May 11, 2012

Wireless Communications Ribbon Cutting

4504 Holly Springs Pkwy, Suite 102B

Canton GA, 30115

Wireless Communications

www.CherokeeChamber.com

May 8, 2012

Kauffman Tire Ribbon Cutting

3700 Marietta Hwy

Canton GA, 30114

The Cherokee County School District is at the top of its class in technology, according to a national educational advisory institute.

The district won sixth place among school systems of its size in the ninth annual Digital School Districts survey, awarded by The Center for Digital Education, the National School Boards Association and Converge Online magazine. Cherokee placed in the large school system category, which covers all school systems nationwide with more than 12,000 students.

In both 2007 and 2010, the district placed fourth; in 2008, the district won first overall in the Digital School Boards Survey.

Bobby Blount, assistant superintendent of technology, said continuous support from the community through Ed-SPLOST funding and dedicated adminis-trators, teachers and staff has helped the district become a technology leader.

“We have a very, very good technology vision and mission for the future,” Blount said. “Our teachers and administrators have (made) a commitment to continually learn about technology. We have very strong leadership through our superintendent, an incredibly supportive Board of Education and we just have amazing students … that effectively utilize these technologies.”

The winners showcase exemplary school boards’ and districts’ use of technology to govern the district, communicate with students, parents and the community and to improve district operations through answers to the survey questions, according to the center’s website.

Overall, districts are judged on their online presence, technology applications that allow the public to interact with school board members, administrators and teachers as well as their access to information such as school board meetings, districts policies, and technology use in the classrooms.

“New and emerging technologies challenge the process of teaching, learning and the way education is managed,” said LeiLani Cauthen, vice president of the Center for Digital Education. “Survey responses reflect innovation in action, and how boards and districts are adapting curriculum, communication and collaboration by embracing digital technologies.”

Blount said he thinks the district fares well in the survey because they perform extensive research and often collaborate with other school districts on technological matters.

He said a major initiative within the district is the Bring Your Own Learning Device program, which will be implemented in all district schools in the fall.

“It’s just a growing trend in education where parents are able to use tools they’ve already bought for their student,” Blount said. “Our teachers are capturing ways to engage our children in this type of instruction.”

Blount said the district continues to look at the affordability of new technologies and the impact they could have on learning.

“Times are tough and the money’s not always following,” Blount said.

“We put a lot of effort into being (financially) responsible.”

The top 10 districts in each student population category were recognized during an awards reception Saturday at the National School Board Association’s conference in Boston.

‘Our teachers and administrators have (made) a commitment to continually learn about technology. We have very strong leadership through our superintendent, (and) an incredibly supportive Board of Education.’

— Bobby Blount,

assistant superintendent of technology

From its origins in 1970 in response to a growing threat of environmental crisis and pollution, Earth Day has blossomed into a grassroots effort to keep the planet green and encourage environmental protection.

Pam Carnes, president of the Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce, says this Earth Day is a great time for everyone to get in on the act.

The Chamber is hosting an Earth Day Recycling Event today from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Chamber at 3605 Marietta Highway in the upper parking lot.

Sponsored by the Chamber’s Going Green Committee, the event offers residents and businesses a chance to recycle electronics, aluminum cans and shred documents.

“Our Going Green efforts were launched in 2009, and since then, we have been educating businesses on how to be more environmentally friendly,” Carnes said.

“They don’t even have to get out of the car.

They can just drive up, and we will help them shred, recycle their electronics and their cans.

We at the Chamber have been hoarding our recyclables to take out to the event.”

Carnes said the organization is conducting the event to call attention to the need to protect the environment.

“We are encouraging businesses to be more environmentally friendly, and Earth Day is a time people are already familiar with. They want to give back, through roadway cleanups, lake cleanups, and other efforts.”

The Chamber’s event is free and open to the public. Most papers and documents will be accepted for on-site shredding. No phone books, newspapers or magazines will be accepted.

Electronics that will be accepted for recycling include mainframes, typewriters, monitors, televisions, cellphones, toner cartridges, networking equipment, fax machines, copiers, lab and medical equipment and more. There is a $10 fee for televisions.

North Metro Waste is helping Holly Springs Elementary School as it earns money by turning aluminum beverage cans into cash through the Great American Can Roundup.

Residents can bring rinsed out aluminum beverage cans by the Chamber today to add to the school’s collection effort, Carnes said.

The Great American Can Roundup is sponsored by the Can Manufacturers Institute, which represents beverage can makers and suppliers to the industry and is committed to ensuring that all aluminum beverage cans are recycled.

The Great American Can Roundup initiative celebrates the 75th anniversary of the beverage can and to help schools like Holly Springs Elementary in their efforts to recycle cans for cash.

The city of Woodstock is sponsoring an Earth Day Celebration starting today with a Brown Bag Concert in the Park from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. featuring the music of guitarist John Amoroso. Children’s crafts and Going Green vendors will be on hand as well.

On Saturday the city is sponsoring a Great American Stream Clean Up at Olde Rope Mill Park at 9 a.m. and volunteers are urged to come out for the event.

A citywide yard sale is also planned at neighborhoods throughout the city on Saturday, with one site planned at the William G. Long Senior Center with 25 participants.

The first Lake Arrowhead Springfest is planned for Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Great Festival Park. The event will feature 30plus artisan exhibitors, food vendors, entertainment venue and a separate children’s section with crafts, fishing and duck pond games, storytelling, cake walks and other activities. Cherokee Animal Services have pets for adoption at the event.

