Inside Connect the dots City seeks input on sidewalks, bike paths COMMUNITY 2
Down to five Potential city center developers narrowed down COMMUNITY 3
Sandy Springs Reporter www.ReporterNewspapers.net
JAN. 24 — FEB. 6, 2014 • VOL. 8 — NO. 2
PERIMETER BU S pages 7-
INESS
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We sing and we celebrate
Not so creepy Latest ‘playable art’ features ‘fun’ spider COMMUNITY 5
Mark my words
Pastor teaches reading skills to youngsters MAKING A DIFFERENCE 15
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Dining out
Our reviewer visits Brookhaven’s ‘Smash’ RESTAURANTS 16
Paris passion
Front row, left, Hanna Quillen and Dani Nicholas, accompanied by Auden Taylor, back left, and Paris Penn, members of the Spalding Drive Charter Elementary School Show Choir, perform at the ninth annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebration in Sandy Springs City Council Chambers on Jan. 20.
McElfish retiring after 50 years fighting fires BY JOE EARLE
Holy Innocents’ senior loves all things French STANDOUT STUDENT 18
PHIL MOSIER
Award winner says ‘change’ affects lives BY JOE EARLE
joeearle@reporternewspapers.net
joeearle@reporternewspapers.net
To hear Jack McElfish tell it, he’ll soon be leaving the best job he can imagine. “I love it,” he said. “It’s the coolest job. You’ll never make a million dollars, but you’ll never have as much satisfaction.” McElfish, Sandy Springs’ first and, so far, only fire chief, plans to retire in October. When he retires, he said recently, he’ll have worked 51 years in fire services. He’s been chief of fire departments spread from Clayton County, Ga., to Wallingford, Conn. All together, he’s been a fire chief for 33 years. It was his dream job. “Ever since I was little,” he said, “I’ve wanted to be in fire services.” He started hanging around the firehouse in his home town in
When he was a teenager, Hugo Mullins saw first-hand how one person could foster a change in the life of another. At the time, he was a 10th grader in a public high school in Brooklyn in New York City. His math teacher suggested he take a test, he said, and he ended up winning a scholarship to a private boarding school in upstate New York. “That kind of changed my direction,” he said. He went from a high school where his fellow students asked one another whether they would go to college to one where students talked about which college they would attend. “It gives you a sense of how fortunate you are sometimes, and how one person can make a difference in your life,” he said.
SEE MCELFISH, PAGE 21
SEE AWARD, PAGE 19