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Knife
NORTHSIDE’S ELITE VASCULAR TEAM USES ROBOTICS TO GET SURGICAL RESULTS
Inside: Behind enemy lines with the Green Bay Packers | Meet Georgia’s newest and busiest library director
©2015 Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Inc. All rights reserved.
Fearless athletes deserve nationally ranked sports medicine.
From repairing broken bones to rehabbing torn ligaments, Children’s Sports Medicine helps young athletes get back to full speed. For more information visit choa.org/sportsmed.
CHILDREN’S AT FORSYTH | 410 PEACHTREE PARKWAY, CUMMING 2
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E ditor
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had to wear my hoodie to work this week for the first time since last winter. I can’t tell you how happy that makes me. As fall continues to hint more and more everyday that it’s upon us, my wardrobe will continue to become more and more one dimensional. For the foreseeable future, you can catch me with some kind of jeans or work khakis, a grey hooded sweatshirt and what is most likely a T-shirt, under that. But I digress. I say all of that, because, even though the simplicity and comfort of being one dimensional during this season is appealing, that’s not what we are looking for here at The Life — 400 North. We want to mix it up. We want to keep things fresh. We want you to want to pick up this magazine. Not because you might know someone in it or because your company bought some advertising space, we want you to pick it up, because we have some great stories to tell. This issue, like the color of the changing leaves, is really diverse. As you’ve seen on the cover, we are highlighting some of the best vascular surgeons in the country, and they all work in your backyard at Northside Hospital. But we also take a look at a self-made family, who turned food and drink (Tacos and Tequilas, to be exact) into a life changing business. In addition to that, we take you to Packer-land (it’s not as far as you’d think) and check out how the new leader at the helm of one of the busiest library systems in the state plans to keep it on course. So sit down, for just a minute, and read about some of the impressive stories playing out all around you. And then go rake the leaves.
—
Micah Green
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Contents 10
Behind Enemy Lines In the center of Falcons Country, Packers faithful have found a home, and the strong hold is nothing short of impressive.
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For the Love of Family (and food) Tacos and Tequilas owner Diego Velasquez has opened his three restaurants in the past five years. Though he has no business partners, he does have three reasons to keep it going.
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Cover Story: The Men Behind the Masks Thanks to efforts at Northside Hospital, you don’t have to travel far for world class, robotic vascular surgery. In fact, it’s right in your backyard.
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Balancing the Books Anna Lyle is taking the helm as the new director at the Forsyth County Public Library in December.
Rum Runner
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Sports Portraits
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Calendar
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October•November 2015
It’s The Most Wonderful Time of The Year! E VENTS TREE LIGHTING CELEBRATION
NOVEMBER 28, 3-6PM Carriage Rides, Santa, Live Music, Ms Clause Storytime and More!
SANTA PHOTOS & CARRIAGE RIDES
DECEMBER SATURDAYS & SUNDAYS SATURDAYS:
1 - 4pm Photos with Santa & Carriage Ride
SUNDAYS:
1 - 4pm Photos with Santa
Bring your own camera.
Bringing the community together. FOR UPCOMING PROMOTIONS AND EVENTS REGISTER AT COLLECTIONFORSYTH.COM
410 Peachtree Parkway Cumming, Georgia 30041
Contributors Content Director
Micah Green mgreen@forsythnews.com 770-887-3126
Advertising
Ryan Garmon - Director rgarmon@forsythnews.com 770-205-8960 Cheri Boghos cboghos@forsythnews.com Connor Kelly ckelly@forsythnews.com
Graphic Design Angie Decker
Copy Editor/Paginator Tracie Pike
Contributing Writers Kelly Whitmire Kayla Robins Michael Fosterw
Executive Staff
Publisher Vince Johnson vjohnson@forsythnews.com Editor Kevin Atwill katwill@forysthnews.com Circulation Director Lisa Salinas lsalinas@forsythnews.com Online Editor Jim Dean jdean@forsythnews.com
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Natu Mmbaga,
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BEHIND ENEMY LINES Story by Michael Foster
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In the center of Falcons Country, Packers faithful have found a home, and the strong hold is nothing short of impressive.
