Johns Creek Herald - February 16, 2023

Johns Creek swim team takes title

North Fulton Chamber names two executives

► PAGE 4

Police capture suspect in reported stolen car

► PAGE 6

Tavern offers patrons homey British charm

► PAGE 8

School Board takes next step to intensify

literacy gains

drive for

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 for early literacy education increased.

See LITERACY, Page 15

Johns Creek High School swimmers continued their streak Feb.3, when the boys swim and dive team won its third 6A state championship in a row at the Georgia Institute of Technology Aquatic Center in Atlanta. It’s the team’s fourth state title in the past five years. Marist School followed in second place, 26 points behind.

JOHNS CREEK HIGH SCHOOL/PROVIDED

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All crime reports published by Appen Media Group are compiled from public records. Neither the law enforcement agencies nor Appen Media Group implies any guilt by publishing these names. None of the persons listed has been convicted of the alleged crimes.

Dental office reports stolen insurance checks

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — Several checks mailed to Johns Creek Dental Associates have been reported stolen, some altered and all cashed.

The five checks totaled $2,560.90, according to a Jan. 31 police report, and were from various dental insurance companies to settle claims.

The office manager told Johns Creek Police that she discovered the checks, dated November and December of last year, were missing in mid-January when the clients’ accounts had been 30 days past due.

The woman said she called the insurance companies when she saw the checks were missing.

The officer manager told police she suspects that checks may have been stolen from the free-standing mailbox just outside the business.

There are no cameras filming the mailbox, the report said, but the business has upgraded its mailbox to include a lock.

Man reports robbery by three of his students

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — A man reported he was robbed at gunpoint inside his home on Vicarage Walk Feb. 2 by three students taking his certified ethical hacking class.

He said the students came to his home at 12:30 a.m., stating that they needed “urgent help,” the police report said, so the man let them in. They entered his bedroom inside the basement, which is where he hosts the $500 classes. The man said one suspect pointed a gun at him and ordered him to

disclose where the valuables were kept. The other two suspects began removing items from the home.

After the first suspect threatened the teacher with a stun gun, they all left.

The man said he delayed calling the police because he wanted to give the suspects an opportunity to return the stolen items. He said he attempted to contact the suspects, and they would not respond.

The suspects reportedly stole thousands of dollars’ worth of guns, ammunition, technological devices, accessories and Viagra supplements. They also stole his driver’s license, debit cards, Social Security card and miscellaneous paperwork.

The man said he did not keep records on his students. But he did provide police with their contact numbers and possible addresses.

The man described one suspect as a lighter skinned Black male around 35 years old, wearing a purple long sleeve sweater and 5-foot-10 in height.

He described another suspect as a White male around 35 years old, wearing a red Adidas hoodie and jeans and around 6-foot-2 in height.

The last suspect was described as a dark-skinned Black male with a mustache and beard, around 44 years old, wearing a sports jacket and around 5-foot-9 in height.

The identities of the suspect have not been verified, the police report said.

Couple out for dinner return to ransacked home

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — A couple who went out for dinner Feb. 4 discovered their home burglarized when they returned.

The victims’ daughter told Johns Creek Police that her parents went out for dinner at 6:20 p.m., came back at around 7:45 p.m. and noticed their home on Bent Tree View had been ransacked and the back door smashed.

The daughter said she went by the home at around 6:45 p.m. to drop off cookies but left because they weren’t home. At the time, she did not notice

any damage to the back door. She also said they do not have an alarm system or cameras.

Police cleared the house, and they found that three safes had been opened but did not appear to be damaged.

Most of the drawers on the second and third levels had been opened, the report said, and clothing and other items were strewn about.

Police also inspected the damaged back door and noticed a broken board on the fence that faces Wilson Creek Elementary. Due to the state of the home, the only known item taken was $500 that was on the kitchen counter on the first floor.

The victims were set to make a list of all items taken and to forward it to a Johns Creek detective.

Greater North Fulton Chamber names two new senior leaders

ATLANTA — The Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce has welcomed two new senior leaders, Rebekah Anderson and Carisa Turner, who will help drive the organization’s mission of growing business, building talent and cultivating regional prosperity.

These strategic leadership hires align with the chamber’s three-year strategic plan and will

allow the organization to grow into new areas of work.

