Inside
Buckhead Reporter
Sandy Springs at Ten
Time traveler Mix history with holidays OUT & ABOUT 10
Best dressed
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NOV. 27 — DEC. 10, 2015 • VOL. 8 — NO. 24
Thrift shop helps clothe the needy MAKING A DIFFERENCE 27
Happy tales, wagging tails
A SPECIAL SECTION, PAGES 15-26
Moores Mill shopping center project moves forward with federal funds BY COLLIN KELLEY
PHIL MOSIER
Avery Radics, 7, makes sure Sedona, a 13-year-old Golden Retriever, is listening to her story, during a “Happy Tails Reading Paws” session at the Buckhead Branch Library on Nov. 14. Children are able to work on reading skills by practicing with a trained and registered therapy dog. See more photos on page 34.
Mayor Kasim Reed vetoed a plan to use city money to build a road for a shopping center on Moores Mill Road, but the project will move forward anyway, city officials say. On Nov. 2, Atlanta City Council voted to spend $800,000 from transportation development impact fees to partially fund an extension of Moores Mill Road. On Nov. 10, Reed vetoed the expenditure, saying $2 million had been authorized by the Federal Highway Administration for the completion of the project. Reed’s office said the Moores Mill Extension and a realignment of Adams Drive now will be financed through federal funds and $500,000 in public funds from Invest Atlanta. The total cost of both projects is expected to be about $2.2 million. Edens, a South Carolina-based development company, has said that if the roads are built, it would move forward with a $40 million shopping center project in the area that would include a 45,000-square-foot Publix supermarket, retail shops and apartments. Reed said using federal funds would allow the city to save local taxpayer dollars and local impact fees for use on projects that do not qualify for federal funds. The city can access the federal dollars as earSEE MOORES MILL, PAGE 6
North Atlanta parents cheer for athletics options BY DYANA BAGBY Vernetta Head’s 13-year-old son, Harrison, is academically inclined. He favors chess and robotics over basketball or football. But Head wants the Sutton Middle School eighth grader to be well rounded and to be more physical. So she attended the Nov. 18 meeting of the North Atlanta Parents for Public Schools to find out what options are available to him when he heads off to North Atlanta High School. “We have had a talk about it and I said, ‘This year, you will play a sport,’” she said with a smile. During the first semester Harrison ran cross country; now he is training to play lacrosse. Approximately 50 parents attended the meeting at Sutton Middle that was titled, “Sports & Team Spirit in Our North Atlanta Cluster.”
On hand to talk about what is offered at North Atlanta High School and at Sutton were Dwike Leonard, SMS athletic director; Scotty East, North Atlanta’s sports booster board president; and Andre Regan, North Atlanta’s athletic director. “Sports will help our students learn coping skills,” Leonard told parents. “We are trying to develop the whole child.” At Sutton, students can participate in sports such as basketball, football, cheerleading, track and field, softball, soccer, cross country, golf, volleyball, tennis and wrestling. North Atlanta offers students cross country, volleyball, basketball, soccer, lacrosse, tennis, football, baseball, swimming and cheerleading. North Atlanta athletics must also be compliant with Title IX, the federal law that prohibits disSEE NORTH ATLANTA, PAGE 33
DYNA BAGBY
Vernetta Head, who has a 13-yearold son attending Sutton Middle School, said it is important to have North Atlanta High School provide information on its athletic programs.