fpnav august 2014

This is an Independently published publication, NOT an Approved nor Official publication of the Fairfield Plantation POA

Find us at www.fpnav.com or Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/fairfieldplantationnewsandviews?fref=ts

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Pat Rivera — Neighborhood Nest-watch PG. 7

Christina Henggeler—Awful at

Birthdays—PG 8

Michelle Nyberg — Girl’s Got to

Eat — PG 8

Women’s Club Spaghetti Dinner—

PG 7

Ragsdale Heating and Air; Don

Rich Ford PG. 12

Brenda Rhodes—Garden Club PG. 7

Mandy Smith — Consider Costs Before Taking Retirement Plan Loan PG. 3

Candidate Introductions PG. 4—6

The following property owners

have submitted applica-

tions for the POA

Board of Directors

and will be placed on the

proxies for the Annual

Meeting on September

27th, 2014: Chris May,

Beth Spears (incumbent)

and Lee Sundberg. The gov-

erning documents of the associa-

tion does allow for nominations to be

presented from the floor at the annual

meeting. Any person elected

from the floor

will have to

submit

to and

pass the

same

third party

background

checks as all

other candidates

within the prescribed time

following their becoming a board

member elect.

The candidate Q&A Forum will be

held on August 18th. In that forum

the candidates will be given the op-

portunity to answer questions from

the property owners present.

The Annual Meeting Packet will be

mailed to all property owners of re-

cord on or about August 23rd, 2014.

Fairfield Plantation

POA Management

Yt|Üy|xÄw cÄtÇàtà|ÉÇ N E W S A N D V I E W S

Confusing best describes this year’s POA elections. The lack of clarity has stemmed from the violation of a regulation, the with-drawal of one candidate, the vacillation of another, and the ineligibility, approval, then final disapproval of a third candidate.

During the June 16, 2014 POA open Board meeting, it was revealed that Dennis Brown, a candidate for the POA Board, had been rated as “not eligible” by Human Assets South (HSA), a third party company that pro-vides background checks for Fairfield Planta-tion. According to Mr. Brown, he appealed his denial to the POA Board resulting from the HSA’s inability to verify his college atten-dance from almost 50 years ago. Mr. Brown reported that he had provided a copy of his diploma and transcripts to the company on three different occasions, but they claimed his college attendance could not be verified. Mr. Brown then appealed the decision, prompting an order from the POA to David Durgin, Fair-field Plantation’s COO, to discover why Mr. Brown’s eligibility had been denied by HSA.

The third paragraph of the the Fairfield Plantation Candidate Application for Board of Directors states: “At no time will the POA-COO or in his absence the POA-GM, Board of Directors, or any POA employee review the reports, details or results of your screens or the information you provide on your Background

Review Personal History Form. This informa-tion will remain with the provider at all times.”

When the violation of this regulation was pointed out by Darrell Halley, a sitting board member, the June 16 open board meeting was halted and transitioned into executive session. Upon their return, board members stated that Dennis Brown could indeed run for the Board of Directors and announced the following candidates: Johnny Buice, Dennis Brown, Chris May, Beth Spears and Lee Sundberg.

On July 7th, the Fairfield Plantation News and Views received an email from David Dur-gin with the following candidates listed: Den-nis Brown, Anne Lussier (incumbent), Chris May, Beth Spears and Lee Sundberg as the official candidates. When asked why Anne Lussier had not been announced during the June 16th POA meeting, Mr. Durgin replied that Ms. Lussier had passed the background check and had placed her name in the race before the deadline. However, she had not truly decided by the time of the meeting whether or not she wanted to run, and re-quested that her name not be announced. With this explanation, the Fairfield Plantation News and Views ran Mr. Durgin’s message of the candidates. During this time, Mr. Buice volun-tarily withdrew his name from consideration.

On July 15, Fairfield Plantation News

and Views received an updated message from Mr. Durgin stating that Ms. Lussier’s name would not be officially entered because she did not reinstate herself as a candidate until after the deadline. By that time, the paper had gone to press and the original message could not be retracted. The official candidates at that time were: Dennis Brown, Chris May, Beth Spears, and Lee Sundberg.

But, there was to be one more twist to this story. Sometime before the July 21, 2014 POA open board meeting, Dennis Brown was informed that he would not be eligible to be-come an official candidate for the Board of Directors; instead he, and Anne Lussier, would be allowed to run as write-in candi-dates. In an explanation of the board’s reversal of Mr. Brown’s candidacy, Fairfield Plantation Board President, Howard Ray, stated that Fairfield Plantation’s attorney recommended to allow Mr. Brown and Ms. Lussier “to go through the nomination from the floor process just to clean it up because of potential issues that could be raised with that decision.”

