Milton Herald - February 16, 2023

Grateful for a life saved

School Board takes next step to intensify drive for literacy gains

By DELANEY TARR delaney@appenmedia.com

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — The Fulton County School Board voted to move forward with the third edition of a program designed to sharpen instructor’s skills in teaching reading.

The Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling program, which carries a price tag of approximately $1.48 million, was passed unanimously at a Feb. 7 work session and will join a block of other topics set for formal approval at the Feb. 23 School Board meeting.

The curriculum designed for teachers, also called LETRS, is based on “the science of reading.” It trains teachers on “five essential pillars of reading,” phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. It also instructs on writing, spelling and oral language.

The school system has already implemented versions of the program. Fulton County Schools Chief Academic Officer Cliff Jones said the third edition of the program is like the newest edition of a textbook.

Fulton County Schools launched the program in 2018 at the prompting of Schools Superintendent Mike Looney. When COVID-19 hit, the need

See LITERACY, Page 21

After nearly

before, 74-year-old Iris Sherman visits Station 44 Feb. 8 to reunite with Milton firefighters who assisted on scene at the Cabernet steakhouse, saving her life. Read story, Page 4.

AMBER PERRY/APPEN MEDIA

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Imposter uses man’s ID to ring up hospital bills

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MILTON, Ga. — A man received two bills from Northside Hospitals, totaling more than $10,000, but he said he hadn’t received either service listed on the bills.

Both bills were dated from October. The man told Milton Police Feb. 2 that he didn’t go to either location nor receive any type of medical attention from Northside Hospital. He said he has been in contact with the hospital to get the issue resolved and sent over a photo of his Georgia driver’s license.

Staff said his license was the same as what was on file, except for the photo.

Neither the man nor his insurance provider have paid any money on the bill, the police report said. But the man said the bill was sent to his insurance company.

Fraudulent account set up in man’s name

MILTON, Ga. — A man received a Verizon Wireless bill in the mail for an account he never opened with the company.

Weeks later on Feb. 3, he informed Milton Police he had not been with Verizon for at least three years. When he called Verizon about the account, Verizon terminated it immediately, the police report said.

Verizon provided an email associated with the fraudulent account. But the man does not know if his Social Security number was stolen or whether the con artist used another document.

The man did not pay any bill associated with the fraudulent account, the report said.

Man cited for speeding, driving while unlicensed

MILTON, Ga. — When conducting a traffic stop on Morris Road Feb. 3, Milton Police noticed a silver sedan approaching at a high rate of speed.

The posted speed limit for Morris Road is 35 mph, the police report said. Police confirmed the vehicle’s speed at 60 mph.

As the vehicle passed, police activated lights and siren to conduct a traffic stop at Webb Road. As police approached the driver side window, the driver opened the door and said his window couldn’t roll down.

When police ran the vehicle, the North Carolina tag came up suspended but appeared to have valid insurance. Police also ran his Mexico driver’s license, but nothing pulled up, and there were no prior incidents police could find.

The driver told police he had been in Georgia for three years and had not gone through the necessary procedures that would allow him to drive in this state.

Police issued citations for speeding and for driving while unlicensed.

Woman’s mail diverted to different address

MILTON, Ga. — A woman, whose mail was forwarded to another address without her consent, told police she thinks the person responsible also opened a Verizon account in her name and charged $8,000 in January.

The woman explained to Milton Police Feb. 3 that she received a notice from the U.S. Postal Service about a confirmation to a request of an address change in her name. She said she did not make the request to change her address.

In the request for an address change, the “new address” was not listed, the police report said.

The woman called the USPS Fraud Hotline to open a case.

She said she has tried to cancel the change of address, but that USPS cannot cancel the request for some reason.

BEING FOUND FIRST  is what makes you a winner!

Woman thanks Milton firefighters who saved her life

By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com

MILTON, Ga. — Three weeks after she nearly choked to death on a piece of steak at Cabernet, 74-year-old Iris Sherman made a trip to Station 44 to thank the firefighters who saved her life.

“Every minute is a blessing. Every second is a blessing, and I thought I lived that way before,” Sherman said. “But it feels different now.

Sherman, alongside Milton Fire Capt. Mark Haskins, walked into the station Feb. 8 overwhelmed with gratitude. Most who were on scene at the restaurant awaited her in the station’s common room.

