of the 2011-2012 school year.The proposal will consolidate schools,
dramatically change attendance lines, and reassign students to schools that will all have enrollment of more than 450 students. It also will merge the district’s high achievers mag-net schools and programs that serve 1,605 students countywide.
Marching bands, elected officials and others will once again head to downtown Stone Mountain to pay tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. B1
Volume 16, Number 37
New site proposed for biomass plantLithonia residents renew fight against processing facility
Claudette Powdard was among Lithonia residents opposing Green Energy Partners’ new location for a proposed $60 million “bio-fuel” generation facility.”
Jennifer Ffrench Parker / CrossRoadsNews
Reshuffle could close 13 South DeKalb schools“If you know where Bob Mathis is and
where Oak View is, they’re nowhere near each other. I know we want to have the
numbers to fill seats, but we have to think in consideration of the kids and parents.”
Jesse “Jay” Cunningham District 5 School Board representative
By Carla Parker
In August, South DeKalb could have 13 fewer schools and thousands of students will be attending classes in new locations and in different school buildings.
The reshuffle is part of a redistricting and consolidation proposal before the DeKalb School Board. It is seeking to shutter more than 20 percent of the schools in the southern part of the county to compensate for shifting demographics and declining enrollment and to help the school district access maximum state funding for its schools.
In all, the proposal presented to the new School Board by its consultants at its first meeting of the year on Jan. 3 calls for 14 schools – 12 elementary, one middle and one high school – to close countywide by the start
The elementary and middle schools and programs will be consolidated into a single location in Avondale Estates, and the high achievers magnet programs at Chamblee Charter and Southwest DeKalb high schools will merge into a single location, also in
Redistricting & Consolidation Public Input Workshops Date LocationJan. 11 Miller Grove High School,
2645 DeKalb Medical Parkway, Lithonia
Jan. 13 Chamblee Charter High School, 3688 Chamblee-Dunwoody Road, Chamblee
Jan. 18 McNair High School, 1804 Bouldercrest Road, Atlanta
Jan. 20 Stone Mountain High School, 4555 Central Drive, Stone Mountain
All workshops start at 6:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.dekalb.k12 .ga.us/vision-2020. Please see CONSOLIDATION, page A2
Please see GASIFICATION, page A4
By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
The proposed biomass plant just won’t go away, and Lithonia residents are asking the big “why” question.
The $60 million plant to process wood chips into electricity was rejected by the city of Lithonia on Dec. 6. It is now being proposed for a 20-acre site at 1744 and 1770 Rogers Lake Road, just outside the city limits.
At a Jan. 5 community meeting at the Redan-Trotti Library, residents questioned why the plant is back on the table for adjoin-ing properties near their city, homes and churches.
Gerald Sanders, who lives a quarter-mile from the newly proposed site, said they have told the developer and DeKalb County repeatedly that they don’t want the plant in their neighborhood.
“So I am asking you, why would you continue to bring it to the county and to the people in this area when you hear over and over again that we don’t want it,” he said.
“Could you answer that – why do you keep bringing it back?”
Sanders and a vocif-erous crowd of about 25 residents attended the meeting hosted by Patrick Ejike, a former DeKalb Planning and Develop-ment director, who took
early retirement from the county last year.Ejike, who is now CEO of his own plan-
ning and engineering consulting firm, Aku-
Bata Group LLC, was hired by Green Energy Partners to shepherd the plant through the county’s permitting process.
Green Energy Partners has a 20-year contract from DeKalb County to collect and convert yard waste into electricity using a non-emission technology.
It says the plant will incinerate 100,000 tons of yard waste – wood chips from trees and leaves – to generate 10 megawatts of electricity to power 7,000 homes. It plans to sell the electricity to Georgia Power Co. and says the plant will generate $200,000 in revenues for DeKalb County government, create 100 jobs during construction and 25 permanent positions, and add $50 million to the tax digest.
