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Business news
On
the Water and More introduces a new mode of travel •
Pier 29
opens in former Lantern Inn location •
A hot Holiday Saturday •
SS AirSoft sets the stage for fun games for youth and adults •
Georgia Mountain Food Bank serves Lake Lanier area counties
On
the Water and More introduces a new mode of travel
By Pamela A. Keene
 You’ll
probably do a double-take the first time you see one of them on the
street, but they’re completely legal. Made by the Korean electric
vehicle manufacturer CT&T, the new E-zone and C-zone vehicles have
landed in Georgia.
“They’re street legal in areas where the posted speed limit is 35
miles per hour or lower,” said David Stinson with On the Water and
More, the state’s exclusive dealership for CT&T. “They have a top
speed of 25 miles per hour and will run for 40 miles on one charge.”
The
E-zone is a two-seater that looks a bit like a SmartCar. Its sister
vehicle, the C-zone comes in 2-, 6- and 8-seat versions. Both have
four-wheel independent suspensions with McPherson struts, positive
traction rear ends and four-wheel hydraulic disk brakes. The E-zone
has bucket seats, stereo, electric windows and optional driver-side
airbag.
“You
can charge them on any 110 household outlet and they cost about $7 a
month to operate on a daily basis,” Stinson said.”They’ll climb a
27-degree slope.”
On
the Water and More also has added All American Trailers, from 15 to
40 feet long for boats, plus motorcycle and utility trailers.
On
the Water and More is located at the corner of Holiday Road and Big
Creek. For information, visit
www.payattentiontodetail.net or call 678-488-4058.
Pier 29 opens
in former Lantern Inn location
Restaurant offers family dining along with dancing
By Pamela A. Keene
The
Lantern Inn has been transformed, literally. Kerrie Martin and
Beverly Fricks have opened Pier 29 after extensive renovations to
the Browns Bridge eatery. Even the bathrooms have been gutted and
redone.
“We’re a full-service restaurant and offer both family dining in the
front diner side and live entertainment in the back part of the
restaurant,” Martin said. “We’ve totally redone the restaurant.”
The
5,600-square-foot Pier 29, which opened in mid-July, offers a menu
of homemade items for lunch and dinner, including fish, steaks and
hand-pattied burgers. Hand-spun milkshakes are popular with diners
as well. Desserts include fried apple pies, chocolate cake and
featured pies each week.
The
diner side of the restaurant is decorated in ’50s style with red
booth seating for family dining. The back part of the restaurant
features pool tables and a dance floor. There’s live entertainment
on the weekends, karaoke on Wednesdays and poker on Sundays. “It’s
more of a bar atmosphere,” she said. “The dance floor is filled
every weekend night.”
Martin has been in the restaurant business for about 10 years with
Buffalo’s in Oakwood. “I wanted to get out on my own and this is the
perfect place,” she said. Her mother Fricks is her partner in the
business and her husband, who consults for restaurants around the
country, has been her adviser.
The
casual restaurant is open Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 11
p.m. and on Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Delivery is
available to Port Royale Marina and also to the restaurant’s
courtesy dock near mile marker 29 on the lake.
More info:
www.pier29onlanier.com
A hot Holiday Saturday
  Holiday
Marina customers filed into the facility on Saturday, Aug. 14, for
free food, music and other entertainment during its Customer
Appreciation Day. Holiday's General Manager Alex Laidlaw said the
event drew one of the largest crowds he's seen in years. "We're
really happy with the turnout and they seem to be having a great
time," Laidlaw said. Music was provided by The Ruckus, an Atlanta
based band that covered oldies as well as current popular tunes. The
event was catered by Big Creek Restaurant.
SS AirSoft sets the stage for fun games for youth and adults
By
Pamela A. Keene
Editor’s Note: AirSoft, a popular competitive sport
with today’s youth and adults, has taken hold in Northeast Georgia.
This month, Lakeside reports on one of the most popular facilities
in the Southeast, SS AirSoft, located near Mall of Georgia in
Buford.
 The
lights are dim and the fog rolls in. It’s the perfect setting for
war games. Based on the popular video game Modern Warfare 2, SS
AirSoft offers the chance to play the game with referees and plenty
of safety measures.
“SS
AirSoft is a great way for young people – and adults too – to be
soldiers and play war games in a safe and controlled environment,”
said Steve Pescitelli, who co-owns the 15,000-square-foot warehouse
with business partner Ken LaMere. “I was taking my kids and their
friends to all these other places and I developed a vision for our
own AirSoft facility, a way to offer the games in a new and
different way.”
