JAN. 22 - FEB. 4, 2016 • VOL. 10 — NO. 2
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Perimeter Business ►Mixed-use developments are a hot trend, but they’re not for everyone ►Perimeter hotels draw business with MARTA access, service, attractions Pages 4-9
An act of courage
City honors founder of nonprofit with Humanitarian of the Year award
CALENDAR: TARTAN TROT | P17
Fire chief wants to reform hydrant inspections BY JOHN RUCH johnruch@reporternewspapers.net
PHIL MOSIER
Tillie O’Neal-Kyles, founder of Every Woman Works, a nonprofit that helps achieve financial independence, personal growth and family leadership, was named the city’s 2016 Humanitarian of the Year, at the 10th annual Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration at City Hall on Jan. 18. Story on page 15.►
OUT & ABOUT Puppetry Arts Center expands under Atlanta’s own puppet master
Survey: No to ‘Religious Freedom’ law Reporter Newspapers is working with a new mobile market research firm, Atlanta-based 1Q, to survey residents of our communities periodically about topics of state and local interest. In our first poll, we ask about the proposed Religious Freedom Restoration Act being considered in the state Legislature. Nearly two-thirds of 200 respondents said the bill should be rejected. Here are two reactions to the law. Read more about the poll and local comments on page 11. ►
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I’m so sick of Georgia looking like backward buffoons. This is just legalized discrimina�ion, plain and simple. If that isn’t enough, it’s bad for the state economically. A 44-YEAR-OLD WOMAN WHO LIVES IN BROOKHAVEN
Even having a proposal of a religious freedom law seems to be a step in the right direc�ion... to start having more considera�ion for religion, period. A 34-YEAR-OLD WOMAN WHO LIVES IN SANDY SPRINGS
A hole in the sidewalk near a Dunkin’ Donuts at 6060 Roswell Road marks where a fire hydrant was knocked down by a vehicle nearly a year ago and remains missing. And for the last four months of 2015, if firefighters had needed water to battle a blaze there, they would have found a fire hydrant across the street gone as well. Such long repair times and uncertain inspections for the city’s 4,000 public and private fire hydrants are an ongoing concern for Sandy Springs fire officials. Fire Rescue Chief Keith Sanders is now gearing up a tighter, more accountable inspection system. Step one: bringing hydrant inspections in-house instead of using private contractors, as the city has done since its founding. “The 2016 inspections will be done by the Sandy Springs fire department,” Sanders said. “That way, I know all hydrants have been touched and have been inspected.” That will mean “more accuracy, more accountability,” Sanders said, adding it will also give firefighters hands-on knowledge of where the city’s hydrants are in case they need to find them in an emergency. But those inspections are where the fire department’s direct control of the crucial safety devices ends. The 2,910 hydrants on city streets are actually owned by the city of Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management, which can take months to make repairs. Sanders called that situation a “challenge,” though he added he is not aware of any recent fire where firefighters had trouble finding a working hydrant on a public Continued on page 14