Crime, Safety, City Marshals and Town Center Updates

Revealing the details of a recent armed robbery at a local jewelry store, City Manager Brian Johnson highlights the need for proactive measures to combat such crimes. In his interview with Rico Figliolini, Johnson delves into the technological advancements the city has implemented to enhance law enforcement capabilities, including the fūsus real-time intelligence ecosystem and the use of drones for surveillance. He also discusses non-lethal technologies and the city’s exploration of artificial intelligence in law enforcement.

Furthermore, he provides updates on infrastructure improvements and developments in the town center, showcasing Peachtree Corners’ commitment to ensuring its residents’ safety and quality of life. Don’t miss this informative and vital episode of Prime Lunchtime with the City Manager as Peachtree Corners works towards a safer community.

“We can’t sit back and just wring our hands and be like, well, this is what happens when there’s growth. No, let’s do what we can do, if nothing else, draw a line around our city and say, you better go around us, because if you come in here, we have a lot of resources that you don’t normally see elsewhere.”

BRIAN JOHNSON

Timestamp:
0:00:00 – Introduction
0:00:37 – Discussion about an armed robbery at the Forum at Carnegie Jewelers
0:03:18 – The use of fūsus cameras in solving crimes
0:10:29 – The growing use of technology, drones, and non-lethal tools in law enforcement
0:13:38 – Mention of using AI to analyze social media for potential illegal activities
0:17:35 – Introduction of the new Chief City Marshal starting on November 1
0:18:34 – Qualifications and background of the hired marshals
0:21:40 – Swearing-in ceremony and future plans for the marshals
0:22:19 – Ongoing projects in Peachtree Corners
0:22:58 – Parking deck improvements and EV charging station reopening
0:25:15 – Dog park and upcoming improvements in Town Green
0:26:36 – Playground equipment updates and playground for younger children
0:27:58 – Fitness trail changes and safety measures
0:29:04 – Gateway signage project update
0:32:37 – Forum updates and boulevard project progress
0:33:58 – Peachtree Corners Decathlon event on the fitness trail
0:34:53 – Feasibility study on pickleball and other upcoming projects
0:37:38 – Intersection improvements at Bush Road and Medlock Bridge Road
0:39:15 – Closing

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Rico Figliolini 0:00:00

Hi everyone. This is Rico Figliolini, host of Peachtree Corners Life and Prime Lunchtime with the City Manager, Brian Johnson. Hey, Brian. Thanks for coming.

Brian Johnson 0:00:09

Hey, thanks for having me, Rico.

Rico Figliolini 0:00:11

Yep, yep. We’re starting this a little later than normal as far as recording this live because of an incident that just happened a little while ago in the last 45 minutes actually, that you shared with me and that listeners will know about this actually probably sooner than this podcast goes out. And that’s an armed robbery that happened at the Forum at Carnegie Jewelers just a little while ago. So can you tell us what happened there?

Brian Johnson 0:00:37

Well, the reports right now, both Gwinnett County Police Department and our city Marshals are working on it. Obviously it just happened, but it appears that two gunmen entered the jewelry store and pulled a gun and went to at least one location of the jewelry store and broke the glass and then just did a snatch and grab where they grabbed a bunch of jewelry, ran out the store and got into a vehicle and left. And unfortunately, it’s another example where we have become increasingly popular a location for criminal element to be coming out of parts outside of Peachtree Corners, into Peachtree Corners and going after areas that have call it wealth or resources for somebody to steal. Whether it’s property crime in some of the neighborhoods at night, going in and breaking into cars parked in the driveway or the Town Center Forum having these kind of crimes, it’s unfortunate. It’s getting rather brazen. I mean that’s in the middle of the day on a Wednesday that they go in with a gun. But unfortunately it’s happening and so we’re working on it. Specifically, our marshals have pulled video feed of the location where it happened and tying it into our other cameras throughout the city, tied in through fūses for them to track the vehicle. So I’m hoping that they’ll be able to use that and our relationship with other law enforcement jurisdictions outside of the city that we can maybe track where they ultimately go and arrest them but it just happened, so I don’t have any other update on that other than right.