Pescitelli has spared no expense, hiring a former set designer with
the Walt Disney Company, Eric Molinaris, to convert his ideas into
reality. The indoor set features plenty of realistic props and
buildings for staging war games with the special AirSoft weapons and
approved safety gear.
Games go from eight to 15 minutes with five-minute breaks in
between. “No one has to wait longer than 15 minutes to be part of a
game,” he said. “We’ve had as many as 170 people in the warehouse at
one time.”
Players compete on two teams in a variety of games, all designed
around Modern Warfare 2. There’s even a Terminator game with two
realistic-looking Terminator characters that can be “activated” by
their teams by following a certain competition protocol.
The
layout of the warehouse is changed every month. Dusk and dawn can be
simulated and fog machines can make the games even more challenging.
The referees are on hand to ensure that the games are played safely,
the teams stays competitively balanced and that when a player is
“hit” he acknowledges it. Players can have several “lives,”
depending on the game.
“We
create real-world scenarios, such as plant the bomb, disarm the bomb
and capture the flag to keep the games realistic,” Pescitelli said.
“It’s amazing how much these kids get into the games. They get
pumped to play.”
Parents have said that they like to bring their kids to play AirSoft
because it’s a way for them to get exercise in a safe environment.
Play
is $10 for one hour or $20 for a full day. SS AirSoft is open
Wednesday through Sunday. The facility is available for birthday and
sports team parties as well as group events.
More
info:
www.SSAirSoft.com
Georgia Mountain Food Bank serves Lake Lanier area counties
Organization seeking help in obtaining permanent
facility to serve those in need
By Pamela A. Keene
Some
of the very people who used to donate and volunteer at area food
pantries are now their clients. “It’s certainly a sign of the times
to see that many people who used to assist the food pantries with
donations and volunteering are now coming to these locations for
help,” said Kay Blackstock, executive director of the Georgia
Mountain Food Bank, which was founded two years ago. “Economic times
are getting to be so tough that more people are reaching out for
help, and I’m glad that organizations like ours are part of the
process of getting necessary food to the people that need it.”
Georgia Mountain Food Bank was formed in October 2008 to serve as a
collection and distribution agency for partner food pantries across
five counties – Hall, Dawson, Forsyth, Lumpkin and Union. It is an
affiliate of the Atlanta Community Food Bank and serves 30 partner
agencies in these counties, providing storage and distribution of
food for the community.
“The
food bank receives donations of surplus food in large quantities and
redistributes to feeding organizations,” Blackstock said. “We’re
basically a non-profit food distribution warehouse that helps make
the connections between food donors and the community. Our clients
are the area feeding sites and food pantries, many of which are
faith-based.”
Blackstock said that since the Georgia Mountain Food Bank was
founded the number of clients who come to area food pantries has
more than doubled. Therefore, the need for more donations and more
volunteers has increased.
“Food banks across the country are facing more challenges in
locating product,” Blackstock said. “In these times, there seems to
be less waste and less surplus food.”
Since the food bank was founded, it has collected more than 1.3
million pounds of food and distributed it to local food pantries. It
has been housed in Flowery Branch at Hollis Transport. “With the
generosity of Hollis Transport, we have been able to get the food
bank operations up and off the ground, but we have reached a
milestone in growth,” she said. “A permanent warehouse has been
identified and we are in the process of raising the capital to
acquire the facility.”
Children have been a major focus for the Georgia Mountain Food Bank.
“In the counties we serve, 62 percent of the children rely on free
or reduced-fee lunches during the school year,” Blackstock said.
“This means that in the summers, these children need to be fed since
they’re not in school and this is a major mission for the food
pantries we work with. We need to continue to get meals to at-risk
children, the disabled and the elderly.”
For
Blackstock, the Georgia Mountain Food Bank is a passion and its
mission is a living breathing mission.
“There’s a way that everyone can become involved, either by donating
food, being an advocate, helping with transportation or
volunteering,” she said. “There’s such a great need and we welcome
the community to join in our mission to see that no one goes
hungry.”
The
organization is an affiliate of the Atlanta Community Food Bank,
which is a member of Feeding America, the national network of more
than 200 food banks.
More
info:
www.gamountainfoodbank.org
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