So, for now, we have three official candi-dates: Chris May, Beth Spears and Lee Sundberg to choose from and at least one write-in candidate, Dennis Brown.

Steve Barden

C A N D I D A T E S F O R P O A B O A R D

Women’s Club Spotlight—Tee

Bayless— PG 9

Jennifer Thomas—Celebration of

her Life— PG 9

Tovey’s World—PG 9

Market Place — PG. 11

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :

Steve Barden — Editorial— Per-sonal Agendas PG. 2

C O N F U S I N G E L E C T I O N

Phil O’Brien—Rec Corner, Labor

Day Bash—PG 10

Red Cross Blood Drive — PG 9

E D I T O R I A L — P E R S O N A L A G E N D A S

F A I R F I E L D P L A N T A T I O N N E W S A N D V I E W S

For more information, comments, letters to the editor, suggestions and/or complaints. Please ad-dress to Steve Barden at

the following:

Email:

[email protected]

Website: fpnav.com

Phone: 770-827-8542

Deadline for submissions in our next

issue will be:

Monday, September 8, 2014

Our next issue will deliver:

Saturday, September 20, 2014

“Your Community Newspaper”

Look for us on Facebook

Look for Fairfield Newspaper

You can also find a full web edition at:

http://issuu.com/fpnav

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Know more of your neighbors, know more about the POA Board, know more about activities in the com-

munity and Carroll County, know

more about everything concerning this GREAT Community by going to the Facebook Group: “Living In

Fairfield Plantation, Georgia”

Find information, Find Activities or…….Find a FRIEND s for the resi-dents of Fair-field

News flash — there is not a human who doesn’t have

personal agendas. We are selfish creatures and everything

revolves around us. Even our love for our families is

really about us because they are extensions of ourselves. I

don’t have to prove this to anyone. You know it’s true,

whether you want to admit it or not.

So, make use of this selfishness and find common per-

sonal agendas. All home owners want our property values

to increase and to live in a safe, enjoyable community.

Where we differ is in our personal enjoyment. I’m talking

about the different golf, lake, tennis, etc; the dividing

lines within our community. Hammer out the budget

where our dues are divided to cover ALL the amenities as

we do now. However, when ANY amenity goes over this

budget, it has to draw from the emergency fund, which

would hopefully require a full board vote, or earn addi-

tional income above what the dues pay. If everyone ad-

hered to this, we could truly have our global personal

agendas of a safe, enjoyable community with increasing

property values.

Steve Barden

First, some definitions from dictionary.com.

Personal — of, pertaining to, or coming as from a

particular person; individual; private: a personal opin-ion.

Agenda — a list, plan, outline or the like of things to be done, matters to be acted or voted upon, etc.

All candidate say they want to bring the community together. I’ve been here four years and I’ve heard that from everyone who has run for the board. Another favor-ite saying is “personal agenda.” We often have people stating they could bring the community together if only others would stop their personal agendas.

Any group of antagonists will accuse the other side of

having personal agendas. They will throw these words

upon their adversary like mud thrown against a freshly

washed, white sheet. Just the action of throwing those

dirty words — personal agenda — appears to be enough

in their minds to soil their foes. They rarely follow up

with exactly what the personal agendas are, because, in

their minds, just the smear itself is enough. Of course the

person accusing the other has none of these foibles.

K N O W Y O U R C O M M U N I T Y


C O N S I D E R T H E C O S T S B E F O R E T A K I N G R E T I R E M E N T P L A N L O A N

Borrowing money from your employer-sponsored

retirement plan may seem like an effective solution

to a pressing financial need. But gaining access to

your retirement investments in order to enhance

your short-term cash flow isn't necessarily the best

long-term strategy. In fact, it could make it harder

to achieve financial security later in life.

Read the Rules

If your retirement plan offers a loan option, the IRS

allows you to borrow up to 50% of the total vested

assets in your account, up to a maximum of

$50,000. IRS rules require payments to be made at

least quarterly. The loan payments you make

(including interest) will be reinvested in your ac-

count.

Weigh the Pros

For some, the primary attraction of a retire-

ment plan loan is the simplicity and privacy

not generally associated with a bank or fi-

nance company. And unlike banks and other

sources of loans, there is no need to fear being

turned down for the money when borrowing

from your retirement plan.

Another benefit may be competitive interest

rates. This interest is not tax deductible, however,

and may actually "cost" you more than some other

types of financing, such as a home equity loan that

allows you to deduct interest.

Consider the Cons

While these advantages may make a retirement plan

loan appealing, there are several other points you

should consider. For example, the loan may require

you to pay fees. In addition, if you leave your em-

ployer before you fully repay the money, you may

be required to repay the balance in full or pay fed-

eral income taxes on it. You also could be charged a

10% early withdrawal penalty by the IRS.