In the month since the plant – first pro-
posed for a 26-acre property on Bruce Street – was rejected by the Lithonia City Council, developers have all but dropped the word “gas-ification” from its name and now refer to it as a “bio-fuel generation facility.”
Ejike told the residents that the Rogers Lake property is already zoned industrial, a permitted zon-ing for the proposed plant. He said he was hosting the meeting to inform residents about the plant.
Ejike said the proposal will go before the DeKalb Board of Commissioners in March, and before that, to the Community Council and the DeKalb Planning Commission.
Willie Dunlap, a 24-year Lithonia resi-
dent, passed out copies of a Waste Gasification report published by the Blue Ridge Environmental De-fense League and urged residents to read up on the subject.
He told them also to read the reasons given by the county last April when developer Raine Cot-ton withdrew his application to locate a similar plant in Briarwood
in Atlanta.“If they turned it down three miles away,
why would it be better for me to accept it,” Dunlap asked. “This gentleman says he is not trying to mislead you, but he is just not telling you the truth.”
Patrick Ejike
Willie Dunlap
DeKalb Com-missioner Larry Johnson was among several local candidates who took the oath of office this week, some of them for the first time. A4
New terms under wayCOMMUNITY
Thousands of homes across America are harboring a silent killer called radon, and in January the focus is on raising awareness about the naturally occur-ring gas. A5
Focus on silent killerWELLNESS
A2Avondale Estates.
The school closings will help eliminate 11,310 empty seats across the county and affect 12,900 to 16,100 students.
The schools targeted for closing are among 21 elementary schools with fewer than 450 students. The state only funds schools with more than 450 students. The students from the closed schools will be merged into the other eight low-enrollment schools and increase their sizes.
School Board chair-man Tom Bowen, said there are compelling fiscal and education reasons to redistrict.
“The 11,000 empty seats has cost the district millions of State dollars in the form of lost operational and capital funding.” he said. “And all schools are being evaluated to make sure they are education-ally adequate.”
Bowen said the goal is to have the right number of students in schools with real resources.
“Redistricting allows us to put more money in the classroom and gets students in the best possible learning environment,” he said.
MGT Consultants of America, which prepared the redistricting and consolidation plan, proposes that a dozen south DeKalb County elementary schools – Atherton, Bob Mathis, Glen Haven, Gresham Park, Livsey, Medlock, Peachcrest, Rock Chapel, Sky Ha-ven, Toney, and Wadsworth, and Kittredge
Community “We are not like a General Motors or cost assembly plant. We are dealing with, most specifically, our children … people want minimum disruption.”
Thousands of students would attend different schools in fall
Tom Bowen
in Dunwoody – be closed and consolidated into other schools. It also calls for Avondale Middle and Avondale High to be closed and their buildings to become the new home for the district’s high achievers magnet programs for elementary, middle and high school students.
Under the proposal, the Avondale Middle School buildings will house 950 magnet students from Kittredge and Wadsworth el-ementary and from Chapel and Chapel Hill Middle schools.
The Avondale High School buildings will become home to 655 magnet students from Chamblee and Southwest DeKalb high schools.
CONSOLIDATION, frOm A1
Proposedclosings Relocationschools Atherton ES Snapfinger ES, Canby Lane ESGlen Haven ES Knollwood ES, Midway ES, Rowland ESGresham Park ES Clifton ES, Flat Shoals ES, Kelley Lake ES, Meadowview ESPeachcrest ES Avondale ES, Knollwood ES, Midway ESSky Haven ES Clifton ES, Flat Shoals ES, Kelley Lake ES, Meadowview ESToney ES Columbia ES, Kelley Lake ESWadsworth ES Avondale MSBob Mathis ES Oak View ES, Rainbow ESRock Chapel ES Pine Ridge ES, Princeton ESLivsey ES Brockett ES, Midvale ES, Smoke Rise ESMedlock ES Avondale ES, Laurel Ridge ES, McLendon ESMagnet students Jolly ES
at Evansdale ES Kittredge ES Avondale Middle
*All Magnet programs will move to Avondale MS and Avondale HS
Avondale MS Bethune, Columbia and Freedom MiddleAvondale HS Clarkston, Columbia and Towers High
Redistrictingproposal
The only exception would be the mag-net students at Evansdale Elementary in Doraville. They will be relocated to the Jolly Elementary School in Clarkston.
