The Life 400 North ~ April 2016

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LIFE 400 NORTH

Farewell to the Field

During the Braves’ last season at The Ted, field director and Forsyth resident Ed Mangan juggles two stadiums.

Inside: Teaching kids to love their veggies | Beekeeping and how to save the world

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from the

Editor H

owever slow it might be, warmer weather is coming. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that, this whole semi-season is a natural antidepressant. The few weeks between the bitter cold and the agonizing heat are sacred to me. Despite this, nearly every single year of my adult life, I have wasted more than half of them doing absolutely nothing outside. It’s sad, really.

So, selfishly, I needed some inspiration. That’s what this issue is all about. Getting me (and you, of course) excited to get outside.

From catching up with the perpetually busy field director at Turner Field, in its final season of operation, to talking worldsaving techniques with some local beekeepers, we’ve got some excitement.

But our hardest hitting piece is a doozy… The Forsyth County Schools has found a way to get kids to eat their vegetables. AND THEY ACTUALLY LIKE THEM! So take this issue, grab a drink, hit the porch and get yourself (me) motivated to take advantage of this weather. We all know it won’t be long till we’re sweating.

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April • May 2016

Dr. James R. Morrow

Dr. Cheryl McGowan

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Contents

10 More Veggies, Please!

18 The Final Season

How the Forsyth County farm-to-school initiative is bursting into bloom.

After 25 years Forsyth County local and Atlanta Braves Field Director Ed Mangan is overseeing things at Turner Field one more time before heading across town.

14 Perfect Patio Perches

24 The ABeeC’s of Beekeeping

With the weather warming up and the drinks cooling down, we show you a couple of spots to get a bit of both right off the 400 Corridor.

In a field in Forsyth County that to the naked eye looks like unsupervised springtime overgrowth, one of the most crucial creatures to the status quo of human food production buzzes from petal to petal.

By the thousands.

Sports Portraits...

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Things To Do...

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On the cover: Ed Mangan looks out on Turner Field from the hometeam dugout prior to Opening Day.

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April • May 2016

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Contributors

Voted BEST Art Gallery

Content Director

Micah Green mgreen@forsythnews.com 770-887-3126

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Contributing Writers Kelly Whitmire Kayla Robins Brian Paglia Michael Foster

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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April • May 2016

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April • May 2016

more

veggies, please!

How the Forsyth County farm-to-school initiative is bursting into bloom.

Story by Kayla Robins

P

icture this. Kids go to school and look forward to eating vegetables for lunch. They pull a purple carrot out of the ground and can’t wait to try it.

They show their teacher brand-new bok choy and tell them – the adults – to try some.

Sound like a dream? Visit the DIGS garden at Sharon Elementary School in the south end of Forsyth April • May 2016

County and you’ll see for yourself it’s anything but that.

The scene is the opposite of the iconic “you can’t leave the dinner table until you eat you your vegetables” struggle so many parents have endured with their children. It’s the result of a county-wide farm-to-school initiative that has garnered involvement from the top down, from the nutrition department at the Georgia Department of Education to district administrators to schools, THE LIFE 400 NORTH

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right down to the piece of broccoli in the second-grader’s hand. Soon to be eaten, gone and followed by more.

“I do K-5 and depending on what they’re working on, like we’re doing life cycles of a tree with second grade right now. So we planned an extra 15 minutes to let them come out here and touch and explore,” said Kimberly Cooper, who teaches the science lab special at Sharon with Katrina Oliver.

“There’s a lot of push with a lot of information at these kids, and if they can just slow it down and start touching things, that’s when the real connections are made.”

The garden is filled with ingredients that usually cause those “ew, gross, what is that?” marathon dinners. Green things like broccoli, kale, spinach, bok choy, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, lettuce. Other colored things like blueberries, carrots, beets, onions, corn.

Here’s where it gets even more like a dream to parents. The kids do everything. They harvest. They pull.

They water. They collect. They plant. They compost. They grow.

They learn.

There is a brownie in the garden, but it’s not what you think. Brownie the hen is one of the chickens they keep in the Cluck Bucket. They lay eggs and eat weeds. Cooper and Oliver were both parent volunteers when they started the garden, but their role has, quite literally, grown into so much more.

“In fourth grade, they’re big right now on habitats and sustaining life and ecosystems. So we split the DIGS into six zones and they had to plan an investigation. What does your zone have that will support life? They started thinking about the food web.

What do your chickens need to eat?

They won’t just eat stuff we provide them, so when we go around and pick weeds, we throw it in for the chickens to eat. All of a sudden they’re like, ‘can we pick the weeds?’ “’Yah man, have at it.’”

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Students at Sharon Elementary harvest carrots at the DIGS garden during a taste test. Below: Rows of strawberries line Warbington Farms.

Growing a family

This intertwining of promoting healthy eating with any topic students are learning in the classroom started for Cooper in her own home by cooking with her kids.

“They’re not going to try anything new otherwise,” she said, “but if they help you cook it and help you prepare it, all of a sudden, man there’s ownership there. And they’re into it.”

Then she started getting outside and in the dirt with her daughter, Allie, who is autistic. “I was never this person who liked insects and reptiles and all this stuff, but that was my only way of communicating with her because she was obsessed with it when she was younger.” She also got into the healthy eating mindset as she tried to figure out possible triggers for her daughter, what foods needed to be cut out, what diet would be best.