Rico Figliolini 0:02:36

And for those that are listening, that was just before lunchtime, actually about 11:45, 11:30 or so. Yes, that happened on Wednesday. And we’ve been talking about this. I mean, fūsus as a company based here in Peachtree Corners has actually grown quite a bit in doing that crime center in the cloud and coordinating cameras throughout a city or a county. And we were just talking about just before we got on that eight of the last violent crimes that happen in this area in Peachtree Corners have all been solved basically because of the fūsus cameras in the system here and us coordinating that, right, yeah.

Brian Johnson 0:03:18

So both the cameras that we have, the capabilities these cameras have, and then fūsus tying them together and letting us both pull up feeds from the cameras the city owns and feeds from cameras that companies have registered through fuses to allow to be used for law enforcement. We’ve been able to our personnel have been able to identify and track these perpetrators of violent crime. And it goes so deep as to some of these criminals think that all right, if I wear a mask, they won’t know my identity. If I cover my license plate, they won’t be able to get my license plate number, which is true. However, our cameras have the ability to look for unique identifying features of that particular vehicle that may set it apart. So, for instance, you could have a black Honda Accord that’s as ubiquitous as you get. There’s probably millions of them around. But if maybe one of the headlights was broken or it was missing a rim or it had a different color door panel or whatever, the cameras can if you tell the camera to look for that make and model with that identifying feature, almost like a birthmark or a tattoo, able to follow it, so we’ve actually been able to find that vehicle. And then if you find the vehicle, say, if it pulls into an apartment complex, then detectives go in and start interviewing people who may know or by then, they’ve uncovered the covering over the license plate. You can run the tags or there’s been a stake out on the vehicle waiting for people to come back to the vehicle. But it wouldn’t have been possible had it not been both for our technology through the fusa single painted glass aspect. And maybe more important than anything is effective users of it. And I know our two deputy marshals we’ve hired who came from Gwinnett PD are incredibly adept at pulling up cameras and starting to put in identifying marks and then starting to track where it’s going, including having done it in the field using their own phone. Not even in big network operations center where they have all these screens, but even know enough. Their talent in using this is phenomenal. Now, the best crime is the crime you prevent. So unfortunately, these are all examples of where we’ve helped solve a crime that was already committed. But our hope is that if we do enough of these, word starts to get out to the criminal element that if you’re stupid enough to do this, don’t do it in Peace Street.

Rico Figliolini 0:06:15

Right. Which makes sense. I think. You had mentioned there was a shooting, Gwynette Place mall a few weeks ago, I think, and Gwinnett police called up, called the city and asked if you all would be able to track through the city because they knew the perpetrator was coming through the city. So explain that a little bit, because I thought that was kind of exciting, live, real time usage of what the system can do.

Brian Johnson 0:06:42

Yeah. Now, mind you, when I’m referring to city marshals, that’s a new thing which I’m sure you and I will talk about more either in this podcast or others. But we stood up a city marshal’s office as a means to put resources into gaps between call it our code enforcement and then law enforcement. And so we’ve had some gaps. We’ve hired two of the initial three. Well, we’ve actually hired all three. Now, the chief marshal we just named, but he doesn’t start until November 1. But the two deputy marshals are here on staff working. And why they’re a force multiplier is because when FPD is still our primary police department, they’re still going to be the ones that answer calls dispatched to them through 911 dispatch. But our marshals, because they don’t have that responsibility to get interrupted by calls for service, they can be working on the areas that we need them to work on and not be interrupted. So they’re doing their thing. And there was a shooting at Gwinnett Place Mall, two people shooting at each other. One ended up dying from his wounds, but the other one got into a vehicle and left. And one of the witnesses told the responding officer the make and model and that they thought one of the rounds hit the vehicle as it was leaving. So Gwinnett PD reached out to our two city marshals, of whom they know because they just were recently employees at Gwynette PD coming here anyway, and said, hey, the vehicle’s direction of travel when they left Gwinnett, headed towards Peachtree Corners. Could you pull up your system and see if they come in? So what our two marshals did is one of them got into one of their vehicle and headed to the north part of the city where they thought they would be coming in if they were coming to Peachy Corners. And the other one was giving him real time feed. And sure enough, we hit them on, I think it was North Berkeley Lake Drive or whatever. And the marshal that was out in the field goes up to the intersection, was ultimately south Old Peachtree and PIB. And as he was sitting there at the light, here comes the vehicle going across. And he was able to identify that the rear window had what looked like a bullet hole. So without the license plate, that was the vehicle that the marshal that was at City Hall looking at the cameras started telling our system to track. And then our marshal got in many cars behind, but got in on the same direction of travel and periodic lights, was able to see up ahead that, okay, the vehicle is not turning off. And then they were able to call in the resources. And so Gwinnett PD, Georgia State Patrol, got in behind the car as it was on Spalding heading west. And ultimately just after it left Pet Street Corners and went into Dunwoody is when they had enough resources and stopped the vehicle. But they would have never known where it went had it not been for that system. So our marshals were able to provide that force, multiplier that additional resource when it was out doing its thing, called in additional resources. And so even though they weren’t directly involved in the actual stopping of the vehicle, they were able to identify it. And that was the gunman that ended up killing another individual. So even though that crime didn’t even happen in peace street corners, our resources are bringing to bear. And if nothing else, taking some of these people off the street.

