Community
New Town Green Playground designed to have something for everyone
Published
3 years agoon
A new playground is coming this spring to The Town Green at Peachtree Corners Town Center, and it aims to be one of the most unique in the country, District 3 City Councilor Alex Wright said. The new playground will dwarf the current Town Green playground and it should have no problem keeping kids occupied, he added.
“It’s pretty large, especially in contrast to the little one we got there now,” Wright said. “This is going to be a major upgrade to the area as far as kid activities and I think there will be some adults that get on this stuff because some of it is kind of neat.
“There [are] always kids at the Town Green already, but I think this is going to give a whole new level of attraction. What we see now is kids get to a certain age and they don’t want to play on the playground we got now because there’s really not much stuff there, and they end up migrating over to the woods, which there’s nothing wrong with that, but we thought, ‘Let’s give them something more than what we’ve got now.’”
The centerpiece of the new playground will be a Quantis, a netplay structure shaped in a figure-eight that functions like an ascending obstacle course. The Quantis has been built for net climbers but has a myriad of functions and includes a bridge, a cargo net with steps and molecular-style belting. Kids can also use seats underneath the structure as a hangout space.
The structure may be one of just a few in the country, Wright said.
“It’s a very unique piece of equipment I think even adults will be attracted to,” Wright said.
The playground will also have a state-of-the-art slide, a bamboo jungle, and a wall where kids can sit. Wright said it’s been designed with parents in mind as well.
“We wanted an area where the parents could hang out and watch their kids play,” he said. “The big hit was having a covered area right beside the play area.”
The surface of the new playground will be made of rubber material called PebbleFlex rather than AstroTurf like the current one and will represent the city’s colors of blue and green, Wright said.
The playground’s designer, Dustin Graham of Atlanta-based Playground Creations, turned out to be a perfect match in what the city was looking for, Wright said, because the city wanted something that could accommodate children with special needs.
“When we were brainstorming with him about what we were looking for, we found out this guy had a background in not just landscape design but a passion on the side for helping special needs kids,” Wright said. “When he gave us the original design, one of the things he had done without asking us was incorporate some equipment and other design features that would be very attractive to people with special needs kids.”
Graham grew up near Peachtree Corners and is excited that his friends and neighbors will have something to encourage them to get out and be active.
“We went through several revisions of the playground plan,” he said. “I think this one is the seventh and it has all the changes for the site design in place.”
Aaron Humphrey, an engineer with Duluth-based Keck and Wood agreed that there’s already buzz in the air.
“We worked well together with the designer and the city and I’m sure the playground will be well received,” he said.
The contract for constructing the new playground went up for bid recently, and if all goes according to plan, it will be open for play in May, Wright said.
Updated 1/23/22
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Community
PCBA Accepting Scholarship Applications for Class of 2025 Seniors
Published
4 days agoon
February 14, 2025The Peachtree Corners Business Association (PCBA) continues their philanthropic work with an annual scholarship opportunity for local high school seniors who demonstrate community spirit and initiative and meet the requirements. The scholarship program was established to raise awareness among high school students of the need to give back to the local community and their school.
Applications are now being accepted for the 2024-2025 Student Scholarship Program. The PCBA will award one $1,000 scholarship to a deserving graduating high school senior.
Students are invited to apply now by completing the scholarship application. The deadline to apply is 5:00 p.m. on March 31, 2025.
Application details
Applications should be emailed to scholarship@peachtreecornersba.com.
Sealed transcripts may be sent to the PCBA office at
4989 Peachtree Parkway, Suite 200
Peachtree Corners, GA 30092
Click here for the current scholarship application for eligible graduating seniors.
Qualifications include:
Must be a graduating senior & meet at least one of the following to qualify:
– Resident of Peachtree Corners
– Senior at Norcross HS, Wesleyan HS, Paul Duke HS, or Duluth HS
– Child of PCBA member
Applications must include the application form, a copy of the student’s sealed or official transcript showing cumulative GPA and an essay of 500 words or less describing why you are the best candidate for the scholarship, including three (3) things you’ve learned that you believe will help you in the future.
A separate page listing any of the following the student has been associated with, along with a brief description of your involvement is also required:
- School organization affiliation
- Sports affiliation and extra-curricular activities
- Areas of community involvement
- Personal time donated to charitable/humanitarian causes
- Activities completed or participated in to support the community, healthcare workers, first responders and others.
“The PCBA is proud to continue this scholarship opportunity, which recognizes local students who have positively impacted the community,” says Donna Linden, PCBA board member. “In previous years, we were impressed at the dedication to community service we saw from applicants. We look forward to honoring the deserving student who receives this scholarship.”
Funds for the scholarships are raised throughout the year from PCBA membership, sponsorship and the organization’s annual charity event.