Cooper’s son, Mason, helped build a shed for the garden’s supplies for an Eagle Scout project. Both of her kids are at Riverwatch Middle School now – Allie is also in the gifted program – but they still help out. Mason earned his summer money by tending the chickens “because someone needed to

take care of it. We come up here all the time.”

Mix that with parent involvement, and you have the recipe for getting kids to eat their vegetables while applying what they learn to school lessons.

“Fourth grade is doing a segment on decomposition,” Cooper said. “We were out here with hand shovels, and you would have thought I let them go gold mining. In the compost. And the whole time they were asking really relevant questions. If you just give them a chance to explore.”

Menu magic

If the food kids harvest in the DIGS garden doesn’t go directly into their mouths, it ends up on their plate in the cafeteria.

Dee Mathis, food services manager at Sharon, takes everything they’ll give her and incorporates it into her menu. She takes lettuce and makes Cobb salads, topped with eggs from Brownie and the other hens. She picks basil and cilantro and makes spaghetti sauce and salsa. She makes kale chips. And students can’t get enough.

When she can’t put items on the

April • May 2016

menu, she’ll put them in cups and make a topping bar for kids to take. Broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, olives, banana peppers. Never wasted. “We do taste tests, and some of the things they liked you would never expect. Sugar snap peas. Radishes. Things that you wouldn’t think and the kids just took them.

Loved ‘em.

“I love this. I actually am from this area. I grew up with a garden, and I still have them … we do homemade vegetable soup and canned green beans, so I think this is great. So my kids were obviously exposed at a young age, and when you have something like this it’s great for kids who don’t otherwise comprehend the farm-to-table, where it comes from and the growing process.”

Farm to the 44,000-plus-table

School gardens and Dee Mathis may teach kids that not all food comes in packages or bags, but they are only supplemental to the meals provided at schools. Mass quantities of produce and ingredients must come from somewhere else.

Usually, that somewhere else is not too far away.

Ayla Heard always gets the first red strawberry harvested at Warbington Farms. She’s 8, and her family has run the farm off Little Mill Road for three generations before her. Her 6-year-old sister, Clare, and a friend get dirty in the crop fields instead of school gardens and play with teeny tiny baby goats instead of chickens.

The local farm provides strawberries to Forsyth County Schools, which distributes food to each of its 34 public schools on a uniform basis.

Valerie Bowers is the head of the farm-to-school operation for the district, and her reason why is simple. “We serve academic excellence. What we’re trying to do is the teachers are teaching the kids, and kids are here the whole entire day, and you can’t get through that day without having something to eat.”

Bowers worked at the state Department of Education from 2008-2012 and saw the growth of the farm-to-school movement explode. “What we learned was kids didn’t really have a good understanding of where food was coming from.”

She said the biggest challenge Forsyth County has in its farm-to-school initiative is its size and finding local vendors who can provide produce for 44,000 students. But that hasn’t stopped her so far.

“One of my favorite stories is from Cumming Elementary,” she said. “They have all these fruits and vegetables, and they had carrots and they harvested a bunch of carrots last year, so much so that we were able to give everybody a taste of a carrot that came out of the school garden.

“And so I was over there helping serve and a little boy came up and he said, ‘I don’t like carrots.’

‘You don’t?’

‘No. I picked them, but I don’t like them.’

‘Well, you’ve got to try it then if you’ve put all that hard work into it.’

“He came back a little later and he said it was the best carrot he ever had and that he liked carrots now, and he was pretty sure it was one that he picked.”

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Perfect Patio Perches

Story by Kelly Whitmire

Like flowers blooming with the year’s first warm weather, another spring staple is starting to awaken across the Ga. 400 corridor.

With cold weather behind, for the most part, restaurants along the corridor are opening their patio, outdoor and rooftop sections. Like the restaurants themselves, each outdoor area has its own feel and specialties.

Luckily, there is something along 400 for whatever locals are looking for.

The Mill

590 Mimosa Blvd, Roswell (770) 817-9345

Located just of Ga. 400, near the intersections of Hwys. 9 and 120, The Mill Kitchen and Bar has become one of Roswell’s most popular restaurants, in part due to their patio. In fact, Camden Long, the restaurant’s general manager, called their large outside section the heart of the restaurant.

“People outside are trying to enjoy the city itself. We always have our

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live music outside. We just got brand new custom tables outside, so it’s a hangout spot for sure,” Long said.

“People come in here and they’re hanging out for, three, four, five

hours at a time catching up with old friends, just having a quick drink or doing a full service dinner.”

Long said that the patio is home to most of the farm-to-table restauApril • May 2016

rant’s events including live music, beer tasting events from area craft breweries and both guy’s and lady’s nights.

The Mill is also a mainstay during Alive After 5, a popular event held on the third Thursday of warm weather months in the Roswell Square featuring entertainment, shopping, food trucks and many other forms of entertainment.

“Basically this entire park and square shuts down,” Long said.

“Our patio always seems to be the biggest hit, because it’s the only place to sit around Roswell.

Every other place doesn’t have a patio.”

Beyond the special events, Long said that the outdoor section would be popular until nearly winter.

“We’re finding that 70 percent of our people would rather sit outside than inside,” Long said.

“So, inside almost looks slow from now until the end of November.”

South Main While some restaurants might have outside dining, and others may have rooftop dining and bars, South Main Kitchen in Alpharetta doesn’t want to limit itself.

