Join Rico Figliolini and Brian Johnson on this episode of Prime Lunchtime with the City Manager to hear about all of the exciting things coming to Peachtree Corners. Get updates on the Pedestrian Bridge, new businesses, and how the city is celebrating the High School Seniors of 2020.
Timestamp:
[00:00:30] – Intro [00:02:21] – New Adjustments [00:05:43] – Summer Events and Reopening [00:07:59] – Pedestrian Bridge [00:12:29] – New Construction and Projects [00:16:25] – Businesses Coming In [00:17:21] – E-Scooter [00:20:23] – Road Repairs [00:24:54] – Online City Council [00:31:25] – Celebrating the 2020 Seniors [00:36:22] – Closing
“That trail got used a lot by a lot of people who use Town Green to exercise. So we went and put a bunch of exercise stations in that stretch of trail for people who were doing it. So if you want to do pull ups, push ups, sit ups, you know, dip bars… So if you haven’t been out there, and especially if you like to exercise, I would challenge you to go out there and look at some of those. It’s a pretty cool little area now. We’ll keep going. We’ll keep improving it as people tell us some things that we can do to improve.”
Brian Johnson
Podcast Transcription:
Rico: [00:00:30] Hi everyone. This is Rico Figliolini of Peachtree Corners Life podcast. Thanks for joining us. It’s been a while, but this is the Prime Lunchtime with City Manager, Brian Johnson. Hey Brian.
Brian: [00:00:40] Hey Rico.
Rico: [00:00:41] Good to see you. Different background, love it. Some people are getting back to work, cities opening up a little bit. We’ve got a lot to talk about. So in this 30 minutes, we’re going to be talking a bit about the pedestrian bridge coming online. The class of 2020 video that the city inspired. Well, that is being done to celebrate the high school class of 2020 here in the city of Peachtree Corners, plus a bunch of other things dealing with the 2021 budget. The trails, town center, lots of stuff to go pack in 30 minutes. Stay with us. I just want to talk about our leading sponsor that makes all this possible, Peachtree Corners Magazine, the podcasts, and that is Hargray Fiber. I want to thank the for being a sponsor of these podcasts. They are a company located in the South here in Georgia. And every community they go into, they are part of that community being a significant portion of what goes on there. They do innovative solutions for small businesses as well as large businesses provide enterprise solutions for companies. And they, especially for companies that are working remotely, they actually provide free tools to be able to work remotely and collaborate online. So check them out HargrayFiber.com/business or HargrayFiber.com, and that’ll get you to where you’re going. Now, back to Brian. Brian, thanks for being with us here. So how has your COVID-19 since the last time we spoke, how has things been going with you and the city, your family in the room?
Brian: [00:02:21] Well, you know, family is no different than yours and others out there. We’re, you know, getting, getting along. You know, people in different phases of life have different, unique things happening at home. Well, you know, mine, I’ve got, you know, elementary and middle schoolers. And so there was that homeschooling component that mommy and daddy were, you know, having to supervise and that, that was unique. But that’s done, it’s summertime now. Right? And you know, now it’s really trying to transition, like a lot of parents are with trying to find things for their kids to do over the summer when there’s a shortage of, you know, camps. You know, there’s not as many camps that are going on and so there are going to be weeks in which there’s not anything to do. And you know, I know parents are struggling with how to keep the kids out of the house, off of technology, you know, out doing some things. So we’re no different than anybody else. We’re getting through it. City we think is, is doing well where, you know, with the exception of, like, the theaters which are still not authorized to be open. And you know, so Cinebistro is not, you know, and things like that. Pretty much all the businesses that made it through that shelter in place part are open to some degree. But it is taking a toll. Tuesday Morning nationally declared a chapter 11 bankruptcy yesterday. And the initial list of stores that they’re looking to close, and it could change, but initially it looks like the one in Peachtree Corners could be one that closes. So, you know, we, as a city, you’re already getting our team looking at maybe if that is going to be the case, to backfill it with something. So we’re already reaching out to types of businesses that we think are a good fit for that location, that store footprint, all that kind of stuff. So, but overall, I mean, I think, you know, we’re coming out relatively unscathed, at least right now compared to a lot of other cities.
Rico: [00:04:38] True. The more I’ve been out there driving around and shopping, even at like Ingles, and even though I’ve been doing a lot of online shopping, Instacart is really good, especially when you get the little free delivery coupon. But businesses are doing things, there’s a lot of businesses that are creating new ways of doing certain things. I mean, you got Nobel Fin giving away, you know, a hundred pounds of Rosemary dough to make your own focaccias or pizzas. And you’ve got other companies like Taqueria Del Mar I think was doing, you know, pay as you go or pay what you can. So there’s, there’s a lot of creativity going on. Even in the, even in the summer camp world, we put out a call to see what summer camps are going to be opening so that there will be a list in Peachtree Corners Magazine about that. About summer camps that are opening with certain restrictions and some of them that are doing like these virtual summer camps, like coding camps and stuff like that. But yeah. Yeah, it is challenging and changing.
Brian: [00:05:43] It’s going to be a different summer you know, in Peachtree Corners. Cause like for instance, if you have kids that are at the swimming, you know age, there’s not going to be, you know, swim season is not happening this summer. Camps, the typical camps are not happening this summer. Pools are opening a little bit late, you know, I know fields club not opening until June 1. So, you know, there was that Memorial day week is usually the weekend where most of these pools open, you know. And even the city, you know, we made a decision in abundance of caution to not have any events before July 4th until the July 10th weekend.
