Looking Out From the Garage

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Last year I was in the midst of writing about some of the local businesses I try to frequent.  One of those was Millennium Cycle Works.  I dropped in one day (without my 4′ co-pilot) and talked for a minute with Ken, the owner.  After a moment to gather his thoughts, I shot a video of him talking about his business.  He is a great guy with a cool cycle dealership.

My wife still won’t let me talk her into me getting a bike… but I still have managed to get up there for a few things here and there.  My 6 year old has some gloves made for riding a dirt bike.  They are very similar to Mechanic’s Gloves… which are REALLY hard to find in sizes that small.

Here is a link to the original post and video.

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Arcado Elementary School will be hosting a 'Round-up' on Thursday, August 12th, for boys interested in joining Cub Scouts.  The event will run from 6:30pm until 7:30pm. 

Cub Scouting is a program for boys between 1st and 5th grade.  Pack 551, the Arcado Elementary School Pack, has wonderful opportunities for boys to learn, socialize and gain experiences that they might otherwise not be able to have. 

From the Boy Scouts of America website:

Activities are used to achieve the aims of Scouting—citizenship training, character development, and personal fitness. Many of the activities happen right in the den and pack. The most important are the weekly den meetings and the monthly pack meetings.

Apart from the fun and excitement of Cub Scout activities, the Cub Scout Promise, the Law of the Pack, and the Cub Scout sign, handshake, motto, and salute all teach good citizenship and contribute to a boy's sense of belonging.

Adult volunteers are also needed.  Den Leaders and others to help directly and indirectly support Pack 551 and its Scouts can volunteer on Thursday.  Training is provided by BSA. 

Scouting is a very worthwhile activity for boys and their families.  And Cub Scouting especially, is quite family friendly.  Events are offered that not only allow parents, but also siblings to participate.  Scouts can also earn credits to offset the costs associated with Scouting, including uniforms, trips and supplies. 

We look forward to seeing you there.

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For the last few years, Arcado Elementary School has had Joe Ahrens in the top post.  He has positioned Arcado Elementary School as one of the highest ranked in Gwinnett County.  Excellent school spirit, very high test scores and a sense of community have all been fostered under his leadership. 

This year, Arcado will have a new top administrator, Penny Palmer-Young.  She is committed to continuing the performance excellence of the school. 

She was born and raised here in Gwinnett County, and graduated from Brookwood High School (she can be forgiven...  ;^ ).  Ms. Young has also spent a few years working in other schools in the Parkview Cluster, including Knight Elementary. 

As our kids enjoy their last weekend of "freedom" before school starts on Monday, join me in welcoming Ms. Young as Arcado Elementary School's newest Principal.  We are all looking forward to many more years of Arcado being one of the top performing elementary schools in Gwinnett County under her leadership.

If you haven't already, please feel free to read Ade For Al.  A simple Lemonade Stand at the local Farmer's Market in Lilburn, GA raised over $2500 for Al Real's family in just one evening.  It makes me VERY proud to be part of this community. 

As if the actual injuries little Al suffered weren't enough, now the family is having to fight for his treatment. 

To catch you up, Al Real is an 8 year old boy here in the Lilburn area.  He and another little friend were playing a few weeks ago.  While they were playing, they apparently decided to stage a toy plane crash.  They put some gasoline on a toy plane and lit it on fire.  Al suffered 3rd degree burns over 80% of his body.  He was rushed to Grady Hospital in Atlanta, which has one of the best trauma centers in the country.  After a day, he was airlifted to the Shriner's Hospital in Cincinnati, OH... they have one of the best pediatric burn units in the world. 

The treatment that the doctors want to use involves growing replacement skin for Al.  This is more than just skin grafts, it is new skin.  In effect, the hospital can grow Al's own skin in a lab, and then apply it to him.  The FDA classifies it as an experimental treatment, even though it has been around for a over a decade. 

But it isn't an insurance company denying coverage for the treatment.  It is the FDA.  They 'award' clearance for the treatment on a case by case basis.  In Al's case, they denied treatment... because they didn't feel the paperwork was in order. 