Instead, South Main, which serves a new take on Southern classics, offers a rooftop bar with seating, an outside dining area and a brand new lounge-style section.

“We have just opened that, we haven’t set anyone out

9 South Main St, Alpharetta (678) 691-4622

there yet,” said Christy Stone, executive chef. “I’m anxious to see how that is received … we might even have another bar out there.”

If the decision is made to open a new bar, it will join the two, one inside and one outside, currently at the restaurant. Stone said that the outside crowd is similar to those who stay indoors.

“I think they’ve done a fairly good job of keeping the vibe consistent with the

inside and outside,” she said.

“Maybe a little more relaxed on the outside if anything.

“We’re not a super formal restaurant anyway; we’re kind of a casual restaurant.”

Of course, as a chef, Stone does notice a slight change in tastes for those upstairs.

“People tend to sit upstairs and drink and order small plates,” she said. “Outside, we get the same mix of food that we do inside.”

In addition to more outside seating, those eating at South Main will have a new selection of springtime food.

“I’m bringing in a lot of fresh [vegetables],” Long said. “We just said goodbye to all of our squash … so we’re bringing in … asparagus and snap peas and just everything local and spring.

Lots of color.”

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Cinco

5755 North Vickery, Cumming (678) 341-6962 In Forsyth County’s Vickery Village, Cinco Mexican Cantina looks down on surrounding businesses. Or at least some of their rooftop patrons do.

Cinco offers two areas for those who want to enjoy the sunshine; an outdoor patio and a rooftop bar, which is only open to those 21 and over. It’s also a great place to hear some local music.

“It’s an area for the adults to enjoy themselves; live music is here every Thursday to Sunday,” manager Shelia O’Brien said. “The live music is a lot of cover songs. We get a nice mix of different talents in the area. They do some country … it depends on which musician.”

From the bar, customers can have a view of a pavilion area and a horse pasture located just across Post Road, which O’Brien said adds to the atmosphere.

“It’s definitely a casual feel up here;

it’s more relaxed. You just come up here and take away the stress,” she said.

“We’re a neighborhood spot, so I think just being a part of the neighborhood makes them all unwind.

Even though it’s beside a busy road,

you don’t feel like you’re in the busyness of everyone else.”

Cinco offers outdoor seating on the ground level, as well, and a solarium for those who would prefer to look at the scenery from the inside.

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December 2015 • January 2016

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THE FINAL SEASON Story by Brian Paglia

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December 2015 • January 2016

December 2015 • January 2016

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K

eep up. Ed Mangan is on the move.

It’s the first Friday of April, and in the guts of Turner Field the bustle of preparations before the 20th and final Opening Day at the current home of the Atlanta Braves are palpable. Venders are still organizing inventory. Signage is still being hung. Seasonal employees are still getting new ID badges. Still more hopeful employees are lined up at a discreet entrance on Bill Lucas Drive before interviews.

Mangan scurries past it all, navigating through the stadium tunnels until he comes to a pair of green metal doors. On it is a small blue plaque with ED MANGAN GROUNDS KEEPING written on it in thin white letters.

Seconds after he opens the doors to his office the phone rings and he answers. “$451 per square foot turf, is that right?” says Mangan, 55, as he turns down Fox News on the flat. A dusty golf club leans against a concrete pillar in the middle of the office. A broken crossbow hangs on the other side. A shelf made from half an old sunbaked canoe holds books and pictures.

The only field director Turner Field has ever had hardly has time for housekeeping. He’s too busy juggling the patch of grass and dirt outside his office window and the blueprints sprawled out on two leather couches. When he pulls the curtain back, he can see all of Turner Field from behind the right field wall.

When he looks at the blueprints, he can imagine what will be next: SunTrust

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Park, the team’s new $672 million digs set to open for the 2017 season.

Right now, Mangan has to think of both. The final season at “the Ted” begins in four days (which the Braves lose 4-3 in extra innings to the rival Nationals), and players will be in the next two days for workouts. The field has been in regular season mode for several days, but rain is in the forecast. His crew just uncovered the field after storms came through the night before, so Mangan trades glances from the weather radar on his computer to the sky outside his window.

“We got quite a bit of rain last night,” Mangan says, “so if we get some more this afternoon we’ll have to put the tarp back on.”

The opening of SunTrust Park is less than 365 days away now, so Mangan

keeps the blueprints accessible, some rolled up, some flattened to reveal computer drawings of its details. All the space inside the lower walls is Mangan’s.

“You’re just so busy right now,” Mangan says.

Seven days a week

During the Braves’ 81 home games, Mangan stations himself in what he calls the Radar Room, a small windowless bunker just a few steps inside the home dugout. It’s a strategic location, close enough to the manager in the dugout and umpires on the field to consult if inclement weather threatens. The room is sparse – two chairs, some sunflower seeds and bottles of water. Two flat screen televisions play the game, one live and the other tape-delayed. He tracks the weather

April • May 2016

on two computer monitors. Former Braves manager Bobby Cox would join Mangan there after he got ejected (which was plenty for the most ejected manager in baseball history) to watch the rest of the game.

Here’s a misconception you have about Mangan’s job: you see the green and think, well, it’s just grass. I have grass in my yard. I mow it every now and then. That’s it. You see the empty stadium when the team is on a road trip and think, oh, must be nothing to do for the grounds crew.