Additionally, you should be aware of the potential

"opportunity cost" of borrowing from your retire-

ment plan. This is the cost of any potential return

you'll miss out on if the interest rate on the loan is

lower than the account's rate of return. For example,

if you borrow money from an account earning 10%

and you pay 7% interest on the loan, you miss out

on a potential 3% return on the balance of the loan.

Over time, those missed earnings could result in

less substantial retirement savings.

Finally, take note: Some employers set deadlines

for applying for loans and may take up to two

months to process the application, so plan carefully

if you absolutely must take a retirement plan loan.

Because of the possibility of human or mechanical error by S&P Capital

IQ Financial Communications or its sources, neither S&P Capital IQ

Financial Communications nor its sources guarantees the accuracy,

adequacy, completeness or availability of any information and is not

responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from

the use of such information. In no event shall S&P Capital IQ Financial

Communications be liable for any indirect, special or

consequential damages in connection with subscriber's or others' use of

the content.

© 2013 S&P Capital IQ Financial Communications. All rights reserved.

Tracking #1-201390

Securities offered through LPL Financial. Member FINRA/SIPC. Invest-

ment advice offered through IFG Advisory, LLC,

a registered investment advisor. IFG Advisory, LLC and Milestone In-

vestment Management, LLC

are separate entities from LPL Financial.

CONTACT:

Mandy Smith, CDFA

Certified Divorce Financial Analyst

Milestone Investment Management 206 Mandeville Avenue

Carrollton, GA 30117

Phone 770-830-0063

Fax 770-830-0065

[email protected] Mandy Smith


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C A N D I D A T E I N T R O D U C T I O N S

Chris May

My name is Chris May and I live up

here on Aston Drive. I’ve been with

the Fulton County Fire Department

for 34 years - retired and had a lot of

good times with them and the fire

service. Also, I’m with the volunteer

fire department out here and mainly

because, not because I still enjoy the

fire service as much but because we are community.

We’re a community of good people. I’ve been working

with Fairfield since 1992. I have my own business on the

side along with fire fighting. I’ve had a lot of dealings

with a lot of people over the years. I’ve owned property

in here before and I’ve always enjoyed being in Fairfield.

A lot of my goals that I have is that I want to bring the

community together. That’s my goal. And, I want us to

work together. For the community is a group of individu-

als with ideas and purposes. Let’s all come together for us

to work together as a community. I’ve been told that I

have a conservative heart but a liberal mind, which means

not everything is in concrete. And, I do believe in rules

and regulations. I do believe in things that we follow for

that’s best for the community. But, in turn, there are dif-

ferent aspects of our community that can be changed.

Some rules can be looked at and we can use great discre-

tion on should we abandon these rules or should we get

these rules where they should be more stronger for us.

But my goal is you, all of you. From those who have

retired and been here who built this Fairfield Plantation

from day one to those who are younger and want to strive

here. My goal is to make this Fairfield Plantation, our

Fairfield Plantation, and to improve on areas where we

need to improve such as roads, such as our lighting along

the streets. I’d love to see; I’ve got a lot of ideas that I’d

like to see us in the next 3 years to pursue. Not that we

can do them all right now because we have some bills we

have to pay. But, eventually, I hope that we can work

together and make this community a lot better, a lot safer,

a lot more enjoyable; not just for us, but for the future of

our children. I hope you vote for me. Thank you.

Beth Spears

I speak to you every month so most of

you know who I am. I’m finishing up a 3

year term of service on this board and

I’m very proud of a lot of the things that

we’ve been able to accomplish this year.

We struggled through searching for the

proper way to manage the community.

We talked to a lot of other communities, we talked to a lot

of other management companies, we even talked to small

cities to see what’s the best way for Fairfield. Fairfield

started out as a small community and was run by volun-

teers and a lot of folks who chipped in and made things

happen. But we’re to the size now where that doesn’t

work anymore. We’re to the size now where a manage-

ment company like CMA doesn’t work anymore. Because

all they do is collect assessments, look after your com-

mon area and that’s pretty much it. They’re not set up to

do management. They didn’t manage every department of

this organization and that turned out to leave it to the duty

of all these board members and individual management of

departments is not our job. We want to get out of that job.

