12-25-2015 Brookhaven Reporter

Brookhaven Reporter www.ReporterNewspapers.net

Inside

Pride and plans

‘Sweetheart deal’ City buys Skyland building COMMUNITY 12

Fiber fuss Google hits local roadblock

DEC. 25, 2015 — JAN. 7, 2016 • VOL. 7 — NO. 26

COMMUNITY 14

COMMUNITY 12

While there was plenty of hustle and bustle in our daily lives over the past 12 months, area youngsters had no trouble taking the time to enjoy what our local communities have to offer. We’ve taken a look through the Reporter Newspapers archives and selected a few of our favorite cover photos from 2015, shown below, with more on pages 6-7.

YEAR IN REVIEW

Top left, Morgan O’Keefe, 11, left, and Kerston Moss, 8, feed ducks during a warm, spring day at Murphey Candler Park in Brookhaven on April 11.

Bottom left, Alec Williams, 6, left, with his brother Cullen, 4, and their dog Cooper, cool off in Nancy Creek at the Blue Heron Nature Preserve in Buckhead on July 18.

Center, Olivia Whitake, 10, takes delight in getting a close look at a “Julia Longwing” while attending the annual Butterfly Festival at the Dunwoody Nature Center on Aug. 15.

Right, from left, Mel Mobley, Vann McNeill, center, and his children Seema, 1, and Ravi, 2, right, pour their neighborhood’s soil into a planter at the request of Sandy Springs Mayor Rusty Paul, at a ceremony to unveil “City Springs” on Sept. 20.

PHOTOS BY PHIL MOSIER

City to study possible Brookhaven/Chamblee monorail

BY JOHN RUCH

johnruch@reporternewspapers.net

A monorail system connecting MARTA, office parks and DeKalb-Peachtree Airport is getting a $10,000 preliminary study from the city of Brookhaven.

“I have a vision. I see it as a potential Disneyland type of monorail,” said City Councilman Joe Gebbia, who announced Dec. 15 he is paying for the study from his discretionary fund. “If we do it right, I think this would be an example of what cities and unincorporated areas could be doing to expand MARTA.” Mayor Rebecca Chase Williams is not a fan of the idea, asking, “Is a monorail old-style, 1950s Disney technology?”

She noted that at Disney World, monorails connect the hotels, but trams move people from the parking lots to the park. “I would look at trolleys…Let’s do express bus lanes first,” Williams said, questioning the possible expense of a monorail.

Kim Pedersen, president of a California-based advo-

cacy group called Monorail Society, said that Brookhaven should think beyond the Disney image. A small-scale monorail could be feasible in the area, he said.

“The Disney monorails are quite capable and do carry hundreds of thousands of passengers each day,” Pedersen said. “However, I hope that the studies and promoters will also take a serious look at all the non-recreation monorails that operate on a daily basis around the world.”

A possible Sandy Springs monorail has been in the news since that city’s Planning Commission chairman floated the idea last month. But Gebbia said he independently thought of a local monorail earlier this year and has talked informally with various officials about it.

“Monorails seem to be resonating,” Gebbia said. “I was very pleasantly surprised to see that article come out from Sandy Springs…If Sandy Springs does it, that’s great.”

Gebbia said he thought about monorails while driving

on I-85 through Brookhaven, pondering traffic snarls, MARTA’s expansion struggles and forthcoming redevelopment around I-85 and North Druid Hills Road.

“I said, ‘Wouldn’t that be really neat to see a monorail [running along Buford Highway], saying ‘Brookhaven’ on the side?’” Gebbia recalled.

He envisioned the monorail that his family rode when they visited Disney World. “I remember thinking, ‘Wow, that monorail handled a lot of people.’”

“We’ve got to find a way to take tires off the street” while attracting top-quality economic development, he said.

Gebbia envisions a circulator monorail connecting the Brookhaven/Oglethorpe MARTA station, Buford Highway, PDK Airport, and the Century Center, Executive Park and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta office centers. That would require partnership with MARTA and the city of Chamblee. Gebbia would like MARTA to own and operate the monorail and tie it into its Breeze card fare system.

SEE MONORAIL, PAGE 14

2015: YEAR IN REVIEW

Brookhaven elects new mayor, unveils future development plans

BY JOHN RUCH

johnruch@reporternewspapers.net

It was a year of turmoil in city government, with political scandals and turnover in the mayor’s office. But that didn’t stop 2015 from also being a year of big plans, from MARTA station redevelopment to a new public charter school to a possible Peachtree Creek park.

Here’s a look at some of Brookhaven’s top stories of 2015:

Brookhaven Innovation Academy approved After two years of effort and a previous rejection, the Brookhaven Innovation Academy, a new public charter school, finally won state approval on Aug. 26. That was only the beginning of the story, as BIA began a hunt for a school location and ran into an ethics dust-up over its new interim executive director.

Created by the City Council, BIA is focused on a science, technology and math curriculum, and is intended in part to cope with overcrowding in DeKalb County schools, especially Brookhaven’s Cross Keys cluster.

Approved less than a year before its scheduled August 2016 opening date, BIA raced to find a school location. The city’s decision to purchase the Skyland Center office building prior to BIA’s approval was partly informed by its possible use as a school. Since then, BIA has proposed using space in Skyland Park and Brookhaven Baptist Church, but it was still on the hunt in mid-December.

BIA’s relationship with the City Council triggered ethics concerns. The state required BIA’s board to cut the number of seats held by council members as a condition of the school’s approval. In October, BIA hired Councilman Bates Mattison as its interim executive director, which led Mayor Rebecca Chase Williams to order a legal opinion about the ethics of Mattison’s dual jobs. BIA removed a commission-based fundraising incentive from Mattison’s pay, and the legal review found that Mattison can hold both jobs if he abstains from BIA-related council votes and discloses his relationships with its funders.

run for a seat in the state Legislature, City Councilwoman Rebecca Chase Williams replaced him. Williams campaigned to retain the mayor’s office, but dropped out of the race in September, citing family health issues.

Ernst, an attorney and former chair of the DeKalb County Board of Ethics, took 88 percent of the vote over candidate Dale Boone to win the mayor’s seat, which will officially become his in January. “There’s no more ‘Brookhaven Yes’ or ‘Brookhaven No,’” Ernst said on Election Night, referring to committees that promoted or objected to creation of the city in 2012. “There’s just Brookhaven. I look forward to a better Brookhaven.”

Pill Hill apartments set Brookhaven against Sandy Springs, lead to call for better planning Plans for a mixed-use project with 305 apartments on Johnson Ferry Road in Pill Hill sparked some friction between leaders of Brookhaven and Sandy Springs, and got some momentum going for better planning in the traffic-snarled medical center area.

The project’s site is on Emory Saint Joseph’s Hospital land in Sandy Springs, but close to the Brookhaven border. Brookhaven’s mayor protested developer North American Properties’ plan at Sandy Springs meetings this summer, complaining of lack of cross-border notice. Meanwhile, many residents in both cities criticized the project as increasing traffic, though North American Properties says it will be walkable and transit-oriented. The brouhaha led Sandy Springs Mayor Rusty Paul to convene a meeting with Pill Hill hospital leaders, who committed to more coordinated traffic planning, though the details remain unclear.

Uproar at City Hall Repeated scandals plagued City Hall and had a lasting impact on local politics.

The communications director was fired, the city attorney resigned, and the state Attorney General ruled that City Council broke the law in keeping secret a report describing an incident involving former Mayor J. Max Davis as “sexual harassment.”

Communications Director Rosemary Taylor was fired in April after her dispute with a photographer at the Cherry Blossom Festival made news. Taylor complained that the photographer’s use of models was “not the image Brookhaven wants.” The photographer said Taylor’s comment was racist; Taylor said she was referring to what she described as their inappropriate attire.

That scandal was tame in comparison to the fallout from a February incident where Davis sprayed an aerosol can near two female employees. The incident became public in the spring, with Davis calling it a “joke,” but City Manager Marie Garrett calling it “sexual harassment” in an internal email. City Attorney Tom Kurrie eventually resigned after advising the council to withhold that email while altering another one related to the incident. The state Attorney General’s office later condemned the council’s secrecy.

Davis, who had resigned to run for the House District 80 seat, blamed his loss in that election partly on the fallout. And John Ernst, the former chair of the DeKalb County Board of Ethics, won the mayoral race on a platform promising transparency and reform.

