Sandy Springs gathers input on Peachtree Dunwoody path
By HAYDEN SUMLIN hayden@appenmedia.com
SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — The Peachtree Dunwoody Road multi-use path, currently in the design phase, looks to connect trails on Mount Vernon Highway to PATH400, and eventually the Atlanta Beltline.
The 12-foot-wide path with streetscaping will run along the west side of the Perimeter thoroughfare from Hammond Drive to Mount Vernon Highway.
Sandy Springs staff held a twohour open house at 500 North Park off Abernathy Road, just north of the 0.9-mile-long project.
Assistant Communications Director Dan Coffer said about 35 residents turned up for information. Some perused display boards showing proposed design characteristics, like the 6-foot-wide landscape buffer between the road and the 1-foot-wide space on the other side.
With people in the business community, doctors and teenagers walking along the east side of Peachtree Dunwoody Road, one could see why the project has been
See PATH, Page 9
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North Fulton facing ‘acute’ school bus driver shortage
By JAKE DRUKMAN newsroom@appenmedia.com
NORTH FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Schools in North Fulton County are looking to recruit new bus drivers amid a major shortage that has forced the school system to modify bus routes.
Fulton County Schools’ Chief Communication Officer Brian Noyes said the district is looking to fill 140 bus driver vacancies. While that includes vacancies in both North and South Fulton, Noyes said the district has “an acute issue” with North Fulton’s school clusters, particularly in Milton and Alpharetta.
Noyes said the shortage has caused the district to have some drivers service two elementary schools in one day, picking up and dropping off students from an elementary school with lower attendance before moving to an elementary school with higher attendance. Typically, drivers would drive routes for one elementary, one middle and one high school each day.
Some elementary schools in the district have seen earlier pickup times in the morning to accommodate all of the necessary routes, and some students who live along longer routes have been late to school due to busing issues. Noyes said the late arrival times are not widespread.
One doesn’t need specialized experience to become a school bus driver. Applicants with a basic driver’s license can receive paid, in-house
training from Fulton County Schools to earn a commercial driver’s license for the job.
Starting pay for drivers with no CDL experience starts at $23.54 per hour, while those with experience can earn more. Bus drivers get time off during summer and the holidays, as well as breaks between their a.m. and p.m. routes. Full-time drivers can also receive several other benefits.
“As an employee of a school system, you have all of the benefits of the state’s health benefit plan, you’re bought into the teacher retirement system and in 10 years, you’re vested into a retirement pension,” Noyes said. “So that’s a pretty big set of benefits.”
Noyes noted that driving buses can make a great job for retirees who would like to take on another job, commercial drivers who are looking for more reasonable work hours and parents whose kids go to school in Fulton, because they can have a work schedule that aligns with their child’s school schedule.
Anyone interested in becoming a driver for Fulton County Schools can apply online at Fulton County Schools’ website.
“It’s really a benefit for the kids in the community,” Noyes said. “If people want to get a sense of purpose, education is a great place to be. You’re giving back to the kids… I think it’s really important that we have people who have that feeling about giving back to their community.”
FILE PHOTO
Fulton County is having trouble finding school bus drivers, with about 140 vacancies.
Church gift lets Family Promise offer new housing
By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com
ROSWELL, Ga. — A recent donation to Family Promise of North Fulton/ DeKalb will give two families in need of transitional housing a place to call home early next year.
Family Promise is a nationwide nonprofit that fights homelessness by providing resources, transitional housing, and support to struggling families.
The North Fulton/DeKalb chapter received the donation, its first transitional home, from St. David’s Episcopal Church as part of a 10-year reduced rent lease agreement.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held Aug. 15 on the lawn of the roughly 1,800-square-foot home off Old Roswell Road, next door to the church. It featured remarks from Executive Director Andrea Brantley, Rev. Remington Slone of St. David’s, and Roswell Mayor Kurt Wilson.
As visitors walked through the home, Jason Acree, with project manager McKibbon Places, explained the renovation plans. He expects completion in the first quarter of next year. The home will have five bedrooms and two bathrooms with shared dining and living areas.
Brantley said the home will provide families exiting the nonprofit’s Rotational Shelter program more time to build credit and reach self-sufficiency.
