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December 2008
‘Good people in this world’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Days ago, Lawrence Hardnett left me a phone message in a voice that sounded as bright as the shines he polishes onto dull shoes.
“Man, I feel good,” he said.
Remember Hardnett?
He’s a fixture at Bennie’s Shoes in Norcross, where he’s been shining shoes for years. In 2003, an IRS representative paid the career shoeshine man a visit, asked a few questions about his income. Turns out Hardnett owed Uncle Sam about $90,000 in back taxes, interest and penalties. A $175-a-month payment plan was set up, but Hardnett — his business hurt by the economy — couldn’t meet the obligation, along with other living expenses like the mortgage on his Lawrenceville home.
Because of the delinquency, the IRS informed Hardnett that the agency would take his home if non-payment continued. He showed me paperwork in which the IRS had placed a federal lien on his house. Make no mistake: Hardnett knows this predicament was self-inflicted. He didn’t pay taxes for decades — which was wrong — then in mid-2000 had a change of heart and started filing returns.
In October, I wrote about Hardnett’s pickle and the situation caught the attention of two former IRS officials who live in metro Atlanta. One had a background in collections; the other had overseen audits. The men, who now work in private practice and wish to remain anonymous, agreed to help Hardnett, 58, someone who’d never shined their shoes, someone they didn’t even know. They approached the IRS on his behalf.
On Dec. 18, one of the good Samaritans dropped by Bennie’s Shoes. Good news, he told Hardnett. The former IRS officials were able to work out a payment plan. Hardnett will only have to pay $50 a month. The men plan to draft a letter for the IRS that outlines the particulars of the new plan, which Hardnett, undoubtedly, will gladly sign.
I could hear the relief in Hardnett’s voice.
“Please let the public know that this has been taken care of,” he said. “There are good people in this world.”
Amen.
One of the men who went to bat for Hardnett assured me that the arrangement should settle the matter. Then he made a suggestion, something that he hoped I could work into a column about a shoeshine man who probably considers this one of the best Christmas presents ever.
He prefaced what he said by saying he’d voted for President-elect Barack Obama, and how he hoped the senator’s election would go a long way in improving race relations and erasing perceived differences some harbor when it comes to skin color.
Then he told me that he and his colleague were “two older white guys” who stepped up for Hardnett, a 58-year-old black man who’d never shined their shoes, who they had never met. Color, to them, didn’t matter.
The person, his problem, did.
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Heady holiday reading
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Gwinnett County public schools system has posted a massive 800-page document on its website that explains what, exactly, the district will do if granted more flexibility to educate students.
According to an AJC story by Aileen Dodd, “The system has promised to raise the bar on student achievement in exchange for the freedom to bypass certain state mandates on education.”
The state Department of Education would have to approve the changes, and may do so in January.
Details, I assume, on how the bar will be raised, and what mandates will be skirted, should appear in the posted document. Parents and teachers have complained about being left out of the process. Guess this is the school system’s answer: Read all about it - online.
So if you have some free time during the holidays, give the document a read.
Then blog about right here.
Happy holidays to all y’all. I will be on vacation through Jan. 4.
Peace!
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Economic hardship not enough to stop retreat
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On Dec. 1, the Gwinnett County Commission unveiled a 2009 budget proposal that includes a $43 million shortfall in the county’s general fund. To make up the expected shortfall in the $1.4 billion plan, officials will have to curtail spending or dip into the rainy day coffers or raise taxes. They’ve already implemented a hiring freeze, resorted to shorter work weeks in some offices, and shaved about 100 jobs.
But there’s one expenditure the county can’t let go, can’t do without.
It’s the annual three-day planning retreat, held this week in Brasstown Valley Resort in Young Harris. It’s theme: “The Changing Landscape.” Taped highlights are to be broadcast on TVGwinnett, the local cable channel.