Rebekah Anderson

Anderson joins the organization as vice president of Membership Growth and Events. She brings more than 10 years of expertise in events and programs, strategic partnerships and revenue management to her role overseeing membership engagement and events strategy.

Anderson has served as both vice president and director of membership and programs at the Council for Quality Growth, where she grew its regional strength by

revitalizing signature events, such as the prestigious Four Pillar Tribute and State of MARTA, and leveraging policy-based relationships.

She was the director of events for the Columbia Chamber of Commerce in South Carolina and the ForsythMonroe Chamber. She is a graduate of the University of Georgia, Regional Leadership Institute, Leadership North Fulton and Leadership Monroe. She serves on the Communications Committee for the Sandy Springs Conservancy, the Atlanta Regional Commission’s RLI Advisory Board, and is a Soprano II in the Trey Clegg Singers.

Carisa Turner Turner joins the organization as senior director of External Affairs and Economic Development. She brings more than 15 years of brand strategy, corporate communications, public affairs, stakeholder engagement and organizational development expertise to this newly created role. She will lead the team driving forward the chamber’s work in regional branding, marketing and communications; advocacy and government relations; and economic, talent and leadership development.

See LEADERS, Page 28

Johns Creek Beautification to hold Secret Garden Tour

By SHELBY ISRAEL shelby@appenmedia.com

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — Johns Creek Beautification announced it will host its fourth annual Secret Garden Tour May 6, featuring six home gardens at the Autrey Mill Nature Preserve.

“Autrey Mill is home to splendid woodland, butterfly, and fairy gardens, not

to mention some beautifully restored and historically preserved buildings throughout the property,” the organization stated.

Each garden on the tour will include a musical ensemble or solo performer and visual artists. Volunteers will be available to provide information about the gardens.

The tour costs $30 for those who purchase a pass March 1-31. Beginning April 1, the cost will be $35.

Proceeds from the tour support public art in the city, as well as a citywide daffodil planting that will raise awareness of cancer survivors. Proceeds will also honor veterans by planting daffodils in Newtown Park.

The nonprofit seeks to provide landscaping enhancement or preservation, architectural installations and public works of art in common areas and medians to improve the visual and physical comfort

of Johns Creek.

Johns Creek Beautification is seeking artists and entertainers and volunteers for parking and education. Volunteers must be at least 18 years old, and they will receive a complimentary pass for the tour.

Those interested can apply on the Johns Creek Beautification website or email Jennifer.schau@ johnscreekbeautification.org.

TURNER

ANDERSON

Nonprofit offers support for children with aging parents

By SHELBY ISRAEL shelby@appenmedia.com

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — The Atlanta chapter of Adult Children of Aging Parents, a nonprofit that provides support to children and caregivers of aging adults, met at Town Square Sandy Springs Feb. 8.

The free, monthly program provides resources, informational presentations and an open floor Q&A for adults who have aging parents or loved ones.

Chapter Coordinator Mary Remmes said the program offers an important social setting for individuals who may not have anyone else to share their experiences with.

“The other thing that it addresses is the community support, because caring for an aging parent can be very isolating,” Remmes said. “Really, I mean, I’ve coached so many people, and they all say to me, ‘Are we the only ones that have this? Am I the only one that experiences this?’ And I say, ‘No, you know, you can’t see it because you’re in it, but I see it all

over.’”

Remmes worked to start the Atlanta chapter over the past 10 months. Remmes has worked as a life coach and aging parents guide and relationship expert for eight years.

She has a background in longterm care, working as a nursing home administrator before beginning her path as a life coach.

Remmes said she saw a need in the Atlanta area for social support and education to address the struggles and nuances of the experience. The chapter, the first in Georgia, will provide resources and work to reduce the stigma surrounding the discussion of aging parents, she said.

Organizations like ACAP are important, Remmes said, because the experience is not discussed widely.

“So, people are reluctant to talk about it,” Remmes said. “And yet, I think if we can normalize that it’s hard to experience this, but it doesn’t mean that it has to be. There’s ways and resources available to take this situation that is hard and

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make it more manageable for you without giving up your life, without putting your life on hold for 10 years or 20 years.”

Each meeting will follow the same template, with refreshments, an information session and a Q&A. Remmes said the chapter uses data from the AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving to cater each presentation to the evolving needs of aging adults and their caregivers.