In 2023, the North Fulton/DeKalb chapter served 31 individuals in its Rotational Shelter program, which was made possible through partnerships with a diverse range of a dozen faithbased organizations, including St. David’s. It also served 54 individuals
in its Housing Stabilization program and nearly 2,500 through Emergency Response.
“We’re very super excited to have the City of Roswell … wrap [its] arms around the project…” Brantley said.
She said the project was Slone’s idea.
“He came to me, loved our mission, and said, ‘I want to do more,’” Brantley said.
Families that have been rotating through shelters weekly for 90 to 120 days will have the opportunity to stay at
the home for up to six months once they graduate.
“My dream is that other congregations see the value of this,” she said.
Brantley said they could donate space they’re using for storage or for meetings, proposing they relocate to their larger facilities. She also said they could allow the nonprofit to build on their undeveloped land.
“My hope is that we … shake the community up about this and realize that this is a really doable thing, and we can really make an impact on the families that are experiencing homelessness in our neighborhood,” Brantley said.
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Acree, vice president of Preconstruction Services at McKibbon Places, explains renovation plans to a home off Old Roswell Road, gifted by St. David’s Episcopal Church to Family Promise of North
PHOTOS BY: AMBER PERRY/APPEN MEDIA
At center, Andrea Brantley, executive director of Family Promise of North Fulton/Dekalb, and Rev. Remington Slone, senior pastor of St. David’s Episcopal Church, join members of the Roswell City Council for a groundbreaking ceremony on Aug. 15. St. David’s donated an adjacent house to the nonprofit as part of a 10-year reduced rent agreement, intended for two families in transition from rotational sheltering.
Jason
Fulton/DeKalb.
Georgia committee hears testimony about possibilities, pitfalls of AI
By JAKE DRUKMAN newsroom@appenmedia.com
FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. — While computergenerated actors and self-driving cars aren’t common in Georgia yet, a state Senate committee is at work to evaluate the benefits and risks such technologies may pose.
The Senate Study Committee on Artificial Intelligence, headed by Roswell Sen. John Albers, met at Trilith film studios in Fayetteville on Aug. 14. Committee members discussed the possible applications of AI with stakeholders in Georgia’s film industry and public infrastructure.
Trilith Studios CEO Frank Patterson was the first speaker to address the committee. The studio has produced some of the highest-grossing films of all time, such as “Avengers: Endgame” and “SpiderMan: No Way Home.”
Patterson discussed ways that artificial intelligence could potentially revolutionize the way films are created, replacing human involvement to a large degree. He noted that current technology is still far from being able to create viable movies without human input.
“We are nowhere close to being able to create characters that have any kind of humanity,” Patterson said. “I can’t do it, and believe me, I’ve tried… When you’re talking about fictional stories that resonate across humanity, we haven’t figured out how to create a human interaction.”
He said studios will be able to use AI in smaller ways in the near term, such as translating films into other languages for distribution to foreign markets. This is done by having voice actors manually record translated lines and replacing a
Frank Patterson, CEO of Fayetteville-based Trilith Studios, speaks to the state Senate Study Committee on Artificial Intelligence on Aug. 14.
film’s native dialogue with the translated version. Patterson suggested, however, that AI could both perform the translations and make them sound like the original actor’s voice.
Some acting organizations have railed against such uses of AI in the past, arguing that using technology to replace human labor threatens people’s livelihoods in the film industry.
Patterson and Julie Feagin, CEO of Atlanta-based FilmBook Media, cautioned that AI technology could threaten actors’ — and the public’s — rights to their own names, images and likenesses. Many AI
20th Miss Mary’s fundraiser will be at Roswell United Methodist Church
ROSWELL, Ga. — The Drake House, a Roswell nonprofit that assists women and children experiencing homelessness, is celebrating 20 sweet years of its Miss Mary’s Ice Cream Crankin’ fundraiser.
The Aug. 25 event, scheduled from 2 to 4 p.m. at Roswell United Methodist Church, will offer the chance for families to savor some homemade ice cream and support the organization’s mission of ending homelessness in the community.
This year’s location is a move just up the street.