This year’s retreat, attended partially or all three days by 34 county officials and civic leaders, cost taxpayers $15,000, up a couple thousand from a few years ago. Then, like now, I wrote that the county brass should have stayed put, met in any number of upscale hotels in metro Atlanta. Stone Mountain Park, for example, offers beautiful amenities with a natural, magnificent backdrop.
You’d think that in this economic climate, officials would shelve the expense. Stay home. County revenue is shrinking. Budgets are being slashed. A national economic turn-around isn’t expected till late 2009, yet taxpayer money has been spent on a meeting that could have been held just as efficiently at the Gwinnett Place Marriott.
E-mail is the most reliable way to reach county officials, so days ago I sent queries about the retreat to Commission Chairman Charles Bannister, along with commissioners Kevin Kenerly, Mike Beaudreau and Bert Nasuti. Outgoing commissioner Lorraine Green skipped the retreat; commissioner-elect Shirley Lassiter attended, but she’s the new kid on the block.
Only Nasuti responded.
The retreat, he wrote, is not a “perk or getaway.” He views the meeting as a way to focus without distractions on complex issues that involve billions of dollars. Being away, he said, cuts down on buzzing Blackberries, ringing cell phones and other “home-turf” disturbances.
“Despite economic conditions, we still have very important work to do,” he wrote. “If anything, it is probably more important for Gwinnett to carefully deal with issues now than when times are easier. I think anyone covering things would have seen we spent our time working on difficult and important matters. …We are conservative with expenses, and don’t take such expenses lightly.”
Call me a simpleton, but shouldn’t the county be saving money by any means necessary? Some county employees have been asked to work shorter weeks. Departments must do more with less personnel.
Shouldn’t an example be set by the higher-ups in command?
Last month, Gwinnett officials announced plans to cut 93 jobs from two county departments as a cost-saving measure. The cuts came from Planning and Development (79 positions) and Water Resources (14 jobs), for an estimated saving of $4.5 million. These workers took one, so to speak, for the overall good of county operations. If you find nothing wrong with the county retreat, think that $15,000 is peanuts in a billion-dollar budget, then do this: Step into the shoes of one of those entry-level Gwinnett employees unemployed due to cutbacks.
Tell them how its important for leaders to hunker down, unintruded, to discuss county affairs.
Tell them what a wise investment the retreat was.
Tell them.
Then let me know the response you get.
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Oops, wrong door
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
John Louis, his girlfriend and 3-month-old daughter were in their Lawrenceville home Wednesday night when the front door came tumbling down. In rushed Gwinnett County police drug investigators.
The officers were looking for a meth dealer, a suspect they’d had under surveillance. But Wednesday night, somehow, they broke through the wrong door at the wrong address.
Mistakes — they happen in any and every line of work. Police officers are not immune, but you have to wonder what, exactly, led to this faux pax by dedicated officers operating under a “no-knock” warrant.
Maybe some procedural change will be put in place to ensure the officers are at the right address, pursuing the proper suspects.
It’s an unfortunate incident for the officers, who have apologized profusely. The department has taken full responsibility for the incident. And it was a horrific experience for James, his girlfriend Heather James and their child.
In the end, though, the good guys snagged the bad guy: Efrain Pedruza, 31, was arrested that same night without incident; $24,000 in cash was seized. Pedruza is being held on related charges in Gwinnett County Jail.
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No rights for foreclosed tenants
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Talk about a Catch-22.
You’re a renter. You’ve paid your monthly rent religiously, on time. But the landlord or property owner has fallen behind on the payments. The property has been foreclosed on, and you the renter, won’t know a thing about it till the eviction notice arrives. Then you only have a matter of days to get gone.
Under Georgia law, tenants are not informed that a property is in foreclosure until after the process is over, according to a recent article by Andria Simmons, a Gwinnett-based reporter for The Atlanta-Journal Constitution.
A state legislator plans to propose 2008 legislation to address the issue, which is more common in the current economic straits.
What, in your opinion, should be the nuts and bolts of such legislation?