Ernst elected mayor, third in one year John Ernst won a landslide victory Nov. 3 to become the third mayor of Brookhaven. In fact, he will be the third mayor within a single tumultuous year of leadership changes.

After Davis, the city’s founding mayor, resigned in June to make an unsuccessful

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DEC. 25, 2015 – JAN. 7, 2016 | www.ReporterNewspapers.net

Dreams of turning Peachtree Creek along Buford Highway into a park became a plan this year.

SPECIAL

Peachtree Creek Greenway plan begins Longstanding dreams of turning the hidden Peachtree Creek along Buford Highway into a linear park turned into a plan this year under the new name Peachtree Creek Greenway. Spearheaded by a local nonprofit formerly known as North Fork Connectors, the greenway is currently focused on Brookhaven’s 3 miles of the creek, but the parkland goal ultimately applies to the entire waterway between Buckhead and Mercer University in unincorporated DeKalb County. Early draft designs show up to four different types of paths lining the creek, with similarities to Atlanta’s BeltLine.

Flowerland park idea is floated Could Flowerland, a floral tourist attraction from yesteryear rise again on Chamblee-Dunwoody Road? Architect Andrew Amor last month presented a conceptual idea for restoring the former gigantic flower garden of Dr. Luther Fischer in what is now the D’Youville condominiums. Nearly a century ago, tourists flocked to Flowerland during the one day a year it was open to the public. Amor envisions the garden reviving as a public park, along with recreations of a pioneer settlement and a Native American village. But cost was the big question.

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2015: YEAR IN REVIEW

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MARTA announced a redevelopment plan for the Brookhaven/Oglethorpe station area.

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MARTA unveils potential development MARTA on Sept. 3 announced the selection of the team that will redevelop the Brookhaven/Oglethorpe station area into a massive, mixed-use project starting in 2017. The plan includes housing, restaurants, green spaces—and maybe even a grocery store and a new City Hall.

Brookhaven City Center Partners was the winning bidder for the Brookhaven station area at Peachtree Road and Dresden Drive. The mixed-use project would begin with 330 apartments, more than 25,000 square feet of retail space and 117,000 square feet of office space, according to a MARTA press release. Future phases could include around 400 more residential units of senior housing and condos along with civic spaces and a hotel. The plan would reduce the size of the station’s parking lot, replacing 560 existing parking spaces and totally eliminating 900 spaces, according to MARTA.

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Another year, another tree ordinance debate. A year after adopting its controversial tree-preservation law, the city revised it again with even tighter restrictions. A key provision is requiring developers to maintain 120 inches—in diameter—of trees per acre or 45 percent of the site’s tree-canopy cover. That still brought complaints from tree preservationists that the rule is too loose and from developers that it might be too restrictive.

CEO’s investigators call DeKalb ‘rotten to the core’ A long-awaited investigative report on DeKalb County government called on county Interim CEO Lee May to resign for an unidentified “questionable loan.” May refused. May himself had commissioned the report from Mike Bowers and Richard Hyde.

The investigators at one point described the county government as “rotten to the core.”

Garbage pickups change to once a week In February, Interim DeKalb CEO Lee May proposed the county cut garbage pickups from two days a week to one and that county sanitation workers pick up yard waste and recycling on the same day they collect garbage. The change, intended to save money, meant garbage trucks will come to residents’ homes once a week instead of four times a week.

Resident Gene Collins expressed his thoughts in a letter to the editor. “I always wondered why DeKalb was the only county (that I’m aware of anyway) that does trash pickup twice a week and recycling on a totally separate day entirely…this is just stupid,” Collins wrote.

Jackie Nealey agreed, writing her own letter to say, “It doesn’t get any simpler than placing everything at the curb on the same day (night before pickup).”

Under the new system, which went into effect July 6, county sanitation workers pick up recycling and yard clippings on the same days the workers pick up garbage.

Officials said they made the move to once-a-week pickups to save money and to avoid a hike in the county’s garbage fee, which has remained unchanged since 2006.

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2015: YEAR IN REVIEW

Perimeter Business Mercedes-Benz USA goes local

In a corporate headquarters coup for Sandy Springs, luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz USA announced in January that it would relocate there from New Jersey. The new headquarters off Abernathy Road is slated to open in 2018, and in the meantime, Mercedes is working out of a Dunwoody office. Mercedes made an Atlanta splash by buying naming rights to the new football and soccer stadium downtown. Locally, it became involved in controversy over a housing development that will accompany its Sandy Springs headquarters. And its pending attempt to rename part of Barfield Road as “Mercedes-Benz Drive” is opposed by a Barfield family descendent. But it also drew thanks for kicking off corporate donations by giving a van to the nonprofit, Community Assistance Center.

Builder picked for interchange

Fixing the I-285/ Ga. 400 interchange had been projected to cost more than $1 billion, making it the most expensive road project in Georgia history. But when bids finally were opened in December, North Perimeter Contractors won the job by offering to do it for a mere $460 million. When all costs were totaled, state Department of Transportation officials said the price of the project would be just $679 million, meaning it only ranks among the state’s more expensive road projects.

The construction will cover 10 miles of highway as the project stretches from east of Ashford-Dunwoody Road to west of Roswell Road and from the Glenridge Connector to Spalding Drive. Contractors will add flyover bridges and connector/distributor lanes to the interchange. Once the work is done, likely to be some time in 2020, the average commuter will save eight hours a year in commuting time and employers will save $100 million in lost productivity, Transportation Commissioner Russell McMurry said.

High-speed Internet battle comes to town

Google announced in January it would bring a new high-speed Internet service to Sandy Springs, Atlanta and Brookhaven, along with a half-dozen other communities in metro Atlanta. Local political leaders jumped at the chance to get high-speed fiber lines.

“It’s a tremendous opportunity for our city, our citizens and business community,” said Brookhaven City Councilman Bates Mattison, who attended Google’s announcement along with then-Mayor J. Max Davis and other city officials. Dunwoody was left out of the Google program, but AT&T stepped in with its own plans to provide its own highspeed fiber network and to include Dunwoody along with Sandy Springs. AT&T’s Internet service found a fan in Dunwoody City Councilman John Heneghan. “[T]he productivity gained on large uploads should cut my processing time way back,” Heneghan wrote in his blog.“I hope it comes to your neighborhood soon.” In December, Brookhaven’s Google Fiber hit a snag when the Zoning Board of Appeals denied a necessary utility hut in Parkside Park, leaving Google to hunt alternative locations.

Restaurant Council grows in Sandy Springs

In its second year, the Sandy Springs Restaurant Council began expanding its mission beyond the typical “restaurant week” promotion to start marketing the city as a foodie mecca. An August football season kick-off cook-out was a hit, and the first of new quarterly dining events the council intends to hold. The Restaurant Council formed in 2013 as an initiative of the Sandy Springs/Perimeter Chamber of Commerce, and could become an influential model for neighboring cities, as there is talk of Dunwoody and Sandy Springs partnering on a restaurant week promotion and the newer city of Brookhaven starting its own.

“People go down Ga. 400 to get to Buckhead and bypass Sandy Springs … when we have over 500 restaurants in Sandy Springs,” said Karen Trylovich, the council’s chair.

Apartment boom reshaping Perimeter cities

A continuing apartment-development boom began reshaping the new Perimeter cities and Buckhead, sparking debates about density, traffic and quality of life.

Residents packed neighborhood gatherings and city zoning meetings in order to push back against apartment plans. The Roswell Road corridor in Sandy Springs alone had more than 2,400 new apartments approved or under construction. Millennials and baby boomers were driving the trend, real estate experts said. About 11,000 new multifamily units—including apartments and condos—have been built in the past seven quarters in metro Atlanta, according to Ron Cameron of Colliers International-Atlanta.

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DEC. 25, 2015 – JAN. 7, 2016 | www.ReporterNewspapers.net

2015: YEAR IN REVIEW

Standout Students

Local students work to make the world a better place Editor’s note: In 2015, Reporter Newspapers identified 22 local high school students who make significant contributions to their communities. They won prizes for academics, excelled in athletics, and volunteered to do charity work close to home and in faraway places. Here are the “Standout Students” we met during the past year and, according to officials from their high schools, where they are now.

Abraham Araya set the cross-country record at Chamblee Charter High School and now attends Cornell University.

Aidan Brady, a senior at Mount Vernon Presbyterian School, developed “Wordzie,” an iPhone app.

