sadness is to let your brain and body know you are taking the signals seriously.
3. Get Support. If you find yourself feeling persistently numb or afraid of giving sadness any space in your life, it may be time to get support from a trained professional who understands how thoughts, emotions, and actions af fect our life. At the Summit, we have an easy-to-use online tool to help you de termine in a few minutes if your recent thoughts or actions tied to sadness may be associated with a common, treatable mental health need. Visit screening.men talhealthscreening.org/SUMMIT to get your results and a recommendation for a counselor that can help.
Sadness can be a valuable emotion. Choose to pay attention to its signals and access the help you need in order to feel more connected to yourself and enjoy each day more.
The Medicare Annual Enrollment Period is here! Almost two weeks into the Medicare AEP, the most common question we seem to get is “Are there any changes to my plan?” It is important to remember that from one year to the next, your plan will almost always change in some way. For instance, your insurance carrier could lower or raise a hospital copay, change the prescription formulary, or come out with new plan options all together.
Every insurance carrier must physi cally mail you these changes for the upcoming year in a booklet called the Annual Notice of Change, or ANOC for short. If you have not received your ANOC, contact your insurance carrier to request one or contact us through our website at www.SeniorSourceMedicare. com/contact-seniorsource/ and we would be happy to provide you with a booklet on your plan changes.
If you have a Medicare Advantage Plan (also referred to as a Medicare Plan) or a Stand-Alone Prescription Drug Plan (PDP),
you should review the changes annually. You’ll usually hear from your Medicare Insurance Agent about major changes in the plans; but for more specific changes, like changes to the prescription drug for mulary, the insurance carrier would only notify the member and not the agent.
Just remember to check your doc tors, check your prescription drugs, and review your ANOC. By reviewing these three items, you’ll know whether you should allow your current plan to auto matically renew or if it might be a better idea to look at changing to a new plan.
Don’t go it alone! Analyzing Medicare Plans and recognizing all the extra perks that go with them, can be overwhelming. We are Medicare insurance brokers that do all this for you, while keeping your spe cific needs in mind. Give us a call today at (770) 315-8145 or check us out online at www.SeniorSourceMedicare.com
Paige Gorman Agent
I just read Ray Appen’s column on grammar in the Herald. Kudos. The decrease in correct grammar, not only in speech but in writing, is disturb ing. Defenders say we have a marvel ously elastic language and it’s always changing, etc. While there is truth in the natural evolution of word meanings and use, grammar is a different matter. And an increasing failure to use cor rect grammar negatively impacts our ability to communicate and to under stand others.
The letters we have of Civil War soldiers, even if they are not entirely rep resentative of the population, do suggest
Continued from Page 12
on his farm.
Next, Jake went into the dairy busi ness with Holstein cows, known for their high milk production. They were the only breed that could make money, according to Roy Rusk (1916-2012) who worked for Jake for many years. Jake hired numerous workers for that labor intensive business. In 1950, he built the three silos that constitute the pocket park where field crops such as corn and grains were ground up and stored until they fermented into animal feed. His large dairy barn was just north of the silos.
Jake stopped using the silos in 1967 when he switched from dairy cows to Black Angus and pure French Charolais cattle. They ate hay rather than silage and could take advantage of Jake’s abundant grazing acreage. Jake once sold a Charolais bull named Alabama Designee for $100,000, says C. V. Dinsmore, a land and commer
a thoughtfulness, understanding and ability for expression far higher than the average college graduate today.
I tend to be wordy myself, and must take care. In my work writing, I use such aids as Grammargirl.com and now even Grammarly!
My biggest peeve lately is the “Me and him” subject construct I seem to hear all the time. Not only should it be “I” and “he” but the “he” should be placed first out of common courtesy (which might even help people to remem ber the subject/object difference). But it’s “me” first these days, in more ways than one.