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Holiday home away from home
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s tough being in a strange city, away from home, during the holidays.
My wife and I had that experience Thanksgiving Day 1995, the month our son was born. Miles’ medical emergency uprooted us from our roost in Orlando. He was airlifted by helicopter to All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla. There, at five days old, he underwent three surgeries: One sustained his life for surgery. One detected what was wrong and how to fix it. The third fixed the problem - a heart condition in which his microscopic arteries had to be snipped, then reattached.
Like many, we knew of the Ronald McDonald House only by name, and those donation boxes in the namesake’s restaurants. That was it. Yet a Ronald McDonald House became our home away from home for nearly a month during my son’s hospital stay. Memories of the volunteers, staff and parents at the St. Pete house resurfaced the other day when Larry S. Witt of Califon, New Jersey sent an e-mail.
He’d read an obituary I wrote Tuesday about Alexa Grace Rohrach, an 11-year-old Acworth girl. She died the day after Thanksgiving due to complications from a rare pediatric cancer called neuroblastoma. Witt’s son, 4-year-old Liam, has the same disease.
He wrote: “As I write to you, I am looking at the back of my son’s head … admiring the hair that has just recently started to grow back after a second round of chemo … Our newly-created organization is dedicated to him, those who have lost their battle to cancer, and those who will lose their battle in the days, months and years to come until better treatments are made available.”
Last year, cancer families from across the country helped with a three-week bake sale to raise money for the research of a disease in which only 30 percent of the children survive. Nearly 250 volunteers baked and sold nearly 100,000 cookies, netting about $400,000 for the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City - the same center that treated Alexa.
After the event, calls continued to pour in from individuals who either wanted to buy cookies or volunteer. This one bake sale led to the formation of a nonprofit - Cookies for Kids’ Cancer (www.cookiesforkidscancer.org.). Its purpose: To raise money for all pediatric cancer research. The nonprofit offers tips on how churches, businesses and other groups can host bake sales. Online, you can also purchase all-natural cookies prepared specifically for the cause. (The nonprofit has partnered with a family bakery in California that makes the cookies.)
“What we realized after the ovens cooled was that we were on to something,” said Gretchen Holt, Witt’s wife and nonprofit co-founder. “So we put together a tool so people can have bake sales across the country for pediatric cancer research. While neuroblastoma is near and dear to our hearts, all pediatric cancer funding gets the short end of the stick.”
With the holidays upon us, organizers of Cookies for Kids’ Cancer mused about parents across the country who are staying at Ronald McDonald Houses while their children seek treatment. Many will be there on Christmas as well as New Year’s Day. The nonprofit wants to make the holidays sweeter for these families in their homes away from homes.
So this weekend, New York-area parents are to bake about 13,000 cookies that during the next few days will be shipped to Ronald McDonald houses across the country. Metro Atlanta has two - the Gatewood Road house and the Peachtree-Dunwoody Road house.
“There’s nothing like being away from your home on the holidays,” Holt said.
How true.
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Less congestion, but at a price
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia is expected to receive an $110 million grant that will be used to create a toll lane along I-85. Most of the 14 miles of the “HOT” lane would be in Gwinnett County, from Spaghetti Junction to Old Peachtree Road.
A HOT lane allows a single driver, and sometimes two-person car pools, to use the lane in exchange for a toll. Large car pools likely would still be able to use the lane for free, according to an article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Imagine. You’re headed into the city. Traffic is bumper-to-bumper in the main road. All you’d have to do is plunk down $14 (assuming a $1 charge per mile) and you move over into a free-flowing lane. The idea is to give drivers an option. Parts of California already use them.
“The concept is simple, but it’s a proven way to keep traffic flowing,” said Mary Peters, the U.S. Transportation Secretary has said.
The Atlanta Regional Commission has to vote on such a project, then allow for public comment. Gov. Sonny Perdue has said the road could open by 2011.
Would you pay to cruise?
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