Rico: [00:06:27] July 10th weekend
Brian: [00:06:29] Right. So July 4th there will not be any city organized events. We’ve canceled all of the ones that were scheduled prior to that, but July 10th is when we’re looking at re-engage, reactivating the Town Green with organized city sponsored events. I actually think the very first event is going to be July 10th is a Friday. That Friday night is going to be, as it stands now, the introduction of our night farmer’s market, our night market. So you know, we feel like that’s an event that we can kind of start easing in and making sure that it’s not, you know, an unmanageable amount of people per se. And you know, at that point, we’ll take a look at things and we’re looking to still have some, you know, things like concerts and stuff out at the town green this summer.
Rico: [00:07:37] And it’s big enough actually, even if you sort of spread people out a little bit, it’s probably big enough to be able to do that. And I know for example, the Peachtree Corners festival has been postponed too, that’s going to go to the Fall, like we discussed earlier.
Brian: [00:07:51] Light Up the Corners has been pushed back to August 15th.
Rico: [00:07:59] And they haven’t, that’s not even finalized yet. They have plenty of time to wait and then finalize. The same way we have a list of Peachtree Corners events on town center that we’re going to print in the magazine, but with the caveat that, you know, you have to check with the city to make sure this is actually going to happen because things are changing. You don’t, we don’t know what’s going to happen over the next four to six weeks. But it’ll be good to have that, so we will have some of that info in the upcoming issue. That’ll be the beginning of June, that will be mailed. There are, there’s the bridge that span is actually going up you said this weekend, right?
Brian: [00:08:40] No, actually I was, it’s next weekend.
Rico: [00:08:42] Next weekend.
Brian: [00:08:43] So June 5th, 6th and 7th. So we’re going to close 141 underneath the bridge sometime the evening of June 5th, like 10:00 PM type of thing. You know where there’s no rush hour traffic, there’s no, you know, that kind of stuff. We’re going to close it that evening, that night, and keep it closed until like Sunday morning at like 3:00 AM I think is it’s going to be reopened. And so then the detour would be Peachtree Corners Circle to Medlocke, Medlocke back to 141. So it’s a short detour there. And the traffic or the, you know, roundabout that we put in there, you know to use to get.
Rico: [00:09:31] That’s phase one at this point?
Brian: [00:09:33] That, that’s correct.
Rico: [00:09:34] And then phase two is June 12th?
Brian: [00:09:38] That’s correct. That’s correct. And so the reason, and June 12th will only be one day, I believe. But the reason that we have to do that is because, so the next weekend, they’ve got to set the span in. It’s three sections. Two sections that attached to the two towers and then a middle section. And when you put the sections of steel together, I want to say it’s 72 massive bolts attach the two steel sections together, and then they got to pour the concrete in the span once it’s in. So that’s why next weekend it’s the full weekend. And then after that the span will be in, the concrete will have been poured and everything, but then they’ve got to go up and we’ve got to set the rails on the sides and they’re actual panels. So you can’t have a, Georgia DOT requires a fence of at least eight feet. That doesn’t allow you to throw objects off that essentially are bigger than the gap in a chain link fence. We didn’t want to put a chain link fence cause that wouldn’t look good. So what we did is we did some research and we kind of used the philosophy behind the screen, like you would see on a screen door, if you get up close to it, you can see all the little squares in it. But then when you get farther back, you can actually see through it. You know, it’s not quite as clear if it wasn’t there, but you can see through it.
Rico: [00:11:27] Right, right.
Brian: [00:11:28] So what we did is instead of putting chain link or a solid panel we took, it’s some sort of a fabricated, like thin aluminum sheet. You know that’s solid, but, and then we cut lots of holes in it. Up walking the span, the holes are all really close together. You can see out. But what it does when you’re driving on the road and looking from afar is it actually makes the holes make a pattern that shows the leaf from the tree on our logo.
Rico: [00:12:11] That’s cool.
Brian: [00:12:12] That’s what’s gotta be placed in the span the second weekend, and you have to hang it from the outside so they don’t want any cars underneath when they’re doing it.
Rico: [00:12:20] Right. And it’s going to say Peachtree Corners on it.
Brian: [00:12:22] And then there will be letters, channel letters in the middle. That’ll say Peachtree Corners on each side.
Rico: [00:12:29] All right, cool. So that’s happening soon. That’s happening June 4th starting off. So we’re gonna see the surprise. I suppose some of the spans actually sitting. Massive. Since we’re talking about town center has, is the work continuing on the, do you know, on the Uncle Jack’s?
Brian: [00:12:50] Yes.
Rico: [00:12:51] That’s continuing on there, right?
Brian: [00:12:53] Uncle Jack’s is you know, going until they’re done. I want to say, I’ve heard that, cause there’s a lot of interior stuff with commercial grade hoods and everything. That August is when they’re looking to be done.
Rico: [00:13:09] That sounds almost right. Cause originally I think it was like end of June, beginning of July, but with all this COVID-19 and everything going on, that makes sense.
