IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Top Gwinnett County stories from May 29 to June 4

Gwinnett County Public Schools police are asking the public for help to find a Parkview High School freshman who disappeared after she left school on the final day of classes last week.

District officials said Ashley Ne’vaeh Bell was last seen on May 24. Within a day of her disappearance, her family and friends took to social media, pleading for information about her whereabouts. They also contacted school officials and GCPS police began looking for her as well.

The Memorial Day Weekend is supposed to be a time to relax, but it ended up being filled with trauma for the families of two Gwinnett County men.

A Suwanee man was killed and a Lawrenceville man was injured in a double shooting near an elementary and middle school on Sugarloaf Parkway in the Lawrenceville area on Saturday night, Gwinnett County police said.

A busy south Gwinnett street was shut down near the former Olympic tennis center site for several hours on Friday after a tanker trunk rolled over onto a vehicle.

The accident happened on West Park Place Boulevard, between the exit ramp off U.S. Highway 78 and Bermuda Road, in the early morning hours. That prompted a 1,000-foot portion of West Park Place Boulevard to be closed throughout the remainder of the morning while fluid in the tanker was removed, according to Gwinnett County police.

A woman is facing malice murder and felony murder charges after a shooting that led to a large portion of a residential street in Snellville being blocked off.

Snellville police said Chevaune Vanover is accused of shooting a man at a home on the 1500 block of Summit Pond Circle on Friday. Police have not yet released the victim’s name.

Gwinnett County residents will get a chance to see what changes to the county’s transportation network and transit system are being proposed on Monday.

County officials will hold their first meeting on Monday night to show off the draft versions of Gwinnett’s Comprehensive Transportation Plan and Transit Development Plan updates. the meeting will take place from 5 until 7 p.m. at the E Center in Sugar Hill.

Gwinnett County will have a key voice in crafting and proposing economic development and transportation policies that counties across the state, as well as Georgia leaders, could consider for their communities.

Association County Commissioners of Georgia President Henry Craig, who is a Baldwin County commissioner, appointed Gwinnett Commission Chairwoman Nicole Love Hendrickson to serve as the vice chairwoman of ACCG’s Economic Development and Transportation Policy Committee. Hendrickson will work alongside Douglas County Commissioner Tarenia Carthan, who was appointed to serve as the committee’s chairwoman.

Former Gwinnett County Commissioner Marlene Fosque has joined the Gwinnett Chamber as its new economic development leader, the business group announced on Friday.

Fosque, who served on a county commission from 2019 until 2022, is the chamber’s new vice president of economic development, overseeing Partnership Gwinnett. Chamber officials pointed to more than 20 years of experience that she has in corporate business roles when touting her credentials.

The Gwinnett Chamber has a new leader for its foundation to oversee funding and grant programs.

The chamber announced it has hired Jason DiFranco to be the vice president of the Gwinnett Chamber Foundation. DiFranco, who lives in Buford with his wife, Amelia, began his new role with the foundation on May 15.

Three members of Gwinnett County’s state Senate delegation are going to spend the rest of this year doing some studying.

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones appointed Sens. Clint Dixon, R-Buford; Nabilah Islam, D-Lawrenceville; and Kim Jackson, D-Stone Mountain, this week to serve on Senate study committees which will look at local option sales taxes, truck driver shortages and rural medical personnel recruitment. The committees were created by resolutions adopted during the 2023 legislative session.

State Rep. Soo Hong, R-Lawrenceville, has only been in office for a few months, but she is already earning accolades as a top lawmaker.

The Junior League of Atlanta recently announced it was presenting Hong with its 2023 Legislator of the Year award. The award is designed to recognize a lawmaker whose work in the General Assembly contributed significantly to the league’s mission of developing women into leaders and promoting volunteerism and community transformation.

Gwinnett is certainly on the mind of a leadership committee that Gov. Brian Kemp has created.

The Georgians First Leadership Committee announced on Wednesday that it is launching a “six figure” campaign focused on 11 legislative districts, which the group considers swing districts, ahead of the 2024 election cycle. Nearly half of those districts, five to be exact, are held by legislators from Gwinnett County.