“From the first week of March through November, something is done to the turf or field seven days a week,” Mangan says.

“It’s a living, breathing entity out there,” Mangan adds.

Indeed, Mangan is more than “head landscaper” of Turner Field. He is a biologist, chemist, meteorologist, maybe even therapist who has to navigate the varying preferences of players (Infielders and pitchers want the infield grass to play slower to get more time to react to groundballs and prevent them

“It’s a living, breathing entity out there.”

from going into the outfield where they become hits.

Hitters, naturally, prefer the opposite.)

Over the course of six years, Mangan rehabilitated Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium’s playing surface while the Braves transformed into one of major league baseball’s most successful franchises. After Atlanta hosted the 1996 Summer Olympics, the Braves converted Centennial Olympic Stadium, the event’s centerpiece, into Turner Field.

Mangan has overseen the almost three acres and 120,000 square feet of turf ever since. It is a playing surface of his own creation, one he has tweaked over time with advancements in turf varieties. The grass now blends Bermuda Tifway 419 in the outfield and Platinum TE Paspalum in the infield and foul territory. The regiment to maintain it is rigorous.

Mangan and his crew’s day starts early. Their itinerary stretches from the first mow of the day to watering and prepping the infield, edging and dragging the warning track, reconstructing the pitcher’s mound and fine-tuning home plate before setting up the batting cages, mats and fungo nets for batting practice. Part-time crew arrives two hours before first pitch to help polish off the field; they chalk the lines, water the infield and sweep the mound. After the final out, there’s still plenty more to be done.

Mangan coordinates all the work like a tactical commander. Of most importance is the preparation.

“Everything we do is national television,” Mangan says.

“I want to have a plan for everything, have a back-up plan if that doesn’t work, and then have another back-up plan if

Clockwise top l e ft : M a n ga n speaks with turf provider s for the future stadium; Mangan’s name plate; In M a n g a n ’s office, his couch is covered with plans for SunTrust Park; The door to Mangan’s office sits just past the right field wall.

April • May 2016

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that doesn’t work either.”

‘You earn what you get’

Mangan didn’t intend to be in charge of a professional sports team’s turf. Born in Middletown, N.J., his family moved to Louisiana, where he discovered the Braves on the local television channel. He earned a degree in horticulture from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. One day he hoped to be the manager of a plant nursey.

After college, Mangan followed his parents to Florida, where they had moved, and he needed a job. He found one at Baseball City Stadium, the spring training home at the time of the Kansas City Royals. It was part of Boardwark and Baseball, a theme park in Haines City, Fla., that made a failed attempt to compete with Disney World in the late 1980s. To start out, Mangan made $4 an hour digging ditches for irrigation lines.

The work was brutal, but Mangan could handle it. Work had been a constant presence in his life. His dad was a carpenter who on the side bought houses and refurbished them on the weekends to either rent or sell. Mangan and his siblings were dad’s crew picking up nails, collecting cut-off pieces of wood, sweeping up saw dust, hopping on top of roof rafters.

“My dad’s famous quotes was, ‘What, you want to live forever? Get out there,’” Mangan says.

At eleven years old, his dad pushed him to get his first real job, though by New Jersey law at the time you had to be fifteen to get an employment certificate. No problem. His dad signed the forms anyway, and Mangan began caddying at a local golf course. It was eleven miles from home. There was only one car in the family, and it left when Mangan’s dad went to work in the morning and returned when he came home that evening, so Mangan rode his bike there and back. If his bike had a flat tire or busted chain, he walked.

Mangan caddied for four years, working his way up from single A caddie to double A caddie where he could carry two golf bags and advise on club lengths and distances. When Mangan turned fifteen, he worked in construction and restaurants. He always worked.

“That was the way we were brought up,” Mangan says. “My dad kind of instilled that. It was accountability, discipline, behavior. There were no shortcuts. You earn what you get.”

Mangan quickly earned a promotion to supervisor over all of Boardwalk and Baseball. One influential person took notice of Mangan’s work: John Schuerholz, then general manager of the Kansas City Royals. Schuerholz was hired by the Atlanta Braves in 1990, and he inherited the league’s worst team and arguably its worst playing field, Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

Schuerholz asked Mangan to come with him to Atlanta.

Schuerholz would be in charge of fixing the team. He asked Mangan to be in charge of fixing the field.

“A lot of people said, ‘You’re going to the Braves?’ What are you doing?’” Mangan says. “I said, ‘Why not?’ If you can make a difference, that’s your job, is to try to improve or try to grow. How do you not take that opportunity?”

So Mangan moved to the Atlanta area with his wife, Janeen, whom he’d met in the accounting department at Boardwalk and Baseball. They first lived in Duluth, then Alpharetta and are now settled in Cumming with their four boys, Jake, Micky, Ty and Colby, who all attend Pinecrest Academy.

A new house

Turner Field’s surface has to be fit for more than just Braves games. The stadium hosts several concerts a year, college base-

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ball games, high school baseball games, clinics and other special events, all of which do damage to the field that Mangan and his crew must repair. Sometimes the events and the Braves’ home stands give Mangan little respite from the grind of the work.

“You may work seven, fourteen, twenty-one days long or straight without a day off,” Mangan says. “That’s the cross you bear.”

Often, when the work has piled up and the traffic is still thick after a game, Mangan will grab his bow and head through the tunnels of Turner Field to where he stores a lot of the materials used on the field. The sand and clay and warning track make a good backdrop for his moveable target. “It’s safe and out of the way,” Mangan says, and he will shoot in private, alone with his thoughts.