Named after North Fulton humanitarian Mary Drake, Miss Mary’s Ice Cream Crankin’ was established in 2004 as the signature fundraising event for The Drake House.
There, attendees will be invited to sample more than 100 flavors of homemade ice cream churned by dedicated community volunteer “crankers,” or those who make ice cream before the event and serve samples the day of.
Tickets are $7 with discounts for family packs. Entrance grants each person a tasting cup and all the ice cream they can eat.
Corporate, civic, faith and family teams will compete for top awards from local judges. Categories include Best Vanilla, Best Chocolate, Best Fruit and Best Other Flavor.
The event will also feature children’s activities, such as a bounce house, face painting and kids contests.
programs can generate realistic images and videos of people without their knowledge or consent.
“AI-generated content is not real, but it has very real consequences,” Feagin said. “It can cause emotional and financial harm.”
Feagin noted AI has been used to create artificial sexual imagery of real people, known as “deepfakes,” which can damage a person’s reputation and cause major emotional distress. Deepfakes have been the subject of numerous legal disputes in the U.S. over the past several years.
Feagin and Patterson suggested the state take action to protect people’s rights to their images regarding AI recreations.
AI in transportation
Alan Davis, a traffic engineer with the Georgia Department of Transportation, was another speaker at Wednesday’s meeting. He suggested AI may one day play a larger role in aiding the state’s transit planning and traffic management. Currently, it plays “little to none” due to such technologies being cost-prohibitive and unreliable.
“Current [AI] models, at least ones that I think would benefit transportation, are not good at outliers,” Davis said. “And if there’s anything that’s full of outliers, it’s transportation and traffic.”
Davis said the state uses several technologies to perform functions such as detecting crashes on traffic cameras and deploying emergency assistance. Still, as of now, these functions are powered by algorithms rather than machine intelligence.
He said fully autonomous vehicles may soon be coming to Georgia. Waymo, a ride-hailing company that offers driverless taxi rides, is “mapping out operations” in Atlanta. Currently, Waymo offers rides in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix.
The state’s Senate Study Committee on Artificial Intelligence is scheduled to hold five more meetings through December. Albers said the committee will draft a final report and recommendations for the General Assembly.
Citizens who wish to share comments with the committee can request to speak at a committee meeting or submit testimony online through the committee’s website.
SCREENSHOT
SocialBites Food Hub, at the corner of Roswell and Abernathy roads in Sandy Springs,
founder Aziz Hashim is optimistic he has a sustainable model.
Franchising expert unveils new food hub concept
Sandy Springs gets to try it first
By HAYDEN SUMLIN hayden@appenmedia.com
SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — Sandy Springs has a new restaurant open, and it’s the first of its kind.
Experiential Brands’ new restaurant concept, SocialBites Food Hub, opened its first location within the Sandy Springs Village shopping center at 6650 Roswell Road in late July.
In the first two weeks of business, Experiential Brands CEO Aziz Hashim said the food hub has hosted families with children, corporate team building exercises and an assortment of Sandy Springs residents and neighbors.
As a food hall, SocialBites Food Hub aims to be a one-stop shop for a night out with friends or family.
While food halls make a profit in high-density commercial and
residential areas, the food hub concept looks to combine different service models into something that can last.
In the first two weeks of operations, Hashim said SocialBites has seen just about every customer imaginable, something important to any profitable restaurant business.
The floor plan of the restaurant fits with anyone’s night out preferences. The upstairs features BarSocial, an upscale lounge that looks over the main space below.
Three patios wrap around most of the building’s exterior, allowing couples and smaller groups to enjoy a more secluded meal.
Hashim, founder and managing partner of National Restaurant Development Capital, brings decades of restaurant experience as both a franchisor and franchisee to SocialBites Food Hub. He is also the person who came up with the concept of a food hub.
“Considering today’s rapidly
See HUB, Page 7
A full spread of menu items from The Original Hot Chicken sits on a table at SocialBites Food Hub. The new food hub concept features four additional menu brands, including Inked Tacos, Flametown Burgers, Pinsa Roman Pizza and BarSocial.