Remmes said Dr. Melissa Black, a physician at Empower Family Medicine and a core sponsor of the chapter, seeks to start a chapter in Decatur as well. Black was one of two speakers at the Feb. 8 meeting, where she shared information and tips on understanding dementia and how to provide care.

The Atlanta chapter will meet at 5:30 p.m. every second Wednesday at Town Square Sandy Springs, an adult daycare center that employs reminiscence theory, a process designed to stimulate mental activity. The interior of the facility is designed after mid-century America, with a retro model car, a diner-themed

APEN PRESSCL

Dr. Melissa Black speaks on the topic of dementia at the Atlanta Chapter of Adult Children of Aging Parents’ first meeting Feb. 8 at Town Square Sandy Springs. Black, a physician at Empower Family Medicine in Decatur, is one of the chapter’s core sponsors.

cafeteria and a green town square.

Remmes said the facility, another core sponsor of the chapter, offered its use at no cost.

“And I just think that level of engagement and that environment that they have brings out the absolute best in the people who are even experiencing cognitive decline,” Remmes said.

Authorities arrest driver of car reported stolen out of Gwinnett

By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — Georgia State Patrol located a reportedly stolen Nissan Sentra Feb. 6 traveling on Haynes Bridge Road and attempted a traffic stop, but the driver fled.

Police pursuit continued onto Nesbit Ferry Road where the driver drove onto the wrong side of the roadway and attempted a U-turn, according to the preliminary report

from the Georgia Department of Public Safety’s Public Information Office.

Johns Creek Police observed the pursuit on Haynes Bridge Road toward Old Alabama Road at around 2:20 p.m., reports said. Police assisted the trooper when they noted he was alone in the pursuit.

Because the Johns Creek Police report is categorized as “Miscellaneous,” it was unavailable

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SHELBY ISRAEL/APPEN MEDIA

JOHNS CREEK POLICE DEPARTMENT/PROVIDED

Georgia State Patrol and Johns Creek Police chased down the driver of a Nissan Sentra Feb. 6, eventually detaining him on Old Alabama Road. The car had been reported stolen out of Gwinnett County.

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.

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

See TAVERN, Page 9

ALEX POPP/APPEN MEDIA

General Manager Britney “BK” Keane holds a freshly tapped pint of Guinness behind the bar at the King George Tavern with Dunwoody Restaurant Group founder Huw Thomas

HUW THOMAS, owner, King George Tavern

Tavern:

Continued from Page 8

still get authentic fish and chips, along with other pub food staples like bangers and mash, cottage pie and a selection of British beers.

But they’ve also adopted their menu for the American palate, discarding classic British pub items that didn’t sell well, like pub curries or scotch eggs (deepfried hardboiled eggs wrapped in ground sausage and breading).

“If you did a real English pub in America, it would go out of business,” Thomas said. “We do what Disneyland does; we give you what you perceive is a [British] pub, but it’s not.”

But whenever they can, Keane said they still try to offer as many authentic touches as they can to their menu and aesthetic, because there is a surprisingly large British population in the Dunwoody community.

“They want to come in and this is like their home,” she said. “Everyone who walks in here, I know what they drink as soon as they sit down. They don’t even have to talk to me if they don’t want to.”

Visit the King George Tavern at 4511 Chamblee Dunwoody Road in Dunwoody. Learn more about the Dunwoody Restaurant Group’s other locations at www.dunwoodyrestaurantgroup.com.

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.

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.

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Understanding Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)

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Q. I chose a high-deductible health plan this year to reduce my premiums. Is there anything more I can do to manage health care expenses?

A. Your high-deductible health insurance plan may qualify you for a Health Savings Account or HSA. An HSA is a tax-advantaged savings account that can be used to pay qualified expenses with pre-tax dollars.

Q. Who is eligible to open an HSA?

A. HSAs are available to individuals and families who are enrolled in highdeductible healthcare plans (HDHPs). These are plans that, while they may offer lower premiums, come with higher out-of-pocket expenses, such as deductibles and co-pays. With an HSA, you can accumulate pre-tax savings to cover both planned and unplanned healthcare-related expenses.

Q. How does an HSA work?

A. Opening an HSA is about as simple as opening any other bank account. There are a few up-front questions to ensure that you qualify. Once funded, you’ll discover three significant tax benefits:

• Your contributions are tax deductible. Contributions to an HSA operate in the same manner as a 401(k). You contribute pre-tax dollars, thereby reducing taxable income.