“You need something to do other than grind, grind, grind,” Mangan says. “A lot of things have been solved on the golf course or bow range.”

The work requires sacrifices. Mangan has also been field director for the past fifteen Super Bowls, so he’s gone all of February. From the Super Bowl he goes to Spring Training to get the team’s facility ready for the arrival of pitchers and catchers. After the first few games, he comes back to Atlanta to prepare Turner Field for Opening Day. “Ed has sacrificed a lot for our family,” Janeen says. “He’s away from us a lot. He does it because he loves his family.”

The Braves announced in November 2013 the team would be moving out of downtown Atlanta, its home since relocating from Milwaukee in 1966, to Cobb County. Mangan’s work planning the new stadium’s playing surface began the next day.

On the phone that Friday before Opening Day, he made adjustments to an order for RPO7, plastic grass to be used in the batting tunnels and bullpen area of SunTrust Park. “I can get it from AstroTurf for $285,” Mangan says on the phone, “and I think it’s a better product. But your install stays the same.” Later, his attention turns back to Turner Field.

Among the many items on his to-do list is filling in an Opening Day logo that has been spray painted in front of the first base line.

Mangan doesn’t express nostalgia over Turner Field’s demise.

Maybe he just doesn’t have time. He’s already closed up one stadium, after all. About SunTrust Park, Mangan is excited about “everything,” he says. “You’re moving into a new house, a new neighborhood, a new amusement park. And then of course the challenge of starting from scratch.”

So you may feel like Turner Field has been yours these 20 seasons. You watched the Olympics here, a World Series, an MLB All-Star Game, playoff games and comeback wins. You took your kid to its first game, bought them cotton candy, a hat with that scripted A, a Chipper jersey, chopped your hand in the air. You saw all-stars and MVPs and Cy Young winners and that stooped, aww-shucks manager. You saw fireworks on Fridays.

You saw heroes and foibles. You came here with the masses to cheer or escape or both. And it all glowed with the magnificent green of a baseball field.

SunTrust Park will too. Mangan will make sure of that.

“You may work seven, fourteen, twenty-one days long or straight without a day off.”

April • May 2016

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www.myAVX.com THE LIFE 400 NORTH

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A Bee C’s of beekeeping

The

(And how it can save the world) Story by Kayla Robins

Jay and Mike Hendrix.

In a field in Forsyth County that to the naked eye looks like unsupervised springtime overgrowth, one of the most crucial creatures to the status quo of human food production buzzes from petal to petal. By the thousands. At first sight, you may see a few bumble bees lumbering around. They’re not it.

Look closer. Maybe even un-focus your eyes a little.

Jay Hendrix is a local beekeeper, and he understands the importance of keeping honey bees alive. He didn’t get into the honey-making business the way many do, by wanting to start a company to earn money.

Hendrix and his son Mike are in it for bigger reasons.

They’re out to save the world.

T

he total honey bee population in the United States has declined 61 percent from 1947 to 2008, according to an Apidologie journal article titled “Survey of honey bee colony loss in the USA 2013-2014” that was copublished by Keith Delaplane, a professor, Walter B. Hill Fellow and Honey Bee Program director at the University of Georgia. Hendrix said there is a glimmer of hope every couple of years, but that the averages even out. Colony numbers have increased, according to the journal article, from 2.39 million in 2006 to 2.64 million in 2013. However, close to 45 percent of the nation’s colonies were lost in 2014.

Honey bees have been dying at a rate of 40-50 percent since the mid-80s, Hendrix said. Though it has been pushed into the public eye in recent

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years, the consequences haven’t affected everyday life. Yet. “Honey bees pollinate a third of what you eat. We’re losing them, and they are critical to people, and a lot of people don’t understand that.”

Part of the problem is the varroa mite, “the number-one danger to honey bees right now in the western world.”

Imported from Asia in the mid-80s, the tick-like mite “is disastrous because it brings a lot of diseases with it.”

A bigger problem, Hendrix said, is large-scale monocropping, an agricultural practice that avoids rotating multiple crops and instead focuses on growing a single crop. Its increase in popularity has caused a dramatic change in the environment over time. Bees can no longer tolerate most environments in the U.S. and western Europe. “If you have 10,000 acres of corn in the

Midwest, no bees can live in that.”

“What people would tell you, and what all scientists would tell you, is we are at a teetering point,” he said. “When you’re losing 40-50 percent of the bees each year, if it weren’t for people like us who are trying to regenerate that every year, we would be able to see a difference. You would start losing all of your crops that require pollination.

That’s all the edible crops. Fruits, nuts, grains, vegetables. Honey bees are not the only pollinators. The single best pollinator is probably the bumble bee, but the problem with it is there’s not many of them and there’s so many more honey bees.”

That’s why the Hendrix duo began beekeeping.

“It was like everybody should do their part for the world, you know?”

April • May 2016

A

Apiary. A place where hives or colonies of bees are kept to pollinate and produce honey.

Not just any field will do. “You have to know you’ll have the right plant life for them to get food and water.” Jay and Mike have three apiaries in Forsyth County.

B

Bricks. Jay and Mike put them on hives that need attention or to be checked, like making sure a queen bee is born or monitoring levels of varroa mites.