n years past, Sundays at my folks’ house in north Atlanta were reserved for leaf raking, not football. Before the age of technology, phone checks weren’t sufficient when trying to get a glimpse of the Falcons’ score. Instead, faking a “bathroom break” would be my window of opportunity to run inside and stand in front of the TV, sipping a glass of water and anxiously announcing back to my father, “I’ll be back out in a second.” That only worked for so long. Professional football culture in Atlanta was, in my teenage years, different. It was different than what I
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saw on NFL Films clips. The Falcons game was an event, and it was optional. My father, a true Southerner brought up on the voice of Larry Munson, never once voluntarily turned on a Falcons’ game. My twin brother and I broke the
mold. We obsessed over the Falcons, from the Dirty Bird, to the sweet feet of Michael Vick, to the miracles of Matty Ice. The unconditional love was instilled, manually. Nevertheless, nothing has made me cringe more than hearing the truth from outsiders: Generally, Atlanta fans aren’t quite up to snuff with the standard of diehard fandom. I’ve always adamantly insisted my love for the Falcons equals the respective allegiance of my proverbial enemies, but on Sunday, Oct. 4, I discovered first hand, in my own backyard, just how far locals have to go to catch up with — well — other locals. October•November 2015
Oct. 4 (12:47 p.m.)
It’s week four. The Falcons are 3-0 and hosting the Houston Texans at 1 p.m. in the Georgia Dome. I don’t have a ticket. I rarely do. Instead, I make last-minute plans to catch the game with a neighborhood friend at the local Taco Mac. Every television in the building has the Falcons game on, while a lone pair of Bengals fans asked for the last screen on the right side of the bar to get switched over to CBS. There’s a healthy mixture of residual church clothes and Falcons garb, as well as late-arrivers donning their Julio Jones jerseys on top of their church clothes. Still, as the Falcons lead 7-0, 14-0, 21-0, 28-0, 35-0, October•November 2015
and eventually, 48-21, fans clap and holler their way through scoring plays as if the touchdowns come with talk show queue boards getting flashed in front of our faces. We scored? Oh, may as well clap. We’re trying, but we’re not doing game day right. Not even close. Right before I grab my check to leave, a friend of mine who is a server arrives for his work shift. Like every other employee, they’re required to wear Falcons gear on Game Days, but my buddy has been awarded an exception: the Packers play at 4:25 p.m., and he’s a l l ow e d t o w e a r h i s throwback Aaron Rodgers jersey instead. Navy blue with a gold circle donning the digits ‘12’ in the center, he’s the one person in the bar you can track
with peripheral vision. It is in our peripherals, almost hidden, where genuine pro football culture lives and thrives in the Atlanta area, and we could learn a lot from it.
4:27 p.m., same day
I’m en route to TJ’s Sports Bar & Grill in Alpharetta. The task? It’s simple. Watch a Packers game. Heading into the weekend, I asked followers on Twitter if there were any spots where non-Falcons fans met to watch games. I didn’t get many responses, other than one suggestion, to call TJ’s. So I did, asking them if they were showing the Steelers game that Thursday. “We’re a Packers bar,” was what I heard over the line, with a hint of condescension, but mostly an inflection of pride. “Great! That works too,” I said, apologetically. “I’ll see you Sunday.” My expectations? Maybe a dozen fans, huddled in a corner somewhere around a TV, blocking out the exterior ho-hum of a rainy Sunday in Atlanta, especially once the Falcons were off the air. I couldn’t have been more THE LIFE 400 NORTH
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wrong. The first step is to find TJ’s. Once you make a right off the northbound exit on Ga. 400 onto Holcomb Bridge Road, you slope in and out of strip malls and residential depositories before you inevitably, on your first try, swoop right past TJ’s, the first building on the left after a pine tree forest, right at the Alpharetta-Johns Creek border. TJ’s is located smack dab in the middle of suburban, affluent Atlanta, where more folks watch hockey, root for the Yankees, and are described by Atlanta Hawks CEO Steve Koonin, jokingly but also offensively, as “Alpharetta Unicorns.” In other words, what Koonin meant, is that once you go too far north, Atlanta fans are a minority. He may have been somewhere near right about that, but to insinuate that these residents are too preoccupied with their country club lifestyle would be to forget about the folks at TJ’s. Take a hard look at the parking lot TJ’s sits in when you drive by. If it’s Sunday, you’ll likely notice a bunch of green and gold flags, illegible in their folded state, hanging from car doors. A gust of wind reveals the place’s true purpose — it’s a Packers bar, and has been since the “early ’90s, but we can’t remember the exact date,” according to manager and son of the owner, Mark Ecclestone. But it’s not just any Packers’ bar; it’s a venue. With Green Bay fans coming in the hundreds on biggest game days, TJ’s nearly registers as a home stadium. In fact, for 4 o’clock games and playoff games, the far-left side of the strip mall parking lot is closed off as a tailgate lot. Fans show up hours early, break out the grills and folding chairs, and fill the Alpharetta air with the sweet smell of sausage, brats and beer. Step inside, and you forget where you are. With the game day volume blasting, it’s more likely than not the voice of Joe Buck draws you in. The food at the tables is simply fixture, as every fan, decked in Packers attire, stares at the giant, hanging projection on the left wall. Dozens upon dozens cringe and tense their muscles in unison, and release with a sigh, every 40 or so seconds. It’s almost like the entire room is a set of lungs, holding breath and exhaling. During an exhale, or at halftime,
