May 31, 2004
Just testing the waters. My husband purchased a river kayak and put in at Abbott's Bridge on the Chattahoochee River to do a seven-mile stretch of water to Jones Bridge Park. He took a big garbage bag and his trash picker with him, just in case he encountered some junk on the riverbanks. Well, he encountered some junk all right…he completely filled the big trash bag! For instance, there were quite a few cigar holders and other stuff in the river adjacent to the Atlanta Athletic Club, perhaps flipped over from the golf course, which skirts the water's edge. The circumstantial evidence sure looks like the captains of industry are serious litterbugs as that particular stretch of river was the worst for trash, but it could be that the club's riverside trash containers just need to be better secured. Management might want to look into this.
At the time he put in at Abbott's Bridge, the Gwinnett County Fire Department's Swiftwater Rescue team, based at Station No. 19, was working their practice runs on the water. There was a solitary schoolboy, who looked about ten years old, watching from the riverbank. His interest was positively riveted on the firemen, their wave runners and big red rubber rescue boat. Perhaps he was planning to become a fireman one day.
The water rescue equipment was impressive. I asked one of the firemen what he wished they had that they do not have and he responded that he thought Gwinnett County ought to have a dive team. We have a swiftwater rescue team, a hazmat team for hazardous materials, and a trench rescue team for cave-ins, but no longer have a specialized dive team.
I did a little research on that comment and discovered that we did indeed used to have a dive team.
Michael Buice, who was Fire Chief at the time, recommended to the Board of Commissioners that the dive team be disbanded in favor of a swiftwater rescue team. His rationale was that the dive team had never saved anybody's life; one rescued person had lived for a time, but died. He thought the county would be better served to put the resources into swiftwater rescue instead and so the Board of Commissioners agreed with Chief Buice's management decision.
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Over here in Peachtree Corners we have a solution to that inevitable rusted mailbox door in those brick, stone or stucco mailboxes.
Brian Vaughan's Mailbox Doors are handsome heavy-duty cast aluminum with a baked on black textured finish. In fact, we have one of them on our mailbox and love it. A neighbor told us about these doors several years ago. What an improvement! It was impossible to get the rusted mailbox out of the stand. My husband did his best, the old rusty door fell off, but the rest of the mailbox is stuck in the stand forever. Putting on a nice looking mailbox door solved the problem for us. It is permanent and we don't have to worry about it again. You can get more details by visiting Vaughan's Web site at
www.mailboxdoor.com
. He has even got a slotted security mailbox door that will accept a single box of checks. Look him up or call him up at (770) 474-0407.
At the time I caught up with Mr. Vaughan recently, he was working with
Paul Belford, who owns Mailboxes PDQ. Belford is going to be installing Vaughan's mailbox doors as well. Belford's company does residential mailbox installations of the post variety. That telephone number is (404) 218-7335. There is a Web site also:
www.MailboxesPDQ.com
, but my browser could not find it. Perhaps yours can.
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Good news from the Gwinnett Hospital System Foundation! Two lead gifts have been secured for the proposed Joan Glancy Hospital replacement facility.
Henry and Barbara Howard of Duluth have gifted $50,000 to an as unyet designated area of the new hospital.
Jim and Billie Ellis, also of Duluth, have designated their entire gift of $250,000 to name the chapel for their family.
We are certainly proud that these wonderful and generous people live in Gwinnett County and want to share their world's goods with all the folks that will visit this new hospital in all the years to come. The Howards' and the Ellises' gifts to the GHS Foundation will literally touch thousands and thousands of folks. What a magnificent legacy!
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I have been trying to reclaim a section of the backyard from its enthusiastic overgrowth. As I was walking my trusty rusty old wheelbarrow full of clippings down the path to the weed/mulch transformation area, around a turn I came face to face with the beautiful young doe I had seen a day or two before. At that time, she was admiring the hostas that are quite close to the house. I spoke to her in that voice people use with little toddlers and kissy-face dogs. She cocked her head in order to get a better look at me, listening. It was obvious that she knew she did not need to be afraid, but she did know that she wasn't supposed to be speaking with me. That is probably Rule No. 1 in the deer community. Slowly she made her way back to the spot along the fence that the deer always use, and gracefully, over she went. On another trip down the path about an hour later, I saw that she was back. Again, she did not stay. My husband says she has scoped out the hostas and the impatiens and one evening, she and the family will get them all. He's probably right.
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Hope all is well on this Memorial Day with you and yours. Thanks for reading.
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