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Candice Olson creates a entertaining area fit for a "super-funky" city loft.

Nalini is a young urbanite who just bought her first home – a century-old, converted loft in the heart of the city. It’s a super-funky space, and Nalini just loves it, but the cramped kitchen just didn’t fit in with the condo’s high ceilings, wooden beams and exposed ductwork. The layout was awkward, there was little storage space, and then there were the awful pink walls. The kitchen was dreary, uninspiring and just wasn’t conducive to cooking and entertaining – two must-haves for Nalini.

It was so dreadful that Nalini (and her beloved dog, Fozzie) didn’t even want to unpack until the eyesore of a room was taken care of. So, while Nalini and her canine companion moved out for a short while, I moved in with my crew to turn this small kitchen into a more functional space for Nalini and her friends.

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NORTHEAST COBB — Athletes from around the state have gathered in Cobb County this weekend for the annual Special Olympics Georgia indoor winter games.

The games began Friday night with an opening ceremony at the Cobb Civic Center in Marietta. Atlanta Dream basketball player Lindsey Harding was the grand marshal. Today will be the final day of competition, with a unified basketball game scheduled from 8 a.m. to noon at All-Tournament Players Park at 3910 Canton Road, just south of Ebenezer Road, in northeast Cobb.

The games are free and open to the public.

Competitions took place at various locations in the county, including Brunswick Zone, The Cooler, Marietta Middle School and Cobb Civic Center. About 2,800 athletes, coaches and unified partners have participated in basketball, bowling, floor hockey, powerlifting, artistic gymnastics and roller skating.

This year marks the 20th year that the Special Olympics Georgia indoor winter games have been conducted in Cobb. Spokeswoman Wendy Bigham said the many athletic facilities available in the county make it an ideal place to host the annual event.

“Cobb County has always been welcoming and enthusiastic to host all of our athletes and families that come across the state to compete,” said Bigham, a Vinings resident.

Many athletes from outside metro Atlanta stay in the county’s hotels and eat at local restaurants during their weekend stay for the games.

The games cost about $188,000 to conduct each year, according to Special Olympics Georgia. The money, which comes from sponsors and grants, goes toward housing, transportation, facility rentals, medals, meals and the opening ceremony for participants.

On Saturday, Michelle Praiff, 20, of Powder Springs, competed in team basketball with her Cobb Lakers teammates at All-Tournament Players Park. Praiff is a Special Olympics veteran, having participated in the games since she was 14 years old, at the urging of her sister. She also plays softball, swimming, and track and field.

“I enjoy it and seeing everybody happy, when they make (free throw) shots and when they see the trophies,” said Praiff, a Hillgrove Transition Academy student. “I get happy because seeing them makes me happy.”

Special Olympics Georgia provides year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of sports for more than 23,000 children and adults with intellectual disabilities. During its 40 years, the organization has grown to include 24 sports.

More than 1,500 athletes and 100 unified partners — participants without disabilities — will compete this weekend, with more than 500 coaches guiding them.

In 2004, Pat Thoreson, head basketball coach of the Cobb Celtics, said he first became involved in the Special Olympics to support his disabled stepson, Sean Concepcion, whom he said is a talented athlete. Since then his participation has grown to a variety of sports.

“In regular life they’re ostracized,” he said of the athletes. “They don’t feel like they’re a part of either school, work or play. Here, it gives them a chance to feel liked and accepted.”

Stacey Tomberlin of Dallas agreed. Her 17-year-old son, Ryan, has been involved with the Special Olympics since he was 8 years old. He competed in basketball on Saturday.

“It’s a place where they belong, where they’re not judged,” she said. “It gives them a chance to build real friendships.”


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MARIETTA — After twice tabling the subject, the City Council is once again scheduled on Wednesday to discuss Kroger’s request to revise Marietta’s adult beverage ordinance to allow for wine tasting in grocery stores.

Council members such as Grif Chalfant, Johnny Sinclair and Annette Lewis have fretted that approving the request would allow gas stations that have the same alcohol package permit Kroger does to begin conducting some variation of a wine tasting such as “Ripple Day.”

City Manager Bill Bruton said nothing prevents Kroger or the gas stations from holding wine tastings now as long as customers are not charged. Kroger and the gas stations have a package license as opposed to a pouring license to sell wine. A business can have one or the other. Businesses with a package license are not allowed to pour their customers wine and charge for it. But they can offer wine tastings for free, which is why such places as Marietta Wine Market holds twice weekly wine tastings on Wednesday and Saturday. The problem is that Kroger wants to charge a fee for its tasting events and wants the city to revise its ordinance to reflect this desire. But that opens up the problem of allowing gas stations, which currently have no financial incentive to serve wine, to potentially turn into bars, Bruton said. And that could create a public safety problem.