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you can sneak a word or two in with a patron, but once you do you’re probably going to be hooked in conversation for a while. Bethany Girard, a 24-year old waitress experiencing her first Packers game day, gave me a good briefing. “They’re all just so nice, and positive,” Girard said. “Even when the game isn’t going well, either they’re encouraging the team or screaming and cheering. There’s no yelling. You don’t see that every day.” As Girard explains this unique dynamic, Aaron Rodgers has his would-be touchdown run from about 15 yards away called back because he stepped out of bounds. I knew this without watching the TV because a few Packers fans in front of me stated, “Yep. He’s out at the two.” I could have talked to them, but I singled out the cheese head. On the opposite side of the divider wall in the main sitting area, Collin Denoya, 26, sits with the infamous triangle-shaped hat, covered with holes and digging into a wing with his left hand and balancing a cigarette with his right, while also preventing the tied-tip of his beard from dipping into his ranch dressing. A powerful, greasy handshake was an invitation into what sounded like an automated message from Denoya, who proudly boasted about his inherited love for the Pack. “I was born in Tulsa, but have lived here my entire life,” Denoya said. “My first NFL game I watched was the Packers-Patriots Super Bowl; my Dad stuck one of these (pointing to
his headgear) on me and I’ve been a Packers fan ever since.” Denoya found his Packers family by happenstance five years ago. He worked across the street, mainly on Sundays, but would walk over after work to get drinks in the late afternoon. He didn’t realize until the 2010 Super Bowl, where he stumbled upon one of the bar’s famed tailgates, that his weeknight spot was a home for many of the displaced. “I saw the tailgate, walked inside and saw all of the people and just exclaimed, ‘I’m home,’” Denoya said. “Every year we run into the same people during football season. We become friends here, add each other on Facebook and all of that stuff. Year after year, during the season, this place is incredible. You should see it during Bears games,” he said. Back on the “jumbotron” side of the bar, Matt Reyburn, his cousin, Robert Reyburn, and friend Steffani Meusburger sit around a beer tower. The trio has been reserved compared to the louder patrons in the bar, but Matt, 24, has the Packers at the center of his soul. “I originally came down to Atlanta from Milwaukee for a girl,” he said. It didn’t work out. The opposite sex comes in and out of your life, but the Packers—they’re forever. “This place is pretty much a piece of home now. This is the greatest sports bar I’ve been to in the Atlanta area.” I asked him what local football fans, native football fans could learn
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from such an environment. “I can’t really answer that question, I don’t think,” he said. “All I can say is, as a Packers fan, it’s instilled in you the second you’re born. You root for the green and gold. There’s no other option.” With each score, which only came three times on this Sunday, the bar erupted. Remember, this isn’t a Super Bowl, it’s an early season game against a struggling 49ers team with blind implications. The pureness of a single touchdown is enough for the staff to take a moment off. Ecclestone stands at the reception podium in a bright red company shirt, distinguished from the crowd. He describes to me that the original plan was for TJ’s, which was started by his father — former NHL player Tim Ecclestone, who played for the Atlanta Flames before getting injured and becoming an assistant — was originally meant to be a hockey spot. In hindsight, 25 years later, he smiles. “We’d probably be out of business.” So, what morphed the place into what it is today? “A few years after we opened, a small company who had just moved down here from Milwaukee, their employees were just looking for somewhere to watch the Packers games,” he said. “This was back before you could get all of the NFL games through a television package, you know. “So we reserved a room in the bar as the ‘Lambeau’ room, and those guys would go in there to watch the Packers. We’d use a dish to get the signal for them. “Before you knew it there was 15, 20, 50 guys showing up, and it just kept growing.” There’s many other sports in the Atlanta area where you can meet up with lost souls from other football towns. The Steelers Fan Club of Atlanta is a dues-free, membership-free, intellectually constructed organization that meets at Hammerhead’s Seafood & Sports Grille in Suwanee, Smith’s Olde Bar in Atlanta or Pepperoni’s Tavern in Alpharetta. Browns fans can join the Hotlanta Browns, an arm of the Browns Backers group that meets at the Famous Pub off North Druid Hills road, inside the perimeter. Though the biggest question remains unanswered: Where can Atlanta fans go, other than the Georgia Dome, for this same type of environment? “I think they’re getting there. I think the new stadium will help,” Reyburn said.