Ansley Guthrie, a student at the Whitefield Academy, helped a charity with imprisoned Ugandan children.

Andrew Agrippina started a pro-life club at Holy Spirit Preparatory School and attends Washington and Lee University.

Asia Durr, a basketball star at St. Pius X Catholic High School, plays for the University of Louisville.

Avi Botwinick, a senior at the Weber School, is part of the robotics team.

Eagle Scout and Lovett School senior Benjamin Yarmowich cleaned over 300 signs in his neighborhood.

Caroline Grant, from the The Lovett School, developed a reading curriculum for children.

Ean Huang, a graduate of Holy Spirit Preparatory School, helped provide earthquake relief in China.

Haley Vincent, a student at The Westminster Schools, volunteers with youthSpark.

Haley Barnes, a student at The Lovett School, has raised money for cancer research.

John Arnold, a junior at Holy Spirit Preparatory School, made lunches for disadvantaged children.

John Willingham, a senior at Mount Vernon Presbyterian School, organized rocketry and Bible study clubs, and earned his pilot’s license.

Josh Doman, a senior at The Westminster Schools, was awarded silver in the United States Physics Olympiad.

Kenny Buckner, a graduate of Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School, was named Atlanta’s Youth Poet Laureate and attends Syracuse University.

Matt Tanenblatt, a graduate of Pace Academy, introduced “Scootle,” an app that addresses traffic congestion.

Max Harris, a senior at Weber School, formed the school’s Investment Club.

Pascal Acree, a senior at Riverwood International Charter School, presented at an international radon symposium.

Sarah Corning, a senior at The Lovett School, taught and volunteered in Guatemala.

Sydney Holmes, as a Dunwoody High School student, taught youngsters to stay safe.

William Denning, a senior at The Westminster Schools, won the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association Award.

Xanthos Likes, a graduate of Marist School, published a children’s book, “Corporate Fish.”

He’s on a Mormon mission.

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DEC. 25, 2015 – JAN. 7, 2016 | 5

2015: YEAR IN REVIEW

Phil picks his favorite photos of 2015 Phil Mosier teaches photography at Georgia Perimeter College and takes many of the photos that appear in the pages of Reporter Newspapers.

We asked him to choose his favorites from the many he shot for the newspapers in 2015. His first choice was the photograph on the cover of this issue of a girl with a butterfly on her nose. Phil also listed the photo shown here, left, of Sophia Wetherbee holding a chicken during an event at the Atlanta History Center, among his favorites.

“I try to capture moments that will make viewers respond to beauty, integrity and spirit that, in turn, illuminates peoples’ lives in our neighborhoods,” Mosier said.

PHOTOS BY PHIL MOSIER

Above and on the facing page are some of our other favorite photos from 2015.

Sophia Wetherbee, 9, petted a Barred Rock Cochin Chicken during the annual Folklife Festival at the Atlanta History Center in Buckhead on Sept. 26.

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DEC. 25, 2015 – JAN. 7, 2016 | www.ReporterNewspapers.net

Ruthie Williams, 3, left, and her friend Anna Harding, 3, dance to the music of “The Return,” a Beatles tribute band performing at Heritage Green in Sandy Springs on Aug. 2. The show was part of the annual Concert by the Springs series.

2015: YEAR IN REVIEW

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COMMENTARY Reporter Newspapers Our mission is to provide our readers with fresh and engaging information about life in their communities.

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What’s next? Looking ahead to 2016 As 2015 slips past, it’s time to take a moment to look forward. What’s coming in 2016? We asked newsmakers from Reporter Newspapers communities what they thought would be the biggest issues or trends facing our local areas in the coming year.

Here’s what they see heading our way in 2016.

I think the most important issues that the General Assembly will address during the upcoming 2016 session include passing of education reforms, including changing the way state funds are distributed to local districts, and considering teacher merit pay. I think the General Assembly will significantly revise the $5-per-night hotel/ motel fee that was part of last session’s transportation funding bill.

The General Assembly also will consider important Fulton County reforms. I will propose tax relief for Atlanta’s seniors.

-- Rep. Beth Beskin (R-Atlanta) 2016 will be another transformative year in Fulton County. I’m expecting a balanced budget which will hopefully result in a further decrease in our millage rate. The BOC is working on several significant initiatives in a number of areas including public health, safety and economic development. We are having great collaboration with the Fulton mayors around tackling our transportation challenges.

Also, the potential sale of Turner Field and unveiling of dynamic opportunities for the redevelopment of the area will be something to watch.

-- Fulton County Commissioner Bob Ellis The groundbreaking on Brookhaven’s park improvements will be the biggest event for Brookhaven, which I hope leads to more resident-led projects through 2016 and beyond. The new trend for our city government will be monthly town hall meetings. I’m very excited to work for – and with – every Brookhaven resident to make our city better.

-- Brookhaven Mayor-elect John Ernst I foresee a trend toward more active recreation opportunities within the Dunwoody Park system and specifically more programming at Brook Run Park. The hospital in the back of the park was torn down in 2007, leaving a rocky, open field and the city has been slowly filling it in with clean fill dirt to level it out. The city just settled a $4 million lawsuit with DeKalb County where the Parks Master Plan update may direct money toward improving Brook Run’s playing fields. I hope to see permanently installed, flat

DEC. 25, 2015 – JAN. 7, 2016 | www.ReporterNewspapers.net

multi-use playable fields in the back of Brook Run Park, so that new recreation opportunities can be available to our community.

-- Dunwoody City Councilman John Heneghan For a number of years, Buckhead’s leadership has recognized the growing need for replacements from the younger generation. Before our Buckhead Coalition was formed, the Buckhead Business Association started just such a group (called YoungBucks, by my son Steve). More recently, the coalition started an organization of new leaders nominated by neighborhood associations. Named the Diplomatic Leadership Corps, it consists of 25 men and women around the age of 25 (to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the coalition).

Imagine our excitement when David Cummings developed Atlanta Tech Village as an incubator for young tech startups. Add to this the wisdom of 36 different developers announcing 44 apartment complexes with 13,974 units to meet the desire for mobility by the estimated population expansion, with 38 percent made up by millennials.

Young leadership is what’s trending in Buckhead for 2016!

-- Sam Massell, president of the Buckhead Coalition I believe the most significant local event in 2016 is: Will the GM project move forward or stall due to bureaucratic infighting and/or ignorance? Also, will DeKalb’s legislative delegation finally embrace the Republican initiative to eliminate the CEO position and go to a county manager system? In Fulton County, will the Fulton County Commission continue to make progress in relations with its cities?

-- Sen. Fran Millar (R-Dunwoody) I expect resolution on at least these two definitive key items for Dunwoody in 2016: 1. Begin Brook Run Park improvements using the $4 million settlement from DeKalb County due to the parks bond litigation.

This should include turning the undeveloped back field into recreational fields, developing the Great Lawn, adding vehicle entry to the park from Barclay Drive and other amenities in the Parks Master Plan. The $4 million for these improvements is already in the bank.

2. Finalize a timeline, location and action plan for future Dunwoody City Hall arrangements, as the current lease expires in 2019.

I have asked for discussion during our annual retreat in February around these two issues that I hope will result in a policy consensus: a different policy approach to our paving plan in order to accelerate paving of the city’s lowestranked roads; and how council will address an increasing tax digest in order to achieve residential property tax relief.

-- Dunwoody City Councilman Terry Nall

COMMENTARY In the New Year, we will finalize our long-term plan.

At the start, Sandy Springs adopted Fulton County’s existing development codes because: 1) we needed something immediately, 2) we understood the process, and 3) we could fix its obvious flaws over time. After a decade of patching, we realized the old land use plan and development regulations were mid-20th Century relics unsuited for early 21st Century demands. This forced council to implement three development moratoria because we lacked adequate controls to block certain types of unwanted development.

In 2016, we will update our land use plan and development ordinances to ensure public engagement before developers can apply for a rezoning. The goal is to develop a plan that our residents believe ensures our long-term quality of life.

-- Sandy Springs Mayor Rusty Paul Notwithstanding the political claims that DeKalb is “back on track,” 2016 will be a year of decision. The Legislature will consider further reform of our Organizational Act (County Constitution) and voters will elect a new CEO, four Commissioners and a District Attorney.