For questions regarding the scholarship program, please email scholarship@peachtreecornersba.com.
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If you drive a ‘Little Deuce Coup,’ a ‘Little Red Corvette’ or nothing at all, the Ride Lounge in Peachtree Corners may be the club for you.
If you’re someone who’s so fascinated with automobiles that casual conversations often turn into treatises about torque, transmission overdrive, throttle linkage and tread squirm, the Ride Lounge, set to open this year in Peachtree Corners, might be your utopia.
Founders Dave Codrea and Josh Friedensohn have envisioned the spot as a unique car storage facility and social club designed for car enthusiasts and their families.
Once complete, the 18,000-square-foot building will have indoor storage for about 65 cars as well as lounge areas, a conference room/presentation area for members to do group events, a car detailing area and a bar.
“There will be plenty of room for social events and stuff,” said Codrea.
Pre-opening fundraiser
Even though the establishment’s interior wasn’t completed at the time, the guys kicked off the first weekend in February with the first charity fundraiser of many to come. Pedal Fest took place on Saturday, February 1, with proceeds going to the Gwinnett County Public Schools Foundation.
Teams of three competed in pedal-powered drift trike races around a track set up in the parking lot.
“This is the kind of family-friendly stuff we like to do,” said Codrea. “We’ll probably have about one event a week — mostly related to different car events.”
The concept behind the Ride Lounge is more than just your old man’s garage. According to design firm Archie Bolden, the club will have “strategically integrated focal lighting throughout to enhance specific areas and create captivating visual focal points that invite visitors to explore highlighted zones or admire showcased feature cars.”
The look is described as masculine luxe with industrial accents.
Just a couple of gearheads
Codrea and Friedensohn don’t have anything to do with autos in their day jobs. They are partners in Greenleaf, a real estate company that buys, rehabilitates and manages long-term low-income residential properties and small business commercial properties to provide advancement opportunities for its residents, tenants, investors and communities.
“I started getting into cars when I was about 13 or 14 years old and as a little boy growing up with Hot Wheels,” Codrea said. “I got my first car, and I always enjoyed working on it. I took the whole engine apart and put in a turbo system. I’ve always loved cars.”
And he’s come across other “gearheads” who like to talk about cars, hang out around cars and work on cars as well.
So why a car club?
“You can do whatever you want to do with cars and it doesn’t matter what kind of car you have as long as it’s something you’re passionate about and like talking about it with other car people,” he said. “It’s a really good way to bring people together.”
Why here?
“That’s easy. I live in Peachtree Corners and I like it,” he said.
Building community
Codrea added that there’s so much diversity and growth that it’s kind of a no-brainer that there are many people who’d gravitate to the concept.
“Atlanta is a big city, but that also means there’s all sorts of interest in a lot of little segments,” he said. “You know what’s out there in cars and there’s definitely interest. As the area grows, we’re trying to bring people that like cars and their kids and families together.”
The storage spaces will allow owners to keep their prize possessions out of the elements or out the home garage in an environmentally-controlled area. But owning a car is not a requirement for membership in the club. There’s a level for just communing with like-minded individuals.
With so many “reality” shows based on restoration and enhancement, there’s no doubt that the interest is there. There’s a big screen ready for 24 hours of Le Mans, F1 races and anything else with a motor.
It looks like those with a passion for automotive performance have found their tribe.
To learn more about Ride Lounge or for early member access, visit ride-lounge.com.
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Local small business owner has found a way to keep mosquitos at bay with natural remedies
Geoff Krstovic, a former firefighter, transitioned into the mosquito control business after a divorce, driven by the desire for flexible work.
“Nobody ever thinks they’re going to be into bugs and chemistry when they grow up,” he said. “It’s not like, ‘I want to be a firefighter. I want to be an astronaut.’ Nobody thinks that they want to go out there whacking bugs or says, ‘I want to be in pest control.’”
But as he progressed in his new career, Krstovic took an interest in how to get rid of pests without using harsh, man-made chemicals.
“The more certifications, the more promotions and everything that I got, [and] the more entomology classes I started taking, … I really started to realize what we were putting out into the environment,” he said.
“I spend 90% of my time outside, and I see so much wildlife. So, when I would see a deer eating a leaf or a rabbit run out of bushes that I just treated, it really made me start to think about the effects of what we were doing to them.”
Not to mention pollinators like bees and butterflies.
“When I [would finish a treatment], I’d look back at the yard and everything that I’d seen flying around was just gone,” he said.
As a parent and a pet owner, he knew there had to be a better way to get rid of pests but still safeguard ourselves and the animals around us.
With a growing concern for the environmental impact, he developed a natural mosquito treatment system. The company he was working for wasn’t interested in his new product, so he started his own business.