Among the proposals:n Students from Atherton, Glen Haven, Gresham Park, Peachcrest, Sky Haven and Toney will go to either Avondale Elemen-tary in Avondale Estates or to Canby Lane, Clifton, Columbia, Flat Shoals, Kelley Lake, Knollwood, Midway, Rowland and Snap-finger;n Bob Mathis students will be relocated to Oak View and Rainbow; n Rock Chapel students will move to Pine Ridge and Princeton;
n Livsey students will go to Brockett, Mid-vale and Smoke Rise; n Medlock students will move to Avondale, Laurel Ridge and McLendon.
District 9 School Board member Eugene Walker commended the consultants for try-ing to incorporate neighborhood schools but disagreed with having a centralized location for the magnet programs.
“Instead of centralizing all those magnet schools, I would hope that we would have one regional up there where Kittredge is and another regional where Wadsworth is and let those schools be the focal magnet schools in the county,” Walker said.
Walker also was concerned about stu-dents being disrupted due to the changes.
“We are not like a General Motors or cost assembly plant,” he said. “We are deal-ing with, most specifically, our children, and these people in the various communities want minimum disruption.”
Jackie Henry, a retired teacher who taught in DeKalb County, agreed with Walker about having regional schools. “I can’t imagine how early a 5-year-old will have to get up to catch the bus,” she said.
District 5 School Board member Jesse Cunningham also was concerned about transportation for students to neighboring schools.
“If you know where Bob Mathis is and where Oak View is, they’re nowhere near each other,” he said. “I know we want to have the numbers to fill seats, but we have to think in consideration of the kids and parents.”
Four public meetings are planned on Jan. 11, 13, 18 and 20 across the county for parents, teachers and DeKalb citizens to have their say on the proposal.
CrossRoadsNews January 8, 2011A2
A3
Attorney Sherry Boston is DeKalb County’s new solicitor-general. Boston was appointed by Gov. Sonny Perdue on Dec. 30, days before he left office.
She edged out seven other candidates, including acting Solicitor-General Nicole Marchand, for the job. Boston, 36, will serve two years before facing election in 2012. She is a judge on the DeKalb Recorder’s Court and the Dunwoody Municipal Court. She succeeds
Robert James, who is now district attorney. Attorneys Gabriel Banks, Gregory Brown, Bob Dallas, Cliff How-
ard, Jennifer Little, and Brian Ross also sought the job.
Friends, family and strangers can skate on Jan. 14 at the Golden Glide Skating Rink to help raise money for the daughter of slain Church’s Chicken worker Gary Andrews.
Andrews, 23, was gunned down at the Flakes Mills Road restaurant on Dec. 18 while protecting female co-workers from the two armed gun men.He died on the spot.
The fundraiser is hosted by the Wood-lands Townhomes Homeowners Association in Decatur. Tene Harris, the group’s vice president, said they were moved by the tragedy. The fundraiser takes place 6 to 8 p.m. The rink is at 2750 Wesley Chapel Road in Decatur.
Community “It is a budget of shared sacrifice. It addresses those rising costs that cannot be ignored.”