In the poignant reunion, Milton Fire Capt. Ryan James, also a paramedic, was the first to approach Sherman with a long embrace. Using a video laryngoscope, aka GlideScope, James was able to visualize the obstruction in Sherman’s airway that day, then dislodge it using forceps.

“God bless you all for what you do,” Sherman said to the packed room.

Sherman moved to Milton from New York around two months ago to be with her children. She acknowledged the incident as “quite the welcome.”

“My children say I can now eat soup

and baby food,” Sherman said. “My daughter’s birthday is coming up on the 13th of this month, and I said, ‘What do you want to do for your birthday?’ She said, ‘Not go to a steakhouse.’”

Sherman’s children were with her at Cabernet. It was Sherman’s birthday.

“I didn’t get to have a piece of cake,” she said.

While she hasn’t gotten a chance to visit the Cabernet manager, Sherman said he was incredible. Everyone in the restaurant got a free meal, she said.

After a 911 call went out, Milton Police officers were the first to arrive at the restaurant. Because the Heimlich maneuver didn’t work, officers began CPR. A person’s survivability falls about 10 percent with every passing minute that a patient goes without CPR, Haskins said.

Sherman was non-responsive with no pulse by the time firefighters arrived and took over. She went three minutes

without a pulse before she started breathing again.

When James first opened Sherman’s airway with a standard laryngoscope, he couldn’t see the obstruction. He was quickly handed the video laryngoscope, which provided a clearer visual of her larynx and allowed him to use forceps to dislodge the steak.

James said fellow firefighter Sidney Davis’ “excellent CPR” helped push the obstruction up, allowing him to get a better grab on it.

Milton firefighter/paramedic Derek Hoffman gave a demonstration of the GlideScope on a dummy in the bay area of Station 44. Sherman, petite in frame, stood on her tiptoes to get a view.

The GlideScope’s shape is like the standard laryngoscope, found in any first responder’s medical kit. It has a bladelike device, but longer and more angular, and with HDMI hook-up for the camera

and screen.

Milton has a progressive fire department, James said. In addition to providing emergency services, the department houses CARES, or Community Advocates for Referral and Education Services, which is a free health care program led by Hoffman.

“Our city takes good care of us,” James said. “They give us good equipment to work with.”

Once James dislodged the steak, first responders resumed CPR, and Sherman started breathing again. An ambulance transported her to the North Fulton Hospital, where doctors took over.

By the end of the day, Sherman was walking around the hospital room with two broken ribs, fractured during the CPR procedures. The last thing she remembered was being served her meal.

“I can say the steak was yummy,” Sherman said. “I was eating like a horse.”

Lambert High student wins Post 201 contest

By SHELBY ISRAEL shelby@appenmedia.com

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.

AMBER PERRY/APPEN MEDIA

Milton Fire Capt. Ryan James shows Iris Sherman the forceps used to clear her airway. Milton firefighter/paramedic Derek Hoffman, far right, provided a demonstration of the video laryngoscope.

Milton Starbucks becomes third Metro Atlanta store to unionize

Workers United shifts its strategy to advance talks

By KENDALL GLYNN Atlanta Civic Circle

ATLANTA — Baristas at a Milton Starbucks narrowly won a union election Jan. 5 with a razor-thin 11-10 vote.

That makes the store, located at the intersection of Crabapple and Houze roads, the third Metro Atlanta Starbucks to unionize since last June and the 21st store in the South to join Starbucks Workers United (SBWU), which represents the vast majority of unionized Starbucks workers.

The North Fulton store joins the Ansley Mall and Howell Mill stores – and almost 270 unionized stores nationally – that have been struggling to get Starbucks to negotiate a contract for the past year. According to Camden Mitchell, SBWU’s lead organizer for its South Region, both the Ansley Mall and Howell Mill employees were finally able to schedule talks in December with Starbucks corporate representatives,

who walked out immediately.

“They continue to refuse to negotiate in the hybrid format,” Mitchell said. “The bargaining hasn’t really gone any further than that.”

The SBWU wanted its representatives to negotiate a single contract for the unionized U.S. stores, which represent almost 7,000 employees, but Starbucks declined, saying it would only negotiate with each store individually. Because local baristas are not experienced in union contract negotiations, SBWU adopted a hybrid strategy in which a national SBWU representative would call in via Zoom to support each store’s employees in their scheduled meeting with corporate representatives.

Starbucks and SBWU have been fighting over the issue for months, with Starbucks objecting to the presence of an SBWU representative via Zoom at negotiations, and both sides have filed numerous unfair labor practice complaints with the National Labor Relations Board.

