On January 19 the Rotary Club of Lawrenceville made a site visit to the F. Wayne Hill Water Treatment Facility in Buford. Jeff Boss, Rotarian and Deputy Director of Facilities of the Gwinnett County Water Resources Department, presented an introductory slide show and then took the group on a guided tour of the facility.  The group learned how waste water enters, how it is treated biologically and chemically, and how much of it is returned to its source, Lake Lanier, as clean water.  The F. Wayne Hill facility, with the world’s largest membrane and ozone facility, is a center for research in reclamation practices and far ahead of EPA standards. Gwinnett County natives should be proud of the cutting edge practices and conservation efforts at the plant.  They produce 30% of their own electricity using the methane generated there, provide special disposal facilities for fats, oil, and grease (FOG), and through conservation efforts have effected a steady decline in the use of water per day over the last decades, despite increased population growth.  An important goal for them is to get regulation passed to get full credit for the water returned to Lake Lanier.

Nathan Powell of the firm Webb, Tanner, Powell and Wilson discussed estate planning issues at the January 12 meeting of the Rotary Club of Lawrenceville. He opened with an entertaining analogy from the Forest Gump movie and proceeded to define “an estate plan.” It has three basic elements: a health care directive, a financial power of attorney or trust, and a will. He emphasized that even if an individual feels he doesn’t have much, there is still need for estate planning to facilitate decisions by the people he cares about. A plan can deliver a message, clarify whether he wants to be buried or cremated, show how he wants his property divided, and name an executor. He presented the interesting statistic that Baby Boomers will pass along $30 trillion to the next generation. He discussed the legal repercussions of having no will and encouraged members to plan ahead to ease the decision-making process for those who depend on them.

At the January 5 meeting of the Rotary Club of Lawrenceville Steve Collins informed members about Gwinnett’s Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Initiative.  He described the program, Stewards of Children, which aims to train adults to prevent, recognize, and react responsibly to child abuse.  According to him, one in ten children will be sexually abused before age 18.  The goal of this training is to counter this “silent epidemic.”  Core values of the initiative are 1) adult focused prevention, 2) community engagement, and 3) cultural change.  He asserted that we live in a period where it is possible to bring these issues into the light.  Referencing Malcolm Gladwell’s theory of a 5% “tipping point” that can create cultural change, Collins said the goal is to use this program to train 5% of adults in Georgia.  Several counties have exceeded that goal; Gwinnett has 7.2% trained.  He showed two video clips where victims of sexual abuse as children discussed the lifelong consequences and explained how the club might provide contacts with groups to be trained or sponsor the cost of training.

At the Monday noon meeting on December 15, Courtney Dow, Director and Founder of Nightlight Atlanta, spoke to the Rotary Club of Lawrenceville about her group’s work with victims of commercial sexual exploitation.  Nightlight is an international organization begun in Thailand in 2005 and in Atlanta in 2008. It is “committed to addressing the complex issues surrounding trafficking and prostitution by catalyzing individual and community transformation.” She mentioned various synonyms for commercial sexual exploitation and outlined the four-step process used by Nightlight:  Prevention, Intervention, Restoration, and Education.  She emphasized that Restoration is the longest and most complex step in which coping mechanisms are stressed and opportunities for individuals to rescue themselves are provided.  A goal is to increase public awareness and to change attitudes, mainly male attitudes, toward the acceptability of pornography and sex-related activities.

At the December 1 meeting of the Rotary Club of Lawrenceville Chief Russell Knick described the range and type of services provided by the thirty stations of Gwinnett Fire and Emergency Services, services ranging from fire fighting to hazmat to EMS.  He outlined the achievements and the challenges of his department.  Achievements are reflected in a citizen survey rating of 4.93 out of 5.0, eleven important awards, and successful grant applications.  He noted that all new hires complete paramedic training, which is not true in other counties.  They continually work toward a balance between responding and prevention.  With their smoke alarm blitzes, they have installed 2500 smoke alarms. Our county services compared to other counties are cheaper while providing coverage to the largest area in Georgia.  They continuously work on improving response rates, although their rates are excellent.   He outlined three major challenges:  1) covering the area–a new station is planned on Collins Hill Road in response to increased demand around the GGC area, 2) increased needs for inspections–a new web-based system and one new inspector may help meet that need, and 3) staffing and retention–trained hires sometimes leave for better pay, for pay has been stagnant–a new system of predictable step increases should help morale.

The Principal of Gwinnett Online Campus, Dr. Christopher Ray, spoke to the Rotary Club of Lawrenceville at their noon meeting on November 17.  After extolling the virtues and achievements of Gwinnett County in general, he focused on a major accomplishment of the prize-winning Gwinnett Public School System, the charter school that offers online classes to students of Gwinnett County.  Students can take one class or a full-time load of classes from grades 4-12 at the Online Campus, and over 5000 have taken advantage of the courses.  The school offers flexibility in scheduling for many types of students: young entrepreneurs, the medically fragile, athletes, actors, anyone who needs to fit school around an individual schedule. The level of instruction is high, with Ph.D.s and certified teachers having developed over 17,000 lessons.  They have just won an award from Blackboard and serve as a model school because of their technological innovations and student success rate.

Sarah (Say) Spencer introduced her Building Families Program to the group at their noon meeting on Nov. 10.  She described the program as “an intensive in-home program that builds on the existing strengths of families in order to reduce the stressors interfering with healthy family functioning.”  She began by citing three family scenarios and ended by describing the approaches she used in resolving problems in the various families.  The service is free to families seeking help in resolving stressful situations.  By teaching parenting skills and ways to change a child’s behavior, she provides hope and wholeness to distressed families.    She introduced Sherri Bozardt, the Georgia Mission Advancement Officer for Thornwell Home for Children, located in Clinton, S. C.  Thornwell is the sponsoring organization for the Building Families Program.  Ms. Bozardt described the cottages and services Thornwell provides for orphan children.  Information is available at sarah.spencer@thornwell.org or sherri.bozardt@thornwell.org.