Fundraiser for slain worker Boston appointed solicitor
Ellis: County needs to rebuild reserves
HomeFree-USA is a minority-founded, 501(c)(3) nonprofit public benefit organization that specializes in homeownership development and foreclosure intervention. Based in theWashington, DC, metro area with regional offices in Atlanta, and Kansas City. HomeFree-USA delivers services across the country through its nationwide network of faith- and community-based nonprofit partners. The HomeFree-USA network represents the interests of 15 million homeowners and homebuyers. HomeFree-USA enjoys a 0% foreclosure rate among families that have participated in its pre-purchase homeownership preparation program. Learn more, visit http://www.homefreeusa.org/.
Saturday, January 22, 20119:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Salem Bible Church2283 Baker Road NW
Atlanta, GA 30318
Friday, January 21, 20111:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.Salem Bible Church5460 Hillandale DriveLithonia, GA 30058
To Schedule Your 1-on-1 Appointment, Call 404.607.0800
DeKalb County is living paycheck to paycheck and CEO Burrell Ellis says it’s time to take corrective action.
In his Jan. 6 State of the County address, Ellis said it will take trust to move the county for-ward.
“We must now make difficult, but necessary, decisions about how much more of our resources we can afford to cut, without
harming those services we depend upon to protect and preserve our quality of life – services like public safety, code enforcement, libraries, and senior services,” he said.
Ellis said tough economic times have taken toll on the county and have depleted reserves and eaten away at revenues.
This year, the county is anticipating tax revenue falling another $12.8 million on the heels of a two-year revenue reduction of $86 million reductions. At the same time, Elis said that operating costs have increased
more than $39 million to meet legally-man-dated expenses. The county’s credit rating was downgraded because of its dwindling reserves.
“That means every DeKalb citizen will pay even more to cover normal operating expenses,” he said.
Ellis said he has cut, eliminated, consoli-dated and reorganized.
“Many of these cuts have been quite pain-ful,” he said.
To balance previous budgets without raising taxes, Ellis said the county’s reserves were reduced to $9 million.
“Good accounting principles require that the reserve equal one month’s operat-ing expenses, or $45 million,” he said. “It is our savings account; our primary line of protection in the event of an unexpected emergency.”
Ellis defended his 2011 Budget Recom-mendation that includes a 2.32 mill-tax increase. He called the proposed budget both lean and responsible.
He said it was lean because it carries
forward the deep spending cuts instituted during its first two years in office, and re-sponsible, because it addresses the essential service needs that residents expect, deserve and have requested.
“It is a budget of shared sacrifice,” he said. “It addresses those rising costs that cannot be ignored, forces county government to be more innovative and more efficient, posi-tions us for a robust recovery, and protects our most vulnerable citizens.”
Ellis stressed Job Creation, public safety, Neighborhood Empowerment and said trust is vital action is taken to confront the county’s current reality.
“This spirit of inclusion, innovation and leadership is how we will guide DeKalb County in 2011 and beyond,” he said. “As we lead, we do so under the umbrella of partner-ship – a partnership “of the people, by the people and for the people’’ – that includes you, me, the DeKalb County Board of Com-missioners, our state and federal lawmakers, and our stakeholders in the private, civic and faith-based communities.”
Sherry BostonGary Andrews
Burrell Ellis
CrossRoadsNewsJanuary 8, 2011 A3
A4 Community “I say it again, it’s not the project, it’s the place. Do we want it? No.”
CrossRoadsNews is pub-lished every Thursday by CrossRoads News, Inc.
We welcome articles on neighborhood issues and news of local happenings. The opinions expressed by writers and contributors are not necessarily those of the publisher, nor those of any advertisers.
The concep t , de -sign and content of CrossRoads News are copyrighted and may not be copied or reproduced in whole or in part in any manner without the writ-ten permission of the publisher.
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We reserve the right to re-fuse any advertisement.
Rogers Lake Road site just outside Lithonia city limits
School Board members, commissioners sworn in
School Board members being sworn in on Jan. 3 at board offices included newcomers Nancy Jester (top) and Donna Edler (above) and returning incumbents Sarah Copelin-Wood (right) and Jay Cunningham.