The NLRB ruled in December that Starbucks failed to negotiate in good faith at 21 stores in the Pacific Northwest. In labor relations, “good faith” is a legal term that requires meaningful participation in collective bargaining from both sides.

The NLRB ruling restarts the negotiation clock for the 21 stores, which each have one-year to win a contract from Starbucks. Otherwise, employees who don’t support the union can move to decertify it at their stores.

More immediately, SBWU wants to use this ruling as a springboard to push Starbucks to engage in substantive contract negotiations nationally.

“The complaint was filed in Washington and Oregon, but we want to get it changed to national,” Mitchell said.

Before any local stores schedule additional contract negotiations with Starbucks, he added, SBWU is asking the store’s members for permission to send a letter on their behalf to Starbucks to reiterate that they will continue including a national SBWU representative at each meeting under the hybrid negotiation approach.

The letter then states that if Starbucks is not open to this form of negotiating, it’d be best for all parties to postpone talks. According to Mitchell, the tactic is to save SBWU members from wasting their time –both unionized local employees, who must take time off work for the contract negotiations, and SBWU staff who must travel around the country for the meetings.

Starbucks has claimed it is working diligently to keep the collective bargaining moving via its one.starbucks. com site, which the coffee giant uses to update the public on the union proceedings.

“Starbucks has consistently urged workers united to engage meaningfully and directly in the bargaining process, only to be frustrated by Worker’s United refusals to bargain in person,” it said in a Dec. 30 statement.

While Starbucks insists it is trying to work things out with the unionized employees, SBWU has filed multiple unionbusting complaints with the NLRB. The union’s South Region filed three such complaints recently. SBWU South is pushing for Starbucks to reinstate Will Suarez, Jared Saxton and Ashe Bennett, who worked at a Covington, Ga., store which lost a union vote earlier this year.

A federal judge in Tennessee ordered Starbucks to reinstate seven employees fired in Memphis in 2022 under similar circumstances. As of December, the NLRB has filed several injunction requests in federal court asking a judge to require Starbucks to reinstate union supporters found to be illegally fired. This article was originally published on atlantaciviccircle.org.

8 | Milton Herald | February 16, 2023

King George Tavern offers homey British charm

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 get authentic fish and chips, along

See TAVERN, Page 9

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.

HUW THOMAS, owner, King George Tavern

ALEX POPP/APPEN MEDIA

General Manager Britney “BK” Keane pours a pint of Guinness behind the bar at the King George Tavern in Dunwoody with Dunwoody Restaurant Group Founder Huw Thomas. Thomas and Keane said the restaurant has earned a dedicated following of loyal customers through consistency and personality.

Tavern:

Continued from Page 8

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.

Tucker

KING GEORGE TAVERN/PROVIDED

The owner and manager of the King George Tavern in Dunwoody say that customers can expect a cozy, authentic experience with them, whether they’re loyal regulars or first-time visitors.

Milton updates traffic calming policy, removes cost share

By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com

MILTON, Ga. — Milton residents now have to fully fund traffic calming measures within their subdivisions after the City Council voted Feb. 6 to end a policy to help share costs.

The action ended a program that provided the city pay half the costs of measures taken by neighborhoods to mitigate speeding on public streets.

Going forward, applicants, defined as having the authority to act on behalf of a subdivision or study area, will be responsible for all bidding and construction costs after the Public Works Department approves the traffic calming request.

Milton City Councilman Rick Mohrig said the cost-share agreement was unfair to Milton taxpayers.

“We’re asking people who live on open roads and other subdivisions to use tax dollars to subsidize that subdivision,” Mohrig said. “I don’t believe that there should be a burden, that we go to other taxpayers and say, ‘We need to pay for this.’”

In addition to the cost-share agreement, the City Council also eliminated a provision for homeowner’s associations that allowed them to act on behalf of their subdivisions without the 67 percent petition requirement for neighborhood support.

White Columns

The decision comes in the wake of action within the White Columns subdivision, where its homeowners association purchased and installed four radar feedback signs with city staff approval, but without seeking community input. The White Columns HOA then sought reimbursement from

the city after discovering the cost-share agreement.

Over the course of several City Council meetings last year, most White Columns residents advocated against its HOA for acting on their behalf. Some appreciated the measure, noting excessive speeding throughout the neighborhood.