The Cumming Playhouse proudly presents...
November 19th - December 13th, 2015 Thurs, Fri, Sat | 8:00pm Sun | 3:00pm Matinee CATS is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot, and produced by Cameron Mackintosh. The musical tells the story of a tribe of cats called the Jellicles and the night they make what is known as “the Jellicle choice” and decide which cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life. CATS introduced the song standard “Memory”. Directed by Trevor Nunn and choreographed by Gillian Lynne, Cats first opened in the West End in 1981 and then with the same creative team on Broadway in 1982. It won numerous awards, including Best Musical at both the Laurence Olivier Awards and the Tony Awards. The London production ran for twenty-one years and the Broadway production ran for eighteen years, both setting new records. Actresses Elaine Paige and Betty Buckley became particularly associated with the musical. One actress, Marlene Danielle, performed in the Broadway production for its entire run (from 1982 until 2000). As of 2014, CATS is the third longest-running show in Broadway history, and was the longest running Broadway show in history from 1987–2006, surpassed by The Phantom of the Opera. Cats is the fourth longestrunning West End musical. It has been performed around the world many times and has been translated into more than 20 languages. In 1998, Cats was turned into a made-for-television film. CATS is being presented at the Cumming Playhouse during the 2015 holiday Season by RISPA, a cultural arts performing school committed to making Performing Arts a meaningful experience for all individuals. RISPA prepares young performers for a serious career in dance, musical theatre, and singing while also developing the discipline, selfconfidence and creativity that every individual needs to succeed in life. The Cumming Playhouse is proud to have established this relationship with RISPA and confident many more excellent works will come from this relationship. CATS will be a unique presentation, one unlike any other presented at the Playhouse to date. So please mark your calendars and purchase tickets early to see this spectacular show during the 2015 Holiday Season!
101 School Street Cumming, GA 30041
770.781.9178
For a complete listing of shows or to purchase tickets, visit
www.playhousecumming.com Upcoming Shows: December 15th - Christmas Classics Holiday Variety | 8pm December 16th - 17th North Georgia Barbershop Singers | 8pm December 18th - Cumming Playhouse Singers | 8pm December 20th - Bob Russell Singers Family Christmas | 8pm December 21st - Sounds Of Sawnee Holiday Concert | 8pm December 31st - Sentimental Journey Orchestra New Years Eve Show | 3pm & 8pm
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For the love of family (and food)
Tacos and Tequilas owner Diego Velasquez has opened his three restaurants in the past five years. Though he has no business partners, he does have three reasons to keep it going. Story by Kayla Robins
W
hen you walk inside the newest location of Tacos and Tequilas Mexican Grill, with its bright green and yellow sign plastered across the street from the new Ponce City Market in Atlanta’s Midtown, you pass a painting of two girls. The hand-painted work from Mexico may look like any other piece. It’s hard to notice every restaurant decoration. However, the two girls are not anonymous. In fact, they may be eating the restaurant’s food tonight. Victoria, 15, and Miranda, 7, are the reasons the familyowned Mexican eatery came to be. Cumming residents Diego and Beatriz Velasquez opened the first location five years ago on Roswell Road in Buckhead.