A newly created independent Internal Auditor will, for the first time, provide an informed and focused critique of county operations. While new cities and annexations may slow, the conflicts generated by intensive development along municipal boundaries will necessitate intergovernmental cooperation that has been lacking. All residents can and should be active in every election, because county decisions affect everyone.

-- DeKalb County Commissioner Jeff Rader The most significant local event will be formulating smart strategies and then making decisions to expand transportation alternatives and fund projects that alleviate traffic congestion. One example is whether Fulton Countians should consider a November referendum for an extra 1 percent sales tax to fund road, bridge and other transportation projects. Stakeholders will meet to adopt criteria, and local officials will then have to discuss priorities and forge an agreement. This will lead to much-needed debate and decision making.

-- Rep. Joe Wilkinson, (R-Sandy Springs) Brookhaven will continue to blossom and bloom in 2016. The MARTA development at the BrookhavenOglethorpe station will move forward, a decision should be made about where to locate the Brookhaven library, and City Hall will likely determine its next home. All the parks master plans will start coming to fruition, along with the bike-pedestrian plan. The folks studying the Ashford-Dunwoody Corridor should be engaging the community to create a vision for one of our busiest roads.

With a good team in place at City Hall, I feel confident that it will build on the foundation that has been laid and continue building a great city.

-- Brookhaven Mayor Rebecca Chase Williams

In 2016, I look forward to more partnerships pushing major projects forward that enhance Perimeter, Georgia’s corporate center, and benefit our city and county partners and the region - projects like the I-285 at Ga. 400 Interchange project. I see more big wins, collaborations and successes for our Perimeter business community as long as we continue to work together for the good of the whole. As we identify the needs of our thriving corporate center, PCIDs will continue to be at the table with a hand up, not a hand out.

-- Yvonne Williams President/CEO, Perimeter Community Improvement Districts

A look at the 2015 news in cyberspace...

Online readers had their own preferences when it came to news in our communities. Here are some of the most-read stories on ReporterNewspapers.net for each Reporter Newspapers community.

Brookhaven • Brookhaven introduces new tourism mascot ‘Brook’ • Historic Brookhaven residents wary of proposal for Hastings site • Peachtree apartment plan draws opposition despite negotiations Buckhead • Buckhead NPU approves 22-story condo tower • Lindbergh Kroger rezoning gets Atlanta City Council approval • PATH400 opens and Buckhead hits the trail • Atlanta Classical Academy: We’re counter-cultural • Two long-serving coaches reflect on football tradition Dunwoody • Dunwoody Tavern closes for filming, welcomes movie stars, seeking extras • New development rolls into Chamblee • Dunwoody voters choose new mayor • Cobb County man dies in one-car accident in Dunwoody • Police identify Dunwoody victim in I-285 fatality Sandy Springs • Glenridge Hall: A little known Sandy Springs historic gem • Ice rink opens in Sandy Springs • After 23 years, local icon Brickery grapples with change • Disney Springs? Planning chair wants a Sandy Springs monorail • Proposal for Galloway softball and tennis facility in Sandy Springs finds critics

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COMMENTARY

What the Dickens?

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When he decided to move to Canterbury Court, he chose a studio apartment, which he says “is more than big enough for me.” The maintenance-free lifestyle also lets him keep a second home in Florida and take frequent road trips.

Dan says people are “missing the boat” by not moving to a retirement community sooner. “Here you have several restaurant options, all kinds of activities and excursions, a theater with daily showings, a heated pool and wellness center, 11 acres of beautiful gardens ... it’s like being on a permanent vacation!”

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Dickens was on to something. In his classic tale, “A Christmas Carol,” he writes about the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future visiting Ebenezer Scrooge, all in one night. Well, it seems to me that his story isn’t all that fanciful because those same three spirits haunt our house from December straight through till spring.

The Ghost of Christmas Past lives in the ornament box. I pull out spray-painted pieces of cardboard that are covered with gold pasta and clumps of glitter, and the Spirit whisks me back in time to the years when my children proudly presented them to me. The Spirit enchants photo ornaments of pudgy little baby faces, causing me to recognize those faces hiding behind my sons’ facial hair when I squint just so. She transports me as I rifle through the trimmings -- suddenly I am with friends who moved across the country years ago; I am reliving birthdays and anniversaries and hearing choirs I once sung with.

The Ghost of Christmas Present is persistent. He enters jovially on Christmas Eve, explodes on Christmas Day with gilded glory, and then on Dec. 26, quietly takes off his boots and settles himself in for the rest of the winter. We find him in the house and yard, and in the very air we breathe − in the half-packed boxes of decorations and bows that fill the den for weeks, in the scent of Frasier fir candles ever burning, in bowls of red and green M&Ms scattered about, in the needlepoint stocking found mid-February on a knob of the living room door.

Christmas Present lingers by the potted poinsettias as they drop curled leaves onto my kitchen floor and near the gingerbread-man garden flag that flaps in the wind while daffodils push up the earth around it. He will remain until pastel jellybeans and porcelain bunnies appear in March or April -- my tradition being to pack away the final remnants of Christmas on Good Friday.

Christmas Future lives in the pantry

Free will is key

and in the freezer. He is sometimes known as the Spirit of Christmas Cookies Yet to Come. He lives in the Crisco that I have in the cabinet above the refrigerator − purROBIN JEAN chased anew each Decem- MARIE CONTE ber for the past ROBIN’S NEST three years− that still may, one day, become biscotti. He is found in the containers of candied fruit that never made their way into batter, but that still hold the promise of Ina Garten’s fruitcake cookies.

Christmas Future also haunts the Christmas mailing list in my Outlook contacts file, which continues to be updated with changed addresses and will be an incredible time-saver next year once we spend three days trying to remember how to get the contacts to print out on the address labels. And he haunts the closet where 70 percent-off items rest, awaiting the gift-exchanges of Christmases in future years.

For three months, I live in a very crowded house. The Spirits jostle for position in my kitchen, den and basement, and then, being ethereal creatures, manage to occupy my head and my credit card bills, as well.

I find myself, as Mr. Scrooge professed at the end of The Carol, to be living “in the Past, the Present and the Future.” Perhaps it is as the Spirits intended, but there is really nothing I can do about it.

I mean, what the Dickens?

Robin Conte is a writer and mother of four who lives in Dunwoody. She can be contacted at robinjm@earthlink.net.

informed and revisionist history perspectives to themselves. The flag artwork disTo the editor: played in the OK Café is one of the things Two articles/comments [in the Dec. I have come to like most about the OK 11-Dec. 24 Reporter Newspapers] caught Cafe, primarily because so many people my attention and inspired me to comwant to “force” the owners to remove it. ment. Actually, they caused me to shake We frequent the OK Café because of the my head in frustration. food and service. We have come to appreFirst, the caption under the photo on ciate the associated denotations and conp. 10: “Sandy Springs resinotations referenced by the dents ... are forced to walk in framed book cover of “To the road ...” Correction: No LE T T E R T O Kill a Mockingbird,” the one “forced” Messrs. Hor- T HE E DIT OR note from Ms. Lee, the conton and Tigner to walk in the tinuation of Southern hosE-mail letters to road. There are literally miles pitality, the friendliness and of places where these two in- editor@reporternewspapers.net fellowship of long-time dividuals and any other hucustomers and the folk art mans or animals may walk. It which includes the flag that is a factual is a free choice. part of the community’s heritage.

Second, in the review billed as “DinMore specifically to Ms. Volpert and ing Out” by Megan Volpert, Ms. Volpert those who share her views: No one is forcserves the reader well by commenting on ing you to eat at OK Café. If you find it the restaurant OK Café, its food, its sernot to your liking, well “bless your heart” vice. Ms. Volpert may - and I request that and don’t feel that you must come again. she and others do - keep their political, illWilliam Joseph

FAITH

Hitting the high notes

SPECIAL PHOTOS

Choirs from The Epstein and Mount Vernon Presbyterian schools joined in a celebration of holiday music and an exploration of diversity through song. Front row, from left, Isabella Akhlaghi, Kennedi Espy, Jai Deans, Annabel France, Liam O’Toole and Aidan Ray. Back, from left, Leighton Batcheller, Isabella Moffett and Emma Dickie.

Foster Berlin takes a long look at the menorah.