The Feb. 6 agenda item received one emailed public comment from White Columns resident Adam Hollingsworth urging the City Council to rethink the new policy.

“Have you sought to meet with

and hear from HOAs across the city of Milton? Or is the proposed ordinance change being driven only by a single project and a single HOA and opposed by a single member of the City Council?” Hollingsworth asked in the email, alluding to Milton City Councilman Paul Moore, a White Columns resident.

In August, an ethics panel determined that Moore committed three of seven ethics violations when he voted to defer a decision to provide city funding for traffic calming devices inside his neighborhood.

Milton Public Works Director Sara Leaders said the city will still offer neighborhoods resources for passive measures in education, like temporary radar signs and message boards, and traffic enforcement without the need of a petition. Applicants can also request warning signs and other safety measures unrelated to traffic calming, like stop sign evaluations, without a petition.

Because neighborhood streets are city property, Milton City Attorney Ken Jarrard said the City Council still has “plenary authority” to make them safe.

New summer camp

In other action at the meeting, the City Council approved the fee-collecting process for a newly created seven-week summer day camp that will be held at the Milton City Park and Preserve Community Center, which opened in April 2022 after extensive renovations.

“The purpose of the Parks and Rec Department and its programs we offer, such as this camp, are to create fun and positive experiences for our residents and community,” Milton Parks and Recreation Director Tom McKlveen said.

The camp, scheduled for June and July, will see 50-plus kids each week. Camp activities include daily swimming, arts and crafts, sports, movie time, games, outdoor education and nature hikes.

The camp cost is $150 a week for residents and $225 for non-residents.

McKlveen said any city program qualifies city employees for a 50 percent discount off the resident registration fee. Milton residents will have dibs on registration, then registration will open to city employees and non-residents.

Church plans development at vacant Kohl’s site

By DELANEY TARR delaney@appenmedia.com

ROSWELL, Ga. — Eagles Nest Church in Roswell is moving forward with a multiuse development plan after purchasing the vacant Kohl’s lot on Holcomb Bridge Road for $13 million in December.

The 15.5-acre site was once home to Kohl’s, a Rite-Aid, Petco and Moe’s – all now shuttered. The Kohl’s lot has been vacant since 2016.

Details of the development are private for now, but Lee Jenkins, the founder and Senior Pastor of Eagles Nest Church said he hopes to have a general vision for the property in three months. In the next year and a half,

he said there should be some major changes.

Jenkins said they’re trying to do something “unique” for a church. Many churches use their property for religious services and daycares and leave them empty the rest of the time.

“I always thought that was a poor use of such a valuable asset,” said Jenkins, who has experience working in the financial sector.

That experience, he said, helped him focus on “return on asset” for the church property and spurred him to explore a multi-use development, rather than a traditional space.

AMBER PERRY/APPEN MEDIA

Milton Public Works Director Sara Leaders presents a new traffic calming policy at the Feb. 6 Milton City Council meeting. The updated policy removes the city’s cost-share agreement and the provision for homeowners associations that allowed them to bypass the supermajority petition requirement for neighborhood support.

DELANEY TARR / APPEN MEDIA

Eagles Nest Church plans to turn the vacant Kohl’s property on Holcomb Bridge Road into a multi-use development with an auditorium space for church services. See CHURCH, Page 22

Fiber artists join forces for charity work

By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com

MILTON, Ga. — In a back room of the Milton Branch Library, around a dozen women, and the brother of one, Scott Eldredge, sat crocheting, knitting and quilting.

Some were working on individual projects, but most were adding to a colorful donation pile at the end of the table. The group gathers every Thursday at 11 a.m. to contribute handmade items for charities in the Atlanta area.

Peggy Meyer-Salzmann, a member since 2016, takes charge by compiling project lists and responsibilities.

“Crafters will save the world,” founding member Dena Kennedy said.

The camaraderie of the group, fastened by a common love of crafting, mirrors the soul of the movie “How to Make an American Quilt,” in which a woman discovers her grandmother’s quilting group.

At the library, group members were talking and laughing and sharing their stories around the table, all the while rhythmically moving their hands over different sizes, shapes and colors of soft fabric.

A few weren’t looking down. Their hands knew what to do after spending most of their lives weaving fabric in and out, using a needle, or two. Each found fiber art in different ways, some from their mothers and grandmothers, some through a neighbor.

Others needed something to do on frequent long road trips, like Debbie Morris, Elredge’s sister, who said crocheting on her husband’s long work trips saved her marriage.