Brian: [00:13:18] That’s close. The exterior with the exception of doors and windows and everything is starting to get close to where you’re like, okay, that’s, you know, most of the point you’re going to see, but that’s still going on. And then we made a bunch of improvements and used this period of time as an opportunity to make some upgrades ourselves without interfering with things. So, for instance, the stage at the town green. We had been, we had heard from the residents that attend events that it wasn’t high enough. And so after the first concert, we started having to rent a stage so that we could elevate it. So what we did is we went ahead and we built a permanent elevated stage out of some really nice stained wood. And so now we won’t have to rent anything and it’s permanently elevated from right over top of the poured concrete one that was part of the original. And then actually we made it a little bit bigger. So the, whoever’s performing can be a little bit out side of the covering if they want. It looks great if you haven’t seen it. We also stained all of the deck underneath the, you know, covered areas by the restaurants. We have a second playground structure that has just been installed and is out there. And then the trail that we initially cut, just solely for the purposes of people walking from the town green through the woods towards DaVinci core and Peachtre Corners circle where they were parking. That trail got used a lot by a lot of people who use Town Green to exercise. So we went and put a bunch of exercise stations in that stretch of trail for people who were doing it. So if you want to do pull ups, push ups, sit ups, you know, dip bars. We’ve got monkey bars to practice things. We’ve got a climbing wall for you to have to run up and get over. In other words, it’s got a lot of obstacle course type of stuff. People who want to use it for to either get in shape or maybe to practice some of the things that you see in some of those races like Spartan race and Tough Mudder and things like that. So if you haven’t been out there, and especially if you like to exercise, I would challenge you to go out there and look at some of those. It’s a pretty cool little area now. And, you know, we’ll keep going. We’ll keep improving it as people tell us some things that we can do to improve. Oh, and the last thing is new lights out there. You know at night on the sidewalk, that rings the town green, had lighting over it. When we do the night market, farmer’s market at night, it’ll be lit inside the town green, much brighter than it was last year.
Rico: [00:16:25] A lot of stuff going on at town center. That’s amazing. And more businesses opening, I saw… Will be open soon if it’s not already.
Brian: [00:16:34] It’s not quite, but it’s like within the next couple of weeks.
Rico: [00:16:37] Right. So there’s things going on there. Across the way, even though Tuesday Morning may close a Lidl Market open.
Brian: [00:16:46] Lidl has filled the former Earthfare space. So Lidl is in, it’s open. And so I, you know, encourage somebody to go out. It’s a boutique grocery store. It’s unique. So it’s not, you know, so I don’t want somebody to think like, Oh, well it’s the same as all of them. No, it has its own unique type of thing. And so, you know, I mean, grocery store shopping is a very personal thing, as we all know. So I leave it up to individuals, but we’re excited that the space got filled.
Rico: [00:17:21] Yeah, it’s, there’s a lot more, even office spaces that are being filled. I’ve noticed I’ve been getting more releases about commercial space that are filling in like through a Summit Parkway. Some businesses went in there. There’s a bunch of places that are actually beginning to fill in a little bit. So it’s good to see that businesses are coming back. Atlanta Tech Park is reopened, so we’re seeing more of that going on. We are seeing, I don’t want to miss like the E-Scooter sort of soft opening of that launch where people can go now at Technology Park, pick up an E-Scooter. If you have an app and ride around within Technology Park. Maybe go up to Anderbees maybe go visit a business, maybe go up to the hotel area and then leave it there and it drives back, right?
Brian: [00:18:12] Yep, that’s correct. And not just drives back. It can drive to the docking station where it can get disinfected too. And so, you know, it’s just, I’m glad you brought that up. It’s just, again, another example of what Curiosity Lab is doing. This was the world’s first unveiling and offering to the public of a teleoperated E-Scooter and so, you know, little old Peachtree Corners was able to get the first teleoperated E-Scooter deployment. A hundred scooters that can be moved around, including being summoned like an Uber from teleoperators that are in Mexico City, Mexico.
Rico: [00:19:00] Now this is free of charge? Or are there charges?
Brian: [00:19:03] Now, you know, you have to download an app. It’s just like Lime and you know, all the other scooters. However, for first time users, I want to say they give you a $10 initial credit to get on there. And then afterwards it’s like if you’re doing it by, you know, by time versus by, I think you can do it half a day, a full day, unlimited or by the minute. I think it’s 25 cents a minute. After you go through the initial. So again, I just challenged somebody to do it even if it’s just for, you know, just curiosity’s sake, just to come out here and get on it and try it out. Look at the technology. This may be how E-Scooters are redeployed, you know, in other cities around the world in the near future.
Rico: [00:19:56] No, things are changing, it’s amazing. Olie is not running anymore?
Brian: [00:20:01] Not right now. Yeah, they’ve got a 2.0 that they’re considering bringing back, but their initial version, they got all the testing that they needed to do here. And so they went, you know, had it go back and they, but they have come up with a version 2.0 and you know, there’s talk about bringing it out here and seeing how it works on in the real world also.
Rico: [00:20:23] Alright, cool. The other part of what you guys are doing, what the city’s doing is because of this, because COVID-19 had lots of people off the road. Everyone knows gas pricing is down to what, a 1.69 a gallon depending where you go. People are not driving around as much, although it’s, it is beginning to pick up now where it was 30 minutes to go Downtown or Midtown that’s taking like 40, 45 minutes. So traffic is starting to do, getting back to normal. No, we would talk about new normal. I was hoping wouldn’t be as normal. So, but you guys have been able to take advantage of being able to move up the schedule and some things like street resurfacing.