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Front row, Thomas Fennelly, left, watches Samantha Londe, right, light the candles as Isabella Moffett, back left, and Will Jackson look on. www.ReporterNewspapers.net |

DEC. 25, 2015 – JAN. 7, 2016 | 11

COMMUNITY

Mayor leaves office with pride and plans

BY JOHN RUCH

johnruch@reporternewspapers.net

As Mayor Rebecca Chase Williams prepares to step down as one of Brookhaven’s founding officials, she’s looking back with pride on the city’s whirlwind first three years. And she’s planning new ways to contribute as a private citizen, from starting a historical society to fundraising for more parks.

“I’m really proud of all the accomplishments we’ve made,” Williams said in a recent interview in the mayor’s office she will vacate when mayor-elect John Ernst is sworn in Jan. 4. “We’ve tried to balance between building the city, taking care of basics and dreaming—dreaming big.”

“Most of it has been fun. Not all of it has been fun,” she said. She recalled the “dark cloud” of the city’s battle against the Pink Pony strip club, and controversy over an employee complaint about former mayor J. Max Davis that Williams called an overblown reaction to “schoolboy” behavior.

“I worked hard to stand on principle…

Did we have stumbles? Of course,” said Williams, adding that she is proud of how the city handled its controversies as well.

A retired national reporter for ABC News, Williams was a longtime neighborhood activist when she got involved in the cityhood movement that led to Brookhaven’s 2012 founding. She was elected to the first City Council and was appointed mayor this year when Davis resigned to run for a state representative seat. Williams dropped out of this year’s mayoral race, citing family health concerns.

“Nobody gives you a user’s guide. You don’t know what you don’t know,” Williams said of the steep learning curve in

running a new city. She recalled the organizing frenzy that had the new government wandering “like Bedouins” to a temporary City Hall in Dunwoody for a time.

“I think our proudest accomplishment is a police department,” she said, recalling pre-cityhood times when the county had only four or five officers patrolling. On the other hand, she said, “Now I’m kind of surprised at how much crime we do have” as better policing reveals it.

“I think we kept our promise that we’d run the city like a business. I’m really proud of the fact that the anti-city people all said it was going to be ‘Broke-haven,’” yet they have a sizable reserve while continuously rolling back the property tax millage rate, she said. “Our roads are paved. Our potholes are filled.”

City parks are another point of pride, both in long-term planning and quick fixups. “My only regret is…I won’t be the one making decisions” on moving the park master plans ahead, Williams said.

But she cited successes like planting 150 cherry trees and establishing the Cherry Blossom Festival, and fixing up neglected facilities like the Lynwood Community Center, where “people thought you needed a typhus shot to go in there. It was where the vampires lived.”

The downside of holding office, Williams said, was receiving “angry” and “coarse” criticism, especially online. “I guess it comes with the territory,” she said.

“It’s hurtful. It doesn’t encourage other people to step up and take that kind of smearing.”

If the harshness of criticism took Williams by surprise, so did some of the con-

troversies that triggered it.

“Some things came along, like the Pink Pony, that I didn’t expect to be such a big issue. I look at that as kind of a dark cloud,” Williams said. She found it “shocking” that, unlike in other metro Atlanta cityversus-strip-club battles, many Brookhaven residents supported the Pink Pony.

“If we were to do nothing and five more strip clubs came in, would people be happy?” Williams asked. “So we fought the battle all the way to the state Supreme Court, and we won, and I thought it was great cause for celebration.”

She was disappointed the City Council chose to let the club remain for seven years in exchange for an annual payment.

Another controversy came this year when the city withheld an email describing as “sexual harassment” an incident where Davis sprayed an aerosol can near an employee. The incident became an issue in Davis’s unsuccessful state representative campaign and led the state Attorney General to condemn the city for secrecy.

“I take pride [that] when I became mayor I tried to clean up” transparency issues, Williams said. “I faulted our city attorney for giving us bad advice” and then “rounded up the votes” to force him out.

“J. Max did not deserve to be treated like he was in that election,” Williams added. “Those accusations…blew out of proportion a minor incident that was in no way sexual harassment. He acted like a schoolboy on a couple of days. That’s no reason to crucify him.”

In fact, Williams said, she might have continued serving on the council if Davis had remained mayor. As it is, she said, “I wish John Ernst all the best…Sometimes I feel like George Washington [in] his farewell speech. I need to step down so you

JOE EARLE

Mayor Rebecca Chase Williams, left, says farewell at her last City Council meeting as Councilmembers Joe Gebbia and Linley Jones listen.

can move on.”

Looking ahead, Williams is considering forming a Brookhaven historical society, an extension of a local history project she funded with mayoral discretionary funds. A local history book in the “Images of America” series is likely to come out of that effort.

She’s also planning to coordinate private fundraising to sustain the Cherry Blossom Festival and such green space efforts as a plan to beautify the long wall running along the MARTA tracks on Peachtree Road. Ernst’s mother, a master gardener, may assist her with the wall work. “My other little pet project is Flowerland,” said Williams, referring to an ambitious proposal to resurrect a historic, giant flower garden off Chamblee-Dunwoody Road.

In her Dec. 15 farewell to the City Council, “I compared starting the city to birthing a baby,” and how it has gone through its “terrible twos” to become a toddler, Williams said.

“Don’t be surprised if I stick around to watch our child grow.”

City approves bonds for Skyland building, then sets re-vote

BY JOE EARLE

joeearle@reporternewspapers.net

City Council voted Dec. 18 to underwrite a $3.3 million bond to finance the city’s purchase of the Skyland Center building.

The city’s Development Authority had planned to issue the bonds and buy the building in January. The council voted 3-0 to underwrite the bond issue. The authority met Dec. 18 and voted to issue the bonds, which experts expected to sell at an interest rate of 2.875 percent or lower, city officials said.

But the city called a special meeting on Dec. 23 to vote again on the bonds.

The agenda said the council would discuss and vote to rescind the original bond issue and then reconsider the bonds. The Development Authority was to vote again, too, city spokeswoman Ann Marie Quill said.

Quill said Councilman Joe Gebbia on Dec. 22 resigned his seat on

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the Brookhaven Innovation Academy board to avoid an appearance of conflict of interest on the bond vote.

Council members said they may use the building in the future to house City Hall, the city’s police department, the Brookhaven Innovation Academy or for some other public use.

“There are risks with any deal... but I think this is a sweetheart deal,” said Gebbia before the Dec. 18 vote.

The building, located at 2600 Skyland Drive, now houses state offices.

Brookhaven City Manager Marie Garrett said state officials plan to vacate the building next July and want to sell it. State officials have agreed to sell the building to the city for $2.7 million.

“They need to move on. They are asking for a final decision on whether council is ready [to buy the building],” Garrett told council members during their Dec. 15 meeting.

DEC. 25, 2015 – JAN. 7, 2016 | www.ReporterNewspapers.net

“If not, they will put the building on the market. They have located a new building.”

The remainder of the bond funds will cover the costs of the bond issue and renovations to the building, including addition of a sprinkler system and removal of a small area of asbestos, city officials said. Gebbia, Council members Linley Jones and John Park voted to approve the bonds.

City officials originally thought the state offices would remain in the Skyland building for up to two years, with state rent payments covering the necessary bond payments for a time.

At the Dec. 15 meeting, officials said the city’s current rent on its City Hall and police department facilities totals $561,000 a year, so moving city offices into the Skyland building would save money on rent. But Garrett said other potential users have aksed about renting the building.

Leaders of the BIA, a state charter school now planning to open next

year, have shown interest in renting the Skyland building in the past. BIA officials recently have said they are considering other locations as well. To avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, City Councilman Bates Mattison, who is employed as the BIA’s executive director, left the council chambers before the discussion and vote on purchasing the building.

Garrett told the council members that a school other than the BIA has inquired about the Skyland building as have business incubators.

Park said that because of the reduction in the amount of time the state was expected to rent the Skyland building from the city, the purchase of the building “gives me a little heartburn.” He said he wanted the city to sell the building if no tenant would cover its costs and the city did not use it for city offices. “We could be left holding the bag for several hundred thousand dollars,” Park said. “It’s a risk.”

BK

COMMUNITY Councilman’s ethics review cost $8,600 An ethics review of City Councilman Bates Mattison’s dual job as interim executive director of the Brookhaven Innovation Academy will cost the city more than $8,600.

Mayor Rebecca Chase Williams in November ordered a legal opinion from Marietta attorney R. Randall Bentley Sr., who recently billed the city $8,662.50 for his work. Bentley said Mattison can hold both jobs as long as he recuses himself from votes relating to the new public charter school.