Jenny Hawes, more a knitter, said she too needed something to do on frequent road trips to Canada. She used to live there.

For some, crafting was initially sought for a practical purpose, like Monica Phillips who was a first-time mother in her 40s, wanting to dress her newborn. Leigha Jonestock works as a director of a microschool and sees the group as an educational opportunity that she can bring back with her to implement.

And, Sangeeta Mehra picked up crafting as a hobby and saw the group as an opportunity to meet people, having just moved to the area when she joined five years ago.

Sharing a gift

Meetings have been going on for about 15 years. They began when Phillips and a woman named Miss Nancy took a crochet class with Kennedy, who managed the now-closed Only Ewes Yarn shop. Phillips wanted to continue classes, but in a more informal way where people could bring

their talents and share them with others for free.

Phillips recruited many of the women. Others have found the group through word of mouth. Mary Natelli told her co-worker Maureen Wales at Alpharetta Elementary School about the crafting group. Others found the group through fliers, or observed its work when casting their ballots. The library is one of Milton’s voting locations.

The group used to meet every other week, but members found they wanted more time together working on projects for the community and its “own little world,” Meyer-Salzmann said. The group has also grown and switched rooms at the library to accommodate the size.

Overwhelmed with emotion, tears in her eyes, founding member Dena Kennedy couldn’t express in words what it meant to see the group grow and transform into what it is today. She later sent a message describing it as a “blessing.”

“It truly has been a blessing for me to find so many like-minded people over the years — these lovely souls who treasure this ability that we’ve been given to make things with our hands … and who have such generous hearts that want to share these gifts with the world,” Kennedy wrote.

Projects

Some members oversee donations for individual organizations. Meyer-Salzmann oversees collection for Good Mews, a nokill cat rescue facility. The group does the most work for North Fulton Community Charities and donated nearly 400 handmade goods as well as toys and food last year.

Margie Smith manages collections for

the charity’s senior Christmas baskets. She also helps fill them on-site, but decided against participating in delivery to homes. Patti Shauff interjected and said Smith is a “softy” and didn’t want to hear the seniors’ sad stories.

“You’re right, you’re right,” Smith said.

Northside Hospital sees a lot of handmade accessories as well, receiving nearly 170 items last year from the crafting group. Members have donated to nearly 20 organizations since forming 15 years ago, including a few that are out of state. Founding member Monica Phillips sent 75 crocheted heart brooches to her father in Kentucky.

“He’s having the best time just rolling around the nursing home handing out hearts,” Phillips said.

A memorable time for the group was the COVID-19 pandemic. While the library was closed, members met up at Wills Park, and the cold didn’t stop them.

“There were some days the fingers didn’t work, due to the cold, but we got together to talk and laugh,” MeyerSalzmann said.

Over the pandemic, the group made a couple of thousand masks in addition to ear loops and ear saves, which ties to the back of the head to relieve pressure from long-term mask wearing.

The next big project is decorating the library for March, which is National Crochet Month. Members were already working on an installation for the library’s summer reading program, deciding what colors to make life-sized stick figures.

The stick figures were a design pulled from a book, which listed directions written in what appeared to be a foreign language — a soup of abbreviations

expressing crocheting direction.

Art form

There are two camps of fiber artists, for the most part — the crocheters and the knitters. The group started as a crocheting group, and that was the chosen craft of many that Thursday. But it has branched out and invites anyone with a love for crafting and for giving back.

There was a consensus among the crocheters that knitting is less forgiving. Phillips said you can easily spot mistakes in crochet work and rip it out.

“You ‘frog’ it is what they call it — take out the stitches and then just redo it,” Phillips said. “Rip it, frog it, get it?”

Even while tightly crocheting a baby hat, Hawes said she prefers knitting because she can’t read crochet stitches very well. Smith, a kindred spirit, was knitting a lightweight, airy scarf in two hues of blue, separated in halves but done unintentionally. For design, Smith swears by allowing the yarn to do the work for her.

She demonstrated the process, repetitively looping the yarn around the needle and pulling out.

While many projects take a simpler form, Meyer-Salzmann showed off a more intricate work named “Healing Circles” hanging on the wall outside of the meeting room.

The wall art looked like a mandala, consisting of smaller, crocheted circles attached to the rim of a larger one at the center, made by Daniel Trussel, a former member who recently died.