C

Crops. “It all starts with the things that bees have to have to live and make honey. First we planted trees like apple and cherry trees because those are early bloomers.” This time of the year has mostly canola plants and crimson and white clover. Summer crops include buckwheat, and goldenrod will come after that. But planting crops is a supplemental food source. Honey bees will travel a two- to three-mile radius in search of nectar.

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April • May 2016

3850 Pleasant Hill Rd. Duluth, GA 30096

(Between Peachtree Industrial & Buford Highway)

3331 Hamilton Mill Rd. Suite 1106 Buford, GA 30519 (Across from the Kroger Shopping Center)

1230 Bald Ridge Marina Rd Suite 300 Cumming, GA 30041 (Across from Costco at Exit 15 off GA400)

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D

Division of labor. Mike said he thinks honey bees are the ultimate super-organisms, and part of that is their division of labor inside their hives. The queen bee passes down her genetics to every bee in the hive.

Drones, or males, have one primary role: to mate with a fertile queen.

Worker bees, or females, make up 95 percent of a hive’s population. In their early life, they are responsible for nest duties like feeding, cleaning and rearing. As they grow they begin foraging for nectar for food and honey and pollinating other plants while in flight.

E F

Electric-heated knife. Used to scrape off wax caps from wooden panels in the hives that contain honey.

Family. The Hendrix family settled in Forsyth County, which is where Jay’s wife’s family is from, after Jay retired. Jay works with his younger son, Mike, in the apiaries. “It’s a great thing to do together,” Jay said. “Some people say the measure of success is how fast you can get away from your family,” Mike said. “But being close to my family has saved my ass a lot of times.”

G

Georgia Master Beekeeper.

There are only 20 UGAcertified living in the state,

Jay being one. Mike is a Certified Beekeeper.

H I

Hives. This time of year, each one holds 25,000-30,000 bees.

In July, they will hold about 80,000 each.

Income sources. Beekeepers make money by selling honey, wax, propolis (a substance bees use as sealant), the bees, themselves, including the queens, for breeding, as well as performing services like renting bees for pollination or removing swarms from homes.

J

July. When most honey is harvested.

Above: Mike uses a smoker (pictured below) to disrupt the bees’ communication abilities, making them docile and less likely to sting.

K

Knowledge. The best way to help protect honey bees. Home garden and lawn products can even be harmful if the wrong pesticides are used. Do your research.

L M

Life-span. Queen bees live 3-5 years, worker bees only about 6 weeks.

Military. Mike moved 16 times by his senior year in high school while Jay was in the Army as an officer and infantry airborne ranger. “At one time I spoke about five languages.”

N

Nutrition. Honey has antibacterial, antibiotic and nutritional values. For instance, eating local honey can help with allergies that are more specific to that area.

“People will swear by it.”

O P Q

October. How long they plant crops through.

Pollen. Protein for honey bees and what allows any crop humans eat to grow.

Queen. One per hive, she is the only bee to lay eggs. All eggs start out the same, but a queen is made by feeding it royal jelly, a secretion that comes from workers bees. “The health of the queen is fundamental to the health of the colony.”

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April • May 2016

R

W

S

X

Raw honey. This is honey that has not been heated, which can help avoid crystallization.

Clear honey looks better in stores but takes away the nutritional and antibiotic qualities.

Smoke. Pumping smoke around and onto bees blocks the pheromones they use as communication and warning systems, making them more docile and less likely to sting. “The key to stinging is don’t get stung the first time.”

T

Tulip poplar trees. A major honey plant in the eastern U.S. that produces a dark-colored, medium to robust flavor.

U

Unfertilized eggs.

B e c o m e male, or drone bees. They do not have stingers and do not collect pollen. They are mainly responsible for creating drone congregation areas, where queens fly to mate.

Above: 4 Star Honey, one of the several fruits of Jay and Mike’s labor. Below, though he normally wears protective gear, Jay has become so accustomed to stings he doesn’t need it to show off his bees.

April • May 2016

V

Varroa mites. A pest brought from Asia in the mid-80s that causes deformations and diseases in western honey bees by feeding off them like a tick.

Wo o d c h i p s .

Smoked in a handheld pumper to use on bees. Some keepers use grass, pine straw or compressed wood pellets.

Xylitol. A widely-used sugar alcohol used as a sugar substitute in gum and candy, though potential side effects tend “all-natural” diets toward pure, raw, local honey.

Y

Year-round planning.

Mike said beekeeping is a “series of calculated plans.” Planting lasts from late winter to October, and even during the winter they are figuring out what crops they need next or which building equipment needs updating. “If [a farmer has] a bad crop, that’s one thing,” Jay said. “If bees die, you’re in real trouble. At the end of every day, Mike will say, ‘OK, what’s the plan for tomorrow?’”

Z

Zero waste. Jay and Mike started beekeeping for the bees; to help their environment and the economy. But they realized, if you’re successful, bees cannot eat all the honey or use all the wax they make. So they had to start harvesting and selling honey to avoid waste. “We didn’t get into it for the money. That part just comes with it naturally.”

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Sports on 400 North

Our favorite portraits of some of the area’s most talented athletes.

Photographs by Micah Green

Denver Stonecheck, West Forsyth

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April • May 2016

Cameron Kline, South Forsyth Lambert Women’s Soccer 2016

April • May 2016

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Nick Miller, Pinecrest Jenna Staiti, West Forsyth; Connor Mannion, Lambert

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April • May 2016

Jack Dalmolin, North Forsyth Mason McWhorter, West Forsyth

April • May 2016

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Things to do...