• Earnings grow tax-free. Balances accumulate similar to an IRA.

Any investment earnings on your HSA contributions are not taxed.

• Withdrawals are tax-free. As long as your withdrawals are used to cover qualified medical expenses, you will pay no taxes on the money you withdraw. You can find a list of qualified medical expenses on the IRS website (www.irs.gov).

Q. Open enrollment season is over. May I still open an HSA?

A. Yes. Unlike a Flexible Spending Account (FSA), Health Savings Accounts can be opened at any time during the year. You may also change your contribution rates at any time or even invest a single lump sum.

Q, But if my healthcare expenses are lower than I’m expecting, will I lose the money I’ve saved in my HSA?

A. HSA contributions aren’t limited to any calendar year. If you don’t use the funds this year, they’ll roll over into following next year. Balances can accumulate over time, similar to an IRA. When you turn 65, money in your HSA can be withdrawn for reasons other than healthcare, though such distributions will likely be taxable.

Q. An HSA sounds like a great idea! Is there a limit on how much I can deposit?

A. Yes, there is a limit on the amount you can contribute. For 2023, those limits are $3,850 for an individual and $7,750 for a family. Plus, individuals over 55 may make a one-time catch up contribution of $1,000.

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

Dionna Williams

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

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.

Jacob Tomberlin

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

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

of Content & Development

Something I want to do but am just not very good at:

Skateboarding

Hans 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

Publisher

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

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”

Something I want to do but am just not very good at:

Fishing

Early bird or night owl?

Aspiring early bird

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

Director

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.

Literacy:

Continued from Page 1

“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.

In 1922, land was purchased where the current church building sits. The Rev. Joshua Grogan headed the church at the time, but years later, he baptized Taylor when she was 9. The reverend was her cousin.

“I remember him telling me to close my eyes, to hold my breath, that ‘I’ll take care of you,’” Taylor said.

Grogan and Taylor recalled segregated movie theaters. The Roswell theater was off limits, so Taylor went to the one in Marietta, but upstairs. The bottom floor was reserved for Whites only.

“I don’t think they ever cleaned upstairs,” Taylor said. “You would step on popcorn boxes and sticky soda on the floor.”

Grogan went to the theater in Alpharetta, also confined to the upstairs space. He worked as a cleaner at the Roswell theater, but he couldn’t attend a show.

“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 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

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.

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.”

AMBER PERRY/APPEN MEDIA

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Whitening agents approved by the FDA contain hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide has a whitening effect because it can pass easily into the tooth and break down complex molecules. At Roswell Dental Care, we utilize the GLO whitening system, which has a mouthpiece to apply gentle heat and a blue LED light to the teeth. When heat is applied to a peroxide gel on the teeth, it increases the speed with which that gel does its work, creating brighter, whiter teeth in less time.

Is tooth whitening safe?

Yes. The American Dental Association and the FDA have extensive clinical studies proving its safety, under the supervision of a dentist. Whitening is considered the safest cosmetic dental procedure by most dental professionals. However, whitening is not recommended for pregnant or lactating women or children under 13 years old.

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The main difference is the time it takes to whiten your teeth, which is based on the concentration of hydrogen peroxide. At-home or over-the-counter whiteners can be anywhere from 7 percent to 10 percent. We use a 30% formula during an in-office treatment, so there’s a much better chance that your teeth will whiten even the toughest stains.

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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

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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 blade-like 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.”

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.

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 multi-use 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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

PRESERVING THE PAST

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

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Stand-Alone Gloss

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 store.

The family of Jessie and Grace Pruitt are recorded on the census, with Jessie working at a steel plant and Grace working as a house

cleaner. The Austin family included William and Marilyn. William worked as a cook at a college, most likely Oglethorpe University. The Moon, Jones, Heard, and Lloyd families were also living in DeWald’s Alley in 1950.

Melvin Pender recalls that his parents moved from Dalton, Georgia, to his grandparents’ Sandy Springs home temporarily in 1937 in anticipation of his birth. He was born 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.

VALERIE BIGGERSTAFF Columnist

HERITAGE SANDY SPRINGS 2017/SANDY SPRINGS GAZETTE

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

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 what was happened!