Larry Johnson takes the oath for a third term of office as the iDeKalb District 3 Commissioner. He held his ceremony on Jan. 3 at the Gallery at South DeKalb. He was unopposed for his re-election bid.
Stan Watson takes the oath as DeKalb County’s District 7 commissioner on Jan. 2 at the Porter Sanford III Performing Arts and Community Center.
Photos by Jennifer Ffrench Parker / CrossRoadsNews
Dunlap said the plant will oper-ate round-the-clock with trucks go-ing in and out. He said it will cause traffic congestion and generate ash that will have to be disposed of.
He said that if the plant was a good thing, Ejike would take it somewhere else.
“He wouldn’t let us benefit from it,” Dunlap said. “The people that he represents, they wouldn’t let us benefit from it. Go back to the people you represent and tell them ‘no,’ we don’t want this.”
Neville Anderson, Green Energy Partners CEO who joined the meet-ing about halfway through, said his company was not affiliated with the company that withdrew its applica-tion last year.
“The information you have is not accurate,” he said. “It’s two dif-ferent companies and your science is skewed.”
Anderson said the gasification technology that Green Energy Part-ners will use has “extremely limited emission.” He said their technology is in an oxygen-free chamber.
“So there is absolutely no com-
bustion,” he said. “Fire does not ex-ist in an oxygen-free environment. It is impossible.”
Barbara Lester, a former Li-thonia City Council member, told Anderson that she has no problem with his project.
“It’s the place that I have the problem with,” said Lester, a life-long Lithonia resident. “It seems as though you have all designated places that you put in these places and it is obvious to me by now, DeKalb County has determined that this plant is going to be in DeKalb County. And after they
couldn’t put it over near Lenox, they determine that it’s going to Lithonia. I say it again, it’s not the project, it’s the place. Do we want it? No.”
After the meeting, Anthony Woods, pastor of Grace Tabernacle, which is located next door to the Rogers Lake property, said that they don’t want the biomass plant because of health reasons.
“It’s not going to be good. We already have landfills there. In the summertime we can smell the landfill in the church. We have rodents. It’s a mess. The air quality
GASIfICATION, frOm A1
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CrossRoadsNews January 8, 2011A4
A5Residents sign up for radon testing during the DeKalb County Green Expo in November. The county is encouraging residents to test for the gas during January, which is National Radon Action Month.
Wellness “Your home is where you go to feel safe, and most people are not aware of the dangers of this invisible, odorless, tasteless gas.”
Radon gas is odorless, tasteless and silent killerBy Brenda Camp Yarbrough
A silent, invisible killer is seeping into homes in DeKalb County and throughout the nation.
And its name is radon.During January, which is observed as
National Radon Action Month, DeKalb Commissioner Kathie Gannon and DeKalb Cooperative Extension radon educator Edda Cotto-Rivera are stepping up efforts to spread the word about radon gas exposure and how families can protect themselves against this silent killer.
Cotto-Rivera says 15 percent of DeKalb homes have high levels of radon.
“However, because you can’t see or smell ra-don, people tend to down-play the health effects and ignore the possibility that there might be a silent killer in their home,” she said Wednesday.
Gannon, the DeKalb Super District 6 commissioner, will present a proclamation at the Jan. 11 Board of Commissioners meeting highlighting the dangers that radon exposure poses and the work that DeKalb Coopera-tive Extension does to promote awareness throughout the county.
There also will be a radon display at the Georgia Capitol from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Jan. 11.
Gannon said radon awareness is impor-tant.
“Your home is where you go to feel safe, and most people are not aware of the dangers of this invisible, odorless, tasteless gas or the easy [ways] of mitigating radon levels in their home,” she said.
The only way to identify the existence of radon gas is to test for it.
Because testing is easy and inexpensive, Cotto-Rivera says everybody should test their homes.
The University of Georgia Cooperative Extension has test kits available for a nomi-nal fee.