HAYDEN SUMLIN/APPEN MEDIA
looks to turn a profit with a new restaurant concept. After opening in late July,
Hub:
changing economic environment, demographics and customer preferences, it’s very difficult to imagine that you could pick a winner today and it remain a winner for the next 20 years,” Hashim said. “With the prevalence of delivery options, the reasons to physically come inside a restaurant have diminished.”
SocialBites Food Hub replaces Huey Luey’s Mexican restaurant in the 1970s shopping center at southwest corner of Abernathy and Roswell roads in Sandy Springs.
The old red lettering on the two-story building is gone and less than $200,000 in renovations later, Experiential Brand’s newest venture — SocialBite Food Hub — is welcoming customers.
The 6,500-square-foot space is designed for weekly social gatherings, or “Happenings,” like Monday night trivia, Wednesday evening poker games and live music on the weekends.
Hashim said he thinks there are a lot of outdated restaurant spaces in Metro Atlanta, and he hopes to find a model that works for them.
Experiential Brands is a portfolio of fast casual restaurant brands under the umbrella of private investment firm NDC Capital.
“The idea here was to reimagine the restaurant model,” Hashim said. “Today, especially the fast casual model, is a one-to-one relationship, that means there’s a sign outside and that’s what you sell inside.”
The new colors — cyan, yellow and red — on SocialBite’s storefront match the energy inside and its owner’s spirit of invention.
The typical fast-food chain model limits the abilities of franchisors and franchisees to change with the times, Hashim said.
In his experience, if any fastfood business is struggling to make a profit, the franchisor-franchisee dynamic often ends poorly for an operator.
Unlike fast food chain customers, restaurant patrons flock to food halls for community, variety and affordability.
“Event and meeting space in the food environment is very limited, restaurants are just not designed for that," Hashim said. “Only the largest ones have party rooms and stuff like that, but that’s expensive.”
For smaller groups of 15 or less, food hubs offer a variety of cuisine, whether groups are craving chicken,
With the prevalence of delivery options, the reasons to physically come inside a restaurant have diminished.”
AZIZ HASHIM Founder and Managing Partner of NRD Holdings
tacos or a burger, the food hub has it all.
But unlike food halls found across Metro Atlanta, SocialBites centralizes all ordering under one kitchen and wait staff.
The ability to adapt can make food halls and hubs more successful than older restaurant models.
“If you want to be able to be flexible, then you have to have the ability to change up the menus,” Hashim said. “If the name outside reflects what’s sold inside, then you’ve completely lost that ability.”
When ordering at SocialBites Food Hub, customers select from one
of four brands — The Original Hot Chicken, Inked Tacos, Flametown Burgers and Pinsa Roman Pizza — displayed above the counter like at any Chick-fil-A in Metro Atlanta.
When asked for his favorite brand or menu at the food hub, Hashim smiled and said he’s a burger guy.
After graduating from the University of California, Irvine with an engineering degree, Hashim said he went to his parents for support as he pursued his passion. Not too long after, he found himself in Atlanta.
Just before the 1996 Summer Olympics, Hashim opened his first KFC franchise downtown. Some two decades later, Nation’s Restaurant News named Hashim as one of the 10 most influential leaders in the industry.
Hashim is a proponent of unitlevel economics, something that allows him to take his private capital business into other industries, like technology. The operating model allows business owners to forecast the profitability of products and customers, something important with tight margins.
“Overtime, we can change the menu,” Hashim said. “The only promise on the outside is you’re going to get great food on the inside.”
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Path:
Continued from Page 1
While the main purpose of the project is to increase connectivity through bicycle and pedestrian improvements, the corridor sees significant traffic with more than 23,500 vehicles daily.
There is an agreement to split the project’s funding 50-50 between Sandy Springs’ share of county-wide sales taxes and PCID contributions.
maintained trees and buffers that it installed during a previous project and asked for them to be removed from project plans.
Other residents felt differently about the project.
See solution Page 15 selected.
The City Council approved a $454,000 contract with Kimley-Horn in November 2023 for design services, including surveys, utility coordination, right-of-way acquisition, public involvement and final construction plans.
As of this month, the city says the project team is acquiring right-of-way.
The project timeline has construction advertisements planned for fall 2026 and construction by early 2027.