There’s still a laundry list chockfull of items that need to tended to. Maybe a ramp or two to be built by his sons.

George figures he can supervise any project. Doing things for others fits squarely in his wheelhouse.

In years past, my son Greg and Will were classmates and teammates on the Forsyth Central baseball team.

As Bulldog Booster Club president, there was a gargantuan checklist of “to-do” items that stretched for miles. One glaring necessity was more seating capacity, figuring a “Field of Dreams” scenario: “If you build it, they will come.”

The existing rickety bleachers just wouldn’t do. So naturally, we went large and bought a pair of sizable grandstands. They were going to be beautiful.

Except for the fact that the grandstands arrived in dozens of boxes that contained thousands of widgets, screws, gromets and enough assorted materials to fill a Home Depot.

As someone who breaks out in a cold sweat if ever forced to buy anything other than a flashlight at Home Depot, I needed some help.

As you probably surmised, George, have tool belt will travel, put together a crew that assembled the bleachers and fashioned a place where Central baseball fans could show off the new digs.

But that’s not all. All those fans needed to be fed.

Cynthia being a mom with ravenous teenagers, took over the concession stand. No, she didn’t sell bags of peanuts. Instead, she used her wiles as a shopper to stock quality food.

Burgers, bratwurst and hot dogs sold like hot cakes. Any clue as to who was in charge of the grill and did way more than his fair share of cooking? George manned the grill like he owned the place.

I’m not sure what George and Cynthia need right now. Prayers sure couldn’t hurt. Getting Cynthia to ask for help is like getting one of King Arthur’s friends to ask a friend to pull a sword out of a rock.

The Meisners are neighbors, and George’s adventures wouldn’t have been known if Cindy hadn’t shared the story on social media.

Thank you, Facebook.

George is at home now, with lots of therapy ahead of him. At one time, he was able to put together a crackerjack crew to build grandstands. Now there is another project on the horizon.

Here’s hoping those friends will come through again.

If that happens, no way I’ll be building anything. It would be a disaster.

But count on me to go buy the coffee and donuts.

Mike Tasos has lived in Forsyth County for more than 30 years. He’s an American by birth and considers himself a Southerner by the grace of God. He can be reached at miketasos55@gmail.com.

MIKE TASOS

Columnist SPECIAL

George and Cynthia Meisner embrace in a hospital bed.

What happens in Opelika comes home to Roswell

Newspaper Delivery Route Openings with Appen Media Group

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.

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.

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.

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.”

Leaders:

Continued from Page 4

She served as head of internal and leadership communications for a global humanitarian nonprofit headquartered

Chase:

Continued from Page 6

on the city’s Police to Citizen portal. Miscellaneous reports must be requested, said Jessica Wise with the Records Division of the Johns Creek Police Department.

Appen Media saw the incident was posted by Johns Creek Police on the department’s Twitter account.

in Atlanta, and as vice president at a national communications and public relations consultancy. Before that, she spent nearly 10 years in government and economic development as the director of communications and public affairs for Roswell Inc as communications manager for the City of

The chase

A lookout had been issued around 1:45 p.m. on a blue Nissan displaying an Alabama license plate stolen out of Gwinnett County, according to the police report.

The trooper used his patrol vehicle to move the Nissan into a driveway on Old Alabama Road, the report said. Once the vehicle came to a stop, police placed their push bumper against the driver side door to prohibit the driver from opening

Roswell.

She has led multiple national awardwinning brand and communications campaigns, including one that received the “Best of Phoenix” award in 2019, the highest public relations recognition in Georgia. She is a member of the Public Relations Society of America’s

the door.

Both the trooper and police attempted a felony traffic stop with service weapons drawn, pointed at the male driver, the police report said.

The trooper gave the driver commands to exit the vehicle, the police report said, and then the driver exited through the driver side window and attempted to flee on foot toward Mount Pisgah School.

When the driver tripped and fell in

Georgia “Forty Under 40” Class of 2019, accredited in public relations, graduate of the Basic Economic Development training through Georgia Tech and International Economic Development Council and a certified public information officer through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

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The driver received slight lacerations from the fall and reaggravated a slight laceration to his hand. Police requested medical assistance for the driver on scene. He was then treated and released on scene by police but taken into custody by Georgia State Patrol.

The Department of Public Safety could not say whether the driver was charged.

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