Rico Figliolini 0:10:29

It’s just amazing the technology and the way it’s working now in real life, people look at this, I think, and they see TV movie type stuff, but possibility. And this is just the beginnings of it, right. Because not everyone’s wired up. Some of the counties around here are, it seems Fulton County is some of the counties are using the same.

Brian Johnson 0:10:50

So yeah, Gwinnett has a pretty decent call it ecosystem of cameras, kind of that north Fulton definite. Well, really, Fulton County, probably the city of Atlanta’s, got a very good system, which has helped, but we’re not stopping there. We’re leveraging the partnerships and resources that Curiosity Lab has created to give our officers even additional marshals, additional tools, including within the drone space, right. They will end up doing in fact, one of our marshals already finished getting his license. And the FAA, our relationship with the FAA, the FAA is very interested in doing some both testing and maybe even policy making based on our use of drones in the law enforcement space. So we’re looking forward to doing some things there. And we’ve got some non lethal technology being that they’re going to be able to use, including things like that will shoot out. It’s almost like fish line. You can barely see it, but it has a little weighted balls at the end. And you can shoot it out at somebody either running away from you and it almost shoots out in a V with two little weighted balls leading. And when it hits something, it then wraps around it using the inertia. So you can end up tripping somebody if they’re running away or even if their arms are behind their side. A non lethal way to stop somebody or to running or has a weapon of some sort. We’ve got another resource is GPS trackers that can be shot from the front of a vehicle. If you get into a situation where they are pursuing a vehicle or about they turn on their lights and the vehicle goes to leave, flee at a high rate of speed. It can shoot this GPS tracker with a magnet onto the car, in which case you can reduce the amount of times that you may be considering a high speed pursuit because now you can let them go. But we’ve got a tracker and we can use resources or call it into resources outside of our jurisdiction. And not put the public at risk. So we’re using technology to help be an additional resource that can be brought to bear on some of this. So we’ll be testing and doing certain unique innovative technologies in the law enforcement here to hopefully make Peachtree Corners a little bit safer.

Rico Figliolini 0:13:38

Yeah. And that makes sense. I think the more that’s publicized, the stronger we become as a safe city because I could see that being used on all sorts of things from even Intersection Takeovers, where cars are shot with those GPS and being tracked back to where they go. So I could see the technology is expanding. AI may even become part of that, I’m sure in some ways to be able to certain things, to be able to follow things as well.

Brian Johnson 0:14:09

Well, we are going to do a little bit of experimenting on AI as it relates to social media and the organization. Well, intersection takeovers might be one or oftentimes empty office space. Retail space can become impromptu locations for after our parties.

Rico Figliolini 0:14:34

Sure.

Brian Johnson 0:14:35

And we’re going to want to use that to maybe start pulling keywords or phrases or other things to feed us information that then our marshals can dig a little bit deeper and say if in fact there is an illegal after hours party being organized. We can bring in Gwinnett County PE resources potentially to bear, to stop it or to the rest of the people who are doing things that they shouldn’t. Lots of opportunities.

Rico Figliolini 0:15:05

Yeah. It seems like that space is coming to a head as far as all these things working for the city, especially in a time like you mean, we’ve been seeing a lot more criminal activity between the flash mob, if you will, going into like Lululemon. The shootings that have happened is when you look at this, I think, and you look at a city like ours that’s north of a main metropolitan area, we can’t be thinking that we won’t be touched by this, by things going on in a city even though we’re suburban area, because it’s going to happen. And I’m glad this city is actually doing stuff about it.