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“The idea was to show an example to my daughters that if you set a goal, you can achieve it if you work hard,” Diego Velasquez said. “Whatever you set your mind to, you can do.” The Colombia-born entrepreneur has always been surrounded by a big family — and a lot of food. So it makes sense he now runs a chain of three restaurants with booming business. “I have six sisters and three brothers, and they’re all into business and are entrepreneurial,” he said. “It’s in their blood,” added Beatriz Velasquez, who came from a smaller family of four siblings. She has one brother in Georgia, but when she moved here from Venezuela about 20 years ago, she came alone. The two have been married for 17 years and have lived in Cumming for 13. October•November 2015
Diego Velasquez said he credits his business spirit to his grandmother, who was “always at the bank to do something or start something.” He has lived in the United States for about 20 years, with that time being spent exclusively in Georgia save for when he attended Rutgers University in New Jersey.
“I believed in myself”
Owning several restaurants — Buckhead, Midtown and Cumming — was not always on the map. His plan after Rutgers, where he majored in biology, was to go to medical school. After working with his older brother at their family-owned, 16-location chain, La Parrilla Mexican Restaurant, for 16 years, he took the leap to open his own establishment. It took two years before that jump happened, and ideas came and passed in the meantime. He wanted to open a tourism company for a while. Or sell a grill on TV. He was supposed to open the restaurant with a brother, he said, but he backed out.
The pressure to support his family as the only income may have stopped many people. Not Diego. Now he manages about 150 employees across all three locations with no partners. “Then, I was on my own. But I believed in myself and I kept it going,” he said. “No matter if you want to have an entrepreneurial career, a business, anything, you can get whatever you want as long as you give it a good effort.”
“We take care of each other”
If Diego Velasquez has learned one thing in running a business and from his wife and daughters, it is that family can mean more than one thing. “How we treat our employees is very important,” he said. “It’s like we are all one big family. We take care of each other. We have many people who have been here since we opened.” Beatriz Velasquez said her husband knows how to handle any type of situation. He has to, she said. He’s managing it without any partners. “I always try to be positive no matter what,” Diego Velasquez said.
Family can also mean those who they may not know directly but who are just as important — the community. The restaurant holds fundraisers and donates to local schools and teachers, he said. It recently held a fundraiser for the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office’s Teen Interception Program and has collected for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. “We like to give back,” he said. “They’re coming in here, so we want to give back some. We feel better after doing it, and they like it.” Mentality and good intentions can only go so far in running a successful restaurant, especially in a metropolitan city where there is no short menu of choices. The last ingredient that keeps the doors open is, of course, the food. It’s got to be good. The unique and authentic [massive] menu is a prized commodity with the owners. “You don’t want it to taste like a corporate taste,” Diego Velasquez said. “You want an authentic, homemade taste, which it is here. Everything is fresh. Everything is made every day from scratch.”
Growing together and depending on each other.
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RUM RUNNER
Our resident wine expert put down her wine glass and set off for Barbados, Mount Gay to be exact, to learn a little bit about rum.
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hen I envisioned Barbados it looked like the top left picture above. However, when I arrived and walked off the plane onto the runway it was gloomy and misty. My first thought, “Of course this will probably be the only chance I will ever get to travel to Barbados, and it’s raining.” Why do I get to fly to Barbados on a work trip when I work for a liquor store? Jax Fine Wine & Spirits was invited by Mount Gay Rum to create a private label that we could sell to the customers at the store. Of course it all began with a man contrarily named John Sober... what are the odds? John Sober inherited an unknown distillery and asked Sir John Alleyne Gay to help manage it. Now this distillery is known as Mount Gay Rum Distillery. When I arrived at the Mount Gay Distillery I was very confused. My first thought was, “why is it called Mount Gay?” Because the landscape is fairly flat compared to any mountain or hill I’ve seen back in the United States. During 1703 a mountain had to be at least 50 feet to be considered a mountain... well times have obviously changed. Where did the name come from? During this time there was already a Mount Alleyne so they decided to use John’s last name, “Gay.” What makes Mount Gay Rum even more unique? The water. Harrison’s Cave is known as one of the greatest wonders of the world. It was truly amazing to see how the cave continues because of the water erosion through the limestone rock and the formation of the stalactites and stalagmites have developed from the calcium-rich water. What makes Mount Gay the best rum in the World? My personal opinion, the sugar cane. I do have a bias opinion since my ‘sweet tooth’ influences my decision. The sugar cane is converted into molasses, followed by fermentation and the distillation in pot stills.
