City Government
Veterans Day Event Has New Components This Year
With its main mission accomplished, the Peachtree Corners Veterans Monument Association recently voted to change its name.
“We built the monument between 2015 and 2019, so our first Veterans Day ceremony held at the monument was in 2019,” said Robert Ballagh, past president of the Peachtree Corners Veterans Monument Association.
With the structure in place, the volunteers who make up the organization voted to focus more on the mission and dropped the word “monument.” It is now the Peachtree Corners Veterans Association.
“We want to form a broader community awareness in Peachtree Corners and provide a place for veterans to come in and seek assistance in getting the right kind of assistance,” said Ballagh. “We’re not going to replicate [existing services]. There are a lot of things that we can do for veterans who want to do get actively involved with those.”
Another big step has been putting a new leader in place.
“We invited Chris Lindenau to join the board and then to become our executive director, and he accepted,” said Ballagh.
Lindenau is CEO of Fusus, a company known in law enforcement and public safety circles for its leading-edge RealTime Crime Center In The Cloud (RTC3) platform. A 2020 member of Atlanta Inno’s “50 on Fire,” Fusus has been recognized as among the hottest new companies in the Atlanta area.
“Bob approached me with [board member] Tiffany Grave de Peralta about taking over,” said Lindenau.
He was impressed with what they’d accomplished so far — a beautiful monument to commemorate the brave men and women in military service.
“They were such good stewards of that program …that the desire to grow the organization and perhaps bring a new perspective and strengthen the association’s awareness in the community [appealed to me],” he said. “But I also wanted to take a fresh look at things like the mission, which we’ve recently rewritten.”
New mission with focus on veterans’ services
It’s a broader umbrella with some realistic goals, given the size of the organization — and the fact that burnout can make it necessary to focus on specifics instead of trying to be everything to everybody, Lindenau added.
“I’m humbled that they would be interested in having me take over the organization,” said Lindenau.
But he really wanted to focus on next steps. He wanted to make sure that now that the monument has been finished, the focal point would be the veterans themselves.
“We all just kind of had a realization …that the objective [of building the monument] has been achieved and yet the broader objective of reaching out to the veteran community and to the larger Peachtree Corners community that appreciates the veterans [was next],” he said.
With that, the association vowed to align efforts towards something to honor and support the existing veteran community and Peachtree Corners and their families. “So we felt justified in the creation of a [new] mission statement,” Lindenau added.
Now with new marching orders, the renamed organization will continue its expanded mission of serving veterans and the community.
Supports for the veteran community
In the short time that Lindenau has come aboard, the board has decided on two areas as the cornerstones.
- Philanthropy: Through the sale of pavers and some engraving at the monument, the organization has banked a tidy sum. It is looking at providing post-secondary education funds for children of veterans, whether at a four-year college, technical school an advanced learning program or something in between.
- Socialization: With so many veterans in the community, it’s important to bring them together on a regular basis. Even though special events like Veterans Day and Memorial Day are imperative, the other 363 days of the year are important as well.
“We’re thinking about holding another event …where we can spend some time with veterans,” said Lindenau. “Obviously, the challenge is always to identify who are the veterans in the community. …But it’s probably a good time for us to get the word back out to the veteran community that we’re thinking about holding an event so that they can come in, we can hear their opinions, obviously, through that process, identify who’s in the area and then provide a forum to listen and really solicit feedback.”
When all is said and done, the ultimate goal is to find out what issues matter the most to the veterans and support them. As a veteran himself, Lindenau understands the importance of transitioning back into civilian life.
“We’ve identified a handful of things that are always challenges for veterans, like the transition from service to the private sector,” he said. “And many, many folks, like myself, have made that transition and are interested and eager to help, because candidly, our companies can benefit from the kind of leadership and teamwork characteristics that people from the service espouse. So it’s actually a win-win, in that regard.”
Peachtree Corners Veterans Association mission statement
The Peachtree Corners Veterans Association will strive to build relationships on local veterans, while also honoring their service and contributions to our nation and community.
Veterans Day event
This year, there are a few changes to the Veterans Day festivities. Of course, it will be at the monument and, as usual, the association rotates the principal speaker and supporting roles.
“We like to do two ceremonies a year — Veterans Day and Memorial Day — and we like to involve the community in both of those ceremonies,” said Ballagh. “For Veterans Day, because it’s during the school year, we’ve always had a band. And we always have the Norcross High School Junior ROTC participate in the ceremony.”
This year, however, the Wesleyan School Band will perform, but once again the Norcross Junior ROTC will participate as ushers and with a color guard.
Because it’s a sacred ceremony, there will be an invocation. This year it will be performed by Father Charles Byrd, pastor of Mary Our Queen Catholic Church.
The actual ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. sharp with Peachtree Corners Director of Communications Louis Svehla as master of ceremonies. The new director of the newly named Peachtree Corners Veterans Association, Chris Lindenau, will be the keynote speaker.
In the event of inclement weather, the ceremony will be moved indoors to Christ the King Episcopal Church.
New this year, there will be access to services that veterans can tap into, said Ballagh.