In the fiscal year 2025 budget, the city has $5.65 million set aside for construction of the multi-use trail in its Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (TSPLOST 2016) fund.
Capital Improvement Program Project Manager Ko Seo said the project is tracking within the budget.
Two residents came from the Dunwoody Springs neighborhood, a collection of four homeowners associations between Ga. 400 and Peachtree Dunwoody Road.
They said the city has not properly
Theodore Davis III said the 0.9-mile project along the west side of Peachtree Dunwoody Road is “pretty simple and straightforward.”
Davis drew attention to curb cuts included in the project, which he thinks will prevent some of the traffic congestion and headaches along the corridor.
Because Davis works for Emory University and his girlfriend works in Alpharetta, the couple is considering a move to condominiums abutting Peachtree Dunwoody Road.
“I’m definitely keeping [the project] in the back of my mind,” Davis said.
District 3 City Councilwoman Melissa Mular spent her time at the open house chatting with residents about their concerns and relaying those to staff.
Mular said she’s heard a mix of reactions to the project, with older residents typically less in favor of the project than younger ones. She also said the city will schedule a meeting with Dunwoody Springs neighbors, like they’ve done on other path projects like the Mount Vernon Highway multi-use path, if they want one.
“We have learned a lot from other projects,” Mular said. “We met with the HOAs all along there before the project started and put communications in place.”
HAYDEN SUMLIN/APPEN MEDIA
Sandy Springs Project Manager Ko Seo, left, chats with a Dunwoody Springs resident and Kimley-Horn contractor Aug. 15 about the Peachtree Dunwoody Road multi-use path. The city is requesting public input through Aug. 29.
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First world problems on pickleball court
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Late morning. The Alpharetta mom walks out onto the tennis courts with her pickleball machine. She puts her stuff down on the bench, then grabs something out of her bag – a tape measure – and walks over to the net and spends the next 10 minutes measuring and adjusting its height. She sets up her pickleball machine and watches a couple of balls go over the net, then adjusts the angle twice more. Then she walks next to the adjoining court and asks the Indian couple (who were out there way before she showed up) to move off their court to another court so her pickleballs won’t get mixed up with their pickleballs. She could have just pointed her machine a different angle instead. Of course, these two Indians – so respectful and polite – move to another court and the Alpharetta mom starts practicing her pickleball with her machine. The Indian couple – like a grandpa and his adult daughter, both in long pants – kind of just stare at her and her pickleball machine for a few moments and then return to their game.
I had a few more snarky observations of the incident that were in the original column that I sent to my son Hans for a sign-off so it could get into the papers. When he reviewed the column, he emailed this to me:
“Be curious, not judgmental.”
For context, that idea, “be curious, not judgmental,” is borrowed from a Ted Lasso episode that I have watched maybe a thousand times. I just love the scene. I have sent a link to it to all my kids and everyone I know, including Hans.
I loved the scene because if was so well scripted, so well-acted, and is simply some of the finest story telling I have ever encountered. Plus, the good guy wins! But, it took Hans to make me realize that I totally missed the point. What was so extraordinay about the scene was not the acting or the story; it was the actual message: “be curious, not judgmental.”
Hans’ reply made me stop and
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think. It made me think about my attitude – an attitude that seems to get worse as I age. It also made me realize that that idea could be applied to so much more than a situation on a tennis court – like to this whole polarization thing we all find ourselves today. Instead of being curious, we judge. Instead of maybe learning something, we learn nothing.
Instead of taking advantage of an opportunity to interact in a positive way with someone who is different from us or thinks differently than we do, we judge, and in so doing, build walls and barriers that make life smaller, less meaningful, and, in the case of the Ted Lasso episode, cause folks to lose bets on dart games! Everything important in life that I know, I have learned from my children – or my wife – everything.
Switching from judging people to being curious instead is not easy; it requires breaking a habit and replacing it with a different one. It requires will, and it requires a desire to change.
Be curious Ray, not judgmental. You’ll be a better person, learn more, and probably be happier too.