- Rachel Justis, Jax Fine Wine & Spirits 16
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October•November 2015
JAX FINE WINES & SPIRITS COMPLIMENTARY
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www.jaxspirits.com
The Men Behind the Masks
By Micah Green
Thanks to efforts at Northside Hospital, you don’t have to travel far for world class, robotic vascular surgery. In fact, it’s right in your backyard. There are three men who share duties at the hospital’s branches. The Life — 400 North got an inside peak into their blue tinged world. 18
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B
eing the three headed helm of a large surgical team that spans three campuses, it is unsurprsingly difficult to get Dr. Catalin Harbuzariu, Dr. Siddharth Patel and Dr. Edward Kang in the same place at the same time. But that’s exactly what happened at Northside Hospital’s Atlanta branch on a late September afternoon. Dr. Harbuzariu is running late, I am told by Dr. Patel as I am greeted in the lobby. Harbuzariu was held up with a surgery. Pretty good excuse, I suppose; can’t really be mad at a guy taking his time on a surgical patient. I had met Dr. Patel a week or so earlier, at a vascular surgery he let me sit in on, though we didn’t shake hands or speak very long. He thanked me for coming out and asked how I was doing, which is a harder question to answer than one might think with a semi-conscious body lying on an operating table in front of you. The meeting at Northside Atlanta was our first formal meeting. He was very easy to talk to. Patel is from Georgia, Kang is from Illnois and Harbuzariu hails from Romania. But the three have an obvious connection. They speak to each other constantly. Patel introduced me to Kang as we waited on Harbuzariu. I had also somewhat informally met Dr. Kang, though even less so than I had met Dr. Patel, at the same surgery I sat in on previously. Someone just pointed Kang out in the operating room; he was really just there observing. In contrast to Dr. Patel, Kang was a little more intimidating. That may be because he is a bigger guy, north of six foot, but, really, just as amicable as Patel. As I am setting up my equipment, I can hear them discussing some cases from the day. A third voice joins in; it’s Dr. Harbuzariu, a tall, slender man with an unmistakable eastern European accent. The three spoke to each other calmly, but every sentence seemed deliberate and thorough: surgical, you might say. They’ve really only known each other for about 2 years, and were
October•November 2015
From left to right: Dr. Catalin Harbuzariu, Dr. Edward Kang and Dr. Siddharth Patel.
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even more recently, as in a little more than two months ago, tasked with heading up Northside’s prestigious Vascular Unit. “We have begun to meet and talk much more frequently, really trying to figure out what the vision for this program is,” Patel said. “We decided that not just one of us should take that position ... we are going to do it by committee since we value each others’ opinions and thoughts and want to do it corroboratively.” That vision also involves combining the three surgeons’ academic interests, through clinical trials and research, with the convenience, stability and comfort of a private practice. According to Dr. Patel there are already several clinical trials available to Northside patients, some of which, no other hospital in Georgia has access to. That’s not the only thing that’s nearly exclusively available to Northside vascular patients. Northside is the first and only hospital in Georgia with a Magellan Robotic System used for endovascular surgeries. The robot makes it light years easier for surgeons to go in and remove fatty build-ups from the inner walls of small arteries, a condition known as peripheral arterial disease. “We are salvaging more limbs and helping people keep their legs with pedal access and robotic procedures when previously we would have no option but to amputate a limb,” Kang explained. “Which is an amazing reality.” Harbuzariu added that successfully cutting down recovery time, is a big part of a patient oriented approach he believes is imperative. “Whether my treatment has helped the patients to return their lives is the real measure of success,” he said. Incredible medical advances and patient interaction aside, what happens every day at Northside Hospital, whether that be in Atlanta, Forsyth or Cherokee counties, would not be possible without an enormous team of moving parts. More than 50 people, everything from office managers, to operating room assistants help keep the trio mobile. The doctors realize this. “With this program being so big, we have to continue to keep it well oiled, we could not do it without the rest of the team,” Patel said. After unintentionally being mesmerized by all of the doctor speak for some time while setting up, I snapped out of it and was ready for our shoot. Fifteen minutes later we were finished, and thank God, too. That’s probably all they had time for.
