Inside
Dunwoody Reporter
Fall Education Guide
What’s the plan? Candidates share city vision COMMUNITY 2
Fleet street
www.ReporterNewspapers.net
Let’s revisit commuting options COMMENTARY 10
SEPT. 18 — OCT. 1, 2015 • VOL. 6 — NO. 19
Popcorn, now a movie
Pages 11-27
As crime jumps, police chief says department is ‘woefully understaffed’ BY ELLEN ELDRIDGE
elleneldridge@reporternewspapers.net
PHIL MOSIER
From left, Michael Apolinsky, A.J. Wright, Ryan Davies and Noah Manning, members of Bear Scout Troop 266, Den 3, sell popcorn at the the Orchard Park Shopping Center on Sept. 12. The scouts, who worked a four-hour shift, made more than $1,500 during their largest fundraiser of the year.
Saying crimes against people were up by two-thirds in Dunwoody, the city’s police chief is asking for three more officers and one more detective in 2016. “Compared to some of our neighboring cities, our [major] crime rate is unacceptably high,” police Chief Billy Grogan wrote in a memo to City Council. Grogan said his 51-officer department is “woefully understaffed.” He is seeking a 10 percent increase in the department’s budget, to $8.2 million from $7.4 million to add the four new officers. The chief said he wants to add patrol officers to increase visibility in the community and add a detective to help with the heavy investigative workload. In the memo, Grogan said that reports of all serious crimes -- murder, rape, armed robbery, aggravated assault, larceny and motor vehicle theft -- are down 5.2 percent through June, but were up 19 percent in 2014. But, he said, crimes against people were up by 85 percent through June. SEE POLICE CHIEF, PAGE 34
Some neighbors saying goodbye to Manget Way BY ELLEN ELDRIDGE
elleneldridge@reporternewspapers.net
A red “for rent” sign draws the eye of anyone turning off Chamblee-Dunwoody Road onto Manget Way. The neighborhood is changing. Owners are selling or leasing their homes, but it isn’t just the economy bringing a change in mood. Melissa Farrar, who lives at 1368 Manget Way, said she knows of four neighbors who sold or plan to sell their houses since the news got out in 2014 about a California company’s plans to open a personal care home at 1364 Manget Way. “Bob something sold his house and moved out already,” Farrar said. “And actually, the lady across the street—as soon as all this happened she was very vocal about it and boom, house went up for sale and she sold it.” One neighbor, Jan Parfitt, is asking $1.1 million for her house at 1360 Manget Way. Parfitt, who declined to comment for this article, is one of several neighbors who hired a lawyer last year to fight Center For Discovery, the company that bought her neighbor’s house for use as a private treat-
ment facility for teenage girls with eating disorders. Their lawyer, Linda Dunlavy, told members of the Dunwoody Homeowners Association board in April 2014 she believed the home was not a legal personal care home, but more like a medical treatment facility, which is not allowed in a single-family neighborhood. The Zoning Board of Appeals agreed and voted in the neighbors’ favor, but in 2015 a DeKalb Superior Court judge reversed the decision, ruling in favor of Center for Discovery. The city filed an appeal in July and, in August, the Court of Appeals agreed to hear the case. Now the lawyer for Center For Discovery is suing the city for unspecified damages related to its costs from being unable to open for business. Attorney Josh Belinfante said his client, CFD, agreed to a long-term lease on the property and will lose money while the legal case continues since they cannot open the business. SEE NEIGHBORS, PAGE 8
ELLEN ELDRIDGE
For rent and sale signs are popping up in the Manget Way neighborhood.