Brian Johnson 0:15:53

Well, metro land is growing. So as you densify and you put more people together, you get more of this. And then as crime increases in certain areas, even down closer, know more, know midtown Atlanta or whatever. I’m thinking about the last eight violent prime incidents we’ve had in the city. I believe that almost without maybe the only exception to this would be the Norcross High School student who died. They obviously live somewhere. I mean, they don’t have to live in Peace street corners, but somewhere near here. But even the gunmen in that incident lived outside of the city. The slider prime, that was unfortunate. Quick trip. That was criminal element coming in, coming up north out of the Atlanta Midtown area. Up here looking for higher end vehicles. The Lululemon at criminal element lived down in Atlanta. I mean, they’re coming up here because there are more opportunities for them to steal resources that they don’t find there. So we can’t sit back and just wring our hands and be like, well, this is what happens when there’s growth. No, let’s do what we can to, if nothing else, draw a line around our city and say, you better go around us, because if you come in here, we have a lot of resources that you don’t normally see elsewhere, and your odds of getting away with it are much slimmer.

Rico Figliolini 0:17:35

Yeah. No, I agree. Certainly. And the more narrow the time or the more condensed the time that these perpetrators are caught, the better it is. Versus a year out. If they’re caught within days, hours, a week, that’s always better, because that will get out, I think people will understand.

Brian Johnson 0:17:55

And it gets them off the street quicker, too.

Rico Figliolini 0:17:57

That’s right.

Brian Johnson 0:17:59

A year out, great, you solved it. But in the meantime, how many other crimes did they commit elsewhere?

Rico Figliolini 0:18:05

Right? Because they’re not doing single acts. I mean, these criminals are doing multiple acts. It’s like burglary or robbery. They’re doing half a dozen acts. They’re not just doing the one the city has hired. Okay, so Edward Restrepo. Am I pronouncing that right? Seasoned 26 year Gwinnett County Police officer. He’s going to be starting November 1. He’s the chief city marshal. So he’ll be leading the group of three, I’m thinking.

Brian Johnson 0:18:34

That’s correct. So when we decided to stand this up and it was time to advertise the positions, we knew that one of the things that we wanted was or were officers who obviously they needed to be post certified, they needed law enforcement officers. We wanted them to have a familiarity with Peachtree Corners because it makes it easier if you already know the streets and the areas that certain things and then we wanted officers who had a maybe were more adept use of technology, innovative law enforcement things. And so the first two that we hired, the two deputies, well, all three of them, but the two deputy marshals are not only former Gwinnett County PD. One was there about ten years, one about 17 years. So they’ve been there a long time. But the had worked out of West Precinct for many years, so they know Peachtree Corners. They like the community. One of them had been the crime analyst, so he was used to using the cameras and everything. So both are phenomenal when it comes to their investigatory skills. And then the chief marshal that we just announced, restrepo is retiring from Gwinnett PD. You said 27, 28, 29 years, whatever it was. He is the most recent West Precinct commander, had multiple tours here. And what’s also interesting about him, in addition to him knowing Peachtree Corners well, knowing our leadership structure here, because he had been showing up to city council meetings for a number of years, he also is finishing his PhD in the use of technology in law enforcement.

Rico Figliolini 0:20:39

Oh, wow.

Brian Johnson 0:20:40

That’s what PhD is in. Certainly being led by somebody who understands how to use, how to leverage technological resources to fight and hopefully prevent crime. So that’s where we’re at with the marshals. We’re excited about Major Restrepo start date, which is November 1 and November 14, that city council meeting. We’ll have a big swearing in ceremony for the three marshals, which they’re Post certified. So it’s symbolic, but certainly Yule, as well as other media will get an invite to that particular city council meeting where all the remaining policies will have been adopted that will guide their actions and they’ll be available for interviews and other things at the conclusion of that city council meeting. And at that point, it’s time to get to work and they’ll do that very thing.

Rico Figliolini 0:21:40

So for those people that may not understand Post certified, that means that they’ve gone through the same regimen, the same education, same training as Gwinnett County Police as any police officer would go through.

Brian Johnson 0:21:53

In the state of Georgia. Post stands for Police Officer Standards and Training. And that’s the program in which it’s really police academy. And then you to maintain your certification, you have to do X amount of hours every year to keep your Post certification, which is again, what every law enforcement officer in Georgia has to go through regardless of who their employer is.