“During the month of January, we are going to provide the test kits free of charge
at community events or at our office,” she said. “Homeowners can also contact certified mea-surement professionals to conduct the testing.”
Radon gas is released by the natural decay of uranium in our soils and rocks and easily enters our homes through the foundations and well water.
Nationally, radon gas causes more than 20,000 deaths annually, the U.S. Environ-mental Protection Agency says. That’s more deaths in 2010 than drunk driving, fires and carbon monoxide.
Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States, after smoking, and the leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers.
While mortality statistics are not avail-able for DeKalb County, Cotto-Rivera said about 822 people die statewide because of radon exposure, making Georgia the state with the highest radon death rate in the Southeast.
DeKalb is considered to be a Zone 1 county, Cotto-Rivera said. This means that the risk of having high levels of radon is higher in our county compared to other areas of the state.
A high measurement is 4 picocuries per liter – 4pC/Li. Since radon is a radioactive gas, there is no “safe” level for the gas.
Cotto-Rivera said other metro counties, including Fulton, Gwinnett and Cobb, are also in Zone 1 .
Radon problems have been detected in almost every county in the United States, and the U.S. surgeon general and American Lung Association have recommended that all homes be tested regardless of geographic location or foundation type.
Cotto-Rivera said test kits are to be installed at the lowest lived-in area of the home.
“Depending on the device you are using, it can take up to seven days for a short-term test or up to a year for a long-term test.”
She said instructions are easy to follow.
“Homeowners will send the test kit to the appropriate laboratory and will get their results in about two weeks.”
She said the DeKalb Extension office has the test kits available year-round for $5 at its office at 4380 Memorial Drive in Decatur.
For more information on radon, radon testing and mitigation, and radon-resistant new construction, contact DeKalb Coop-erative Extension at 404-298-4080 or www.dekalbextension.com or visit www.epa.gov/radon/nram.
Kathie Gannon
Edda Cotto-Rivera
CrossRoadsNewsJanuary 8, 2011 A5
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CrossRoadsNews January 8, 2011A6
A7mArKetplAce rAtes
Place your MarketPlace line ad here – up to 20 words for $25. Additional words are $3 per block of five words (maximum 45 words). Boxed Ads (with up to 3 lines bold headline): $35 plus cost of the classified ad. Send ad copy with check or credit card information and contact phone number (if different from ad) to MarketPlace, CrossRoadsNews, 2346 Candler Road, Decatur, GA 30032, or e-mail to [email protected]. Our deadlines are at noon on the Friday one week prior to publication, unless otherwise noted.
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October 9, 2010
COVER PAGEFight the bite
WELLNESS
With bedbug infestations on the increase, the Environmental Protection Agency has released a database of ap-proved pesticides to battle the blood-sucking pests. 7
The chain-link fence around the former Wachovia Bank on Wesley Chapel, which violates overlay district ordinanc-es, is temporary, the building’s owner says. 3
Fence under fire
COMMUNITY
Fresh fruits and vegetables will find a home at the Mall at Stonecrest Plaza this fall when a Farmer’s Market opens there for six weeks. 5
Freshness at Stonecrest
FINANCE
Great DeKalb Cleanup unDer Way
County launches cleanup of ugly, neglected areas
Ramp closures to cripple commute on I-20 east this weekend
Get ready South DeKalb. It’s cleanup
time.After years of litter and neglect of public
spaces, DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis and the
Board of Commissioners have launched the
Great DeKalb Cleanup.The effort kicks off Oct. 9 at 7a.m. at the
DeKalb Community Achievement Center, on
Flat Shoals Parkway in Decatur.The county says the cleanups will be held
every weekend through Oct. 31. “As part of a committed effort to stabilize
property values throughout the county, the
Great DeKalb Cleanup will address areas of
unincorporated DeKalb County that have
not been maintained,” the CEO’s office said
in a statement. “The cleanup is designed to
have the maximum level of impact on the
worst affected areas by encouraging the in-
volvement and investment of the community
in policing and maintaining these areas in
the future.” The Great DeKalb Cleanup comes on the
heels of a Sept. 25 CrossRoadsNews front
page article that documented longstanding
neglect of sidewalks and medians across
south DeKalb County, including its commer-
cial corridors and most travelled arteries.