Bentley also recommended the removal of a funBates Mattison draising incentive from Mattison’s BIA pay package, a move the school’s board had made shortly after the legal review was announced.

Mercedes CEO leaves for Falcons job; Brookhaven resident replaces him Mercedes-Benz USA president and CEO Steve Cannon, who oversaw the automaker’s move to Sandy Springs, is leaving to head the company that owns the Atlanta Falcons and the new downtown football stadium, among other assets.

Cannon will start as CEO of AMB Group on Feb. 1, essentially replacing well-known Atlanta corporate leader Arthur M. Blank as the day-to-day operator of the company, according to a press release.

Earlier this year, MBUSA bought the naming rights to the stadium Cannon will now oversee, a move he and Blank an-

Steve Cannon

JOHN RUCH

nounced in a press conference.

“I made an immediate connection with Arthur because we B RIEFS have very similar value systems and a shared vision for what the customer experience can and should be,” Cannon in an AMB press release said. “I look forward to working closely with the leaders within AMB Group and across the individual businesses to drive growth and deliver even greater value to the fans, customers, partners and communities that we serve.”

Replacing Cannon at MBUSA is Dietmar Exler, who currently serves as vice president of Mercedes-Benz Financial Services USA. Exler, a Brookhaven resident, will take over MBUSA on Jan. 1 and Cannon will act as a consultant through Jan. 31, according to a press release.

“Dietmar’s appointment is central to reinforcing our strategy and our standards around the world, and will continue to strengthen the ties and collaboration within our marketing and sales network,” said Ola Kaellenius, a member of the board of management of Daimler AG, Mercedes-Benz Cars Marketing & Sales, in an MBUSA press release.

General fund budget set at $20.8 million Brookhaven City Council unanimously adopted a $20.8 million general fund budget during its Dec. 15 meeting, but not before readjusting line items to increase the amount going into the city’s contingency funds.

“The good news is we have $1 million more in the general fund,” Mayor Rebecca Chase Williams said.

City officials “found” the $1 million by trimming some departmental budgets, reducing the amount budgeted for gasoline for police to reflect recent drops in gas prices, and by using Homestead Option Sales Tax funds, rather than general funds, to cover more than $750,000 in maintenance costs in the public works and parks departments.

Councilman Bates Mattison said the plan was eventually to move the money from the city’s $1.39 million contingency fund to the city’s reserves.

“In the good economic times, we need to be saving for the down times,” he said.

Council members also decided where the unspent money in their discretionary 2015 accounts should be spent. The mayor has $45,000 in discretionary funds while each council member has $20,000, according to the city.

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DEC. 25, 2015 – JAN. 7, 2016 | 13

COMMUNITY

presents

Monorail study for Brookhaven/ Chamblee gets green light

SPECIAL

Brookhaven City Councilman Joe Gebbia is contributing $10,000 from his city discretionary fund to pay for a monorail study.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

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DEC. 25, 2015 – JAN. 7, 2016 | www.ReporterNewspapers.net

Chamblee Mayor Eric Clarkson declined to comment, saying he hadn’t heard the monorail idea before. MARTA and PDK did not have immediate comment.

Gebbia believes monorails could help MARTA expand on east-west corridors because, unlike heavy rail, they don’t require buying expensive rights of way and could run on city- or county-granted easements. He also believes such a “unique” project could better attract federal transportation matching funds.

But cost is where “the rubber hits the road,” he noted. The preliminary city study essentially will determine whether a deeper, fuller study is worth doing.

“I don’t know how valid the idea is. But

I think it’s worth spending $10,000 to find out,” he said.

The study technically is “open to anything and everything” for transit solutions connecting the various areas of Brookhaven and Chamblee, but the monorail vision is the driver.

The consulting firm Gresham, Smith and Partners has already agreed to conduct the study, Gebbia said. That firm previously created Brookhaven’s transportation plan and is now doing its Ashford-Dunwoody Road improvement plan. Gebbia said the study will coordinate with MARTA, the state Department of Transportation and the Atlanta Regional Commission. The estimated timeframe for a report is four to six months.

Google Fiber hits roadblock with zoning denial

BY JOHN RUCH

johnruch@reporternewspapers.net

Google Fiber’s arrival in Brookhaven hit a roadblock Dec. 16 as the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals rejected its plan for a utility hut in Parkside Park.

“We’ll continue exploring potential sites for our fiber huts so we can bring Google Fiber to Brookhaven,” a Google Fiber spokesperson said in an email after the meeting.

“This was not Google’s fault,” said Griff Sims, one of several residents who opposed the plan. He blamed the city for confusion about the application and a plan that would place a long, high fence along the park’s Dresden Drive frontage.

Google Fiber is a forthcoming fiberoptic Internet and TV service that Google claims will be 100 times faster than typical broadband connections. Atlanta and several metro-area cities—including Brookhaven and Sandy Springs—were chosen for Google Fiber pilot installations earlier this year. Google Fiber has declined to provide its timeline for starting the service.

Google Fiber’s system requires a num-

ber of utility huts in central locations. In Brookhaven, the city agreed to provide space for two huts in public parks. One in Blackburn Park is already under construction. The other was to be in Parkside Park, a narrow strip of green space running along Dresden Drive between Apple Valley Road and Parkside Drive.

The hut—a 336-square-foot box surrounded by a fence—was originally intended to go alongside the DeKalb County fire station at the park’s western end.

But, Sims said, it turned out the city was mistaken in thinking it owned land there.

That meant the Google Fiber hut had to be placed deeper into the park, much closer to a stream and Dresden Drive.

The proximity to Dresden triggered community complaints about a fence at least 55 feet long fronting the street in a public park. There were zoning-oriented questions, too.

The ZBA voted 4-0 to deny the variance, city spokeswoman Ann Marie Quill said.

BK

COMMUNITY

GDOT chief: I-285/Ga. 400 project will save time, lives

BY JOHN RUCH

johnruch@reporternewspapers.net

Time—and lives—will be saved by the upcoming reconstruction of the I-285/ Ga. 400 interchange, state transportation Commissioner Russell McMurry said at a Dec. 11 luncheon celebrating GDOT’s selection of construction team North Perimeter Contractors.

“We always get focused on what the design is and what the project will look like…but sometimes we lose sight of what the project does,” McMurry said at the Perimeter Business Alliance luncheon at Dunwoody’s La Meridien Atlanta Perimeter Hotel. This project will annually save commuters eight hours and employers $100 million in lost productivity, and will reduce accidents in the crash-prone corridor, he said.

Slated for a possible groundbreaking next year and completion in 2020, the rebuild will add exit/entrance lanes and flyover ramps, much like the I285/I-85 interchange nicknamed Spaghetti Junction.

Also like Spaghetti Junction, the new I-285/Ga. 400 interchange won’t be clog-free. Those eight saved hours a year amounts to less than two minutes shaved off the average trip, and McMurry acknowledged, “There still will be congestion on I-285.” Still, he said it should handle projected development growth for “20-plus years” in an interchange that currently carries about 400,000 vehicles per day.

“I submit to you the Perimeter area is the economic heart of our entire state” and needs cleared-out “arteries,” said Wendell Willard, the city attorney for Sandy Springs and one of its local state representatives.

An unusual, pedestrian-friendly addition to the project is an extension of the PATH400 multi-use trail crossing through the interchange by a yetto-be-designed route, thanks to the PATH Foundation and the Perimeter Center Improvement Districts. McMurry said there are “not many places in the nation where you can say you are doing a freeway project with a multi-use path going right through it.”

PCIDs, a group of self-taxing businesses and organizations, is a major contributor to the project both in planning and in cash to the tune of $10 million. “That’s putting your money where your mouth is,” McMurry said, praising PCIDs as a “shining example” for other business districts nationwide to follow.

Yvonne Williams, president and CEO of PCIDs, praised the 285/400 project as part of “a system of transportation that has never been seen before in a corporate area.” The group works on a wide variety of transportation improvements in Perimeter Center, from sidewalks to shuttle services BK

to MARTA connections.

North Perimeter Contractors has a big local connection, too. The team’s lead contractor is Ferrovial Agroman US Corp., which has a regional headquarters office in the Dunwoody part of Perimeter Center.

“Our leadership for the entire eastern U.S. drives through the project [area] every day,” said Ferrovial Agroman’s Jeffrey Wagner.

