ON THE AGENDA

Meetings

The Atlanta City Council meets July 5 and July 18 at 1 p.m. at City Hall. citycouncil.atlantaga.gov.

The Atlanta Board of Education is in recess this month. The next meeting is Aug. 8. atlanta.k12.ga.us.

The Decatur City Commission meets July 5 and July 18 at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall. decaturga.com.

Find your Neighborhood Planning Unit (NPU) meeting agenda and schedule at atlantaga.gov by clicking on Government and then Departments.

News

The Atlanta City Council approved a $607 million fiscal year 2017 budget at its June 20 meeting that includes pay increases for fire and police personnel.

The City of Atlanta and Fulton County Recreation Authority passed a resolution June 23 to proceed with the sale of Turner Field to Georgia State University and its development partners to create a mixedused development.

The Fulton County Commission is expected to discuss demolishing or refurbishing the current Central Library in Downtown at its July 20 meeting.

A chief of police and 67 officers were sworn in as members of the newly formed Atlanta Public Schools Police Department on June 23.

PARKAtlanta has been given the boot and the city has opened bids for a new enforcement company.

museum and offices for several golf organizations, said Chuck Palmer, chairman of the Bobby Jones Golf Course Foundation and chair of the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame committee.

The complex would be used to promote youth golf and as a home for the Georgia State University golf team, said Georgia State golf coach Joe Inman.

“This is not a back-door attempt to bring in new development into the Buckhead community,” Reed said. “It’s an effort to significantly enhance an asset we have in Buckhead.”

Under terms of the deal approved by the council, state officials also will lease back the Bitsy Grant Tennis Center to the city for 20 years, and the city would also get an easement for multi-purpose paths through the park, including PATH and the Atlanta BeltLine.

Councilmember Yolanda Adrean said she would keep fighting for the terms demanded by the community and said Reed could expect to see her in his office as the process continued. But Councilmember Kwanza Hall said he was optimistic about the deal. “The state won’t do anything less than stellar at that site,” he said.

Still, some residents and supporters of the course weren’t convinced that the deal was the right thing to do.

At the E. Rivers meeting, resident Roger Moister argued the proposal seemed to benefit college golfers and not local residents. “We want to leave the golf course 18 holes, save the trees, preserve the green space,” he said. “That’s what our residents want.”

Moister also said the proposed deal was moving too fast and with too little public scrutiny. “The state has the city over a barrel on this,” he said. “Somehow, I think the city is being bullied or blackmailed by the state in order to get this golf course.”

A number of golfers at the meeting objected to plans for the facility as a ninehole course.

But Reed and heads of golf groups supporting the change said the current course wasn’t safe to play and needed to be redesigned to protect golfers and drivers on nearby streets. “We would love as much as anyone to keep 18 holes,” Inman said. “It just can’t be done [here].”

At the same time, Palmer and Inman said, the practice facilities will make the Bobby Jones a center for teaching golf to young players. “This will be a junior golf Mecca,” Inman said.

Smith, of the Friends of Bobby Jones, wasn’t convinced.

“The Trojan Horse was victorious.

Now we are left with a clubhouse that may become a white elephant,” Smith said in an email. “As for Friends of Bobby Jones Golf Course, Inc., we will re-assess our mission of providing an enjoyable and beautiful golf experience at the historic Bobby Jones Golf Course and Clubhouse. How this will be implemented with construction pending would be the question before us. We will continue until the money is committed, and until the first tree is cut.”