Sandy Springs Reporter
Reporter Newspapers Small Business of the Year, 2013
SANDY SPRINGS/PERIMETER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.ReporterNewspapers.net
SEPT. 19 — OCT. 2, 2014 • VOL. 8 — NO. 19
Last chance, last dance
Inside
Fall Education Guide PAGES 13-28
Hear that sound? Shofar signals Jewish New Year FAITH 32-33
Developer may cut height of Northpark project BY ANN MARIE QUILL
annmariequill@reporternewspapers.net
PHOTOS BY PHIL MOSIER
“Bogey and the Viceroy” closed out the 2014 Concerts by the Springs season at Heritage Green on Sept. 14. Left, Susan and Glenn Sugarman get close during a song. Center, Mia Sandfort, left, and her sister, Liliana, daughters of the band’s saxophonist, goof around before the concert. Top right, singer Kendra “Lil Sis” Bailey. Bottom right, lead singer Bogey Thorton performs tunes from the ‘60s and ‘70s.
Police say military experience, gear a benefit
A Texas-based developer says it is considering cutting its proposed office tower at Northpark 100 to 42 stories, from the 50 stories originally planned. To address residents’ concerns about a project they say would bring too much traffic to the area, real estate developer Hines has asked for more time to work on plans for Northpark 100 to make the proposed mixed-use development less dense. The Sandy Springs City Council voted to delay consideration of the project for 30 days. In addition to the 50-story office tower, the original proposal included 500 apartments, hotel and retail space. The new proposal could decrease the office tower to 42 stories and the apartments to 325 units. “What we’ve looked at and really challenged ourselves with is [maintaining] viability for our development and maintaining the quality characteristics of our conceptual plan” while driving projected traffic generation closer to what the existing zoning would produce, said Mark Ferris, a managSEE DEVELOPER, PAGE 35
BY ELLEN ELDRIDGE
elleneldridge@reporternewspapers.net
Police in Sandy Springs stand ready with riot-control equipment – shields, masks, helmets, rifles. They own a Hummer. And Dunwoody’s police department has its own armored vehicle. Although images of violence and riot-gear-clad police in Ferguson, Mo., reverberated across the country, raising questions about the “militarization” of community police departments, local officers say that while that kind of gear is seldom, if ever, used here, they believe it is necessary to keep up with the criminals they confront. Sandy Springs Police Chief Ken DeSimone points to a case of weapons in a conference room at police headquarters that was pulled off criminals. DeSimone says he has a
Thompson submachine gun in his office. “We’re not outgunning the bad guys,” DeSimone said. “We’re just staying even with them.” Dunwoody Chief Billy Grogan says distinctions should be made between police gear and military gear. The BearCat armored personnel carrier Dunwoody owns, he said, is a not as strongly armored or “weaponized” as the military version of the vehicle. “It’s not as offensive as the military would have,” Grogan said, noting that military gear and police force gear is often similar, but while the military has a grenade launcher that launches actual grenades, some police units have greSEE LOCAL POLICE, PAGE 38
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Fran Hottel, left, and JoAnn Meaders, Mount Vernon Village residents, attend a Patriot Day celebration. Page 7
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