Road to pest control
Krstovic graduated from Georgia State with a major in English. He joked that many of his contemporaries in the field have similar backgrounds.
“There’s an ongoing joke in the pest community where it’s like … what do you go to college [for] to be a pest [control] owner? Well, you major in liberal arts, English or writers’ composition,” he said.
“A lot of the other owners I met had the same degrees. A big part of it is that creativity aspect, and in pest control, you’re allowed to think outside the box, and you’re allowed to adjust and adapt to what you’re seeing and use different methods.”
That desire to do things differently led him to find a way to help keep people safe from West Nile, Zika virus and Eastern equine encephalitis while they enjoyed time outdoors.
With a lot of research and a little help from relatives with backgrounds in chemistry and engineering, he came up with a formulation based on using essential oils.
The dangers of mosquitos
“After you meet your first client that tells you about their experience just walking to a mailbox and they get West Nile, it changes your perspective 100%,” Krstovic said, “because you’re not just out there killing bugs, you’re out there protecting people and their families.”
Mosquitos are often called the most dangerous animal on earth, with the diseases they spread killing over a million people annually according to statistics from the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control.
While the more serious mosquito diseases don’t pose the greatest risk to most communities, there are common ailments that can show up in people and pets, including bites that get infected and heartworm in dogs.
Reaching out to the community
Though people were a little skeptical about Krstovic’s natural pest control methods at first, Erin Rhatigan decided to give it a try.
“Geoff cold-called our house in 2021 and revealed that he actually grew up in the house next door,” she said. “He really wanted to return to his roots and offer his services.”
Rhatigan has three young children, and with her home being situated on the Chattahoochee River, the outdoor areas are beautiful, but also plagued by a lot of mosquitos.
“We’re very focused on spending time outside, and our kids are very, very active, so they’re outside a lot,” she said.
But Rhatigan and her kids are also very sensitive to mosquito bites, and the spraying services she tried year after year weren’t satisfactory.
“I had gone through every franchise. I had used the large companies every season. I was switching because it seemed like it would be effective at the beginning, and then it would lose effectiveness,” she said.
She was also concerned about the toxicity of the chemicals being used.
“I felt like using toxic chemicals on our property was not only bad for our family, but because we are on the river, we’re kind of a steward to the environment as well, … so when he mentioned that the product that he uses to control the mosquitoes was eco-friendly, I was happy to try it,” she shared.
Local solution gets a local investor
The treatment was so effective that Rhatigan isn’t just a customer, she and her husband decided to invest in the business.
“It was better than anything I had used for the previous 10 years,” she said. “The amazing thing is that when he sprays the property, you have this effervescence of the essential oils in the air.”
She recommended Geo Mosquito to everyone who’d listen to her, and eventually Krstovic took over maintaining the facilities at Rhatigan’s community pool.
“[What he was doing] kind of piqued my husband’s and my interest because we were looking for a small business to invest in locally,” she said. “I’m now home with the kids, but I have a long career in sales, and my husband is in sales as well.”
Within a year, the couple became active investors.
“We love the origin story of this relationship because it’s reflective of how friendly and supportive the local business community is in Peachtree Corners,” she said.
Caring about the work
Krstovic attributes his success to caring about the work, attention to detail and understanding client needs. He doesn’t just spray the yard and leave; he has a system of mapping out problem areas and educating clients about prevention.
“We’re looking at anything that could hold a water source and eliminating that, asking our clients what time of the day they’re getting eaten up, what part of their body and what part of their yard,” he said.
“That helps us figure out the species of mosquito that’s attacking them, so we know where to target, because different species have different nesting sites.”
Growing the business
Geo Mosquito has begun working with Vox-pop-uli to upgrade their logo, website and promotional materials.
“Geoff is a typical entrepreneur — protective of what he’s doing,” Rhatigan said. “So going through the steps of changing the logo, coming up with a new tagline, starting to do some marketing, is both exciting and a little scary.”
But the team at Vox-pop-uli has been a tremendous resource — helping them go at their own pace.
“This first year of investment was about seeing what the market interest is and expanding brand awareness,” said Rhatigan. “Vox-pop-uli offers so many services, it’s daunting for an emerging company to manage so many different contractors: creative, graphic design, printing, mailing. But they have a great, responsive organization that has been very helpful.”
Next steps
With a proprietary formulation for the mosquito abatement, Geo Mosquito wants to bottle the solution and sell it nationally.
Additionally, in 2025, the company plans to expand into ecofriendly pest control services for inside the home. They are also interested in working with local municipalities, churches and schools to expand their mosquito control services.
The Local Thread: This business profile series is proudly supported by Vox-pop-uli, championing local stories and the communities we serve.
This article is also available in the print and digital edition of the Jan/Feb issue of Southwest Gwinnett magazine.
Photos courtesy of Geo Mosquito.
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