Matthew Holtkamp has only a couple of weeks left to enjoy a pre-elected office life, but there was some official business he had to take care of on Friday night for his soon-to-be new position.
He had to be sworn in.
New commissioners typically hold their swearing in ceremonies sometime in the December before their term officially begins. This time it was Holtkamp’s turn, after he defeated outgoing Commissioner Marlene Fosque in last month’s general election, and the ceremony was held at the Gwinnett County Historic Courthouse. And, in true Gwinnett County commissioner fashion, Holtkamp evoked the often-mentioned “Gwinnett Standard” county mantra as he addressed supporters at the swearing-in ceremony. Holtkamp will be the only Republican on the five-member county commission when he takes office in January. In his post-swearing-in remarks, he thanked the Gwinnett Republican Party executive board for supporting his campaign.
But, Holtkamp did get support from across the political aisle at his swearing-in ceremony. Two Democrats who will soon be Holtkamp’s colleagues on the county commission, Chairwoman Nicole Love Hendrickson and Commissioner Kirkland Carden, attended the ceremony. Hendrickson and Holtkamp are both members of the Rotary Club of Gwinnett. As Holtkamp addressed attendees at the ceremony, he recalled moving to Gwinnett from Ohio in the 1980’s and having to learn how things worked in Georgia, and also some of he local vernacular.
A roller coaster of a first half and Georgia’s highest scoring state championship football game ever left the Mill Creek High School players both exhausted and jubilant Saturday.
They had just made history in multiple ways on a foggy night with misting rain at Georgia State’s Center Parc Stadium.
The Hawks won the first state football title in school history with a 70-35 rout of previously unbeaten Carrollton, giving Gwinnett its third straight state champion in Class AAAAAAA. Their 70 points broke the state record for most points scored by one team in a state final according to Georgia High School Football Daily records, besting the old mark of 62 set by Valdosta in 1971 and Warner Robins in 2020. Mill Creek finished 14-1, pushing past the school record for wins in a season by a game. It wrapped up a completely dominant postseason with another convincing victory, putting an exclamation point on a run that featured the Hawks dealing out the mercy rule of a running clock to their first four playoff opponents. The showdown of nationally ranked teams — Mill Creek is Number 18 by MaxPreps and Carrollton is Number 20, while Carrollton is Number 20 and Mill Creek is Number 24 by USA Today — featured a first half of each team landing shots with the big play. Two of the Hawks’ early scoring plays were on special teams that had them up 28-14 after the first quarter.
Carrollton which hadn’t allowed more than 28 points in a game all season, never got the deficit to single digits after the first quarter despite 529 yards and five touchdowns from freshman quarterback Julian Lewis. The Hawks hit the 70-point mark with a nine-play, six-minute scoring drive, set up by Jamal Anderson’s fourth-down sack. Kevin Mitchell’s 48-yard TD run with 1:36 left in the fourth quarter capped the scoring and made Mill Creek the eighth Gwinnett school to win a state football title in Georgia’s largest class, joining Brookwood, Collins Hill, Grayson, Norcross, North Gwinnett, Parkview and Peachtree Ridge. Gwinnett high school football continued its impressive run with Mill Creek’s championship. At least one Gwinnett team has won a state football title in 15 of the past 17 seasons.
A Navy veteran who went on to work for the Veterans Administration and participated in several community groups has received a recognition from the Daughters of the American Revolution.
The Philadelphia Winn Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution recently presented a DAR America 250 Commendation to Terry Edward Pyatt Manning.
Manning was recognized for roles he filled in the the armed forces and Veterans Administration as well as roles he filled in the community. He served in the Navy from 1967 until 1970 and left the military as a petty officer first class. He later went on to work for the Veterans Administration, where he eventually became the auditor-in-charge.
But, he was also president of the Friends of the National Archives Southeast Region, is a member of the Gwinnett Historical Society, co-founded the Gwinnett County Genealogy Study Group and gives lectures on early American history, which he does while wearing colonial attire.
Manning, who is married to Philadelphia Winn chapter member Virginia Manning, is also involved with groups that work with the DAR. He is a member of the Button Gwinnett Sons of the American Revolution, the Atlanta Sons of the American Revolution, the Georgia Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and is the Senior President of the Allen Howard Society of the Children of the American Revolution.
Northside Hospital will be building more of the new tower at its Gwinnett campus right away than previously announced, in a move that will make the Lawrenceville site the largest campus in the Northside Hospital system in 2025.
Officials from Northside said the Georgia Department of Community Health gave them the green light on Wednesday to add seven more stories onto the construction that is gearing up for the new inpatient tower that is being built at the Gwinnett campus.
That will put the tower at 17 stories, which is the height it was always intended to eventually be, all in one go at construction rather than in phases as was previously planned. It will add 146 patient beds at the hospital, and put Northside Gwinnett at a total of 696 beds. The tower, when completed, is expected to compete for the title of being the tallest building in Gwinnett County, at a height of 257 feet and six inches. Its closest competitor for the title, local officials had said in the past, would be the Sonesta Gwinnett Place Atlanta hotel, which has at least 15 floors.
Getting the permission to build additional seven floors means the tower will not be built in stages, as had been the plan at one time. With state authorization granted, Northside officials now only need the blessing of the Federal Aviation Administration — since the hospital is near Briscoe Field and the tower will be more than 200 feet tall — to proceed.
The hospital system has already filed paperwork to get the FAA’s blessing, and is expecting an answer soon.
When former Gwinnett County Commission Chairwoman Charlotte Nash was a young girl growing up in the Harbins area, farming was still king.
She recalls a time when eastern Gwinnett was truly rural — even though it’s less developed that other parts of Gwinnett today, Nash is quick to point that she does not believe it’s really rural anymore. When she thinks of the area being rural, she thinks of the farmland that used to be widespread in eastern Gwinnett.
In fact, she remembers there being more farmland than forests in the Dacula area back in the day.
Nash was one of several dignitaries, including Governor Brian Kemp and current Gwinnett Commission Chairwoman Nicole Love Hendrickson, who attended Rowen’s groundbreaking ceremony, which was held on a field on Drowning Creek Road on Friday.
The 2,000-acre research-oriented “knowledge community” mixed-use development, located between Dacula and the Gwinnett-Barrow county line, has been in the planning stages since it was first announced in 2020, in Nash’s final year in office.
It is expected to take decades to build out, but it is projected to create at least 100,000 new jobs in eastern Gwinnett, according to Rowen Foundation President Mason Ailstock. The agricultural innovation aspect of Rowen in particular will likely have a major impact across the state since, according to the Georgia Department of Economic Development, agribusiness is the state’s largest industry.
Buford’s wrestling team won the 18-team Aaron Kirkland Invitational on Saturday.
The tournament honors former Buford wrestler Kirkland, who died in an October 2021 car accident.
The Wolves finished ahead of runner-up Rockmart, third-place Mount Pisgah, fourth-place Creekview and fifth-place Etowah. Buford’s D.J. Clarke, Rylan Ibold, Kieron McCormack, Drew Gorman, Gavin Pope and Aaron Riner won weight class titles.
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