We want to leave that to the folks that we’ve hired to do

that job. I want, I must be out of my mind, but if you

decide to bring me back to this job I’m going to serve 3

more years because I think we need support for this new

management structure. It takes a while to get on your feet

and learn how things work. And you need to know what

the background was and what happened to bring us to that

place today because people just coming on don’t know all

the history and the ups and downs and the thousands of

dollars that we had to go back and collect from CMA

because books weren’t managed correctly. So, we’re

really looking forward to working with our new manage-

ment staff. Already things are turning around. I have no

goals, no agendas for running for the board. My husband

and I are not wealthy and we have invested in our home

here. My husband is retired from the army. He did 30

years in the army and retired some years ago. I work for

the state of Georgia, so our home is our largest invest-

ment. And I want to see this community remain a place

that we can enjoy, where we can retire, where we can

enjoy our retirement and if we decide to leave and go

somewhere else we can get the value out of our house we

can get out of it because if we don’t do things right and

we keep fighting among ourselves and tear down what

we’ve built, none of us can sell and none of us can recap-

ture our investment. I assure you that I have gained noth-

ing from this 3 years of service; not financially or any

other thing except now I have acid reflux. Thank you very

much.

Lee Sundberg

My name is Lee Sundberg. I live on

East Isleway Ct. I’ve lived here about

16 years. And, about 10 years ago I

was on the board. Spent 3 years on the

board I was the secretary and when I

left the board I was the treasurer.


C A N D I D A T E I N T R O D U C T I O N S

That’s a long time ago. When I filled out the application

to apply for nomination to this board they requested that I

provide concept on a strategic vision for Fairfield. For a

community to really get into a position where you can

have a strategic vision, you’ve got to have a united com-

munity. There’s three issues in this community that must

be dealt with. These are finance, conflict, and representa-

tion. Unless these issues are dealt with honestly, compe-

tently and fairly, the community will continue, will split

apart and there will be no backing of a strategic vision.

The current primary issue of Fairfield is financial. Re-

member, because of the structure that we have we can’t

get city, county, state, or federal aid. So we’ve got to

depend entirely on the moneys that we raise internally.

Right now, if we look at our finances, we’re at sort of the

tipping, and I’m talking about the combination of all the

fees. If we increase fees additionally, we’re going to have

negative impact. I’m going to give you one negative im-

pact that we already have. Back when I was treasurer, we

had between 2700 and 2800 owners paying assessments.

You know what we have now — about 2200. What does

that mean? If this trend keeps on going we’re going to be

in trouble. Because of this oncoming limitation, the board

and the community’s responsibility to work together,

establishing priorities that benefit ALL the various seg-

ments of Fairfield. Not just a few, but everybody. And

our infrastructure is one of the key issues that we need to

address and should be one of our top priorities. When you

look at spending money, it must be spent effectively and

in such a manner that the community receives the greatest

return for that money.

The second issue is conflict between the various segments

of the community. The board itself must be a leader to

minimize that conflict. The boards task in helping to re-

solve conflict is being as transparent as legally possible in

all actions and activities taken by the board. Concealing

or sweeping problems under the table only aggravate

those problems. It leads to mistrust by the community

itself. There must be an open and honest dialog between

the board and the community. As an example, we have an

open forum. People bring their problems or suggestions to

that open forum. Now one of the things that we’ve got to

do with that open forum is to give a response. Make sure

that that response is an honest response and is timed and

it can’t be dragged out.

The last issue is representation. All property owners in

Fairfield pay exactly the same annual assessment. It does-

n’t make any difference whether you’ve got a $90,000

home or a $500,000 home. You still pay the same assess-

ments. That’s why it’s important that everybody, in some

way or another, becomes involved in the decisions that

are made by our community. Any action taken by the

board should consider this as a key issue in the actions

they approve. Property owners do count. And they have

ever since this place was founded. Now look at these

three issues. They’re all interrelated. You must solve

them all together in order to succeed. Thank you for lis-

tening.

Write-in Candidate—Dennis Brown

Let me introduce myself. I am Den-

nis Brown and I am running for the

Fairfield Plantation Board of Direc-

tors as a write in candidate on the

ballot.

I have been part of the fire service

industry for 45 years as a fire

fighter. After retiring from the City

of Atlanta Fire Department, I became a Deputy Sheriff

for Paulding Co. I am also a proud Vietnam veteran, so as

you see, I have served my country and community for the

majority of my life. I am running to help continue to

bring a positive change to our community that began last

year when we elected our newest board members.

I am a firm believer that the community we live in has

for, far too long been separated into groups that do not

seem to get along. My desire is to help bridge the gap and

bring the people together verses what we see today, a

divisive community.

I am also a firm believer that debate is good. In order to

have a good debate, you first have to respect those that

you debate with. We do not have to agree, but there needs

to be some respect that we are all in this together and

Continued on page 6


Tamara Deming

Laura Perry &

Mark your calendars to see one of Fair-

field Plantation’s own, Annabelle Bearden,

perform in the play, Christmas Belles,

from August 21 through August 23 at 7:30

pm. All actors are donating their time and

money raised goes to the “Power of the

Purse” to benefit women and children ser-

vices. For more information, please see the ad below.