Brian: [00:21:09] So our budget is set to get approved at our June meeting because our fiscal year starts July 1. And a couple of highlights might be, one, our overall general fund. Just out of an abundance of caution, we went ahead and cut 11 in, almost 12% of our budget because we just, there were some revenue streams that we just were not confident would come in. Just because we don’t know enough. We don’t know what it’s going to do. This, you know, Coronavirus, this pandemic is going to do over the course of the next 12 months. So we cut our revenue estimates down 12%.
Rico: [00:21:52] Because the, the city operates on a, think of it as a cash flow right? You can’t go in debt necessarily.
Brian: [00:22:00] Right. Cities, counties, and the state, and have to operate on a balanced budget, annual balance budget. So we cut our revenue projections by 12%, which means our expenditures have to meet or fall below the revenue. We cut our budget already. You know, our hope is, is it doesn’t, you know, it doesn’t come in any worse. And so we’ve already prepared for it. But there’s also some aspects of our budget we took advantage of. You just mentioned gas prices. Well, asphalt is a petroleum based product. It is not only that, but then there are some paving companies that are hungrier right now than maybe they normally would be. Even though in Metro Atlanta, a lot of the paving companies are tied up in the Georgia 400-285 interchange, there’s a massive amount of concrete asphalt going in there. But we are taking advantage of some pricing. So we increased our annual allocation to resurfacing from 1.5 to 2 million and it’s currently out to bid for us to do that. So we’re going to re be resurfacing a few more streets than we normally would. And of course the way we do it is we have a condition assessment done on all of the streets in the city, and we bid it out by listing usually 10 sections of streets that are the 10 worst sections that need it. And then we have a company, you know, the winning bidder just starts paving until they run out of the money that we allocated and they work down the list. So sometimes depending on pricing, you could be, you know, number eight on the list and you get done. Sometimes other years, the cost is such that it doesn’t get to say number eight or number six or whatever. So we’ll see. But anyway, those are some of the highlights. The only other one of significant note would be we also were able to move up the trail system and section of trail system, our 11 mile interconnected trail system. We are moving up the section that connects to the pedestrian bridge on the town center side. And we’re going to put all of the trails that are down along or down in the Creek that’s between, you know, the old black Walnut restaurant and… And so we’re going to do that starting late this summer. So we’re going to, as soon as that pedestrian bridge is open, they’re going to immediately be connecting, constructing and connecting additional trail so you can walk down along it and down in it.
Rico: [00:24:54] That’s cool. So you know, obviously the city has been able to take advantage of certain things. But other things you had to reinvent sort of. Cisco WebEx, are you guys using Cisco WebEx? So I missed the last city council meeting this past Tuesday. You guys finished earlier than I than I thought. I was trying to log on. But so citizens are going to be able or have been able to actually watch city council sessions, being able to see the documentation being put up. I think or them being able to download them, and also to be able to put our questions even, even though they may be ahead of the meeting.
Brian: [00:25:34] No, we actually we’re able to do it to where you can either submit a question in writing right there by tapping in kind of the chat section. We would read it out loud so that everybody knew what it was and then I or somebody would verbally answer it or we offered those who were, had logged in. They could just say, yes, they want to make a comment and we could then bring their camera and microphone up. They could actually virtually address council, and so yes, we were able to do that. I mean, you know, it looks easy. It does take a lot of moving parts to get it done. Yes, we’ve, we’ve had to learn how to do, just like everybody else, what we’re doing right now virtually because we can’t do it in person right now.
Rico: [00:26:31] Well, and the good part is that I think it democratizes it better, right? Government that maybe I can’t leave my place, maybe I’m wheelchair bound, or maybe I just can’t leave to be able to make that meeting and sit there for three hours and it gives me the opportunity to watch it. Well, maybe I’m doing some work or streaming something. We’ll be able to make comments, like you said, public comments. Is actually open to more people probably than it might otherwise not have been. Do you think, now lots of cities have been sort of getting there slowly. I know from a reporter I was speaking to recently that Sandy Springs, who’s holding back did not want to do it, but finally had to do it because of COVID-19 and they will probably continue doing it. Do you see the city of Peachtree Corners doing that? Like even after we get past this. This bit of stuff that we’re going on. Do you still think that it will be live streamed even if you hold the meetings in the chamber?
Brian: [00:27:27] Well, potentially. I mean the chamber is a different setup. I mean, so now when it comes to, you know, being able to interact and post things remotely, it’s a much bigger room. I mean, cause so remember when we did this, council wasn’t even at city hall.
Brian: [00:27:48] The few of us that were in the main conference room here, which where we do our work sessions. But it’s a smaller room and there were, you know, council wasn’t there. And so we are looking at it, but it’s just, it’s not current. It’s not set up right this second to be able to provide all of the stuff that we did when we have been having these meetings remotely, just because council will be physically at the building and will be, need to be in a much bigger room. Got people sitting. Even then you’re going to potentially have seats blocked off in such a way that you’re, you know, space different. And so people will be spaced out even more. And you know, it’s, so, it’s the logistics behind it are harder. But we are certainly looking to see if we can, you know, continue some aspect of this. In some way.