Having a lead contractor who shares the pain of local commuters may count as a plus. But Brookhaven Mayor Rebecca Chase Williams and Dunwoody City Councilwoman Lynn Deutsch were among those who expressed concerns in an interview about traffic detours and delays during construction.

“We’re doomed” with cut-through traffic during construction, Deutsch said. However, both officials agreed that, as Williams put it, “The longterm fix is worth it.”

McMurry said that construction impacts on traffic will be unavoidable.

But, he added, part of the contractor selection included coming up with a plan to handle it—or at least warn travelers about how bad it will be.

“We will have the most intensive public communications plan ever,” McMurry said. “We’re very excited about really elevated communication…on a level that’s never been seen in Georgia.”

North Perimeter Contractors was awarded the project with a $460 million bid. That’s probably closer to $680 million with right-of-way acquisitions, McMurry said, but still far below the $1.1 billion GDOT once estimated as the project’s cost. It remains unclear exactly how North Perimeter came in with such a lower-than-estimated cost, though McMurry said proposing somewhat smaller bridges was one factor.

“Don’t worry about that price being so cheap it won’t get done,” McMurry said, adding that GDOT is protected by contractual guarantees. The project is being funded under a plan that has the contractor self-funding during the project and the state then reimbursing it over a three-year period several years later, allowing the cost to be spread out.

While the I-285/Ga. 400 project was proposed in 2012 and is still at least five years from completion, that’s a fast process by state highway standards. Bob Voyles, chair of the Perimeter Business Alliance board, was among many officials and business leaders expressing excitement at the luncheon about both GDOT and MARTA becoming faster-moving transportation agencies.

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BROOKHAVEN • BUCKHEAD • DUNWOODY • SANDY SPRINGS

FOR KIDS & FAMILIES

‘Home Alone’ with the ASO Saturday, Jan. 2 and Sunday, Jan. 3 –

“Home Alone,” a classic holiday film, and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra team up for a special performance. Families are invited to watch the movie as it plays on the big screen with a live score. Suitable for all ages. Go to atlantasymphony.org for more information, showtimes and to purchase tickets. Atlanta Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta, 30309.

Books and Babies Monday, Jan. 4, 10:30 - 11 a.m. – Calling all babies! Books & Babies is a storytime for kids up to one year old. Engage and help your little ones to learn with the use of nursery rhymes, songs, stories and fingerplay that target the developmental needs of infants and early

crawlers. Open to the first 25 participants. Free.

Dunwoody Library, 5339 Chamblee-Dunwoody Rd., Dunwoody, 30338. Go to dekalblibrary.org or call 770-512-4640 for additional details.

Viking Society Monday, Jan. 4, 1 - 4 p.m. – Delve into the

history of Viking society in this Atlanta History Center program for homeschoolers. Learn about their conquests, exploration, travels, trades, myths, technology and more. Admission: $8.50 for nonmembers; $6.50 for children of members; free for adult members. Discounted rates available for groups with 10 or more children.

Call 404-814-4018 or email: homeschool@atlantahistorycenter.com to find out more. 130 West Paces Ferry Rd. NW, Atlanta, 30305. Visit atlantahistorycenter.com with questions.

Toddler Time Tuesday, Jan. 5, 11 - 11:30 a.m. – Bring

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your little one to this fun storytime. The event features stories, fingerplay, rhymes and songs targeted toward the developmental needs of toddlers. Suitable for kids up to 2 years old. Free and open to the first 20 participants. Park behind the library and enter at the lower level. Brookhaven Library, 1242 N. Druid Hills Rd., Brookhaven 30319. Need more information? Go to dekalblibrary.org.

Digital Builders Tuesday, Jan. 5, 6 - 7 p.m. – Love Minecraft? Got a budding desire to become a builder? This is the event for you. Participants partake in individual and team challenges to build worlds while learning technical problem-solving skills and utilizing their creativity. Suitable for youngsters in grades 3 through 6. Register and learn more online at atlantajcc.org. Marcus Jewish Community Center-Atlanta, 5342 Tilly Mill Rd., Dunwoody 30338. Contact Sandra Bass via email at sandra.bass@atlantajcc.org with questions.

Ecosystem Stories Wednesday, Jan. 6, 10:30 a.m. – It’s sto-

rytime at the Chattahoochee Nature Center.

This family friendly event features stories to be read and crafts to be made. Kids learn about the ecosystem and the Chattahoochee Watershed while sharing with their families. Free with general admission and CNC membership. Suitable for all ages. 9135 Willeo Rd., Roswell, 30075.

To learn more, go to chattnaturecenter.org.

Core Learning Math Games!

Friday, Jan. 8, 4:30 - 5:30 p.m. – Play

games and learn math the fun way at the Sandy Springs Branch Library. Recommended for elementary and preschool age kids. Registration required and starts Jan. 3. Space is limited. Free.

Register by stopping by the library, calling 404303-6130, or emailing leah.germon@fultoncountyga.gov. Workshop repeats monthly on Fridays, February 5, March 4 and April 1. 395 Mount Vernon Hwy., Sandy Springs, 30328. For more information, go online to afpls.org.

Kids in the Kitchen Saturday, Jan. 9, 3 - 4 p.m. – Start the new

year off right with a workshop for all ages on healthy eating. This hands-on experience focuses on preparing balanced and nourishing meals for children and their families. Recommended for all ages. Free. Sandy Springs Branch Li-

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brary, 395 Mount Vernon Hwy., Sandy Springs, 30328. Questions? Call 404-303-6130, email leah.germon@fultoncountyga.gov, or go online to afpls.org.

Night Hike Saturday, Jan. 9, 7 p.m. – Bundle up and

head on over to the Chattahoochee Nature Center for a guided night hike to welcome the new year. Explore the trails and look for nocturnal animals as they roam during the night. Participants end the evening with a winter campfire.

Advance tickets are $8 for general admission and $6 for CNC members; $10 for general admission and $8 for CNC members when purchased at the door. Register by January 7. Visit chattnaturecenter.org or call 770-992-2055 for further details. 9135 Willeo Rd., Roswell, 30075.

Three Kings Day Monday, Jan. 10, 1 - 5 p.m. – Kick off

the new year with Three Kings Day, a Latin tradition celebrated with storytelling, music, live performances and activities. Enjoy a special visit and photo opportunity with the three kings.

Note: this is a free admission day at the Atlanta History Center, and guests are invited to check out the holiday festival and also visit the traveling exhibitions, historic houses, and the property’s gardens and trails. Food and drink available for purchase. 130 West Paces Ferry Rd. NW, Atlanta 30305. Go to atlantahistorycenter.com for more information.

4-H Community Club Meeting Monday, Jan. 10, 2 - 3:15 p.m. – The Buckhead 4-H Community Club returns to the Atlanta History Center for their monthly programming. Each meeting focuses on leadership and community service, and contains a hands-on educational component, targeted to youngsters in fourth through sixth grades. To learn more, call 404-762-4085 or email awadley@uga.edu.

130 West Paces Ferry Rd. NW, Atlanta, 30305.

Go to atlantahistorycenter.com for more details.

‘Inside Out’ Tuesday, Jan. 12, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. – The

Brookhaven Library hosts a family movie night and screens the film “Inside Out.” Movie is rated PG. Free and open to the first 20 participants.

Snacks served. Need additional information? Go to dekalblibrary.org. 1242 N. Druid Hills Rd., Brookhaven 30319.

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Noon Year’s Eve Thursday, Dec. 31, 12 p.m. – Ring in

the New Year a full 12 hours early at this family friendly celebration taking place at Fernbank Museum of Natural History. Guests will enjoy music and games. Make your very own “mocktail,” and check out a unique dinosaur photo op. A balloon drop with over 2,000 balloons will take place at noon, cascading down over the large dino displays in the great hall. Free with general admission or membership. 767 Clifton Rd. NE, Atlanta 30307. For more information, call 404-929-6300 or go online to fernbankmuseum.org.

Peach Drop Thursday, Dec. 31, 7 p.m. – Celebrate

the season with Atlanta’s classic New Year’s Eve experience. The event kicks off with children’s activities during the day, with the main acts taking the stage at 7 p.m. The Peach Drop will

count down with a giant 800-pound peach that descends at midnight, followed by fireworks, all taking place at Underground Atlanta. Free, and suitable for all ages. Go online to peachdrop. com with questions. 50 Central Ave. SW, Atlanta, 30303.

