Vote early and often to help Suwanee
build ‘magical classroom in the sky’

An accessible “magical classroom in the trees” to be built at Suwanee’s Harvest Farm community garden at White Street Park is one of 1,000 projects vying for a Pepsi Refresh Everything grant during the month of September. In order to be one of September’s 32 winners, Suwanee’s project – a tricked-out treehouse constructed to teach children about the environment and sustainability and to be accessible to children of all abilities – must be one of two top vote-getters at the $250,000 grant level.  We need you to vote for the project early and often!

Vote every day throughout September in as many different ways as you’re allowed for Suwanee’s super-sized treehouse project and encourage friends and family to vote as well.

• You may vote online at http://www.refresheverything.com/treehousefordisabledkids. You’ll simply need to sign up or sign in with your email address and password you create. It takes just a few seconds!
• Vote from your home computer/e-mail address as well as your work computer/e-mail address. (Only one vote per day is allowed from each IP address.)
• Voting via Facebook is so easy! Search for the “Pepsi Refresh Voting App,” click on the button on the left that says “go to application” and allow, then “like” in order to vote. When the prompt comes up, you can search for “handicap children’s treehouse” to get to Suwanee’s project. Remember to encourage your Facebook friends to vote via your status updates.
• Text 102672 to 73774 via every cell phone in your house. There’s no charge!
• Use Facebook and Twitter to encourage friends and family to vote.

How fast are you going?

What’s for dinner? Jimmy’s soccer game. How can I win over that new customer? Drivers often have a lot on their minds other than how fast they’re going. This fall the City of Suwanee plans to install five digital radar – or driver feedback – signs designed to make drivers more aware of their speeds.

“Our hope,” says Chief Mike Jones, “is that these signs will bring awareness to drivers and that they’ll voluntarily slow down…. This initiative isn’t about tickets, it’s about driver awareness,” he adds, noting that the signs will not take photos nor will data be used to issue citations. “We simply want to educate citizens and make them safer.”

Signs will be posted in areas where a high number of accidents and/or speeding violations occur: Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road, McGinnis Ferry Road, Smithtown Road, Main Street, and Settles Bridge Road. Traffic studies indicate that at least 85 percent of drivers along portions of the selected routes travel 11 miles per hour or more over the posted speed limit.

The City is contracting with Radarsign for installation of the signs at a cost of approximately $33,000, using public safety-designated SPLOST funds. Suwanee officers will continue to enforce speed limits throughout the City.

Click on the image to enlarge a photo.

Many ways to be part of Suwanee Day

Nearly 200 exhibitors offering a tempting array of fine art, handmade crafts, inflatable fun, and festival food will fill Town Center Park Saturday, September 18, for Suwanee’s annual “celebration of community.” You, too, can play an integral role in Suwanee Day. Of course, you can be one of the approximately 40,000 people expected to eat a little, shop a little, and play a little as they celebrate Suwanee Day, but consider these other ways to be part of this fun family festival:

Run The 10th annual Suwanee Day Classic 5K and 10K race will be run Saturday, September 11, and will commemorate 9-11-2001. Registration information.

March School groups and community organizations are invited to be part of the 10 a.m. Suwanee Day parade, but you must register in advance. Participants are invited to embrace the parade’s “hometown hero” theme to enhance their chances of winning cash prizes in a variety of categories.

Volunteer Behind every successful Suwanee Day festival are a couple hundred hard-working, fun-loving volunteers. Adult volunteers are especially needed. Volunteer a couple hours of your time and experience the festival in a whole new way, enjoy a sense of doing something nice for your community, and get a free t-shirt.

Donate As the Great Recession marches on, an average of 40 new families each month turns to the North Gwinnett Food Co-op for assistance. Help out the co-op by bringing canned good donations to Suwanee Day.

Council approves modest decrease in millage rate

Suwanee City Council has adopted a 2010 millage rate that is slightly lower than last year’s. The City’s millage rate for fiscal year 2011 is 5.70, down from 5.77.

 “While many other communities are having to increase tax rates in order to preserve services, we’re very proud that Suwanee is able to offer our citizens a modest tax savings while maintaining our extremely high standards of customer service,” says City Manager Marty Allen. “This is possible thanks to our past conservative financial policies and previous strong development patterns.”

Suwanee’s millage rate has been the same or decreased each of the past eight years. In 2002, the millage rate for the 2003 fiscal year was increased to 5.999 to help pay for voter-approved open space bonds that have financed acquisition and construction of five parks and an extension of the Suwanee Creek Greenway. The City’s millage rate has been decreased or remained the same each year since then; the millage rate since 2005 had been 5.77.

City of Suwanee tax bills will be mailed October 1 with payment due by December 20. Gwinnett County bills separately for county (including school) taxes.

‘Blind Side’ rescheduled for Sept. 10

The August 14 showing of the The Blind Side was postponed due to a stormy weather forecast. The movie now will be shown at Town Center Park at dusk on Friday, September 10.

B at the Movies for the heart-warming story of Michael Oher’s gridiron success and Sandra Bullock’s Oscar-winning performance. The Blind Side is rated PG-13 for scenes involving brief violence and drug and sexual references. Several websites, including www.parentpreviews.com and www.screenit.com, offer parental reviews of movies.

Bring blankets and chairs, snacks and beverages, friends and neighbors for this movie presentation. No alcohol may be brought into Town Center Park nor will it be available for purchase. Snacks and non-alcoholic drinks may be purchased.