For Tickets: Townsendcenter.org or 678-839-4722.

C A N D I D A T E I N T R O D U C T I O N S ( C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 5 )

together we WILL work through the issues.

I also believe that transparency to those you serve and

those you are on the board of directors with is of the ut-

most importance. That is exactly what I would work dili-

gently to bring to the Board of Directors and to the com-

munity if you give me the opportunity.

Another thing that I believe in, that is we need to make

sure we address the aging amenities in our community.

That begins with a long look at the way we have been

doing business. I understand that we have already started

the process by hiring our own Chief Operating Officer,

but we are still a long ways from completing the task

before us.

The community has been are increasingly being excluded

from the process. All board members and all committee

members are volunteers, not paid employees. For the last

several years, prior and current board members have com-

pletely ignored this by making it harder and harder for the

average property owner to participate in the process. We

need to take a serious look at this.

Another concern would be our reserves. I have heard that

we have nearly a half a million dollars in reserves, but

that is not enough. A community of our size and budget

need to be in excess of 25% of our annual budget in re-

serves, or over $1 million. I will work with other Board

members to see us replenish our reserves.

Next, how do we address delinquent property owners?

The last time I saw the numbers and did the math. We are

currently sitting at 60% paying and 40% not paying. I

personally think we need to go after more of the property

owners then we currently do. By law, we have four years

of past due assessments we can go after, not just the last

two years on a number of properties. I would like to see a

more aggressive approach; let’s go after those that top

two years in behind and go after those that are out of

state. This could be done by hiring our own attorney in-

stead of contracting a law firm. That would allow our

own attorney to spend more time chasing those that are

behind.

Last, but not least, we need to make sure we find ways to

continue to keep our property assessments within reason.

I believe we have already passed the tipping point. Yes,

our assessments are not terrible for all of us, but they are

to those that moved to Fairfield Plantation many years

ago. We need to keep all property owners in mind at the

annual budget time.

I hope that I have answered a lot of your questions as well

as allowed you to see exactly where I stand on our issues.

I hope that You will give me the opportunity to serve our

community by voting for Dennis Brown as a write in vote

on the ballot.

Editor’s note: Mr. Brown was not allowed to speak

during the July POA meeting. I invited him, as well as

Anne Lussier, to write responses here if they were

going to be Write-In Candidates. Mr. Brown is running

for the board and accepted my invitation. Ms. Lussier

did not reply to my email.

Steve Barden

Mark your calendars to vote

for the POA Board member

of your choice. Packets will

arrive sometime around

August 23. Please pay careful attention

how to turn in your vote from these pack-

ets or go to the Annual Meeting on Sep-

tember 27 to vote in person.


G A R D E N C L U B The Garden Club will no longer be decorating the front

and back gates at Christmas and the POA Board has al-

ready been given this information. Thank you to every-

one who helped physically and with donations for this to

happen as our club is strictly a social club and had origi-

nally took the Christmas gate decorations as our only

member project.

Brenda Rhodes, President

The Plantation Planters Garden Club had their meeting on August 13, at the Country Club. The new board members for 2014 – 2015 were introduced, and they are as follows: Presidents – Brenda Rhodes and Linda Propp, Parliamentarian – Dottie Hitzeman, Pro-grams – Susan Emmons and Allison Jiles, Special Events – Tee Bayless and Nancy Dombrowsky, Secretary – Judi McClellan, Treasurer – Wanda Olson, Publicity – Marilyn Coulon, Communications – Rose Garrison, Yard of the Month – Tammy Priest and Jo Jensen, and Table

Decorations – Kay Falkner and Gloria Shiverdecker. Everyone enjoyed playing Bingo for our program this month! The next meeting will be September 10 at 11:00 am at the Dockside Marina. Our program will be a pres-entation on growing hydrangeas. In October we will be taking another fun field trip – this time to the Hiawassee Mountain Fair in north Georgia. Come join this fun group – dues are only $15.00. Contact Wanda Olson (770-830-7711) for more information on membership.

In the predawn hours of a warm Sunday in July, a young

scientist got out of the dark sedan to survey her

surroundings. She slowly walked the tree line, listening,

watching, applying what she knows, before turning to me

and saying "This is where I will set up the nets." And so

began the next 4 hours with Alie Mayes, an ornithologist

from the Smithsonian Institution.