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October•November 2015
THE MARKETEER
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Sports on 400 North
Our favorite portraits of some of the area’s most talented athletes. Photographs by Micah Green
Will Hasse, Forsyth Central
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October•November 2015
Adeline Seiferth, Pinecrest Austin Reid, West Forsyth
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BALANCING THE BOOKS
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October•November 2015
403,597 to be exact. That’s how many items you can check out from a public library in Forsyth County, most of which have some of the highest circulation rates in Georgia. Incoming library director Anna Lyle is about to put that all on her plate, with some financial and administrative management reading between the lines. Story by Kayla Robins
A
nna Lyle is probably the only librarian in the world who doesn’t have a favorite book. Maybe we can’t accurately say that without acknowledging the potential for exaggeration, but they’re her words. “The funny thing is librarians pride themselves on being able to pick out books for people, but I’m apparently really hard to do that for,” Lyle said. She knew the what’s-your-favorite-book question was going to be asked, and said she didn’t know whether to just make something up. “I know what I don’t like. I’m not a big dragons and magic person,” she said as she sat in the office she has occupied for the past 11 years as the Forsyth County Public Library’s assistant director for support services. “I like magazines. And novels, but I really only read those when I have a lot of time, like on vacations ... I love to read fiction unless I want to know something. Like I’m not going to read a gardening book unless I need to learn how to do something.” The north Fulton native’s office is about to move down the hall. Poised to step into the directorial position for the library system in December, she will succeed Jon McDaniel, who has been in the role for the last 20 years, since the system came to be. She may not have a favorite book because she has simply read so many of them. “Growing up, I just didn’t know people who were going to college. It was not part of my family’s socioeconomic situation. My parents worked very, very hard October•November 2015
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and gave up so many things. When I look at what my parents did right, besides teaching us to eat vegetables, they took us to the library,” said the woman whose background in business management and art history oozes higher education. “So I read and I read and I read and I read, and it opened up all these worlds … My worldview was different because I read about other experiences, other people, other cultures, other worlds. “It’s not just non-fiction that can make people smart.” Lyle recalled how her third-grade teacher — who attended the library’s recent Forsyth Reads Together event with “The Help” author Kathryn Stockett — had a great time telling her mother that she came to school so mad one day because she only let her check out 10 books at a time.
have minors when she attended, she took enough business management courses to get one. She interned at a library in Duluth during high school, was hired as an information specialist in Gwinnett County as she completed her master’s thesis and has been in library human resources and finance ever since. She was the first full-time human resources employee for Forsyth County once it split from Gwinnett in 1999, and was brought on to hire the staff for the system’s second branch, Sharon Forks. “Because I had all this HR experience I still thought I would go into the private sector,” Lyle said, “but I just kept loving my job.”
Library learning
The recession hit most businesses hard. Not libraries in Forsyth County. It was still difficult, but statistics actually increased during the recession. “The we-need-money part for Hampton Park was right at the beginning. We opened in 2010 with absolutely no additional staff, and we actually had to cut hours. But we’ve since gotten those back to regular hours,” Lyle said. No additional staff and less hours
The Shakerag property Lyle grew up on has since transformed from “worthless swamp land” to a gated community. Lyle’s older brother attended Georgia Tech to become the first college graduate in the family. Lyle has since earned an undergraduate degree from Furman University in South Carolina and a master’s from Emory University in art history. Though Furman didn’t
BY THE NUMBERS
In 2014:
-Out of 397 libraries in Georgia, Sharon Forks was second, Cumming was sixth, Post Road was 12th (with only being open 10 months) and Hampton Park was 46th in terms of circulation -Close to 2.4 million items were checked out, including almost 1 million from Sharon Forks
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“People needed our resources”
-FCPL had 216,000 visits (includes repeat visitors), which means 1,800 a day across four branches -The materials department spent about $600,000 of its $5.8 million budget on materials -FCPL recorded 153,000 Internet uses, including 60,000 wireless connections -Only 30,000 out of 403,000 items were read online, and only about 7 percent of patrons checked out e-resources