Rico: [00:28:41] I don’t see that it could be as integrated as if doing a zoom meeting, which is what Cisco WebEx is like, right? But certainly streaming live, even if the people can’t see the documentation, I mean. They could always download from a link. I mean, you know, you can’t be perfect.
Brian: [00:28:59] Yeah, that’s true. Now again, the difference is streaming live versus taping it and making it available. The only thing you gain if you, if it’s streamed live, is the ability to maybe make a comment in real time on something that’s going on. What you lose is the ability to watch it at your convenience. And so that’s why oftentimes we tape it, and then if you can turn it around quickly. Like 24 hours later, it’s up. Then for days or weeks, somebody can watch the meeting at their convenience versus having to reserve a Tuesday night at 7:00 PM Oh I can’t do something because council meetings coming on and it’s streamed live. That’s the only thing you know.
Rico: [00:29:54] I get that there’s pros and cons. It’s funny, the way for, I mean, and it is a larger, it’s a chamber. It’s a whole different ball game, there’s different, variables you have to deal with. I know that when we do our podcasts and with Facebook live streaming, it’s livestreamed and then it stays on Facebook. The way that we do it, the way that I do it with lower, with all the graphics on it, I mean, I can become more interactive with the graphics and actually. You know, we could have shown video, we could’ve shown pictures of town center. You know, if I had planned it out and had the budget to do that, like a big TV, I could be able to show those slides and stuff. But you know, in time things will happen, I guess. You know, I don’t want people to forget also that the, especially with businesses, every business knows this. I guess July 1st is, is now the due date for business license fees, which was postponed from April or March, I think.
Brian: [00:30:51] March.
Rico: [00:30:52] March. So it’s been a while. So that’s part of your cash flow and that’s going to be coming back at some point too, it’s after, you know, by July 1st that’ll be coming back.
Brian: [00:31:00] And we’re still, I don’t want to sit here and say that we’re on a case by case basis. There may still be some exceptions if somebody can lay out a case, make a case for themselves, you know? So you know, in general, that’s when everybody is due. But there are, there could be extenuating circumstances where on a case by case basis, we change from that too.
Rico: [00:31:25] Sure. And before we end I just wanted to say that the city has gotten behind this whole big thing, class of 2020. It’s a sad thing obviously, to have kids that was supposed to graduate, have holiday parties, have graduation parties. None of that is happening, or at least not virtually. I mean, not in real life, not in real, it’s happening virtually, that people are doing zoom parties and the graduation parade by using cars as a parade and stuff, which is kind of neat. A little different, certainly not the same way that everyone else has been doing it prior to this, but the city is helping, producing a video, why don’t you tell us a little bit about that.
Brian: [00:32:11] So, you know, like you just said, we have all of these Peachtree Corners residents going to a lot of different schools around here. And we oftentimes think of, you know, the ones that come to mind immediately, like Norcross high and West Leanne, and, you know, some Duluth high and, you know, GAC. And, you know, Saint Pius, I mean, schools that are kind of within reach. But we’ve got a lot of seniors, high school seniors that live in Peachtree Corners that, like you said, aren’t going to have the proverbial graduation. So a long time resident of Peachtree Corners named Nancy Minor. Thought you know what? Maybe there’s something we could do to make our seniors in Peachtree Corners feel special. So she reached out to Mayor Mason and said, Hey, do you think that there’s some kind of a video thing that the city could do? And you know, really didn’t necessarily know what it would be, but just said, you know, is there? So the mayor, you know, reached out to me and said, Hey, do you think we could do something special? And you know, we talked to the rest of council. They were hugely supportive of it. So I reached out to Titan pictures. He does some of the content for us. Jim Stone said, sure, we can do it. And, you know, let’s try to create a video that we at least give every graduating senior that wants an opportunity to show their picture and a little bit of, you know, pertinent information about them. Maybe we make it a little bit more interesting than just doing that by having some videos, some photos, some aerials of the city and some other special interest stories. And so we sent out, we contacted all the schools that have Peachtree Corners residents going there. And again, some of these schools are out there. I can’t even imagine the commute some of these students had to do to get there. But, and you know said, Hey, send us, you know, reach out to the parents that live in Peachtree Corners, tell them we’re doing this. And then they would get on our website and they could download a one page form with just some biographical information. Send us a picture. And then, you know, Judy Putnam, my communications director then kind of helped Jim organize it. They put it together and Jim put a really good, I mean, Titan pictures did a really good job of putting this together. We are going to go live with it at three o’clock this afternoon, which is, you know, Thursday. And, we’ll also have it playing on the big screen on the town green over the weekend. It’s 20 minutes long. So if you don’t have a senior, that’s a little bit, but it is interesting though to watch because it is interspersed with a lot of great scenery of Peachtree Corners and some pretty cool special interest stories of some of these students that are doing some pretty cool stuff. So I would encourage some people to at least watch it for a little while or watch part of it cause it’s pretty cool. And then Rico, you’ve been part of it too and are going to do your part through your magazine. That’ll recognize them too. So between our video, your, you know, magazine. I think we’ve, you know, we’ve done what we can to try to make these seniors feel special. Not all of the seniors participated. We didn’t get every senior to do this.
Rico: [00:35:52] No, but there was over 140.