Hosted locally by the Fernbank Museum, the

Smithsonian's Neighborhood Nestwatch program

embraces citizen-science by teaching individuals the

skills necessary to become biologists in their own back

yards. Conceived of and directed by Dr. Peter P. Marra of

the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center in Washington,

D.C. Nestwatch participants learn about birds

a n d h e l p scientists answer two critical

questions regarding the survival of

b a c k - yard bird populations:

H o w successful are backyard bird

nests? And How long do backyard

b i r d s live?

With stealth and an experienced hand, my mentor quickly

erected fine, nylon nets in three different locations in my

back yard. She then set out her trade tools: a digital scale,

metal and plastic bands, calipers, log books and sample

collection envelopes. Using audio recordings of callbacks

and scolds to lure the curious, we soon caught, weighed,

measured, banded and collected feather samples from

three Carolina Chickadees, a Carolina Wren and an

Eastern Tufted Titmouse. Each of “my” birds received

unique color-coded bands for ease of visual tracking. No

birds were hurt in the process .

As a newly trained citizen

scientist, my job will be to

report sightings, nestings and

the success or failure of

fledglings out of my birds.

Isn’t science fun?

Pat Rivera

Bird Bling

Sat. Aug. 16 Women’s Club Spaghetti Dinner and Bingo

The Women’s Club will be hosting a Spaghetti Dinner and Bingo on Saturday, August 16th at the Country Club.

Dinner will be served from 6 to 7pm and bingo will begin at 7pm.

Ticket price is $10 for a spaghetti meal. Bingo cards will be $3.00 each or 2 for $5.00.

If you don’t want to eat and just want to play the cover charge will be $5.00 per person.

Space will be limited so please call Tammy Priest at 770-809-9217 to reserve your spot.

N E I G H B O R H O O D N E S T W A T C H


I am awful at birthdays.

I don’t know why birthdays are so hard to get right, why I draw such a blank on them. Birthdays are sup-

posed to be magical times, your own personal holi-day, and I should welcome the opportunity to show friends and family how special each one is to me.

Instead, I drop the ball when it comes to cards and gifts. If you think I am exaggerating or indulging in hyperbole, let’s review some recent examples of birthday debacles:

I am correspondence secretary for our women’s club. That means that I send a birthday card to each member on her birthday. That shouldn’t be too hard, they even supplied me with a box of cards, but

I still suck. I haven’t mailed a birthday card since June. That’s right y’all- none of the dear ladies with July birthdays got diddly from us.

A friend turned 11 and officially became a Tween. I was going to visit her mama that evening and thought it would be nice to take her a bag of M&Ms. I picked up the bag of candy at Walmart and was super proud of myself for remembering her birthday ON her birthday. All was well until later that evening as I was driving to their house here in the neighborhood and I realized I had no giftwrap on the bag of M&Ms. Without giftwrap the bag of candy looked like something I rummaged out of the cupboard instead of the thoughtful gift I intended. (Thankfully my well stocked car contained a stick-on bow.)

On Mother’s most recent birthday we had planned to get together the following week and go out to supper at a favorite restaurant of ours. Plans made, I put her birthday out of my mind. Totally out of my mind- close to midnight the day of her birthday I logged into Facebook and received notification of her personal holiday and celebrated by a last minute post on her timeline. Seriously, an 11:50pm post on her Facebook page is the only thing Mother re-ceived from me on her birthday.

The above examples are on my mind because Mis-

ter’s birthday is this month and I am looking for-

ward to another opportunity to fail at birthdays. I

don’t suppose this short essay will count as a birth-

day greeting…

Christina Henggeler

A W F U L A T B I R T H D A Y S

Dining out, cooking in, and everything delish in-between

As I was trying to come up with what to write about this month I found a list of the 10 most popular

topics for food blogs and I was happy to see I have hit almost all of them- bacon, healthy food substitutes, pizza, etc… One of the subjects I have yet to touch on is the

ever popular GMO/organic craze. *cue dramatic sound effect* As a molecular biologist/geneticist by trade I will try to leave out my opinions on this subject and just give the facts and nothing but the facts. Yes, from those of you that know me personally I just heard the ‘yea, right!’ from here.

GMO (genetically modified organism) is an organism that has been genetically altered by one of a multitude of

available techniques. This means that it has had part of its genetic makeup deleted, changed or added to. We currently use these scien-tific advances to aide in medical research, produc-tion of pharmaceutical drugs, experimental medi-cine, and agriculture pro-duction. For this short article, I will only touch on the agricultural aspect since eating is my thing and all.

For agricultural purposes we have been selectively breeding our food since we started cultivating it thou-sands and thousands of years ago. Without this the selection process, the pro-duce we know and love today would not be as sweet, juicy, nutrient rich, hearty and really just down-right edible. With technol-ogy we have been able to take those traits that we have selected for and ensure that the crops we grow all contain or lack the desired or undesired trait. Whether that is drought or insect resistance, long shelf life, or increased nutritional value.