In its Aug. 28 issue, the newspaper also
spotlighted an overgrown media on Turner
Hill Road leading to the entrance to the Mall
at Stonecrest. It was cut days later. The county’s Sanitation Department
began the cleanup on Oct. 2.Crews cleared the kudzu-covered side-
walk on Flat Shoals Parkway pictured on the
newspaper’s Sept. 25 front page, and picked
up trash along portions of Flat Shoals and
Wesley Chapel Road. Crews also mulched
portions of the median on Wesley Chapel
Road.South DeKalb Neighborhoods Coalition
president Gil Turman was on his way to a
football game Saturday morning when he
was pleasantly surprised to see people fanned
out along Wesley Chapel Road and Coving-
ton Highway picking up trash. “I saw trucks,” he said. “I saw people,
some looked like prisoners working off their
fines, trying to do something to beautify this
ugly situation. I saw people picking up trash
on these streets.”He said it was a beautiful thing to be-
hold.Turman said that he is working with an
organization of residents to put in place a
plan to ensure that going forward, the county
is better maintained.CEO spokesman Burke Brennan said
that cleanup effor was part of the Sanitation
Department’s scheduled cleanup.
On Oct. 9, county employees and com-
munity service workers will document and
remove illegally posted signs on the right-
of-ways, cut back overgrown weeds and
shrubs, pick up litter and place debris near
the roadway for sanitation pickup the fol-
lowing day. The Quality of Life Improvement (QOL)/
Great DeKalb Cleanup (GDC) Team will
Interstate and local motorists will find their I-20 east
commute through south DeKalb County nightmarish
this weekend.Starting at 9 p.m. on Friday, weather permitting,
Georgia Department of Transportation said that the
ongoing I-20 resurfacing project will close ramps at
Columbia Drive, and Evans Mill and Turner Hill roads.
It will also cut off access from I-20 eastbound lanes to
I-285 north and south.Thomas Parker, DOT’s area engineer, said that there
will be significant delays throughout this corridor.
“We would ask the public to avoid the area if pos-
sible,” he said. “And if they must drive through it, allow
themselves extra time and be extremely careful.”
The $28.6 million resurfacing project has been
under way since June 18. It is resurfacing 9.8 miles of
I-20 between Columbia Drive and Turner Hill Road.
The project has snarled traffic and made the weekend
commute difficult for residents and interstate travelers.
Weekend work wraps up at 5 a.m. on Monday.
Motorists traveling eastbound on I-20 who wish
to access either north or southbound I-285 should
continue east on I-20; exit at Wesley Chapel Road
(Exit 68), and return westbound on I-20 to I-285.
The resurfacing will continue for two miles between
Evans Mill and Turner Hill roads.
The eastbound entrance ramp from Evans Mill to
I-20 and the eastbound exit ramp from I-20 to Turner
Hill will be closed throughout the weekend, as will the
outside lane of I-20 between the two interchanges.
The resurfacing project will continue on weeknights
and weekends until temperatures get too cool to pave.
It will be completed in the spring. Work hours are
weeknights from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. and on weekends
continuously from Friday night at 9 p.m. until 5 a.m.
on Monday.For more information, call 511 or visit www.511ga.
org.
care of the existing
problem,” she said.
“Here we are still sit-
ting with thousands
of foreclosures that
nothing can be done
about.”Gil Turman, pres-
ident of the South
DeKalb Neighbor-
hoods Coalition, said he too thought
the ordinance was to help deal with the
sociation, said that
fact was kept from
residents.