Brian: [00:35:55] So, yeah. You know, we’re pleased. So we always appreciate residents both at like Nancy Minor, come up with ideas like this as people like you who support it. And then we got a lot of good people around to help us. And of course, Mayor and council being supportive of this kind of stuff is what, what happened. So I’m proud to say we did it and hopefully the seniors feel a little bit more special than they would without them.
Rico: [00:36:22] Yeah, that was a great video. I saw a first draft of it and I just got the link of the one that’s coming up at 3:00. Jim, Titan Pictures did a great job on it and just super job. I think people enjoy it. A lot of individual interviews also with some of the kids, so it was, he pulled it together really well, loved the music. He did the voiceover too, I believe on it, which was super, he has a great voice for that. I kept thinking, Disney, movie or something for some reason, like Disneyland or Disney World, a feature like that. But he did a good job. So I’m looking forward to seeing the final version. We’re at the end of our time. I think we covered quite a bit. You’re always very good about giving good information and putting out stuff that the city residents need to know. So I appreciate you doing that, spending that time with me once a month to be able to do this. So for anyone that wants to find out more, you know, feel free to follow us on Instagram, Peachtree Corners Life. Pick up the magazine, you should be getting it in the mailbox the first or second week, first eight days in June. Every household in the city gets it so, should be, you should be having about 19,000 homes. And follow us on Facebook you get these live feeds, share this with your friends. If you’re listening to the podcast, just review it on Apple podcasts. We’ve had a bit of reviews there. So good stuff helps us bring us up in the search. And again, Prime Lunchtime with the City Manager is always good Brian.
Brian: [00:38:02] Thanks for giving us a venue to get information out to our citizens.
Rico: [00:38:08] The rest of you guys have a great weekend. Enjoy.
Besides his monthly newsletter, Peachtree Corners City Councilman Eric Christ occasionally hosts town hall meetings to allow constituents to catch up on what’s going on and give him feedback on a variety of issues.
On Sunday, March 24, several dozen residents and stakeholders gathered for updates at City Hall’s Community Chest room. Christ probably expected the gathering to last 90 minutes at the most, but the discussion lasted nearly three hours as he shared information about the Marshal program, development projects, the new dog park, deer and the May 21 primary election.
Cutting down on crime
Probably to nobody’s surprise, crime and public safety took up the bulk of the meeting. Christ wanted the audience to take away that crime in Peachtree Corners is down 25% from pre-pandemic times. He showed a chart with crime rates from 2019 through 2023 that showed a significant drop in crime overall.
Residential burglaries are down by 48%.
Thefts are down by 34%.
Robberies are down by 24%.
“Prior to the pandemic in 2017, 2018 and 2019 we were averaging about 100 total [part one crimes] every month, and that dropped almost by half during the pandemic. Then, in 2021, it went back up a little bit again,” said Christ.
Even though the rate has increased year over year since 2020, it has not returned to pre-COVID levels. However, compared to the previous year, crime has increased by 23%. One solution may be the new City Marshal program that kicked off in November.
Having a relatively small population, the most heinous crimes, such as homicide and aggravated assault, have stayed lower than in many other areas. However, auto thefts, car break-ins, robberies and other property crimes remain somewhat high.
The City Marshal’s involvement
Chief City Marshal Edward Restrepo gave anecdotal evidence that the marshal program is working and will continue to get better because it fills the gaps left between the Gwinnett Police Department and the city’s code enforcement department.
Edward Restrepo
“We had a jewelry store robbery, and about the time we came in, we had started building up the camera registry as well as the integration system of cameras all around the city,” said Restrepo. “With only three of us, we have to rely on technology as much as we can.”
Although the marshals didn’t apprehend the bad guys, their assistance helped other law enforcement officers do their jobs more effectively. Several residents asked if there were plans to increase the marshal force to provide 24-hour, 7-day-a-week service.
The initial cost was around $900,000, said Christ, and maintaining the three officers and an administrative assistant will require about $700,000. Although Peachtree Corners doesn’t levy a property tax, the city’s share of county taxes goes toward that type of expense.
“It’s up to the people of Peachtree Corners if they want to increase the program,” said Christ. “It will come at a price.”
Those in attendance indicated that they thought that would be money well spent. Several said they liked seeing marshals at city-sponsored events because it sent a message that Peachtree Corners is serious about keeping its residents and visitors safe.
Christ said he and the rest of the council would consider that, but he reminded everyone that they should still report crimes to the police.
“I’ve had people tell me that they left a message on the city’s answering machine on a Friday evening and hadn’t heard back,” he said. “I tell them the first step is always to call 911.”
Catch the episode of the UrbanEBB podcast featuring Edward Restrepo from this past January here:
After a successful run for the position of Peachtree Corners City Council Post 5 Ora B. Douglass will be sworn in as Peachtree Corners’ first Black female city councilmember on Tuesday, Jan. 23 during the regular City Council meeting.
Upon her retirement, Douglass was elected to the seatvacated by Lorri Christopher, one of two females to serve on the Peachtree Corners City Council, the other was Jeanine Aulbach.
Douglass’ inauguration continues Peachtree Corners’ commitment to diversity and inclusion by not only electing its first woman of color, but by recognizing her status as a military veteran and an advocate for better health care, education and quality of life for all.
She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from Florida A&M University and earned a Master of Nursing degree at Emory University.