Below the mandala, an inscription contained a quote from Linda Joy Meyers, “We are all joined in a circle of stories.”

PHOTOS BY AMBER PERRY/APPEN MEDIA

A donation pile of handmade items, separated by charity organization, sits at the end of a table at the Milton Branch Library Feb. 9. A group of around a dozen fiber artists come together every Thursday at 11 a.m. to work on projects eventually donated to organizations, like the North Fulton Community Charities.

Peggy Meyer-Salzmann, leader of the crafting group, points to a crocheted mandala hanging on the Milton Branch Library wall. The mandala commemorates a former member, Daniel Trussel, who recently died.

MEET THE NEWSROOM

Amber Perry

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

Delaney Tarr

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

Alex Popp

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”

Shelby Israel

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.

Dionna Williams Jacob Tomberlin

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

Reporter Reporter

Reporter Reporter

Designer Designer

Pat Fox

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

Carl Appen Hans Appen

Director of Content & Development Publisher

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

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 publication - the 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 Appen

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

hans@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

If you're reading this spread, we want to hear from you. Drop us a line at the office - 770-442-3278or send us an email. If you want to reach all of us at once, send it to newsroom@appenmedia.com.

Managing Editor

Mayors discuss municipal elections at monthly meeting

By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — City elections dominated discussions at the Feb. 9 meeting of the North Fulton Municipal Association held at the Avalon 1000 Building in Alpharetta.

The organization, composed of elected and senior staff from North Fulton cities, meets monthly to discuss matters affecting their municipalities.

Over the past month, North Fulton city councils have explored efforts to run their own municipal election this fall in the face of rising charges from Fulton County, which has traditionally managed the polling.

In December, the Milton City Council voted to approve self-run municipal elections this year following the recommendation from a locally appointed election study committee.

While the Alpharetta City Council approved a new city elections superintendent position, other cities are still deciding on whether to remain with Fulton County, run their own election or formally sign with other cities to seat an elections superintendent to oversee municipal elections in Milton, Alpharetta, Johns Creek, Roswell and Mountain Park. The agreement, still in draft form, leaves each city to figure its way through election operations.

Sandy Springs has no municipal elections scheduled for this year.

The remaining cities have until the end of March to decide whether to contract with Fulton County or embark on their own to operate polling.

The municipal organization

The North Fulton Municipal Association includes the cities of Sandy Springs, Alpharetta, Johns Creek, Milton, Roswell and Mountain Park.

A partner to the Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce, the municipal organization has no webpage, so agendas or meeting schedules are not posted. The group’s

chairman, Sandy Springs Mayor Rusty Paul, said the association has been “going on” since he was elected, about a decade ago.

“It’s mostly an opportunity for us to get together and share information, kind of talk through common problems and develop solutions, and proposals, for how we work as a region in the North Fulton area,” Paul said.

Meetings generally include the mayor and possibly some city councilmembers from each city as well as city managers and other senior staff. At least four members of the Johns Creek City Council – a quorum that qualifies as an official Johns Creek City Council meeting – were present at the gathering. The city’s official website carries no listing for the council meeting.

The association also regularly invites representatives from other entities, like Fulton County Government, the Georgia Department of Transportation, MARTA and the Atlanta Regional Commission.

A printed handout shows the

meetings are held monthly on Thursdays at 11:30 a.m. on the following dates: March 23, April 27, May 25, June 22, July 27, Aug. 24, Sept. 28, Oct. 26, Nov. 16 and Dec. 13.

Municipal elections

The setup in the conference room Feb. 9, positioned officials in a roundtable discussion without microphones, so discussions were sometimes inaudible from the gallery.

Conversation about municipal elections was short, running around 10 minutes. The newly drafted multi-city agreement was not discussed.

However, Fulton County commissioners Bob Ellis and Bridget Thorne provided information on the county’s municipal election budget.

In a split vote, the County Commission passed a resolution Feb. 1 to budget the same amount of money for municipal elections as it did in 2021 — $5.2 million, plus an extra 10 percent for contingencies. The county would then assess its charge for running a local election based on the

number of registered voters in the city.

Some estimates for the cost per registered voter were then tossed around.

Milton City Manager Steve Krokoff said he figured the cost per registered voter will be more than $7 for cities that allow Fulton County to conduct their municipal elections this fall.

But, because Milton has already set up an apparatus to run its own election, its cost per registered voter will be less than $3, Mayor Peyton Jamison said.