Kroger spokesman Thomas Friedheim said while it’s something Kroger is willing to reconsider, the company wants to charge a $10 fee per participant for wine-tasting.

“As you can imagine, a great deal of preparation is involved in a quality educational wine-tasting with a guest speaker,” Friedheim said. “Charging a (even small) fee has served to attract a solid commitment from

participants who attend. It tends to attract those who consider the tasting to be of real value vs. free wine and it helps stores cover the costs associated with the materials provided with the tasting — wine, stemware (which the participant keeps) and educational materials. It raises the bar, if you will.”

Karen Heard of Marietta Wine Market said she’s been holding wine tastings in her store since she opened in 2005.

“It’s our way of giving back to the community,” Heard said.

For every wine tasting she conducts, she asks participants to consider a donation for a particular group such as Theatre in the Square or Southeastern Greyhound Adoption.

“We say a suggested $10,” Heard said. “But if they want to put a check in for $100, which some people do, the idea is to give sort of what you can. Some people come in and put a dollar in the basket which is barely going to cover the cost of the wine, but then other people will make, depending on what the charity is, if it’s an animal one they seem to donate more.”

Heard sees no reason why Kroger shouldn’t be allowed to offer wine tastings, whether a fee is charged or not, as long as it’s done with care. Nor does she believe it will become a problem at gas stations if the City Council modifies its ordinance.

“I don’t see that,” Heard said. “You don’t want people coming in just to drink free wine and we really don’t get that. People don’t come in to drink or get drunk. They’re really coming in for tasting, and they’re really not drinking that much, if an ounce.”

Heard refuses to serve customers who arrive drunk, she said.

Before tabling the subject at the last Judicial/Legislative Committee meeting, council members asked city attorney Doug Haynie to contact the attorney who represents the city of Dalton, a city that already allows Kroger to hold wine tastings. Haynie emailed the Council on Thursday about his findings.

“The city attorney said the City of Dalton is happy with the ordinance and has not had any problems with its implementation or enforcement,” Haynie wrote.

The Dalton Kroger conducts its wine tastings in the store’s upstairs as a special event, Haynie said.

Yet Kroger will have to revise its request if it wants the support of Mayor Steve Tumlin, who is currently opposed to the idea. Tumlin said were the city to adopt the same ordinance as Dalton’s, it would potentially allow 78 Marietta businesses with a package license to offer wine tastings.

“It’s taking the exception to the pouring license one step further than I’m prepared to go right now,” Tumlin said. “We could create 78 new bars and not mean to.”

In addition to Dalton, Sandy Springs and Peachtree City have adopted a similar wine tasting ordinance with Atlanta and surrounding communities considering the idea, although the plan is not to have all 175 Kroger’s in Georgia offer the service, Friedheim said.

Moreover, unlike the twice a week Marietta Wine Market, Friedheim said Kroger plans only six wine tasting events per year at its stores.

“Tastings are a supplemental marketing and merchandising activity, not a part of our ongoing/regular retail operations,” he said.

Friedheim sees a growing desire among customers to learn more about wine and the grapes used to make it.

“They want to be educated — about wine-growing regions … and the rich variety of red wines, white wines and sparkling wines on our shelves,” he said. “They want to be able to select wines they will enjoy —it really is that simple.”

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A backup heating system is sometimes necessary for Jonesboro homeowners who heat their homes with an air-source heat pump. This style of heat pump transfers the heat from the outside air to your home in the winter, and it pushes the warm air outside the home in the summer. Although some systems are efficient enough to work in colder climates, most heat pump systems require a backup heater when temperatures drop below 20° F.

Furnaces are commonly used as a backup heater for air-source heat pumps, especially since the furnace fan blower can help distribute the hot air throughout the home. Although they are more expensive to buy and install, geothermal heat pumps typically do not require a backup heating system. These are also called ground-source or water-source heat pumps since they draw in heat from the ground below the house or from a nearby water source. Because they take advantage of the ground or water temperatures, they are also easier to maintain and have lower operating costs.

Getting the most cost-efficiency from a geothermal heat pump will depend on several factors, such as the size of your property, the temps of the subsoil, and access to local water sources. You will most likely not have to install a backup heating system with a ground-source or water-source heat pump; however, it is important to think about the installation costs and the variables that need to be in place before deciding on this type of heat pump.