I diagrammed sentences in school, and better, was lucky to have married a girl who grew up in Catholic school and was made to diagram sentences a lot! Children growing up in our house got edited by me for content and flow, and their mother for clear, concise, grammatically correct writing!
Anyway thanks for your column. You may be playing “Nearer My God to Thee” on the deck of the Titanic, but that’s the way to go down!
Rob Rogers Cummingcial real estate specialist who enjoyed a number of business relations with Jake.
Jake’s next business, which he operated for several years, was egg production. He had some large chicken houses and sold his eggs all over the country.
Then came the business of regis tered American Quarter Horses. Jake built a large circular arena where he auctioned off high-quality animals to buyers from all over the world. He operated the business for about 10 years in the 1950s and ’60s and had as many as 30 horses at any given time. C. V. Dinsmore recalls that Jake had two award winning champions, Cap tain Joker and Jake’s a Million. Jake called his business the Jake Hughes Quarter Horse Farm.
From 1953 to 1973, Jake and Roy Rusk operated the Crabapple Sausage Company producing 1,500 to 3,000 pounds of sausage a day which they sold to the public at the sausage mak ing facility and to grocery stores all over Georgia.
Jake loved to play the stock market and read the Wall Street Journal every day.
When Jake was in his 70s he sold off parcels of his holdings to develop ers. Neighborhoods such as North Farm, Saddle Creek and the Kroger shopping center in Crabapple were built on his land.
Jake Hughes was a caring and gra cious man with a Midas touch who always sought the very best of the best and who left his mark in many ways in North Fulton.
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 bob mey@bellsouth.net.
CRABAPPLE DENTISTRY/PROVIDED Jake Hughes built these silos in 1950 to make and store feed for his dairy business, and he used them until 1967 when he switched from dairy to raising beef cattle which fed on grass in his large pastures. Circa 1950s.
The City of Alpharetta created a pocket park in 2003 surrounding the silos that Jake Hughes built to support his dairy business. The silos are one of the most recognized symbols of the city and are a constant reminder of the area’s agrar ian roots.
Solution
CHAMP SEEP SEMI AERIE ACME ABET B REAK THUG HONE SOS OLIO WANDS REAR SOAR TEE DEFENDANTS MILD LACE ERE E TA PLEASED VAN N AN EARN SECT UNDERTA KER IRK TOES RAMS RERUN ERGO EFT U SED ELMO VILLA M ANE WEIR IMBED P UTS EATS EPEESBOB MEYERS/APPEN MEDIA
these days, right? Think Amazon driv ers, home-delivered groceries, prescrip tions, and pizza and so much more. And of course, business, well anything that boosts business can’t be all bad, no?
RAY APPEN Publisher Emeritus ray@appenmedia.comShe didn’t lay on the horn but might as well have done that. In my rear-view mirror, I watched her mouth ing words and throwing her hands up in exasperation. It was so ridiculous to me that it actu ally made me smile. I mean, where else would someone spark a mini road rage thing by coming to a full stop at a three way stop? Really? I annoyed someone because I wasn’t in so much of a hurry that I didn’t roll through a stop sign and through the intersection? What was she so late for? Where was she going in such a hurry? Don’t think I really would want to know and, truth be told, my guess is that the answer is probably “none of the above.” That is just how she goes through life – in a hurry for nothing or not much –and aggravated that everyone else isn’t just like she is.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I mean, so much of our economy now is tied to things that help save time. Saving time creates jobs
Look at Starbucks the last two years. What has changed? Everything, I would suggest. Their business model seems to have morphed into serving coffee and food – fast – and of course that includes the added bonus of people not having to be inconvenienced by having to exit their cars. Just go through the drive-thru, saves time and while you are waiting for your Frap, you can keep watching TicTok or what ever your favorite go-to website or app is. Losing time on your phone is the big no-no, right?
