JULY 6 - 19, 2018 • VOL. 12 — NO. 14
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Buckhead Reporter
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SPECIAL SECTION | P14-21
Buckhead fire stations feel the pinch of staffing ‘crisis’
New park rises among the bamboo
BY EVELYN ANDREWS evelyn@reporternewspapers.net Buckhead’s fire chief says the neighborhood could benefit from more stations, but there are not enough firefighters to staff them. The director of the Atlanta Fire Rescue Foundation said at a recent Buckhead Business Association meeting that citywide the department is in a staffing “crisis.” “We are actually in a hiring and staffing crisis,” said Shirley Anne Smith, the executive director of the Buckheadbased foundation at the June 28 BBA breakfast. The department has nearly 200 vacancies. Out of 48 fire chiefs, 44 are eligible for retirement in the next two years. The department has the capacity to train 70 firefighters a year, but loses an average of 75 each year, Smith said. PHIL MOSIER
From left, Atlanta Classical Academy students Anna Robbins, Jeanne Werner, Max Tippett, Serena Kapor, Aurora Santifer, Alexa Robbins and Daniel Santifer pose with bamboo in the new Indian Creek Park on July 1. Joe Santifer, who leads the park’s friends group and is the father of Daniel and Aurora, said the bamboo is planned to be a prominent feature of the park’s design. Read story page 13.►
EDUCATION Nonprofit helps students prepare for college
“Meeting Uber drivers has given me a new, and totally unexpected, view of metro Atlanta and the people who live here.” JOE EARLE, AROUND TOWN
See page 4
See Commentary, page 11
WAITERS’ RACE Ready, set... serve? OUT and ABOUT, page 7
See BUCKHEAD on page 23
Recycling facility won’t come to Lenox Square BY EVELYN ANDREWS evelyn@reporternewspapers.
Despite receiving community support, the city’s next Center for Hard to Recycle Materials won’t be located at Lenox Square mall in Buckhead. The plans were called off in a “mutual business decision,” and Live Thrive Atlanta, the recycling operator, is working to nail down a different Buckhead location, director Peggy Whitlow Ratcliffe said. “The strong community support we received for this potential second location has strengthened our commitment to pursuing sites in North Atlanta,” Ratcliffe said. Simon Propertiess, owner of the mall, declined to comment. See RECYCLING on page 13