Absorption heat pumps use a heat source, such as natural gas or solar-heated water, instead of electricity. Natural gas is typically used for absorption heat pumps, so they are also called gas-fired heat pumps. Depending on the source of the heat, you may or may not need a backup heating system. It’s always best to speak to a professional heating and cooling contractor if you are not sure when it’s necessary for a backup heating system.

Call Premier Indoor Comfort Systems if you have any questions about a backup heater for your Jonesboro home.

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MARIETTA — Middle school students from all over Georgia will compete in the 19th Annual National Engineers Week Foundation’s 2011-2012 Future City Competition at Southern Polytechnic State University today.

The competition’s regional finals will feature 46 teams from Cobb County and 166 teams in all. It requires middle school students to design a virtual city of the future using the video game SimCity 4, write a research paper on “Fuel Your Future” about the energy source each group will use to run their city, build a scale model of a portion of that community and present their project before a panel of judges.

Altogether there will be about 2,500 youths involved in the

competition.

Dawn Ramsey with Southern Poly said, “Hosting the Future City Competition is a perfect fit for Southern Polytechnic State University because Future City is truly polytechnic as well. The competition challenges students in engine-

ering, computing, communication, city planning, design, construction and technical writing.

“Observing students as they explore these areas and seeing their creativity in the products they develop gives us all a glimpse of the future.”

Melissa Chouinard-Jahant, who teaches social studies at Mabry Middle School, said this is the fourth year her students have participated in the event.

“As a Mabry teacher I am always looking for new creative competitions where engineering, science, mathematics, writing, and social studies can come together,” she said. “This competition allows for all grade levels to work together and create a city of the future.”

Her favorite part about the event is hearing the students share their ideas.

“Watching them give their speeches and discuss their cities with the judges is awesome,” she said.

Chouinard-Jahant’s students volunteer to participate in the competition, joining the Future City Club, but they sign a contract committing to the competition.

Kelsie Stone is an eighth-grader at Mabry and a member of the club that will be competing today with her team.

“(My favorite part is) writing the essay and narrative and collaborating with my team to create and build an exciting and innovative city of the future,” she said.

First-time participants Marietta Middle School and North Cobb Christian School students are looking forward the competition as well.

Kristina Nesbitt is one of four teachers helping out with the program at Marietta Middle School. Her school’s magnet program is taking 25 teams, including 75 students, to the competition.

“We love this project because it’s so real world and a hands on project,” said Nesbitt.

Students are required to use recycled materials for the competition to make their city models.

“They are not perfect but (the students) are learning,” she said. “The students work on it almost every day and some come in on Saturdays and Sunday and work after school.”

One of the teams, Amor Fati, which means “love of fate” in Latin, is the name of Olivia Kiklica, Maggie Garrett and Rayo Oyeyemi’s team.

Kiklica said the city, which according to their team narrative is located in Sweden, is “very cultural” in that they have German owls and French trees as part of the model.

“We’ve been able to use our imaginations at its peak,” Oyeyemi added.

Physical science teacher and team sponsor Freddy Perry said the students’ imaginations are what he’s enjoyed seeing the most and because the cost to participate is so inexpensive they have been able to “run with it.”

“They get to use as much recycled stuff as they can use and the cost capacity is $100 but none of them will come close to hitting that,” he said. “When you look at the models, you can see their imaginations at work and I think that everybody will appreciate that.”

Nesbitt said the parents have been pleased with the student project too.

“This is their opportunity to see science in the making,” said parent volunteer Simone Deibert “I think it’s fantastic!”

Her 13-year-old son Lucas is participating in the competition for the first time today.

North Cobb Christian science and elementary technology teacher Carole Coleman said that with this being their school’s first year competing, this will be a learning experience for her students.

“We decided to compete this year because we are trying to help students get introduced to our Math Science and Technology Academy in our high school,” she said. “This event was for middle school only. Also, with the new emphasis in education with STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) standards, we felt it important to start introducing students to engineering concepts and this looked like a fun way to accomplish that.”

Her team will be competing at the introductory level.

“My favorite part of the competition is watching the students build the model and problem solving as things don’t quite work the way they had hoped,” she said.

The students on this year’s team were hand picked since the school had a limited time block to work with. Coleman picked students from her sixth grade science classes who are participating in the competition as an after school extracurricular activity.

Team member Luke West is an 11-year-old on Coleman’s team that said his favorite part about the project has been building the virtual city and using the SimCity 4 video game to create it.

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