Following the meeting, Johns Creek City Councilwoman Erin Elwood found herself in a tense conversation with Alpharetta Mayor Jim Gilvin, in which she expressed concerns about the logistics of North Fulton cities running their own election on short notice as well as cost being the determining factor.

Elwood has consistently contested the idea of Johns Creek running its own election or signing an agreement with other cities to coordinate municipal elections.

But Gilvin maintained he has faith in the cities to do a better job than Fulton County this year.

In other action at the meeting, Johns Creek Mayor John Bradberry, who was not in attendance, was elected as the new Municipal Association chair.

Municipal elections

Appen Media has covered the movement in North Fulton toward city-run municipal elections since breaking the story in August 2021.

Send thoughts, tips and story ideas to newsroom@appenmedia. com.

AMBER PERRY/APPEN MEDIA

Fulton County Commissioner Bob Ellis speaks to North Fulton mayors Jim Gilvin and Rusty Paul at the North Fulton Municipal Association’s Feb. 9 meeting.

An estate plan provides protection against predators

When we pass away, everything we’ve worked our entire lives for is at risk of being stolen by the government and other entities. How does this happen? Well, there are a number of reasons, but it all boils down to not making a proper estate plan. A proper estate plan protects your money while you are alive and after you pass away. A good estate plan makes sure that your legacy is passed down to your beneficiaries and not stolen by the government and other predators.

So, let’s look at some of the most important things you need to have in an estate plan. The first is the Financial Power of Attorney. This is a document that allows you to designate who gets to access your bank accounts on your behalf if you are incapacitated in life. This is also the number one document used to abuse the elderly, as there have been multiple occasions of the elderly being manipulated into signing away their money. However, if you don’t have a Financial Power of Attorney, your loved ones will have to fight for the right to help you pay your taxes and bills. Thus, when your attorney is drafting your Financial Power of Attorney, make sure you specify that whoever you designate as your financial agent can only use your assets for your benefit and draft it specifically to protect you and your assets.

The second item in an estate plan is the Last Will and Testament. We’ve heard about this in movies, but what does it really entail? Contrary to popular belief, a Will does not prevent your loved ones from having to go to court and it does not fully protect your assets. A Will, by law, must be

processed by the probate court and the probate process is a completely public process in which anyone - creditors, debtors, Medicaid - can step out to claim your assets, even if you have named beneficiaries.

One way to protect your assets from the probate process is to make sure you have beneficiaries on your bank accounts and life insurance policies. However, if your beneficiaries are minor children, your surviving spouse cannot access the money, even for the child’s benefit. On top of that, if you have a house, then there is no real way to protect it without the risks of probate court even as a married couple in Georgia. Some people recommend putting your house in your children’s name, but that results in him or her having to pay a sizeable capital gains tax - and he or she could potentially lose the house in a divorce, to their creditors or lawsuits.

So how do we avoid the probate court entirely? The answer is by creating a trust. If you put everything in a trust, then the Trustee will ensure that everything you own is distributed the way you want to your beneficiaries. The entire process is private and there is no need to worry about the probate court or capital gains tax. Advanced trusts will even protect your assets from your children’s divorces, creditors, and lawsuits. However, a trust only works if you set it up correctly, fund the trust, and maintain the trust during your lifetime but it is worth the time and cost to avoid probate and to protect your assets.

It may be difficult to think about what happens to our assets after death, but an estate plan is an essential part of any financial management. By making sure that your assets are protected in life and in death, you can have peace of mind about your legacy.

GEERDES

Brought to you by - Geerdes & Associates

Literacy:

Continued from Page 1

for early literacy education increased.

“COVID-19 created a learning gap,” Jones said. “We knew we needed to have more resources.”

With the help of the $168.8 million Fulton County Schools received from the 2021 federal American Rescue Plan, the board pushed for more literacy program funding. In 2021, the board approved a $3.26 million contract to implement the professional development program for teachers.

Fulton County District 4 School Board member Franchesca Warren said a first grader’s parent told her they saw “a huge difference” between sight-reading and a focus on phonics.

Jones said the program is a “very comprehensive view” of literacy education.

“It shows how the brain works while students are working,” Jones said.

Last year, Fulton County Schools found that 74 percent of their third graders were reading at or above grade level. The school district says it hopes to improve that figure to 95 percent in the next three to five years.

“I can’t wait for another two to three years as these kids get into fourth and fifth grade and how they will handle language,” Warren said.