“That was not
how it was presented
to us,” said Pace, who
attended a number
of public hearings
about the ordinance
and was eagerly
awaiting its implementation to help
her neighborhood deal with more than
50 vacant foreclosed homes.
“We thought this was going to take
A plan to erect a 154-foot-high T-Mobile
cell phone tower on the Lincoln Funeral
Home property on Candler Road is facing
major opposition from residents who say it
would be located too close to their homes in
violation of existing county codes.
Three J Holdings LLC, which owns the
5.1-acre Lincoln Funeral Home property at
2321 Candler Road, wants DeKalb County
to reduce the distance for the telecommu-
nications tower from a residentially zoned
property to 70 and 85 feet from the required
200 feet. It also wants to waive the 10-foot
landscape buffer to allow
it to build the tower.
Judy Jackson, who will
see the tower from her
kitchen window and back-
yard on Ousley Court,
said there is a reason why
the county set the buffer
at 200 feet.
“It is to protect resi-
dents,” she said.
If the variance is approved, both the
property owner and T-Mobile say they will
lease space to more cell phone operators.
In a Sept. 1 letter accompanying the ap-
plication for the variance, Lannie Greene of
T-Mobile South LLC said T-Mobile plans to
locate two other providers on its tower for
a total of three users and that the property
owner intends to lease ground outside the
T-Mobile proposed fenced-in area to other
wireless providers.
Greene told the county that the purpose
of this facility is to provide safe, reliable,
uninterrupted in-building and in-car cover-
age in the area bounded by Second Avenue,
Candler Road, McAfee Road and I-20.
But residents of Ousley Manor and Toney
October 30, 2010
COVER PAGERice on RiceSCENE
Former
Secretary of
State Condo-
leezza Rice
will talk about
her and sign
memoir at
the Mall at
Stonecrest on
Nov. 3. 8MARTA
has dusted off
its proposal to
extend service
from the Mall
at Stonecrest
to downtown
Atlanta and is
gathering resi-
dents’ input. 3
Transit plan revisitedCOMMUNITY “Pride and
Passion: The
African-Amer-
ican Baseball
Experience”
will be on
exhibit at the
Decatur Library
from Nov. 6 to
Dec. 2. 8
The making of sports historySCENE
Residents oppose plan for new cell tower
Variance sought
for a T-Mobile
facility on Candler
Registry won’t affect 15,500 homes
Valley subdivisions say that reducing the
distance will literally put the tower in their
backyards and be a detriment to them.
“We strongly oppose the construction
of such a tower in our backyard,” they said
in an Oct. 5 letter to the county’s Planning/
Development Department and to the Zon-
ing Board of Appeals. Through Thursday, 73
residents had signed a petition opposing the
construction of the tower.
“We believe that this project will ad-
versely affect the health of already physically
challenged residents, endanger the health of
our children and grandchildren, negatively
impact our property values, and encour-
age the flight of younger families from the
Community groups and individuals
eagerly awaiting the implementation
of DeKalb’s new Foreclosure Registry
found out this week that it does not ap-
ply to the more than 15,500 properties
foreclosed before Oct. 27 – its effective
date.The law only requires owners of
properties foreclosed after Oct. 27 to
register them with the county.
Brenda Pace, president of the
East Lake Terrace Neighborhood As-
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SYKES SELF STORAGE3228 Snapfinger RoadCorner of Snapfinger
& Flat ShoalsDecatur, GA
404-559-7653The following units will be up for auction for non-paymenton Jan. 15, 2011 at 10 a.m.Bell #33Dickle #63Domineck #15Franklin #96Hall #37Hawthrone #35High #40Holloway #56Lane #66Leggett #18Lewis #36Luckett #70, #76Serrant #85Shivers #77Simpson #32Utley #17Washington #26Williams #60
Any questions about thisAuction should be directed to
Sam Richmond, Property Managerat 404-559-7653
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