Rico Figliolini 0:22:19

And we’ll have more on that as we get closer to that date as well. One of our writers is doing a deep dive story on it with you in Restrepo, and we’ll have a little bit more on that as the weeks go by. I did want to get a little bit further into what we’re doing at Town Center because there’s quite a few things going on there between the dog park, the fencing for the fitness trail and such, and the new playground. So can you give us a brief description of what the top three things are going on there? Because there’s quite a few things apparently.

Brian Johnson 0:22:58

There is, and it’s one of those things where Town Center has been the success the city wanted it to be when it wanted to partner with a private developer to create a gathering place for the community to come together and have things to know, amenities to use. And it’s been open for a few years and we’ve identified things that are successful. So town center, we have a number of as it’s been open, we have recognized that we need to make some improvements and to make it better. So we’re trying to time it to where in a very compressed period of time off season, meaning at the end of when the concerts are going to happen, we’re going to end up starting or in some cases we’ll be finishing a few things. One, I will start with something else, and that is the final parking deck improvements after the parking deck was constructed and you have all this new weight there’s, the settling that you have. And as it settled in, there’s some areas that we were like, we need to kind of do some things here. We need to make some repair a few cracks there, some of that kind of stuff. Well, unfortunately for us to do a little bit of that. The EV chargers were closed to use for, what has it been, about six months?

Rico Figliolini 0:25:15

Yeah, it’s been about were they shifted over to a different side or were they in the same place?

Brian Johnson 0:25:22

No, it was just closed. You couldn’t use it because the are at the edge of the parking deck retaining wall. And that’s where we had to have equipment. It’s also where you enter the underground detention vault, stormwater detention vault as well. So there are three things that were right there. That was the area that had settled the most, so it needed the most attention. The retaining wall was getting pinned. Additionally, like it’s getting pinned and stabilized or further stabilized. And then the entrance to under the parking deck is a big it’s basically an underground pot where all the water from the town center has to go somewhere before it goes into the creek. That’s where it’s detained. So all that work was there. Well, now the good thing is that work is done. The EV charging stations are open again, so you can go back there and charge. So that’s one thing that we’re doing and finishing. The dog park has started. It should be finished in about two months. So that is good. That’s a long go. What would that be? The East Side or call it behind Cinebestro.

Rico Figliolini 0:26:36

Correct.

Brian Johnson 0:26:36

Right then we’re timing. The last concert is the end of November. So December 1, we are going to immediately start removing all the soil in the town green and digging down a few feet, removing all that Georgia clay and then putting in a drainage system underneath it so it’ll drain properly and we won’t have to worry so much about rain events and when people are on it. It was creating squish down in the Georgia clay when it was wet. It wasn’t like a sponge where it went back to its original state. It would stay depressed and then harden when it dried. And that’s why so that’ll all be good for next year. We did decide to go back with sod we think we can grow it and not have to do artificial thing. And then at the same time, the very first area that we had playground equipment, which is near the bathrooms back, we have two pieces of playground equipment and a little hill with a slide right that will all be removed. And we’re putting a rather significant we call it tot lot, but basically playground equipment for kids that are like four or five or younger. So to a degree and that one has like a space theme.

Rico Figliolini 0:27:58

Yes.

Brian Johnson 0:27:58

Pretty cool stuff. You may have seen it’s. Some pretty cool stuff we’re putting in there. So to a degree, you’re going to have playground that’s oriented to five and under and you could move over to where the Qantas and the other big part is that’s really five and call it five to 17. And why I put 17 on there is because the fitness trail, which is the third project that has changed from really a location in the woods that were located, a few obstacles that you could use to train, get stronger fitness. That’s how it started. But as it’s grown, our insurance carriers have said that’s no longer a trail in the woods. With a few fitness stations, you’ve created essentially an obstacle course. And there are some obstacles that are too dangerous for anybody to use.

Rico Figliolini 0:29:04

The rope climbing maybe and some other.