Throughout the eight-unit program teachers complete two assessments, one after the fourth and one after the eighth

unit. If they score 80 percent or higher on each assessment, they receive a certificate of mastery and a stipend.

Chief Academic Officer Jones said more than 95 percent of teacher participants achieve the required score.

The programs are led by facilitators already trained in Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling. District literacy staff and school-based literacy coaches can become facilitators if they achieve an 88 percent or higher score on each assessment.

So far, 87 staff members are trained facilitators for the first volume of the program, and 22 staff members are trained facilitators for volume two.

The district hopes to continue inhouse training to make the program extend “beyond the life of the grant.”

District staff members completed the third edition Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading course in June 2022. The contract will fund more than 2,000 additional teachers. The first cohort will include more than 600 school leaders.

Additionally, a group of 1,900 kindergarten through fifth grade teachers will complete the course January 2024. The second cohort that includes about 100 pre-K to 12th grade teachers will complete work in May 2024.

There will also be a 6th-12th grade teacher cohort with approximately 490 participants completing work in May 2024; and a kindergarten through 5th grade teacher cohort of around 450 in December 2024.

The county will create more cohorts as it hires new educators.

PEXELS

Residents add to Roswell’s Black history

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.

Church:

Continued from Page 10

Since its creation in 2012, Eagles Nest Church has bounced around temporary homes for its services. The church started with 20 people, but as its membership has grown to almost 3,000 people, so has the need for a permanent location.

“We were vigorously looking for a permanent facility, but we could not find a place zoned for us,” Jenkins said.

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

Traditional church buildings were too expensive and not conducive to multi-use development.

Jenkins wanted “a destination spot that could spur economic and social activity.” It was essential to Jenkins that the property would be in East Roswell, where he has lived for 20 years.

City Councilman and economic development liaison Peter Vanstrom said he’s excited to have Jenkins develop the property.

“It seems like he’s planning something exciting, something destination oriented,” Vanstrom said.

Roswell theater, but he couldn’t attend a show.

“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 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

Vanstrom has not seen plans for the property yet because the project is still in early development, but he looks forward to working with the pastor.

“We needed something positive to happen on this side of Roswell because we have seen many major projects over here fail,” Jenkins said, referencing the closed SuperTarget, Taco Mac and Kohl’s as examples.

Jenkins said many residents want more development and economic activity in the area.

“We have been extremely disappointed with the failures of those

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 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 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.”

businesses and the lack of choices that we have as a consumer,” Jenkins said. “I would like to see that change.”

East Roswell is seeing some spark of life recently with a $101 million luxury apartment and townhome development taking over the former SuperTarget, which closed six years ago. The project began construction in June 2022 and is expected to be completed in late 2024.

Vanstrom said the development on shuttered businesses must be done carefully.

“What’s important is the vacancies be filled with something progressive.

PHOTOS BY AMBER PERRY/APPEN MEDIA

Charles Grogan, Black historian for the City of Roswell, speaks on his personal experiences growing up in a Black Roswell neighborhood Feb. 2. Grogan was joined by Sandra Taylor, who also recalled racial segregation in the city, as part of a Roswell Historical Society presentation on the city’s Black history at the Roswell Public Library.

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Black families on Barfield Road forged DeWald’s Alley community

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

See ALLEY, Page 27

HERITAGE SANDY SPRINGS 2017/SANDY SPRINGS GAZETTE

From left, Dorothy Garrison, Gwin Loyd and Hazel Lloyd play along DeWald’s Alley in the 1960s.

VALERIE BIGGERSTAFF

Columnist

What happens in Opelika comes home to Roswell

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.

CARL APPEN Director of Content & Development

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.

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.

Appen Press Club

Support local news that follows the story. Join the Appen Press Club today at appenmedia.com/join.

Collecting old radios brings history back to life

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-topoint 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

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.

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.

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 ship-based 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 housewives 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.

BOB MEYERS

Columnist

BOB MEYERS/APPEN MEDIA

Retired nurse/wife saved a life, by George

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

and Lloyd families were also living in DeWald’s Alley in 1950.

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.

Continued from Page 24

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,

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 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 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.

Award-winning author Valerie Biggerstaff is a longtime columnist for Appen Media. She lives in Sandy Springs. You can email Valerie at pasttensega@gmail.com or visit her website at pasttensega.com.

MIKE TASOS

Columnist

George and Cynthia Meisner embrace in a hospital bed.

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