Bremen BRIDGE Festival and 5K to Help Combat Drug Usage in West Georgia

Saturday, May 9
On-site registration for 5K Run/Walk and Children's Bike
Ride: 7 a.m.
5K Run/Walk: 8 a.m. ($10 donation/entry fee benefits BRIDGE)
Children's Bike Ride: 9 a.m. ($5 donation/entry fee benefits
BRIDGE)
Festival Booths Open: 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Drug Awareness Presentation: 12:15 p.m.

The City of Bremen will host its second-annual Bremen BRIDGE
Festival and 5K Run on Saturday, May 9 from 8 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Interested participants in the 5K run/walk and children's bike
ride can register on-site at 7 a.m.

The festival will include more than 30 community exhibitors and
food vendors, a classic car show, inflatables and an arts and
crafts area. The event will also feature live performances by
more than 20 local artists.

This annual family celebration benefits BRIDGE, a West Georgia
program designed to Build Recovery in Drug Gripped Environments.
Visitors will have the chance to learn about living healthier
with on-site information booths and complimentary basic health
screenings, as well as a drug awareness presentation.

Bremen Public Service Building
516 Tallapoosa Street East
Bremen, GA 30110

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West Georgia Celebrates Earth Day 2009

The University of West Georgia will celebrate Earth Day on Wednesday, April 22, with something for everyone that includes cotton candy, Wolfie and recycling. The free event is scheduled from 2 to 5 p.m. near the Campus Center and the community is welcome to attend.

Faculty and staff, fraternities and sororities, the Geosciences Club and the Geography Honor Society, have planned one of the largest Earth Days to be held on campus.

A Miss Earth Day Pageant, where contestants don only costumes made from recycled products, an Earth Day tee shirt sale, a guest appearance by Wolfie and recycling tubs for ink cartridges, cell phones and aluminum are some of the green and blue attractions for the event.

A traditional Earth Day tree planting will also take place on campus. At 2:30 p.m., three kwanzan cherry trees will be planted near the Calloway Building’s annex. James Hembree, UWG horticulturalist, will provide the trees and dig the holes and faculty and students will help plant. The 10-foot trees will replace a large cherry tree taken down during construction of the addition to Calloway months ago.

Not to be outdone, Aramark, the university food service provider, and Auxiliary Services will celebrate Earth Day all week long April 20 – 24.

Both will help with the green effort Monday through Friday by a different energy saving technique each day. Trayless Dining Day will save hundreds of gallons of water; Dim the Lights Day will lower energy costs, and Weigh the Waste Day, Recycling Day for cell phones and an Earth Day Meal will help the campus community think and eat green.

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Bremen BRIDGE Festival to Help Combat Drug Usage in West Georgia

/PRNewswire/ -- The City of Bremen will usher in summer with the Bremen BRIDGE Festival on Saturday, May 9. This annual family celebration benefits BRIDGE, a West Georgia program designed to Build Recovery in Drug Gripped Environments. The theme of this year's event is "Bremen is building a BRIDGE and working to get over it." Activities will include a 5K Fun Run, a children's bike ride with bike safety course, a children's arts and crafts area, live performances by local artists and churches and food vendors. Visitors will also have the chance to learn about living healthier with on-site information booths and complimentary basic health screenings.

"It's important that we teach our children the benefit of living well, including saying no to drugs," said Dr. William Parrish, a physician with Primary Care of Bremen and an event sponsor. "It's an issue that affects the entire community, but is also one we can help resolve together."

Georgia, with its extensive network of highways, large coastal line, and airport connections is a major location for drug trafficking. In smaller communities, such as Bremen, the effects can be devastating.

"Programs such as BRIDGE enable us to work as a community to both improve the health and help prevent relapse for those affected by drug abuse," added Dr. Parrish.

Proceeds for the Family Fun Day will go in support of BRIDGE. Activities will take place in downtown Bremen at the Public Service Building from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Activities include:

-- 5K Fun Run with prizes for top finishers ($10 donation/entry fee)
-- Children's Bike Ride and Bike Safety Course ($5 donation/entry fee)
-- Children's Craft Area
-- Kid's Play area including Inflatables
-- Festival Food Vendors
-- Live musical performances
-- And more...



To become a sponsor, vendor or to register for the fun run or ride, please call 404-961-2230 or email interest to: bridge@co-pinteractive.com. Additional information is available at www.co-pinteractive.com/clients/bridge.

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Comet Lulin to Make Rare Appearance

A comet is soaring through the sky and residents will be able to see it tonight at the West Georgia Observatory on the UWG campus.

Don't miss a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to view the Comet Lulin.

The West Georgia Observatory will open for public viewing of Comet Lulin on Monday, February 23, from 9:30 to 10:30 p.m.

The comet will be 38 million miles from Earth, the closest it will ever get, and should also be visible through binoculars and in dark unlit areas by the naked eye.