and Forsyth commissioners — about 85 percent of the library system’s $5.8 million budget comes from the county — had to cut about $100,000 from the library budget the year Hampton Park opened. “That was one of the things that really made me want to say, ‘I want to be a library director,’” she said. “We knew Jon wasn’t going to be here forever. And libraries became even more important during that time because people needed our resources more.” Free public libraries shifted from an amenity to a need. “Commissioners agreed we have to keep all county services open, but [residents] aren’t necessarily using the tag office more. But they’re using us more. Maybe they’re canceling their high-speed Internet at home and are coming in to do school work. It was people who lost their jobs and kind of making it their offices,” Lyle said. Residents used the library for all resources, not just to check out the next bestseller. Staff members showed them how to do resumes or send an email attachment. The system started its volunteer program during the recession. People wanted to help because they were appreciative the service remained opened, Lyle said. Or they had lost their jobs and wanted to keep something on their resume. In order for Lyle to eventually become a library director, she needed to add to her resume. “I went back to what we call library school for my master’s in library and information science, which you do have to have in Georgia to become a library director,” she said. She would have gone back to get the degree “many years before,” but at the time no accredited school in the state offered one. Valdosta State University does now. She and her husband also would have had to take out loans for tuition had her father-in-law not helped. With his support and the spirit of hard work learned from her parents, Lyle studied for her second master’s degree remotely with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee while working a full-time job that involved opening a new library during a recession. October•November 2015
“What I’ve been passionate about”
Since Lyle has been part of the system since before its split from Gwinnett, she has an idea of how to run it and what makes it so successful. “If we had an outdated, boring collection with things people didn’t want to read, we would have declining numbers, but we don’t have declining numbers. Generally the trend is that libraries are declining in use, but here they were higher last year than the population growth,” she said. Materials, combined with clean and welcoming facilities, accessible technology and a competent staff. Applicants must take a skills test to work in a Forsyth County library. “We have an education-focused community. I think we’d really hear about it if we had a bad collection,” she said. With leadership turnover, however, comes change. Though don’t expect anything drastic here. “Jon is very team-based in his management, so the people who have wanted to, we’ve already been able to do a lot. It’s not like I’m being hired to come in and be a change agent to fix a failing system,” Lyle said. “I think the library board wants a continuation of what we’ve been doing, which is fine because I’ve been able to do what I’ve been passionate about, and I have ownership of that. “On the other hand, I’m not Jon. And there will be things that are different.” Like keeping up with technology, for example. Or
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finding someone to replace herself. “Jon was very into succession planning, so he has backed off for the last few years,” Lyle said. “If I had to be out for a month because I was sick or something, the place wouldn’t fall apart.” Lyle was out of the state for a week at the end of September, the week the library board voted her in as the next director. She was in Wisconsin for her father-in-law’s funeral. It was bittersweet, she said. “He knew, pretty much, I was going to get the job because I had been announced as sole finalist [in August],” she said, “but it was just … He was so supportive … It was just weird knowing the meeting was going on while we were en route.”
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Opens Nov. 13, 2015 Admission: Adults $12 | Children $10 5039 W. Broad St., Sugar Hill, GA 30518
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Centennial Olympic Park www.centennialpark.com
Opens Nov. 21, 2015 - Jan. 10, 2016 265 Park Ave W NW, Atlanta, GA 30313
Top 5 Holiday Lights Displays Garden Lights at Atlanta Botanical Garden www.atlantabg.org
When: Nov. 14, 2015 - Jan. 9, 2016 Time: 5pm - 10pm Where: Atlanta Botanical Garden 1345 Piedmont Avenue NE, Atlanta, GA 30309 404-876-5859
Stone Mountain Christmas at Stone Mountain Park www.stonemountainpark.com When: Nov. 7, 2015 - Jan. 3, 2016 Where: Stone Mountain Park 1000 Robert E. Lee Blvd, Stone Mountain, GA 30083 800-401-2407
Magical Nights Of Lights www.lanierislands.com
When: Nov. 20 - Dec. 31, 2015 Where: Lanier Islands 7000 Lanier Islands Parkway, Buford, GA 30518 770-945-8787
Holiday in Lights at Centennial Olympic Park www.centennialpark.com When: Nov. 21, 2015 - Jan. 10, 2016 Where: Centennial Olympic Park 265 Park Ave. W NW, Atlanta, GA 30313 404-223-4412
Fantasy in Lights at Callaway Gardens www.callawaygardens.com
When: Nov. 13 - Dec. 30, 2015 Where: Callaway Gardens 17800 U.S. Hwy 27, Pine Mountain, GA 31822 800-852-3810
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