After graduating nursing school, Douglass was commissioned an officer in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps. A veteran with over 13 years of service, she has been stationed in Hawaii and was part of the U.S. Army Reserves.
Douglass has chaired the most recent Veteran’s Day event in Peachtree Corners and looks forward to more efforts to recognize and celebrate the multiple cultures and contributions of the residents.
With her long history of community service in the area, her motto has always been “service first.”
In 2014, she led a group of members in chartering the Psi Omega Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. in Peachtree Corners where she served as president for over four years.
Psi Omega Omega chapter provides community service to Peachtree Corners residents from high school students, senior citizens, entrepreneurs and those in need. In addition, the sorority has partnered with Gwinnett County to keep 1.6 miles of road clean on Peachtree Corners Circle.
Douglass also established The Georgia Pearls of Service Foundation (GPOS), a 501(c)(3) fundraising arm of her chapter and serves currently as president of the foundation.
The GPOS foundation raises funds each year to provide scholarships to high school students and donations to selected community service organizations.
Douglass was appointed International Chair of Community Programming, a committee with representation from the 10 regions of the AKA sorority in providing direction and oversight of the program from 2018 to 2022.
The program defined the framework for Alpha Kappa Alpha’s commitment to service that is embraced by its 300,000 members and over 1,000 chapters located throughout the world.
Douglass and her team partnered with Walgreens and traveled to 36 states including a Native American reservation and to the country of Honduras during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The group administered mammograms, COVID vaccines and provided testing to low-income citizens.
Douglass was born at Atlanta’s Grady Hospital, but was raised in Fort Pierce, Florida. Orphaned at 18 months old, Douglass hasn’t lived a charmed life.
She has worked hard for her accomplishments and knows the importance of a good education, perseverance, dedication and service to all mankind. She promises to utilize these qualities in service to the citizens of Peachtree Corners.
She has worked at numerous hospitals in the Atlanta area including Emory University, and Grady Hospital.
At Northside Hospital she was vice president of Quality and Risk Management. She served as director of Community Home Based Nursing at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Atlanta and VA Medical Centers in Carrollton and Oakwood where she directed a $10 million grant to provide homecare services to our veterans.
Douglass has practiced progressive clinical, managerial and healthcare administration for over 30 years.
Douglass currently serves on the board of the Fowler YMCA in Peachtree Corners and is also a member of the Peachtree Corners Rotary Club. Douglass enjoys playing pickleball, traveling, cooking, gardening and providing boxes in her yard for Eastern bluebirds to nest each spring.
Douglass is married to Dr. Adrian Douglass. They have four children and three grandchildren. She and her husband are members of Friendship Baptist Church in Duluth.
Congresswoman Lucy McBath visiting Peachtree Farm in Technology Park
From Peachtree Corners Mayor Mike Mason
As the year comes to a close, it seems like a good time to consider our businesses and say ‘Thank You!’ for helping to ensure our city’s success.
Mayor Mike Mason
Business and innovation have always been at the heart of who we are as a community. We are a city that grew up organically around Technology Park. So, as we look back at 2023 at some of the many occurrences worth noting, I’d like to say ‘Thank You’ to our businesses, large and small.
And ‘thank you’ to all those entrepreneurs out there who had the courage to start their own businesses and put in the countless hours needed to make them successful. Without your success, we wouldn’t be here. Let’s look at some of the business activity in 2023.
In January, Fricke and Associates, a certified public accounting firm, consolidated two locations, bringing 25 new jobs and a $800,000 capital investment to the City of Peachtree Corners.
The firm signed a 9,000-square-foot office lease at 3500 Parkway Lane to help them better serve Metro Atlanta clients.
Early in the year, NAC International, a nuclear fuel cycle technology and consulting company, signed a deal for 23,000 square feet of space at 2 Sun Court in Peachtree Corners, while T-Mobile partnered with Curiosity Lab for a fun student hackathon the weekend of Feb. 24 to 26.
The city completed its second, five-year Economic Development Plan, this year. The plan guides activity, projects and policy aimed at improving the city’s economic climate.
The city also began its next Comprehensive Planning process, a plan renewed every year that guides development and redevelopment activity in the city.
Unlike other places, these plans don’t sit on a shelf here. We talk with our stakeholders, i.e. YOU, and develop plans to take us where you think we need to go. This is good old-fashioned logic at work, but back to our Year-in-Review.
Last January, city economic development staff visited a company in Peachtree Corners rather unsuspecting of the scope of the operation.
Guardian Sports manufactures products designed to keep people— especially young people—safer while playing sports. It is truly a gem. This Peachtree Corners company is designing and manufacturing sporting equipment worn by youth and high school football teams, college teams, and most recently, mandated by the NFL.
From left to right:
Mindy Wheeler, Alexandra Hanson, Garner, Penny Godwin, Andrea Vaillancourt, Lee Hanson (owner), Erin Hanson (owner), Jake Hanson, Caitlin Hanson Gouws, Jacques Gouws and Mike Crawford
The company’s flagship product is the Guardian Cap, which was created to advance the standard football helmet by dispersing some of the energy that is generated during impacts. Check out a video HERE.
Insight Sourcing celebrated 20 years in business, announcing 20% firmwide growth in 2022, with 84 new team members added, of whom 23 joined as part of an acquisition.