Quanzhi Ye, a 19-year-old meteorology student in Mainland China, discovered Comet Lulin on images taken with a 16-inch telescope at Lulin Observatory at National Central University in Taiwan in 2007.

Public observations are held monthly and for special viewings if the sky is clear. Groups or organizations may request special observations conducted by professor and chair of the Department of Physics, Dr. Bob Powell.

In addition to the public viewing on Monday, the observatory will be open each month through May. A complete schedule can be seen at http://www.westga.edu/~physics/observatory.html.
The WG Observatory is located on Plant Op Drive off West Georgia Drive. For more information, call 678-839-4095 or send a note to bpowell@westga.edu.

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West Georgia Excels in Water Conservation

Water conservation is still a hot topic as government agencies grapple on how to conserve water during the dry summer months. The 10-month state mandate on water conservation continues and so does the University of West Georgia’s highly successful water conservation program.

UWG has exceeded the state’s mandate for reduction of water consumption despite record enrollment numbers and a continuing drought. Since Gov. Sonny Perdue gave the executive order for state institutions to reduce water consumption by 10 to 15 percent last October, UWG has complied by 39 percent for the month of November and has maintained an average monthly reduction of 23 percent in water consumption.

The university’s water conservation plan began years before the mandate and that is one reason for the university’s success, said Robert Watkins, director of facilities.

“The university has been proactive in conserving resources with a goal of sustainability on this campus and in the community,” said Watkins. “We have succeeded on many levels and look forward to the new academic year with more successes under our belts.”

In response to the governor’s mandate, UWG implemented additional conservation initiatives that include postponing landscaping projects, extensive training of UWG staff in water conservation, a change in dish washing and food disposal in food services and discontinuing washing state fleet vehicles. UWG crews also increased surveys of university water fountains, faucets and other plumbing for leaks and repaired the equipment as needed.

In 2005, the university’s energy and resource conservation program intensified after an Ad Hoc Energy Conservation Committee formed in response to a request from UWG President Beheruz N. Sethna. For several months the group met to assess ways to reduce natural gas, electric and water usage throughout the campus.

"I am very proud of our water management,” said Sethna. “From the entire spectrum of finding aquifers through the exceptional work of Dr. Randy Kath and our other geosciences faculty twenty years ago to the present day conservation efforts headed by Facilities and Grounds and then the implementation by faculty, staff and students of the University of West Georgia. Water conservation is a way of life at this campus.”

As a result of the committee’s findings, West Georgia began a progressive conservation program that has saved thousands of dollars in energy costs and hundreds of thousands of gallons in water resources.

In addition to the successful conservation efforts on campus, West Georgia’s conservation efforts are being realized off campus. The university has partnered with the city of Carrollton and using one of several artesian wells operating on campus, a water usage agreement allows the city to take 15,000 gallons of water daily, an amount that totals 300,000 gallons a month. Dan Lewis, coordinator of Business and Finance development, said it is a service gladly given to university neighbors.

“This is a way West Georgia helps its community,” said Lewis, who posts a UWG Energy Report each month on the university website. “The wells are a tremendous resource and thanks to those professors in our geosciences department that helped to locate these resources, we are able to utilize them on and off campus.”

Speaker Murphy Exhibit Opens

The Irvine Sullivan Ingram Library at the University of West Georgia and the Georgia Humanities Council opened the exhibit, “Speaker Tom Murphy: Steady Leadership in Changing Times,” with guest Georgia House Speaker Glenn Richardson this week at the Dallas branch of the Paulding County Public Library. The exhibit is free and the community is invited to attend.

The exhibit will be on display throughout the month of June. The project is supported by the Georgia Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities and through appropriations from the Georgia General Assembly.

This summer, the Murphy exhibit will travel to various public libraries in the West Georgia Regional Library System before returning to UWG in November. Additional exhibit locations include the Heard County Public Library in Franklin in July, which will coordinate the exhibit with the community’s Chattahoochee Independence Day celebration.

In the months of August and September the exhibit will be at the William P. Sewell Public Library in Bremen and then travel to the Douglas County Public Library in Douglasville in October.

Murphy, who passed away in 2007, was the 69th Speaker of the House of Representatives. Born in Haralson County, Murphy graduated from Bremen High School and North Georgia College and received his law degree from the University of Georgia. Murphy was also a Navy veteran of World War II who saw combat action in the Pacific. He served as Speaker longer than anyone else in Georgia’s history and was the longest tenured Speaker in the United States when he left office.

Ingram Library’s proposed renovation includes the installation of a permanent exhibit of a replica of Speaker Murphy’s office. The development of the panel exhibit will allow the university to begin shaping a permanent exhibit to support the future office.

The Ingram Library developed the exhibit with the assistance of the Department of History, the Center for Public History and the Georgia Political Heritage Project. All are located on the UWG campus.

The Dallas branch in Paulding is located at 1010 E. Memorial Dr., Dallas. For more information, call 678-839-6350.