Brian Johnson 0:29:06

Stuff you need to fence that area. So it’s not so easy for anybody to go through. You need to funnel everybody past one location where you can put signage and that area is going to ultimately be 18 and older for those who are. And so when we realized that we had to put a fence around it, given that it is a different feel because it’s in the woods. Everything in there is built out of wood organically. It’s not built out of or bought out of a playground book. We didn’t want to do your typical fence. We certainly didn’t want chain link. We thought a metal fence wouldn’t look right. So we talked to some fencing companies and we made the decision to stay with the rustic feel. So the fencing around that area will actually be more of like your colonial fort fence, which is the vertical trees that’ll be how that fence looks, including we’ll have a few what will look like little guard towers. So it’ll actually look like a fort from the outside.

Rico Figliolini 0:30:23

Those aren’t guard towers that kids can climb up into.

Brian Johnson 0:30:29

They’re decorative and they’re not all that tall, but they’re more exactly. One of them is going to be underneath it is going to be storage, some of the equipment, but from the outside it’ll look like it has a little feature. But that’s what our insurance company needed us to do. And it makes sense. We have seen people who had no business being there, including parents. We’ve had four or five year old kids that are trying something. Their parents are just standing there and you’re like, really?

Rico Figliolini 0:31:01

Some people have no sense of responsibility.

Brian Johnson 0:31:04

So all of those are the goal is and a few of them we obviously couldn’t start until December 1, which is the day after our last concert. But the goal is all of those are done by May 1, which is when we start our next concert series next year and when we’re starting to use this stuff on a regular basis. But this past week’s Sci-fi Festival is a good example. That town center is becoming a really good location for some unique events. The forum will hear in about, I think they’ve got five, six weeks, will open the first phase of the boulevard. I just had a meeting with them yesterday. They are starting on the next phase of the boulevard right away on the parking deck. They’re going to start on the phase getting down by Belk right away because they feel like they can absorb the parking as is without having to add any. And what’s really going to drive the absolute need for the parking deck is when they start on either the hotel or the multifamily there, but they can flow there’s enough parking without it. So they’re not waiting on that parking deck to be done. They’re really yeah, so that’ll be good because now they’re going to have those more jewel box, more event space, more areas they can activate.

Rico Figliolini 0:32:37

Yeah, because they were going to have a band stand there, I believe, and more green and stuff. The weren’t going to do that until the end of 25 or 24, I.

Brian Johnson 0:32:47

Thought, because they wanted the parking deck to be done. But they’re like, we don’t need to have the parking deck done until the hotel and or multifamily are done. That’s when you’re going to get the people who really use it. So the parking deck is still slated, but they’re not so worried about it being done. They can be working on it while they’re doing the other. So that’s good news because that means that that space can be finalized and activated, that main boulevard without us having to wait on a manslaughter, for sure.

Rico Figliolini 0:33:22

And better for them because I think the more activity the forum generates like that, it’ll be better for them, it’ll be better economically for them and it’ll be better for the people that go to the forum. There’ll be lots more to do, a lot more area to play in if you want. And for those that are interested, as far as the trail goes, the fitness trail, I think October 23 is going to be the Peach record is decathlon, so if people are interested, they can, I think, watch it. It’s already booked out to its maximum, I think, to 72 participants.

Brian Johnson 0:33:58

So.

Rico Figliolini 0:33:59

It’s technically sold out, but you can go there. You can check it out, see how it’s being used for this decathlon, which is the second annual, I think, or third annual, actually.

Brian Johnson 0:34:10

Third annual, yeah.

Rico Figliolini 0:34:11

Kind of neat. So definitely a lot’s going on. I think that we’ll be able to talk more in our next podcast about a few more things like the feasibility study on the pickleball. That final report you said may be coming out today as we record this, and then at some point, city council may decide what they want to do with that study as far as moving forward or anything. And I’m sure there’ll be other things. That’s definitely more work being done in the city as far as even down on Petrie Corner Circle and some of the other development work being done.

Brian Johnson 0:34:53

Yeah, we’ve got a number of big projects on the south side that we’re working on. But right now we’re in property acquisition mode. And until you have everything under control of the city, you can only do so far. If I want to make improvements to your yard, I can’t do it until you sell me your property.

Rico Figliolini 0:35:14

Rico yes, correct.