Measurable benefits of GMOs are the ability to feed our growing population, ability to add nutritional value to foods that are lacking to better feed people in 3rd world countries and grapples. I mean really, who doesn’t love an apple that taste like a grape?!? The current fear is that GMO foods could possibly be bad for our health and the environment. Rigorous testing is being done to prove these fears and at present time there is no scientific study that has been conducted to show that GMOs are danger-ous for us. That being said, not every GMO is the same so keep in mind as you hear about different types of ge-netically altered organisms you can’t treat them all the same.

Organic is another buzz word that is thrown around in this discussion. For a food to be classified as USDA Organic it cannot contain GMOs and it can also not have been treated with any chemical/synthetic fertilizers, irra-diation, or antibiotics or hormones at any level of the production process.

If these production measures are a concern of yours you can easily shop organic and GMO free. I mentioned eas-ily but definitely won’t mention cheaply. Due to the work involved to grow non-gmo and organic the foods definitely come at a higher price. That is why I love re-ferring to 2 list while shopping- The Dirty Dozen and The Clean Fifteen. The Dirty Dozen is the list of produce that you should always buy organic and The Clean Fifteen are items that you should save your money on because it doesn’t really have that great of an effect if they are or-ganic or not. The Dirty Dozen consists of: Peaches, Ap-ples, Sweet Bell Peppers, Celery, Nectarines, Strawber-ries, Cherries, Pears, Grapes, Spinach, Lettuce, and Pota-toes. The Clean Fifteen is: onions, avocados, sweet corn, pineapples, mango, sweet peas, asparagus, kiwi fruit, cabbage, eggplant, cantaloupe, watermelon, grapefruit, sweet potatoes, and sweet onions.

All that said, as with any topic of this kind I just always encourage folks to do their own research and not just be part of our sound clip society. Whether you eat modified or unmodified I just hope it is delish!

Michelle Nyberg

A G I R L H A S T O E A T


Tovey’s World

W O M E N S C L U B S P O T L I G H T — T E E B A Y L E S S Our June Member Spotlight was

Tee Bayless

Q: What attracted you to Fairfield?

A: 1st of all we love it and are glad

we’re here, but absolutely nothing

attracted us here. We call our house

The Gift of the Magi because I

thought my husband wanted it and he

thought I did so we bought it for each

other. We didn’t need all this mainte-

nance at our age, so absolutely noth-

ing attracted us here to a place we love.

Q: When did you join the Plantation Women's Club?

A: We moved in August last year and it was probably a

few months later. I totally redo houses when we move

and this our 21st move, so I’d say a few months after mov-

ing here.

Q: What was the most important event in your life last

week?

A: Well I had a heart cath and was told I have the veins of

a teenage girl. Another exciting thing is I’ve just started

quilting and am working on my third one now. It’s really

cute and is for my husband’s niece who’s having a baby.

Q: What are you most excited about this year in relation

to The Plantation Women's Club?

A: I’m excited to get involved, I don’t want to be part of

the 80%. I want to be part of the 20% and get involved.

——————————————————————-

The next Plantation Women’s Club meeting will be held

on October 4th at 11:00am at the Country Club. We will

be celebrating our 40th Anniversary, so bring in mementos

you’ve collected over the years. Our service project for

this month will be candy for our annual Halloween Carni-

val.

The Plantation Women’s Club meetings are held the first

Saturday of the month at the Fairfield Plantation Country

Club. Social time is from 11:00-11:30 am, with lunch and

a business meeting following. New members are always

welcome and the fee to join is only $15 for the year. If

you care to join the ladies for lunch, currently the cost is

$10.50. You can reserve your lunch for the meeting by e-

mailing Cricket Pinckney at [email protected]

or giving her a call at (770) 214-2948. We do ask that all

ladies send RSVP/Cancelations in a timely manner as all

meals reserved must be paid for. Thank you for your un-

derstanding. For more information about The Plantation

Women’s Club, contact Michelle Nyberg (President) via

e-mail: [email protected]. The Plantation Women's

Please join us if you would like to have fun, get to know

your neighbors, and raise some much needed money for

local families and charities.

Jamie Davis, Publicity

J E N N I F E R T H O M A S — C E L E B R A T I O N O F H E R L I F E On July 4th, 2014 Jennifer B. Thomas, age 59, of Battle Drive, Villa Rica, declared her independence from pancreatic

cancer. She leaves behind a loving husband Jeffrey, and sister Vicki in California.