Would you like to submit an event to be considered for Life 400 North’s Things To Do? Email us at: events@forsythnews.com. Please type “Things To Do...” in the subject line.

april

| 22-24 |

SweetWater 420 Fest

Friday | 4pm – 11pm Gates open at 3pm Saturday | Noon – 11pm Gates open at 11:30am Sunday | Noon – 10pm Gates open at 11am Alcohol served after 12:30pm (Due to State and local regulations) Centennial Olympic Park 265 Park Ave W Northwest | Atlanta, GA www.sweetwater420fest.com

| 23 |

Cruise-In & Car Wash 11am - 4pm

Calling all car enthusiasts! Forsyth Central High School Competition Engine Team is hosting a Cruise-In fundraiser to benefit their pursuit and love of cars. Bring your ride and cheer on our teams as the kids will be doing engine runs, a car wash, and a chance for you to show off your ride.

Food available for purchase from Maxwell St and ‘Cue BBQ. Let’s see those Jeeps and Bikes. Muscle cars and classics, trucks and sports cars.

Maxwell St. Chicago Eatery & ‘Cue BBQ 1340 Buford Rd. | Cumming, GA www.forsythcentralautomotive.com

| 23 |

11th Annual Kids Helping Kids Spring Carnival 10am - 2 pm

Carnival rides, bounce-houses, a petting zoo, a toddler zone, the bubble man, and pony rides.

Home Depot will bring out a kids’ workshop for the children. There will also be professional face painting, snow cones, and sand art.

Admission is free, but some of the attractions require tickets.

Johns Creek United Methodist Church 11180 Medlock Bridge Road | Johns Creek www.johnscreekumc.org

| 23 |

Community Day at The Collection | 1pm - 5 pm Fun, Family, Kids Activities, Community Showcase, Food Samplings, Fashion Show, Live Music and more!

The Collection Forsyth 410 Peachtree Parkway | Cumming, GA www.collectionforsyth.com

| 24 |

Van Morrison 8pm

Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre 2200 Encore Parkway | Alpharetta, GA www.vzamp.com

| 30 |

Roswell Beer Festival

Over 250 beers, great bands and much more.

Held in historic town square, proceeds benefit Star House Foundation a non-profit that works to foster academic success and empowering lifelong achievement for at risk youth. www.roswellbeerfestival.com

| 30 |

Boulder Dash 5k & 10k Fitness Run

The Boulder Dash is a fun and different kind of race. Participants meander through an environmentally-responsible, operational hard rock quarry along the race route – watch that gravel! As you travel along on foot, check out the working quarry face, ancient rock deposits, massive equipment used for processing the rock – all in a beautiful, natural environment.

The Boulder Dash course offers a fun challenge…and the Bluegrass Spring Fling awaits you at the finish line! All Spring Fling festival-goers can check out Bluegrass Material Company’s mining equipment and learn more about the quarry, as well as enjoy family activities, live music, and food/beverages available for purchase.

To Register, visit www.boulderdash5k.com

May

|3|

Women Who Mean Business | 7:30am-9am

Free for Chamber members $30 for non-members.

Panera Bread 500 Lakeland Plaza | Cumming, GA www.cummingforsythchamber.org

|5|

Easter Seals North Georgia - Topgolf Tournament | 11:30am - 2:30pm A fun afternoon of golf and socializing to promote awareness and raise funds for Easter Seals North Georgia’s early education and early intervention programs.

10900 Westside Parkway | Alpharetta, GA www.topgolfevent.com

|6|

Avett Brothers 7:30pm

Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre 2200 Encore Parkway | Alpharetta, GA www.vzamp.com

|7|

Star 94’s Woofstock Noon

Suwanee Town Center 330 Town Center Ave. | Suwanee, GA www.suwanee.com

|7|

Kentucky Derby Party 3pm - 10pm

It’s no secret that The Derby is not just about horse racing, so join us in The Plaza, to celebrate our second annual Kentucky Derby Party! We will transform The Plaza into a glamorous party with a jumbo viewing screen to watch the race, along with live performances from Yacht Rock Schooner and a live DJ. So, put on your fancy hats and bowties, grab a Mint Julep and let the fun begin!

Avalon 2200 Avalon Blvd. | Alpharetta, GA www.experienceavalon.com April is National Autism Month Autism is a complex brain disorder that often inhibits a persons ability to communicate, respond to surroundings, and form relationships with others.

Autism affects people of all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

| 7-8 |

12th Annual Barefoot in the Park Festival

Juried Fine Arts Market, Student Art Exhibit, Silent Auction, Great food, Craft Beer & Wine, Free Binder’s Learning Village with learning Classes and Demos and Live Performances all weekend!

Saturday | 10am - 6pm & Sunday | 10am - 5pm Buford Town Park | 2200 Buford Drive | Buford, GA www.barefootinthepark.org

| 14 |

Arts In The Park | 10am

Suwanee Town Center 330 Town Center Ave. | Suwanee, GA www.suwaneeartsinthepark.com

| 15 |

Styx with .38 Special & Don Fielder | 7pm

Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre 2200 Encore Parkway | Alpharetta, GA www.vzamp.com

| 21 |

Public Works ‘Touch-A-Truck’ | 10am - Noon

The Johns Creek Public Works Department presents the annual ‘Touch-A-Truck” event featuring construction equipment and fun activities for the whole family!