In case you want to view the scene for yourself, the link is below. If the link does not work, just Google “ Ted lasso darts” and the YouTube of the scene should pull up. https://youtu. be/CDRXv80F3Us?feature=shared (https://youtubeCDRXv80F3Us?feat ure=shared)
Mt. Vernon Woods, right at first traffic light on Roswell Road
VALERIE BIGGERSTAFF
The land that is now Mt. Vernon Woods was once owned by Ben Burdett, owner of Burdett Realty Company. Burdett owned 400 acres on either side of Mt. Vernon Highway. In 1900, he built an 11-room home where Mt. Vernon Presbyterian Church is today. (“Sandy Springs Past Tense,” by Lois Coogle)
The property was purchased by W.F. Winecoff in 1916, who donated it to Emory University in 1920. The house and 39 acres were rented and eventually purchased by Guy Sewell. The land where Mt. Vernon Woods was built was part of Burdett’s original 400 acres.
The first homes were built in 1953. The June 11, 1953, Atlanta Constitution included an advertisement for Mt. Vernon Woods. Four home styles are listed: Sutton House, Courtyard, Manor House and Early American. All homes had three bedrooms, two baths, screened porch and carport. Some homes featured a fireplace, and the Early American style had a vaulted living room.
The directions provided for Mt. Vernon Woods begin from Buckhead. From there, take Roswell Road to the Sandy Springs traffic light, turn right, and go two blocks to the property, which is just beyond Hammond School. This description leads to the conclusion that in 1953 there was one traffic light along Roswell Road in Sandy Springs. I-285 and Ga. 400 had not yet been built.
DEATH NOTICES
Barbara Baylor, age 73, of Marietta, GA passed away on August 10, 2024. Arrangements by Northside Chapel Funeral Directors & Crematory.
Robert Becker, age 86, of Roswell, GA passed away on August 6, 2024. Arrangements by Northside Chapel Funeral Directors & Crematory.
Robert Blackinton, age 96, of Alpharetta, GA passed away on August 11, 2024. Arrangements by Northside Chapel Funeral Directors & Crematory.
Chris Curth moved with his family to a Mt. Vernon Woods home in 1955. Their home was at the corner of Hunting Creek Road and Mt. Vernon Highway where the Link Counseling Center was later built. He and his sisters walked to Hammond Elementary School, just two doors away. Hammond Elementary School was where Mt. Vernon Towers is today.
The Curth family moved to another home in the Mt. Vernon Woods subdivision in 1973, on Williamson Drive. Curth recalls, “The Mt. Vernon Woods Swimming Pool was one of the first in the area and remains a vibrant fixture.”
A Mt. Vernon Woods advertisement
Roger Conrad, age 91, of Marietta, GA passed away on August 9, 2024. Arrangements by Northside Chapel Funeral Directors & Crematory.
Cecilia Ginter, age 94, of Alpharetta, GA passed away on August 10, 2024. Arrangements by Northside Chapel Funeral Directors & Crematory.
David Scott Harris, age 70, of Roswell, GA passed away on August 1, 2024. Arrangements by Northside Chapel Funeral Directors & Crematory.
in the July 1956 Atlanta Constitution described a neighborhood where homes were designed to blend with their wooded lots. Schools, churches, stores and transportation were conveniently located. The 1956 directions are the same as 1953, except that a left turn on Hunting Creek Road was added.
One home on Hunting Creek Road was described in detail.
“Attractive one-floor brick home on slightly elevated, wooded lot. The floor plan can be three bedrooms and two baths or two bedrooms and a den. The kitchen includes a breakfast bar and automatic dishwasher. There is a double carport with a storage room. All this for $22,300.”
Jeanette Konicki, age 54, of Roswell, GA passed away on August 2, 2024. Arrangements by Northside Chapel Funeral Directors & Crematory.
Jacob McQuillen, age 21, of Alpharetta, GA passed away on August 6, 2024. Arrangements by Northside Chapel Funeral Directors & Crematory.
Carmela Montoto, age 96, of Roswell, GA passed away on August 11, 2024. Arrangements by Northside Chapel Funeral Directors & Crematory.
Both the 1953 and 1956 advertisements list Spratlin, Harrington & Thomas Realtors.