May 2, 2012

Did You Know…

 …that our Chamber business members and the community recycled 1,935 lbs of e-waste (electronics) and shredded approximately 3,500 lbs of old documents and files at our recent “Earth Day Recycling Event” sponsored by the Going Green Committee?

Thanks to everyone who helped make the
event a BIG success! 

Visit CherokeeChamber.com/green.htm for more useful links & resources.

April 27, 2012

April 18, 2012

Tadpole's Cajun Po' Boys Ribbon Cutting

248 Gilmer Ferry Rd

Ball Ground GA, 30107-2906

The city of Canton has launched a new alert system to notify residents of weather and other emergencies more efficiently, and officials are urging residents to sign up for Code Red.

The new system replaces Blackboard, a system the city utilized last year for emergency notifications.

The system drew some criticism from city residents who complained they received too many calls.

Code Red was put in place six weeks ago, just in time for the volatile spring weather season. The old system was automatic, but under the new system, residents and businesses must sign on to get the emergency notifications from the city.

Already about 200 businesses and residents have signed up, and City Manager Scott Wood said the city would like to see more people opt into the system.

The city has 9,341 homes and 1,480 businesses that could participate in the system.

Earlier this year, the City Council approved the contract with the company, which costs about $16,000 per year.

Wood said he “wants to be sure folks are encouraged” to sign up for the system. “It better suits the purposes and needs of our community,” Wood said.

Residents can visit www.canton-georgia.com or call Canton City Hall at (770) 704-1500 to sign up for Code Red.

Under the system, residents will receive calls from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration concerning severe weather events, such as flash flooding, severe thunderstorms or tornadoes.

In other events, the city can directly notify residents of events such boil water advisories and water main breaks.

Canton Fire Chief Dean Floyd said he could use the system to alert residents to missing children or adults in the area.

With the old system, there was no way in which the city could tailor alerts and warnings to neighborhoods, Wood said.

Wood said the city can decide when to “pull the trigger” with Code Red.

Wood said Code Red allows the city to avoid being “trigger happy,” which he said would compromise the perception of the system’s emergency notification capabilities.

Canton City Council member John Beresford, who advocated Code Red’s use, said he’s satisfied with the program.

He said the system can “drill down” to notify only a specific area of the city, as opposed to notifying all residents and businesses and getting everyone up in arms. Canton Mayor Gene Hobgood agreed.

“You can narrow down more closely pin-point areas you want to notify,” he said. “There may not be any need to notify Towne Mill if there’s a problem down in Prominence Point.”

If it seems that more people have a job these days, that perception just might be right.

Though Cherokee County’s unemployment rate saw a slight rise in January over the adjusted rate for December, it was considerably down from last year at the same time, according to the Georgia Department of Labor.

Cherokee also continues to maintain the lowest unemployment rate in the metro Atlanta area, with Gwinnett County coming in second at 8 percent.

The Department of Labor said Georgia gained 83,700 jobs within the past 12 months, the biggest growth in the state since 2006.

January saw a jobless rate of 7.6 percent for Cherokee County, according to preliminary figures released Thursday. This is an increase from an adjusted rate of 7.4 percent in December, but a decrease from 8.7 percent in January 2011.

Last year was a better year for county employment than initially projected, as the preliminary rate for December was 7.9 percent, bringing the revised December figure down a half-point. Bland Odell, owner of Express Employment Professionals in Woodstock, said he believes local businesses are feeling encouraged, but are still extremely leery of committing new employees to their payroll.

“I think employers are much more willing to look at part-time, temporary (employment) to bring people on board,” Odell said.

He added that he has heard many business owners say they feel business is turning around and are willing to hire more people.
The January job data was not released until this week because the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the state agency recently completed an annual benchmarking to ensure more accurate reporting.

Other area unemployment rates include Bartow at 9.9 percent, Clayton at 11.6 percent, Cobb at 8.4 percent, DeKalb at 9.6 percent, Douglas at 9.6 percent, Fayette at 8.1 percent, Fulton at 9.9 percent, Henry at 9.1 percent, Paulding at 8.6 percent and Rockdale at 10.3 percent.

The labor force in Cherokee slightly decreased to 113,223 from 113,454 in December, a marked increase from 111,439 in January a year ago. Employed individuals in the county also went down slightly to 104,599 from 105,011 last month, an increase from 101,712 in January 2011. The number of unemployed people in the county went up slightly to 8,624 from 8,443 last month, a marked decrease from 9,727 a year ago.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for metro Atlanta rose from a revised 8.9 percent in December to 9.2 percent in January. The rate is a decrease from 10.3 percent a year ago.

The metro rate increased because of layoffs in construction, manufacturing, retail trade, transportation, warehousing, and administrative and support services, according to the state agency.

Statewide, the unemployment rate decreased for the six months in a row from 9.4 percent in December to 9.2 percent in January, down from 10.1 percent in January a year ago. From December to January, about 13,000 more Georgians were employed.

The largest increases were seen in professional and business services with 37,000 new jobs, followed by retail trade with 15,100 new jobs, health care and social assistance with 11,100, and manufacturing with 7,300.

Odell said he has also seen a lot of growth recently in manufacturing and administrative fields in the Cherokee area.

Georgia’s rate was also above the national rate of 8.3 percent in January, down from 8.5 percent in December and 9.1 percent in January 2011.