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than 300 people learn how to be entrepreneurs. After
four years, there are 178 graduates in
start-up, existing or expansion stage businesses,
and three in companies that have grown to small
business status generating more than $100,000 in
revenue. There are 13 in the current class who will
graduate next Thursday.
The program, funded by United Way, community
foundations and government grants, was created to
give people with low and moderate incomes help in
becoming self-employed.
Harris said with the slump in the economy, she is
seeing a new group of applicants -- former
executives needing advice in starting over again.
Teresa Harris had lost her job in medical billing
and collections when she heard about the
Microenterprise Center. She and Gaylord, who was
working as a Medicaid supervisor with a
pharmaceutical company, decided to start their own
medical billing and collections company. But they
needed help learning the nuts and bolts of starting
and growing a business. The program gave them that,
they said, and also advice in balancing business and
family life.
"I think we could have made it on our own, but it
would have taken us a lot longer," Harris said. "We
still face challenges in our business, but I believe
the sky is the limit for us."
Things are going well for the pair. In February, the
women moved their business, JesUs Medical Billing,
out of a basement office in Gaylord's home into a
medical office building in Mableton. They have paid
off a loan the program gave them to upgrade computer
equipment and they have enough business to hire
additional help.
"Patricia continues to pour into our lives to help
us as business owners and as individuals,"
Gaylord said. "I always remember her first words to
us about our dreams. She said there may be other
companies like yours, but no one will ever do it the
way you will."
Linemen power victory
A group of Marietta Power workers can replace a
transformer in less than 13 minutes. The average
time is 18 minutes. Their speed led to victory over
62 teams from across the country at a national
lineworkers rodeo in Jacksonville.
Shane Champion, Clark Galloway and Greg Reese all
won a perfect score in five events placing them at
the top overall at the recent American Public Power
Lineworkers Rodeo recently.
Bobby Watson, Brandon Wylie and John Atcheson won
first place in the hurt man rescue.
The team was judged on how quickly they could rescue
an injured lineman from the top of a pole.
Their boss, electrical director Gene Parsons, said
proudly that the group won the competition the
old-fashioned way.
That means no bucket trucks or hydraulic equipment
to remove the 253-pound transformer. The power
workers climbed the pole, disconnected the
transformer and lowered it to the ground with ropes,
and then hauled up a replacement.
Parsons, who's worked for the city's power
department, said working on the lines is hard,
physical work. The rodeo competition is done the way
linemen worked when he began work 37 years ago. Then
everything was done manually -- without the
equipment that is available today.
"Word got out during the competition about the
Marietta teams," Parsons said. "At first, no one
knew who we were. But by lunch, there was a crowd
watching us every time we did an event."
Free neighborhood workshop
A program that has helped people tackle problems in
their neighborhoods is branching out. The next step
for the Community Leadership Development Program is
a workshop on how to organize a homeowners
association.
Cobb County Commission Chairman Sam Olens will run
the free workshop for Powder Springs homeowners and
renters, 7 p.m. Monday, at the Ron Anderson
Community Center, 3820 Macedonia Road. The program
will cover the benefits of starting a homeowners'
group and how to get one started.
The leadership program has finished its 11th
community leadership program. Thirteen members of
the Loop Group, a civic organization that covers
most of the heart of Marietta, graduated Tuesday.
The group completed 12 workshops taught by local
experts on finding resources and coming up with
solutions to community problems.
"If you change neighborhoods one by one, then you
can change a community," said Jeri Barr, CEO of Cobb
Family Resources. "It's always more powerful to have
people on the inside making the changes -- because
it's their community."
Classes have been held in Austell, Powder Springs
and Marietta. The program, designed by the Fanning
Institute for Leadership at the University of
Georgia, is coordinated in Cobb by Cobb Family
Resources. The social service agency plans to
organize more neighborhoods in Marietta
into a task force that will address social concerns
in the city on a larger scale.
Local authors to sign novels
Three local authors will sign copies of their
historical novels 2 p.m. Saturday at Haversack Books
on Powder Springs Road in Marietta. Marilyn and
Michael Gilhuly's novel, "Call to Glory: The Life
and Times of a Texas Ranger" is based on tales of
her ancestors. Mike Dempsey's book, "A Still Small
Voice" is a blend of fact and fiction about the
Atlanta Campaign during the Civil War.
Dempsey, who works in marketing for Delta Air Lines,
has written two historical novels and is working on
a sequel to "A Still Small Voice," a book about a
fictional chaplain and Gen. William Tecumseh
Sherman.
"I had to rewrite the parts about Sherman and make
him tougher -- more Shermanesque," Dempsey said. "I
have more stories to tell. Maybe I will become the
Louis L'Amour of Civil War writers."
Marilyn Gilhuly, a Texas native, drew on stories
passed down through her father's family to write a
novel with husband Michael, an emergency room
physician. Marilyn Gilhuly is the former chair of
the Cobb County Republican Party and the first
female president of the Atlanta Civil War Round
Table. The east Cobb couple is writing a sequel,
"Ride to Glory."
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