The active Mt. Vernon Woods Garden Club regularly submitted notices to the Atlanta newspapers for their meetings from the late 1950s through the 1970s. In July 1957, meetings were held on Hunting Creek Road and Cherry Tree Lane. Chris Curth’s mom is listed as one of the hosts.
Award-winning author Valerie Biggerstaff is a longtime columnist for Appen Media and the Dunwoody Crier. She lives in Atlanta. You can email Valerie at pasttensega@gmail.com or visit her website at pasttensega.com.
Mary Nitschke, age 48, of Marietta, GA passed away on August 3, 2024. Arrangements by Northside Chapel Funeral Directors & Crematory.
Julia Quarles, age 87, of Roswell, GA passed away on August 12, 2024. Arrangements by Northside Chapel Funeral Directors & Crematory.
Columnist
CURTH FAMILY PHOTO
This Mt. Vernon Woods home once sat at the corner of Hunting Creek Road and Mt. Vernon Highway. The Curth family moved there in 1955 and the photo was taken in 1960.
GET OUTSIDE, GEORGIA!
Tell us about Cartersville’s Tellus Museum
STEVE HUDSON Columnist
Two of our grandkids are visiting this week, and that brings up the big question: “What can we do today?”
Some days it’s with fishing, which we did the other evening. Many were caught. Much fun was had. It was great.
Then came swimming, always a good choice on a hot summer day. We swam and splashed for hours, and not a single shark was seen. That was great too.
And then, “What should we do tomorrow?”
We considered collectively.
“How about we visit that science museum up off I-75?” my wife says. “They say it’s a good one!”
And they are right.
The museum she has in mind is the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, Ga., just off I-75 at exit 293.
The museum got its start in 1983 as the Weinman Mineral Museum. Closing in 2007, the Weinman was reborn in 2009 as the Tellus Science Museum. It is one that you absolutely have to see.
Today, this 120,000-square-foot museum features four major galleries – the world-class Weinman Mineral Gallery, an expansive Fossil Gallery, the Millar Science in Motion Gallery with exhibits spotlighting many facets of transportation, and the Collins Family My Big Back Yard Gallery featuring all sorts of hands-on activities.
The main building also boasts the state-of-the-art Bentley Planetarium, which features planetarium presentations for a small additional charge, plus a gift shop and a café. There are also outdoor exhibits (including some massive rock specimens, some giant mining machinery, and a solar-powered house). Other outdoor highlights include an observatory, a wind turbine, and the Czahor Solar System Trail, a scale model of our solar system from the sun all the way out to Pluto.
It’s all intriguing, and it may be hard to decide where to start. But the kids make that decision easy. They want to start with fossils and gems – specifically, the area where they can hunt for fossils and gems of their own.
After getting our tickets, we make a beeline for the digging areas. There are two of them – the Vesta Mayo Dalia Fossil Dig and the Vulcan Materials Gem Panning Area.
“Most folks start with the fossil area,” suggests the volunteer we meet as we step inside. “That way, your hands will be
STEVE HUDSON/APPEN MEDIA
Bates and Cora search for fossils at the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville. Prospectors are allowed to find as many fossils as they like, but they can keep only one.
dry while you’re digging for fossils!”
The fossil area consists of several dig zones, each filled with sandy dirt that is absolutely loaded with fossils just waiting for prospectors young and old.
“Can we keep them?” one young visitor asks. “Can we please?”
“You can find as many as you want,” replies another nearby volunteer, smiling, “but you can only keep one!”
“How about us older prospectors?” I ask.
“Yes, you can keep one too,” he says, then adds with a grin. “But remember –just one!”
Cora and Bates are already on their way to the fossil dig. The attendant gives each of them a small paintbrush, which they’ll use to sweep away the dirt and expose those treasures from eons gone by, plus a small plastic bag in which to place their keeper.
The searching begins, and it’s not 10 seconds till Cora calls out, “Found one!” She’s found a fossilized shark tooth. A moment later she finds another…and another…and then she finds something different, a small cylindrical fossil known as a crinoid. She keeps looking and keeps finding and soon has a dozen or more fossils in her hand.
“Which one are you taking home?” I ask her.
“Hmmm,” she says, and finally selects one of the shark’s teeth. Bates chooses his keeper, too, and then they’re off to gem panning to try their luck there.