In order to get the treatment that the doctors recommend will require intervention by elected officials.  This is from the journal being kept on Al's behalf by his family. 

Wednesday, June 23, 2010 10:33 PM, EDT

HERE IS HOW YOU CAN HELP!  I am going to work on contacting our senators about the FDAs denial of the procedure to grow Al's own skin.  I would like to have as many letters from their constituent

It is shameful that it has come to this.  This is a clear cut example of the government stepping between a boy and the treatment his doctors... the best doctors in the world... feel is appropriate. 

The good news is that since this was posted, the family has been contacted by both Senators from GA, as well as one of our Congressman and the Governor's Office.  They are pressuring the FDA to reconsider their decision.  Unlike insurance companies, the government gets to decide if they can be subject to a lawsuit.

We have to keep pressure on the government to do the right thing. 

*Just to disclose, Al's mother was one of my older son's Pre-K teachers.  I consider her a friend.

Today was ‘Wing Day’ for my Kindergartner.  It wasn’t the official graduation, but rather a class thing. 

The class, made up of half Kindergartners and half 1st Graders, is called the ‘High Flyers’.  The Kindergartners are called ‘Co-Pilots’ and the 1st Graders are ‘Pilots’…

Today, Garrett got his pilot wings in class.  He was a proud kid.  He has been doing really well, almost meeting the requirements to graduate 1st Grade… while in Kindergarten.  Not only has he been doing it, he has been enjoying it.

For the Flashback, I thought I would highlight a couple of posts about the school and his class…

• Thank you Ms. Curtis… Arcado has great teachers!
• And now for something completely different…
• Hockey Boy at Arcado Elementary
• Arcado Elementary Lunchtime Thoughts…

We’ve had a great year at Arcado, and we are looking forward to another 5 years.

Still working on the details, but there are changes coming. 

The end goal is to create more of a hyper-local news site.  As we build towards that goal, we are inviting local businesses to post specials and information for Lilburn area residents.  The real estate content is going to be ratcheted down as the other content is built up. 

There will also be a few surprises coming... 

In the mean time, if you are a Lilburn, GA, area business owner, and you would like to promote special offers... for free... We'd love for you to use the Lilburn, GA Fan Page on FaceBook to do that. 

• Restaurant Menus and daily specials
• Home Service offers
• Landscaping Spring Specials
• There are a lot more interesting possibilities. 
  

When the site is finished coming together, it will have a stream of news local to Lilburn.  We'd love for you to be a part of it...

Lilburn is already kind of home to part of the Evermore CID running along US78 between Stone Mountain and Snellville.  As an area resident, some of the improvements that are directly and indirectly a result of the CID are quite obvious.

• Image by mjp* via Flickr

  The updating of the bridge over the Yellow River between Lake Lucerne and the Yellow River Game Ranch.

• Roadway improvements including new medians from East Park Place out to around Highpoint Road.

There is also another direct project that hasn’t been visible yet… the rehabilitation of the old Olympic Tennis venue on West Park Place near the (now closed) Super Target.

But another group is trying to  bring a new Community Improvement District to Lilburn. This one would run along US29 from Jimmy Carter Blvd out to Ronald Reagan Parkway.

It will be interesting to see all of the plans for this area.  There is a lot of commercial activity along the corridor, but it has never really been a destination like The Avenues in Snellville or some of the town centers (Norcross comes to mind).  There are a lot of great places to shop, eat and play in Lilburn, GA.

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Lilburn is in Gwinnett County, GA, just outside of Atlanta.  As of the 2000 Census, there were 11,307 people in Lilburn, but that is only including people in the city limits, and there has been a lot of growth since 2000 in Gwinnett County.  It was incorporated in 1910.  Lilburn is home to Parkview High School, and also has students that the Brookwood, Berkmar and Meadowcreek clusters. It is also home to Killian Hill Christian School, Providence Chrisian Academy, St. John Neumann Catholic School and Parkview Christian School.  Possibly the most famous resident of Lilburn is General Beauregard Lee, a groundhog with a better winter prediction record that Puxatawnee Phil up in PA. Dominique Wilkins, formerly of the Atlanta Hawks also lives in Lilburn.

