FEB. 5 - FEB. 18, 2016 • VOL. 7 — NO. 3
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► Actors playing actors gives ‘a look behind the curtain’ p. 10 ► PCIDs’ study backs ‘flyover bridge’ extension on Pill Hill p. 18
Flights of fancy
DO OR DIET | P13
The battle over Brook Run’s theater BY DYANA BAGBY dyanabagby@reporternewspapers.net
PHIL MOSIER
Rick Merced, who calls himself a “drone racer, “ pilots his small aircraft in a field at Brook Run Park on Jan. 30. Merced said when he was a kid, he dreamed of being a superhero, and now, through his drone, he can watch the world go by and live out that dream. See additional photos on page 3.►
MAKING A DIFFERENCE A mother and her two daughters share their breast cancer journeys BY DYANA BAGBY dyanabagby@reporternewspapers.net
Fourteen years ago, Maxx Schube was in the carpool lane at Davis Academy in Sandy Springs waiting to pick up her children when she felt a lump in her breast and another one on her chest. See FAMILY on page 6
“Tra�fic is already horrible. It’s going to get worse [in the Perimeter Center area]. ... It’ll just mean I’ll avoid that whole area. It’ll change where I shop, where I go. Right now you have to plan when you’re going to do stu�f because tra�fic is just horrible.” SUSAN CLARKE
See more reaction to proposed highrises in the Perimeter area in Commentary, page 12.
OUT & ABOUT Celebrate Black History Month Page 8
Brook Run Park was packed on a recent warm Sunday afternoon as Steve and Anita Drange walked past the dilapidated theater building, hidden behind shade trees with “Keep Out” signs posted on the welded shut doors. “It is a bit rundown,” Steve Drange said over sounds of teens riding skateboards at the nearby skate park. “At one time there were buildings all through these woods. It was a hospital. This is the last one standing.” Those buildings Drange recalls included dormitories, an administration building and the theater, and were the part of the Georgia Retardation Center, a facility that operated from the 1960s to the late 1990s. Due to asbestos lining the interiors, neglect, and wear and tear, the buildings were torn down in the years following the center’s closure. The theater building has so far been spared the wrecking ball. Now efforts to save the Brook Run Theater have led to heated debate in Dunwoody among city officials and residents. Some want the city to help foot the bill to renovate and repair what they say is a historic building that could be converted to a local, modern theater and community gathering spot. Others say the building is too far gone and no taxpayer money should be used to save it. “I suspect it would be a tough battle See BATTLE on page 20