“Sometimes all you need is somebody to point you in the right direction,” he explained. “Ora Douglass approached the city with adding these services and vendors and I think it dovetails nicely with the event.”
Veterans Day Community Health Fair
Saturday, November 11, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Town Center Veterans Monument
3200 Peachtree Corners Blvd., Peachtree Corners
The health fair will include immunizations, health screenings, blood pressure checks, AIDS/HIV screenings, veterans’ benefits, mental health information and giveaway items.
Source: Peachtree Corners Post 2 Councilmember Eric Christ’s recent newsletter.
On Tuesday, November 4, we will have municipal elections here in the City of Peachtree Corners for three council seats. [And] for the first time since 2013, there will be a state-wide election on the same day as our city general election.
The state-wide election is to fill two seats on the Public Service Commission, which regulates Georgia Power and other utilities.
For the PSC election, the Gwinnett County Board of Elections will have all 156 county precincts open on November 4. Historically, Peachtree Corners has had a single voting location for city elections — at City Hall.
If we do the same this year, citizens who want to vote in both the PSC and the City Council elections will need to go to two places to cast their ballots.
A few years ago, I convinced the County Board of Elections to remove their prohibition against the Gwinnett Elections Department managing city elections. (Every county surrounding Gwinnett already offered this service to their cities.)
This means there is the potential of adding our city council elections to the county ballot.
I would like to hear your thoughts on the pros and cons of combining our city council races with the county’s for this year’s elections.
Please complete my brief survey by clicking here.
To sign up for Councilmember Christ’s newsletter or find him on social media, visit linktr.ee/votechrist.
You can read more from his latest newsletter updates here and here.
Some people lament paying taxes. They don’t understand that taxes allow us to live in a more civilized manner, helping and protecting us all along. That’s why I don’t mind paying reasonable taxes for the safety of everyday living.
Many don’t recognize it, but you are often paying a small tax without realizing it as you go about your everyday business….but it’s not called a tax.
It’s called a “fee.” Each time you pay your power or utility bill and cable bill, your insurance premium, when you rent a hotel room or car…and other ways…you are providing a few cents or dollars to help fund mostly local government.
The newly-minted City of Mulberry (and previously Peachtree Corners) will run its government without taxing property owners paying a tax to fund its operations. How so? Entirely from fees.
Let’s visit what the other city without property taxes, Peachtree Corners, is doing.
We talked with Cory Salley, who is the finance director for Peachtree Corners. He sent along a graphic which shows where Peachtree Corners gets its funding, as well as how it is spent. (See graphic.)
For the most part, Peachtree Corners is funded by fees. The biggest comes from Georgia Power Company, paying $2.8 million in fees for the city for 2025. Other utilities include $450,000 from Atlanta Gas Light Company; $250,000 from Comcast; $70,000 from Direct TV; and $42,000 from AT&T. (That last figure was interesting, in effect, showing how few people have land-line telephones anymore.) Altogether, utility fees brought in $4.3 million in Peachtree Corners for 2024.
Another bucket of fees include $3.8 million in insurance fees. This comes in one check from the Department of Revenue, which collects insurance fees for all cities.
Each business in Peachtree Corners pays an occupational business license tax. With lots of professional offices in the city, these businesses contribute $4.4 million to the city coffers.
Other fee collections for 2024:
- Alcoholic licenses and sales: $1 million.
- Zoning and land development permits: $1.4 million.
- SPLOST funds on sales within Peachtree Corners: $10 million.
- Automobile and vehicle purchases: $1.7 million. This is interesting: no matter where you buy an automobile in Georgia, part of the sales tax reverts to the city where you live.
Then there are other funds coming to the city; stormwater fees, grants, solid waste, etc. Altogether, it added up to approximately a $40 million income to run the city.
Some specifics and the way they are figured:
- Real estate transfer taxes: This tax is imposed at the rate of $1 on the first $1,000 and 10 cents on each additional $10 on any conveyance of real property when the value of the interest transferred exceeds $100.
- Distilled Spirits—up to 22 cents per liter on package sales and up to 3 percent of the sale price of a drink on sales to the public;
- Wine—up to 22 cents per liter; and
- Malt Beverages—up to $6.00 per bulk container (no more than 15.5 gallons) to be paid by the wholesaler and up to 5 cents per 12 ounces when sold in bottles, cans or other containers.
- A municipality may levy a business license tax on depository financial institutions (such as a bank.) The maximum rate of this tax is 0.25 percent.
- Hotel-motel tax: a municipality may levy a hotel-motel tax at a rate of 3 percent or less or at a rate of 5, 6, 7, or 8 percent. (Yes, let the out-of-towner pay!)
Perhaps this gives you an idea of how a city, like Mulberry in the future, can operate without property taxes.
Have a comment? Send to: elliott@elliottbrack
Written by Elliott Brack
This material is presented with permission from Elliott Brack’s GwinnettForum, an online site published Tuesdays and Fridays. To become better informed about Gwinnett, subscribe (at no cost) at GwinnettForum.
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