And the cost? Well, yes, there is a cost for everything. In Starbucks’ case, the cost just might be that what brought them to the table, what made them unique and gave them their com petitive advantage, the creation of a place that served great coffee but also provided a comfortable place to meet and socialize, to chat with a friend or discuss a business deal or next months’ vacation plans with another, or how Johnnie is doing in school or
that great book you just read. Now in stead, more time with a screen without having to interact with another human. Hmmmm. Sort of reminds me of all those companies who have also “up dated” their business model via Zoom or Teams and now conduct business in front of screens instead of in person.
And they wonder why turnover has jumped, morale has plummeted, and folks just don’t seem to care like they used to – or have the same work ethic or the social sensibilities. But, as I mentioned earlier, every situation has a silver lining; we have entered the golden age for therapists, delivery drivers, warehouse builders and social media influencers.
And what about all those young people who have never known a life that did not revolve around their screens? Where does this path lead?
I think if I owned Starbucks stock for long, I would be thinking hard about getting rid of it. With their morphed business model what they have done to me is effectively commod itized their product, reduced it down to the lowest common denominator –time, convenience – and the WalMart approach to business – price. How long will it be before some enterprising en
trepreneur realizes that one could start building those little kiosks in parking lots that only serve drive-thru coffee and do it faster and cheaper, and slip in under the radar of the 800-pound coffee gorilla, and eat their lunch?
The same thing probably also holds true for all sorts of things, like even that old-school media – print. Digital saves time, money, bottom line, and is super convenient, no? Well, yes and no. You see, anytime there is change, something usually gets lost in the tran sition. Everything has a cost. And the relative value of what is lost is some times very subtle and sometimes not so much, and often not realized until too late in the rear-view mirror.
What is the value of a conversation – the old-fashioned kind – in per son? Or the low impact ease of reading the local news on print – at your lei sure? Versus diving into a social media platform every day for a couple hours on your screen and then wondering where all your time has gone?
Where has all our time gone? I’ll have a Venti dark please, two raw sug ars, a splash of cream… and room.
And can you give me a Pupachino for my dog too? I’m in a hurry and he loves those Pupcups.
Sandra Christian, 83, of Alpharetta, passed away October 3, 2022. Arrangements by Northside Chapel Funeral Directors & Crematory.
Katherine Clark, 81, of Alpharetta, passed away October 4, 2022. Arrangements by Northside Chapel Funeral Directors & Crematory.
Joanne Hall-Hellen, 77, of Alpharetta, passed away October 9, 2022. Arrangements by Northside Chapel Funeral Directors & Crematory.
Geoffrey Lariosa, 61, of Alpharetta, passed away October 15, 2022. Arrangements by Northside Chapel Funeral Directors & Crematory.
John McHugh, 96, of Roswell, passed away October 11, 2022. Arrangements by Northside Chapel Funeral Directors & Crematory.
Raymond Pohlman, 78, of Roswell, passed away October 3, 2022. Arrangements by Northside Chapel Funeral Directors & Crematory.
James Pounders, 72, of Roswell, passed away October 8, 2022. Arrangements by Northside Chapel Funeral Directors & Crematory.
Ai Qiu, age 68, Alpharetta, passed away October 9, 2022. Arrangements by Northside Chapel Funeral Directors & Crematory.
Iris Seltzer, 88, of Roswell, passed away October 8, 2022. Arrangements by Northside Chapel Funeral Directors & Crematory.
Charles Stefl, 87, of Milton, passed away September 28, 2022. Arrangements by Northside Chapel Funeral Directors & Crematory.
Joseph Tillman, 93, of Roswell, passed away October 7, 2022. Arrangements by Northside Chapel Funeral Directors & Crematory.
Jay Tokarz, 63, of Milton, passed away October 11, 2022. Arrangements by Northside Chapel Funeral Directors & Crematory.
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Reader Advisory: The National Trade Association we belong to has purchased the above classifieds. Determining the value of their service or product is advised by this publication. In order to avoid misunderstandings, some advertisers do not offer employment but rather supply the
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