Brian Johnson 0:35:15

I kind of limited on that. We’ll say soon because it’s out to bid. We have a program of gateway signage into the city, and the program is for when you are entering the city on major roadways, is for there to be a marquee sign kind of announcing, I’m coming into Peace Street corners. The marquee symbol or improvement will be kind of the lantern that you see on the four lanterns on the Pet Bridge. That design is part of it. So we have a couple of those out there, but we also have two main ones that are inside the city limits or not right when you come into the city. But they’re significant locations. One predates the city, and that is the Paul Duke Parkway location. When you’re coming in on 141, that one’s getting a big facelift and upgrade with the Paul Duke Parkway will still be there. That’s iconic, really, but it’ll have the lantern added to it, the feature additional landscaping. And then on the other end to book in kind of that main spine. Within the city where Medlock Bridge and Petrie Parkway intersect, there is an on ramp heading north towards Johnson Creek. That when you combine that with Medlock Bridge Road itself and Peachtree Parkway has a big triangle right there, that entire triangle is going to get redone. And we’ll have a Marquee sign that will be oriented to the north. So you’re seeing when you come in from the north, but we’re also taking over ownership of the maintenance of that entire triangle. So it’ll be redone in a way that it will no longer be used by Georgia Dot or others to store construction material or whatever that project. Those two ends are out to bid right now. So at a certain point, within the next month or two, you may start seeing work on that as well. But we also got that’s not the only locations we want. We got a lot of other locations in the city where those gateway signage will go. So a lot of things those are some of the projects that people are going to start seeing here shortly.

Rico Figliolini 0:37:38

And as far as intersection improvements, just Bush Road and Medlock Bridge Road, that’s almost mean at this point. There’s some lights being strung.

Brian Johnson 0:37:50

That project is almost complete. That’s been a difficult one. But the final is Gwinnett County Department of Transportation, who is one who manages the signals itself. They added an upgraded system. And so you’ll notice on there that the span wires that are holding the signals behind the ones that are working are ones that are covered with trash bags. The new ones will go online soon. They’ll remove the old ones and when the new ones go in, there’ll be some signs hanging from the wires next to the traffic signal. So when you’re sitting at the light, it’ll tell you the lane you’re in, what it’ll do once you cross that intersection so that you’ll have a little bit better of an idea if you’re on Medlock, wanting to head north into Johns Creek. Which lane am I in? The right lane.

Rico Figliolini 0:38:43

Right.

Brian Johnson 0:38:44

Coming off of Bush Road. That one will also have that’ll help. And then the sidewalk was just poured and the final sidewalk, the landscaping of that. And the final slotting is slated for, I believe, next week. So that’ll all be done. Then we’ll paint the pedestrian cross walks on the intersection and that’ll be done.

Rico Figliolini 0:39:09

It’s almost there and there’s still more to come.

Brian Johnson 0:39:11

It’s only been a couple of years.

Rico Figliolini 0:39:15

There’s so much more to come and never ending for the city. It’s almost like owning a house. Any homeowner understands that there’s always maintenance, always things to be fixed, always things to be done. It’s no different than the city of Peachtree Corners. I do appreciate, Brian, your time with me, especially after coming from where you did today. It’s always good to have responsibility, people in place, be able to do the right things and stuff. So sure we’ll get more information as the day or two go by with regard to that robbery. So thank you. It’s been a while since we’ve actually done this. It’s actually been probably six weeks, seven weeks, I think, something.

Brian Johnson 0:39:59

Yeah. Thanks again, as always, for providing this communication vehicle so that those who watch it can get information that it may be not as easy to get or as quick to get as you providing this opportunity for me to provide an update on what we got going on.

Rico Figliolini 0:40:18

Yeah, no, for sure. And everyone that’s listening to this should always check out, subscribe to our newsletter. That goes out two or three times a week. Go to our website LivinginPeachtreeCorners.com. Certainly follow us on Facebook, YouTube to be able to get these podcasts that come out on a regular basis. So I do appreciate your time, Brian, and everyone else, thank you again. And let me just tell you to go visit our sponsors because we do have two great sponsors, Clearwave Fiber, that takes care of over a thousand businesses in the city of Peachtree Corners with their Internet service. Different from a normal Internet company. You got someone to speak to in those places and they help out, check them out. Clearwave Fiber, as well as EV Remodeling Inc. Eli, who owns the company, lives here in Peacetree Corners. Great family. They do a lot of good work out there. From design to build, evremodelinginc.com is the place to check out. Thank you again for supporting our journalism, our podcast and our magazines. We appreciate you all and be safe out there and take care.