Sandy Springs Reporter www.ReporterNewspapers.net
FEB. 20 — MARCH. 5, 2015 • VOL. 9 — NO. 4
Inside
Perimeter Business
Let’s be safe Vaccines are necessary COMMENTARY 6
Shine on Brightest are recognized STAR STUDENTS 16-17
Movin’ and groovin’
PAGES 7-11
Amid safety concerns, Lake Forrest dam faces uncertain future BY ANN MARIE QUILL
annmariequill@reporternewspapers.net
PHIL MOSIER
Jayla Guy, 8, left, with her father Michael, feel the music at the sixth annual Daddy-Daughter Dance held at Spalding Drive Charter Elementary School on Feb. 7. The event was sponsored by the Sandy Springs Recreation and Parks Department. See more photos on page 4.
Police Explorer returns ‘home’ BY ELLEN ELDRIDGE
elleneldridge@reporternewspapers.net
Will Oppermann always wanted to be a police officer. As a junior at Riverwood International Charter School, he said he discovered the Sandy Springs Police Explorers, and joined Post 59. “I always knew I wanted to go into law enforcement,” he said. “It seemed like a rewarding and fun career.” Officer Cory Begeal, who joined the Sandy Springs Police in 2006, started the Explorer program in 2010. He calls it a “jumpstart into the career” of law enforcement, and said Oppermann stuck out as a young Explorer. “I just saw in his eyes that this is what he wants
to do with his life, and he put a lot of work into his career at a very young age,” Begeal said. Begeal added that the Explorer program is important because it gives young people a great place to network. Officers from as many as 40 or 50 different agencies see the Explorers who compete at Winterfest, a regional police explorer competition held annually in Gaitlinburg, Tennessee. In the 2015 competition, in February, Post 59 earned third place in the “suspicious death” event, in part because Detective Jeff Inman helps trains Explorers in analyzing crime scenes, Begeal said. SEE POLICE EXPLORER, PAGE 21
Something must be done about Lake Forrest Dam, engineers hired by the cities of Sandy Springs and Atlanta say. If the dam fails, the resulting flood could kill people and destroy houses downstream. “Your dam right now has some severe deficiencies,” Chuck Wilson of Schnabel Engineering told residents attending a public meeting called jointly by the two cities at Chastain Horse Park on Feb. 11. Wilson said the dam’s problems include a severe slope on the dam’s downstream side, an aging spillway pipe that water flows through during storms, and the dam’s inability to hold enough water during an extreme storm. But exactly what will be done remains unclear. First, the lake will be drained to make the area immediately safe and so that engineers can adequately study the dam, Wilson said. The dividing line between Buckhead and Sandy Springs runs through the three lakes related to the dam, so any decisions about the dam must be reached jointly by officials of the two cities. During the Feb. 11 meeting, Sandy SEE DEBATE, PAGE 20
Will Oppermann, photographed during training when he was a Police Explorer, knew he wanted to go into law enforcement, and saw it as a rewarding and fun career. The program gives young men and women interested in law enforcement a chance to learn police skills. SPECIAL