The gem panning is done in water. Everywhere I look are kids (including some, like me, who are several decades old!) washing through sand and looking for small bits of colorful rock. Everybody is finding things, and the “oohs!” and “ahhs” are constant.
Now that’s how to get folks excited about science!
After a while, it’s time to explore the rest of the museum – and Bates proclaims his vote to head for the fossil gallery.
To say this is an impressive fossil display would be an understatement. There are specimens of all sorts from all over the world, but the stars are the dinosaurs. Among the highlights: a Brontosaurus, a massive Triceratops, and an impressive Tyrannosaurus rex. What can anyone say about T. rex except “AWESOME!”
Equally impressive is the Weinman Mineral Gallery, where you can spend hours mesmerized by a universe of spectacular rocks and minerals. The displays are largely organized by type or by point of origin, with a great deal of space devoted to minerals and gems from right here in Georgia. Among the highlights is a display featuring meteorites, including a large one that visitors can touch. Other highlights include a truly impressive presentation of Georgia gold as well as spectacular mineral crystals and specimens from some of our state’s most legendary collecting spots. Who would have thought that Georgia holds so many mineralogical treasures? There’s plenty of room to appreciate those exhibits, too, and I never felt like we were crowded or rushed as we wandered among the displays.
One thing I’ve always been interested in is fluorescent minerals – that is, those which glow with vivid color under invisible ultraviolet light. The Tellus Museum’s fluorescent minerals display features large specimens that are among the best I’ve ever encountered, and the automated display is accompanied by recorded commentary that clearly explains what you’re seeing. I stood there and cycled through the presentation three times.
I see I’ve been talking about rocks a
lot, haven’t I? And yet there’s so much more than rocks to talk about at Tellus. One thing is the museum’s state-ofthe-art planetarium, which presents an ongoing series of shows throughout the day. If you have not experienced just how impressive a high-tech planetarium can be, then you owe it to yourself to check this one out.
There’s also the Millar Science in Motion Gallery and the adjoining Crossroads Gallery, which focus on the mechanical side of things. In the Millar Gallery, highlights include early autos and motorbikes, each presented atop a mirrored base so you can see the underside as well. You’ll find more modern machines, too, among them: a full-size replica of the Wright Brothers’ flying machine, a modern helicopter, and a jet engine, plus space vehicles from the Apollo and Mercury programs.
And (back to rocks!), there is even a 3.3-billion-year-old piece of moon rock on display! It’s in a special case back behind the Science in Motion Gallery. Designated “Lunar Sample 15555,1033,” it was collected in August of 1971 by the crew of Apollo 15. It’s part of a 21-pound specimen known as “Great Scott” in honor of astronaut Dave Scott, who collected in from the north rim of what moon experts call the Hadley Rille.
Nearby, in the Collins Family My Big Backyard gallery and the adjoining Discovery Garden, budding scientists of all ages can indulge in what the museum map calls “hands-on science fun” involving sound, light, electricity, magnetism and more.
It takes a while to experience all of this, and after a while I realize that the clock has been ticking for hours. Where did the day go? If we stay much longer, we’ll be closing the place down. We decide to call it a day.
We stop on the way home to get takeout for supper. We eat informally on the island in the kitchen.
After supper, we sit in the living room, and I have an idea.
“Hey kiddos!” I say. “Want to help me sort some rocks?”
“Sure!”
I spread an old tablecloth on the island so we don’t scratch things up. Then I pull out a couple of bins of mineral specimens…and we settle in for an hour or two of rock-sorting bliss.
Later, I ask myself a question: Why do rocks fascinate us so?
I don’t know that I can ever really answer that one.
But they do, maybe because they endure.
Good things do that, you know, and I am glad.
Newspaper Delivery Route Openings with Appen Media Group
We are looking for one person or couple interested in delivering weekly newspapers in South Forsyth, Alpharetta and the Johns Creek areas.
Requirements: Must have a perfect driving record and background check, reliable transportation, honest, hard-working and positive attitude.
For more information or to apply, email heidi@appenmedia.com and include a paragraph or two about who you are and any relevant background/experience. In the subject line of the email please put “Delivery Route Application.”