Jennifer's wish for a simple cremation and a pizza party was celebrated on July 20th, 2014 at the Carrollton Cultural

Arts Center, Alabama St, Carrollton with hundreds celebrating her life and her impact on each of them. Although she will

be greatly missed, it is her memory that will

live on to those fortunate enough to know

her.

After a brief hiatus, the Recreation Committee in Conjunction with The American Red Cross is extremely pleased to announce the return of Fairfield Plantation’s Blood Drives. The upcoming drive will be held at the recreation center on Friday, September 12th from 3:00 to 8:00pm. Last year we raised almost 300 pints for the Red Cross and would like to do even better this year. You can make an appointment or stop by as a walk in after work. There is a national blood shortage right now and your donations are needed now more than ever. Donating blood is a great way to give back, takes less than an hour of your time, and can help save up to 3 lives. So make sure and stop in for your donation and chat with some old friends and maybe even make some new ones. You can find out more about donor eligibility by visiting www.redcrossblood.org. You can also book an ap-pointment for the drive at that website or by contacting me at 770-257-7818 or at [email protected]


R E C C O R N E R – A U G U S T 2 3 R D B A N D O N T H E B E A C H

Business News

If you were unfortunate enough to miss The Sons of Alice band when they performed at Dockside Marina earlier in the summer, don’t fear, be-cause the Recreation Committee is pleased to announce that they will be our act for the annual Band on the Beach, on

August 23rd from 8:00 to 11:00pm. This local favorite is a real family affair. The band draws their name from brothers Alex Burley on keyboard and vocals and Adam Powell who plays guitar and is the lead vocal-ist are both the sons of an obviously talent bearing mother named “Alice”. The family connection doesn’t end there though. Adam’s son, Joshua “Mr. Joshua” Powell is the band’s drummer. The soon to be Gretchen Powell rounds out the bands eclectic vocal powerhouse.

The Sons have a reputation as a great dance and party band. They are the kind of band that makes it impossi-ble to stay in your seat while they are performing. This is a band that will leave you out of breath from dancing and wanting more at the end of their set. Their exten-sive repertoire of all time classic rock and country hits is supplemented by driving originals that are influenced by everything from the great singer songwriter duos born out of Alex and Adam’s earlier work together to the local geographic influences of country and R&B, to

more conventional rock fare like Tom Petty and Cold-play. There is sure to be a little something for everyone in these hard working artists set list to enjoy.

The Sons of Alice have released two CDs to date and are working on a third. Their first self-titled release along with their follow up, “Every Day is a New Day”, are both available for download on ITunes. The band is also very excited about their upcoming third addition to the catalog which Alex says has been more of a group effort so far with the additions of Joshua’s more modern and sometimes unconventional, yet ex-ceptional influence, along with Gretchen’s soulful vocal contributions.

The band has gained quite a following in the 3 years

that they have been playing together. They have performed at over 800 gigs, and although they were unable to attend to due to previous commit-ments, were recently selected on Reverb Nation, out of thousands of bands to perform at the Pepsi Gulf Coast Jam Festival. The band could have cancelled their gigs to attend the festival but they firmly believe in a support your local band phi-losophy that fosters a feeling of friendship among their fans. This is not a band with an ultimate end goal of stardom. They are simply talented musi-cians that are family first and friends second, with a goal of providing for each other through their genuine shared love of writing and performing great music.

To learn more about this visiting band and find out about other upcoming area performances and see sam-ples of their work, please visit them at www.thesonsofalice.com

This is going to be a great all ages event, where resi-dents and their guests are invited to bring their favorite food, beverages, and blankets for an evening of fun under the stars. Please remember that no glass of any kind will be permitted at this event and as always if you would like to volunteer to help out with this or any rec event in any way, please contact Phil O’Brien at [email protected]

Phil O’Brien

L A B O R D A Y B E A C H B A S H

R E D C R O S S B L O O D D R I V E

Monday, September 1st will mark the 3rd and final Beach Bash of the 2014 summer season. Please come out and join us as we mark the occasion with all of the games, music, and contests that you know and love. There will be a DJ playing music, hosting games, and giving out prizes. The sand-castle competition has been pretty fierce for the last couple of events so garb your favorite sand sculpting tools and come strut your stuff. During the 4th of July Beach Bash the girls bested the boys in the tug-of-war, so guys, now is the time to redeem yourselves. The event will run from 12:00 to 4:00pm, so grab your towels and sunscreen and come out and join us for some Labor Day fun!

The Sons of Alice

F A I R F I E L D P L A N T A T I O N N E W S A N D V I E W S Market Place

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Al-Anon Meets Tuesdays @12:00 noon.

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Bethany Christian Church 2862 Carrollton Villa Rica Hwy

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404-308-2396 This is a

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