In February, the city began encouraging businesses to connect their security cameras with the Fusus network. Fusus is a nationally recognized public safety technology provider that has operated out of its headquarters in—you guessed it–Peachtree Corners since 2019.
The platform links cameras together and sends the feed to the West Precinct where Gwinnett Police officers can see situations in real-time and respond accordingly.
The cameras have helped solve homicides and other crimes in various cities, including Peachtree Corners. In July, Fusus made the annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in America.
Peachtree Farm, located in Technology Park, began attracting some attention on a grand scale this year, starting with a visit from Arthur Tripp Jr., the executive director of the USDA Farm Service Agency who visited Peachtree Farm in February.
An employee of Peachtree Farm celebrating the harvest courtesy of from peachtreefarm.org
Members of the Gwinnett County Farm Bureau and the Georgia Farm Bureau also visited Peachtree Farm in June to learn more about its operations and areas for possible collaboration.
CongresswomanLucy McBath visited the farm this fall. The farm, located on Research Court, provides an inclusive and accessible community fostering the social, emotional and physical health and wellness of adults with disabilities.
Peachtree Farm first opened in 2021 to create jobs for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
In April, professional cyclists descended on Technology Parkway participating in the Curiosity Lab Criterium, a series of races on the streets of Peachtree Corners within the living laboratory environment of Curiosity Lab.
In May, North American Properties broke ground on The Forum redevelopment project, a great relief as there had been concerns about how to best generate more activity at the 20-year-old center.
A 300-space parking deck will be constructed near Belk to allow for some parking to be reconstructed as open green space. Several new stores and restaurants have opened or are opening at The Forum, including Peche, lululemon and High Country Outfitters as well ass Petfolk Veterinarian clinic.
Central Plaza at The Forum Peachtree Corners
Politan Row will open at the Forum, part of the multi-million dollar renovation project by North American Properties. Politan Row, which has locations at Colony Square in Atlanta, as well as Houston and Chicago, will include seven independently owned restaurant spaces, a full bar, an outdoor patio along greenspace and a standalone restaurant and wine bar.
The German American Chamber of Commerce visited Curiosity Lab in May to learn more about Georgia, Gwinnett County and specifically Peachtree Corners. Also, a delegation of energy, technology and sustainability leaders visited the City of Peachtree Corners in October for several days, learning about area companies, Curiosity Lab and about how the city developed.
This year, Seoul Robotics established its United States office in Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners. The company’s presence in Curiosity Lab is fueling further development of a groundbreaking 3D perception platform.
Soliant, a leading provider of specialized healthcare and education staffing services, has been hiring hundreds of new employees across five offices in the Southeast. This expansion of approximately 300 people will give Soliant the internal resources to meet the growing nationwide demand for healthcare and education professionals.
Also, in terms of health and wellness, Atlas Behavioral Healthopened at 3850 Holcomb Bridge Road while space was outfitted in June at 4941 S Old Peachtree Road for a Fyzical Therapy and Balance Center.
Suzanna Martinez PCBA Board; Phil Sadd Council City of Peachtree Corners, India Martinez, Social Media Influencer, Daniel Martinez CEO Atlas Behavioral Health; Mike Mason Mayor City of Peachtree Corners; Jason Price CFO Atlas Behavioral Health; Lisa Proctor PCBA Board; Julie River MS, LAPC, NCC Lead therapist Atlas Behavioral Health; Monte McDowell PCBA Community Outreach; Toby Anderson PCBA Board; Dr. Walter Brooks PHD, LPC, CPCS, NCACII, CCS Clinical Director Atlas Behavioral Health
In June, Peachtree Corners was ranked #1 in Georgia and #19 in the nation in this year’s edition of the Fortune 50 Best Places to Live for Families. In August, Peachtree Corners was listed as one of the best places to live in Georgia by Niche.com.
On the environmental front, I can think of a few things coming out of Peachtree Corners this year which will likely help the world.
For example, Sidel, which manufactures packaging (among other things), has introduced a new bottle. Sidel announced a partnership with Coca-Cola Europacific Partners.
The company has been experiencing a great deal of growth and continues to hire more and more people. The bottle, which is for carbonated soft drinks, has a lighter neck and tethered cap. The tethered caps are expected to boost collection and recycling efforts, while preventing litter.
Pond Constructors Inc., Peachtree Corners, was awarded a $13 million modification contract to maintain and repair capitalized petroleum systems and facilities at the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii.
Also, ASHRAE (the American Society of Heating Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers) has published a pioneering code-enforceable standard developed to reduce the risk of infectious aerosol transmission in buildings.
There was some other activity in Technology Park as well. Specifically, ASBN Coworks opened at 420 Technology Parkway, in the heart of Tech Park.
DW1, previously known as Discount Waste, Inc., cut the ribbon on its new office at 250 Scientific Drive NW.
A Florida-based investment firm acquired four properties in Technology Park in August, all part of a portfolio selling for roughly $23.8 million.
The second-largest sale in Metro Atlanta that quarter, SF Partners purchased 30, 35 Technology Parkway South and 190 and 192 Technology Parkway from Terracap; a total of 247,208 square feet.
Thank you for reading about some of the impressive business happenings in our city this year. As we gear up for 2024, we looked forward to hearing about more successes, and helping to make sure the city’s businesses continue to grow and thrive.
Business1 week ago