Cost is FREE. Newtown Park | 3150 Old Alabama Road | Johns Creek, GA www.johnscreekga.gov | 678-512-3200

| 21-22 |

Dahlonega Arts & Wine Festival

High Quality Arts & Crafts, Live Jazz, Wine Garden with Local & Regional Wines Saturday | 10am - 6pm & Sunday | 10am - 5pm Downtown Dahlonega | www.chestateeartists.org

| 28 |

Family Canoe Day | 10am - 2pm

Get your feet wet with our canoe guides on Beaver Pond. This 1½ hour introduction to canoeing is great for first time paddlers, families with young kids, or adults coming back to the sport. Ages 5–Adult. Advanced registration required. $15 General Public/$10 CNC Members.

Chattahoochee Nature Center | 9135 Willeo Road, Roswell, GA 30075 www.chattnaturecenter.org | 770-992-2055 Ext.237

| 28-30 |

12th Annual Alpharetta Arts Streetfest

Alpharetta Arts Streetfest will feature more than 95 artists from across the U.S. Festival goers can stroll through the outdoor gallery, meet the artists and acquire a piece of original whimsical art. Artists featured represent a wide variety of mediums including mixed media, photography, pottery, jewelry, textiles, glass, wood, metal and paper art.

Saturday & Sunday | 10am - 6pm & Monday | 10am - 5pm Downtown Alpharetta | www.awesomealpharetta.com

S

UCK R T FOOD Alpharetta

THERE’S ALWAYS SOMETHING TO CHEER ABOUT!

WESTSIDE BEVERAGE...

FOR THE FINER THINGS IN LIFE!

APRIL 14 • 21st • 28th MAY 5th • 19th • 26th th

Food Truck Alley Every Thursday 5:00pm - 9:00pm 37 Old Roswell St. | Alpharetta, GA www.awesomealpharetta.com Alpharetta Food Truck Alley

forsyth

FINE BEVERAGES, READY FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT

APRIL 18th MAY 16th

Third Monday 5:00pm -8:00pm Lanier Technical College 3410 Ronald Reagan Blvd. | Cumming, GA www.forsythconferencecenter.laniertech.edu

Food Trucks n’ Forsyth

Suwanee MAY 6th

Food Truck Friday 5:30pm Food|7pm Music 330 Town Center Ave | Suwanee, GA www.suwanee.com

3310 Drew Campground Road | Cumming, GA 470-695-7627 | www.wsbeverage.com

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April • May 2016

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Do You Have a Record?

While most people reading this article will confidentially answer “no” to this question, knowing whether you have a record is a bit more involved than you might expect. In Georgia, there are three main sources of records, and depending on the type, you may have more exposure than you imagine. This article will briefly discuss the three main sources of records in Georgia: (1) your official crimi- Evan Watson nal history, (2) your official driving record, and (3) court records and third party sources.

Georgia Criminal Record Your official criminal record in Georgia is known as your GCIC (Georgia Crime Information Center) record, and is the authoritative source for background information. A GCIC check will reveal any arrest, the severity of and the exact charge, relevant dates, as well as the final outcome or sentence of the court. A GCIC record is forever, and unless you have a legal basis for having it restricted or expunged, it will remain available indefinitely.

While most offenses that go on your GCIC are more serious misdemeanors or felonies, there are some seemingly minor charges that can end up on your GCIC. Always consult with an attorney before entering any plea or even paying a fine. You have far more remedies to protect your record if your case is handled properly from the beginning.

Georgia Driving Record The Georgia Department of Driver Services keeps track of the driving history of all Georgia drivers. Your Motor Vehicle Report kept by DDS contains the exact charges you have pleaded guilty or no contest to, as well as the points associated with the offenses.

While most moving violations will put 3 points on your MVR, certain offenses like passing a school bus, DUI, and high speeding tickets will put up to 6 points on your record. Unlike your GCIC record (where charges are immediately visible), your driving record is not impacted until your case is closed. So, it’s all the more important to have an attorney secure the best result from the beginning, rather than try to undo an ignorant mistake. Driving records are stored forever, though insurance companies and employers typically pull a shorter (3-7 year) history when making decisions.

Court Records and Third Party Sources The third main source of records is court and jail websites, which in turn share information with the world, including the mugshot publication underworld. While Georgia law did not govern these sites and databases for years, there is a relatively new process to request jail and court records be sealed from the public eye under certain circumstances. Even if you closed a case with assurances it was expunged and removed from your record, it’s a good idea to go back and verify the record is not visible on a court or jail database. While local and state agencies in Georgia have been quick to follow the law and restrict and erase records where appropriate, private sites are more of a free-for-all.

Growing together and depending on each other.

If you have questions about a situation you are facing, or whether or not your record is truly clean, give our office a call anytime to discuss. We can be reached at (770) 887-3720.

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April • May 2016

7/1/16

April • May 2016

7/1/16

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We’re honored to serve you It’s an honor to be recognized as the nation’s leading hospital for maternity and newborn care.

Look a little closer and you’ll discover that Northside performs more surgeries and diagnoses and treats more breast and gynecologic cancer than any other hospital in Georgia. While people choose Northside for our expertise, they also know us for our exceptional compassionate care.

Visit us online at www.northside.com