Market stats for Lilburn, January, 2010, indicate that there are 359 (January 31st) properties on the market. Overall, there is about a 10 month supply of properties, with a slight acceleration in sales during October and November, but slowing in December and January.

In the sub-$200k arena, there are 214 listings, with about an 10 month supply. The same pattrern hold that sales accelerated through October and November and slowed after that.

Between $200k and $400k, there are 128 listings for sale, and about 10.5 months of supply. Even though the tax credit for First time Home Buyers wasn't as important to this segment, it still affected the sales distribution.

From $400k to $600k, there are 11 homes on the market. The absorption rate is around 11 months, and it is definately slowing.  Of course, there is a seasonal dip around the Holidays and the pick-up isn't until March and April.  

Above $600k, there are 6 listings, but too few sales to have any sort of reliable number of months of inventory.  There have been two sales in the last three months, but prior, there had only been one other sale in 2009 (February).  Two of the listings are above $800k, and there is no market activity in the last 12 months for that range... 

From LaneBailey.com.  I have a page dedicated to Lilburn Market Data.

And more importantly, why does it matter? 

A little about Lilburn...

Lilburn is a little city in the suburbs of Atlanta, GA, in southern Gwinnett County.  It is the home of Parkview High School and Berkmar High School.  And while the City of Lilburn has about 11,000 people (as of the 2000 Census... it has grown since then), there are a couple time that many people with a Lilburn mailing address.  In fact, the most recent numbers show over 53,000 people residing in 30047, Lilburn's ZIP code. 

The City of Lilburn was founded by the Seabord Airline Railway in 1890, but it was previously called McDaniel (until around 1900).  It was renamed in honor of Lilburn Trigg Myers, a Superintendent of the railroad, and incorporated on July 27th, 1910.  In the 1920s, Lilburn suffered a devastating fire, then the boll weevil killed the cotton crop in the area. The result was that shortly after the stock market cresh of 1929, the government "ceased to exist".  It wasn't until a new water line was needed in 1955 that the city government was re-organized. 

There is more to an area than just history...

Every town has a little history... but that is only part of what makes up a town.  In addition to schools, parks and all sorts of other local amenities also are very important to a community and the quality of life. 

Gwinnett County Parks were names the #1 Parks & Recreation Agency in the country by National Recreation & Park Association in 2009.  Several of those parks are in Lilburn including the Mountain Park Aquatic Center, Mountain Park Park, the Harmony grove Soccer Complex, Lions Club Park and the Lilburn City ParK and Greenway. 

Notably, Lilburn is also home to BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, which is the largest Hindu Temple outside of India, and the 3rd largest in the World. 

And a Local Character...

General Beauregard Lee has called Lilburn home for a couple of decades.  He rose to fame because of his accurac in predicting the extension of Winter...  He only works on February 2nd each year, and has "advised" Willard Scott, and been awarded honorary doctorates from The University of Georgia – "DWP, Doctor of Weather Prognostication" and Georgia State University – "Doctor of Southern Groundology."

He lives at the Yellow River Game Ranch.  Aside from "Beau", there are lots of friendly critters wandering around.  Ducks, squirrels, rabbits and deer are all wandering around the park, and are all really friendly.  There are also bison, coyotes, fox and bears among others that are not wandering around being friendly... but are available for observation. 

And you can live here too...

To see the latest market stats for Lilburn, take a look here... 

If you'd like to browse homes currently for sale in Lilburn, check this out...

Have you heard about Fusion 41?  Ford is grabbing a handful of social media and leveraging it to promote the 2010 Ford Fusion.

I'll give you the link to check out the contest.  It is pretty cool.  Go buy a 2010 Fusion, grab a few friends and have some fun.  BTW, I'll be happy to be on a team if you have the car...

;^ )

The Fusion 41

from LaneBailey.com