Resolution Run Friday, Jan. 1, 10 a.m. – What’s on your

resolution list this year? Start with the Resolution Run, a 1-mile race for ages 7 and up, 4mile race for ages 9 and up, and a 50-meter kids dash for ages 6 and up. Number and T-shirt pickup takes place Jan. 1 beginning at 8:30 a.m.

Headphones, pets, baby joggers/strollers, roller/inline skates and bicycles are not permitted. $40 for the 4-mile race; $20 for the 1-mile; $15 for the dash. Brookhaven-Oglethorpe MARTA station, 4047 Peachtree Rd., NE, Brookhaven, 30319. Register and learn more online at atlantatrackclub.org/2016-resolution-run.

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MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Winner of ‘Positive Aging Award’ says it helps to stay young

BY ELLEN ELDRIDGE

elleneldridge@reporternewspapers.net

In 1995, Linden Longino was “on loan” to the Carter Center during his final years as a banker with SunTrust. He worked with former President Jimmy Carter and his associates on an inner-city poverty program called The Atlanta Project.

“I worked in south Atlanta in the Carver Homes area, the very poor neighborhood, and I tried to bring some much needed banking services into that area,” Longino said.

But he also saw kids “trying to grow up under awful conditions, facing gangs and drugs.” He wanted to help them “do something constructive,” so he started a program for Atlanta kids and kids from other countries to show their artwork at the 1996 Olympics.

“It happened and it was successful, and one thing led to another, and I was contacted by people with the United Nations in New York, asking if I could do a worldwide children’s exhibit for a meeting they were having in New York on civil rights,” Longino said.

More than 20 years later, the International Paint Pals program is still going, and Longino recently received recognition from an association of 150 nonprofits dedicated to seniors. The organization, LeadingAge Georgia, recognized Longino for his longtime community service and “positive aging” lifestyle.

Longino said his motto is “To stay young, help the young.”

The Paint Pals organization first exhibited at the 1996 Centennial Olympics in Atlanta and has mounted exhibitions around the world ever since, including at the Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia last year.

“Art is a universal language for kids, and anyone really, to express themselves,” the Buckhead resident said. “International Paint Pals gives children a worldwide forum to express their views on global issues and share their similarities and differences through visual creativity.”

In total, more than 200,000 young artists from around the world have participated in International Paint Pals events

get get

since 1995, most recently in Barcelona.

The organization unveiled a 3,000-piece collection, called “My Dream of Peace,” which included work from 91 countries, to express hopes for peace at the 2015 World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates.

International Paint Pals and Friendship Force International, an Atlantabased nonprofit, selected two art pieces from each country represented. They were exhibited at the Nobel Peace Laureates Summit held in Barcelona in midNovember.

“Peace of Art” events took place in schools and communities across Atlanta and the world. These events included one for the children and grandchildren of residents and staff at Lenbrook, the 500-plus resident senior community where Longino lives.

“I have donated many artworks from several exhibitions to Lenbrook,” Longino said. “They have been nicely framed for brightening the walls in the Healthcare Center rooms, much to the delight of the residents there.”

Jacque Thornton, senior vice president of LeadingAge Georgia, said the award given to Longino was created to reframe the image of aging.

“The Positive Aging Awards program rightfully recognizes elders who are still generously giving of their time and talents to the community and changing the lives of others for the better,” she said. “These honorees show us how we can all continue to learn, grow and contribute at any age in life.”

Earning the award made Longino feel “positively old,” he joked. “When we lose our sense of humor about the inevitable, then we truly are old.”

As happy as Longino was with the recognition, he said what matters most is the people he helps.

“I was delighted to have the [LeadingAge Georgia] recognition, but I was more delighted when a Nobel Peace Prize winner came up and gave me a hug,” Longino said.

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The teacher wrote to acknowledge that Longino understands “we all want peace, the children suffer the most and the exhibit gives some of them a little hope that their cries for peace will be heard somewhere.”

“It’s messages like that that keep me going,” he said.

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A thank-you note from a teacher in Kabul, Afghanistan, also hit home, he said.

“She’s in great risk because girls in Afghanistan are sometimes shot on their way to school and teachers run that risk all the time,” Longino said. “A woman teaching girls in Afghanistan is a very brave individual and takes great risks.”

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SPECIAL PHOTOS

Top, Linden Longino, right, was honored by LeadingAge Georgia as an example of “positive aging” and for his longtime leadership of International Paint Pals. Joining him, at left, Chris Keysor, president and CEO of Lenbrook, a resident senior community in Buckhead, and Jackie Durant, also of Lenbrook.

Middle, some of International Paint Pals’ art was chosen from around the world for display at the 2015 World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates.

Bottom, a teacher in Afghanistan sent Longino a note thanking him for the program.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

New Ronald McDonald House gets rave reviews

BY JOHN RUCH

johnruch@reporternewspapers.net

The new Ronald McDonald House wowed officials and some families it will serve at a Dec. 17 ribbon cutting.

“I was overwhelmed when I walked in,” said Donna Hyland, president and CEO of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, about the luxurious, hotel-style building at 5420 Peachtree-Dunwoody Road in Sandy Springs. Of the roughly 350 Ronald McDonald Houses worldwide, said Hyland, who has served on the international charity’s board, “I’m willing to bet this is the best.”

The 31-bedroom facility, which opened for business Dec. 21, houses families of ailing children when they are treated in local hospitals, especially CHOA’s Scottish Rite.

Beth Howell, president and CEO of Atlanta Ronald McDonald House Charities, said they call it “the house that love built.”

An unusual feature of Pill Hill’s house that attracted attention is a three-story “treehouse” in the lobby. It’s an elevator shaft decorated to appear tree-like, with two treehouse-style play rooms built into it.

More than a hundred people attended the ribbon cutting, including many local McDonald’s restaurant operators, who were among those contributing more than $18 million to build the facility. The houses are run separately from the restaurant chain, but get major financial support from it. An actor portraying restaurant mascot Ronald McDonald, who declined to give his real name, joined the ribbon cutting.

“We go all over the world,” the Ronald McDonald actor said. “This [house] really stands up as one of the top ones.”

Most importantly, the facility impressed the families who will use it, including the Winstons of Valdosta, Ga. Son Erick Jr. needed a kidney transplant in 2009, just shy of his sixth birthday, and father

Erick Sr. was his organ donor. Erick Jr. continues to need treatment at Scottish Rite. Instead of a four-hour drive from southern Georgia, the Winstons can stay blocks away and take a 24-hour shuttle to the hospital.

The Winstons have stayed in other Ronald McDonald Houses, inED WOLKIS PHOTOGRAPHY cluding one in Atlanta, The new Ronald McDonald House located but they expressed astonat 5420 Peachtree-Dunwoody Road. ishment at the Pill Hill facility’s amenities. leston site, was rebuilt with 50 bedrooms “I’m speechless. The kids love the treein 2008. house,” said mother Shaneka Winston.

Efforts to expand the Pill Hill house “It’s like a mini resort,” added Erick Sr. began more than a decade ago. Fulton “They treat everybody like that’s their County approved the project in 2005, whole house. It’s fun,” said Erick Jr. prior to the existence of the city of Sandy The Winstons’ stay in other Ronald Springs. But a lawsuit from neighbors deMcDonald Houses have ranged from days layed it. The groundbreaking finally came to months. “It’s a home away from home,” last year. said Shaneka. “There’s a fee if you can pay.

A spokeswoman said that the new They don’t press you to pay.” house’s capacity should prevent wait lists “Just money-wise…can you imagine for families in need. staying at a hotel three months?” said ErFor information on eligibility to stay at ick Sr. the house, call 404-315-1133 or see armFor the Winstons, the biggest luxury is hc.org. staying close to Scottish Rite and Dr. Edwin Smith, who has long treated Erick Jr. “The level of care, it’s unreal,” said Erick Sr. about Scottish Rite.

“We need more facilities like this,” said Shaneka. But the Pill Hill house had a long road to expanding.

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Back row, from left, Javier Goizueta, with McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, Beth Howell, president and CEO of Atlanta Ronald McDonald House Charities, “Ronald McDonald,” Donna Hyland, president and CEO of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Thomas Kirbo, ARMHC’s board chairman, join children at the ribbon cutting for the new facility on Dec. 17.

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DEC. 25, 2015 – JAN. 7, 2016 | 19

COMMUNITY

PEDS celebrating 20 years of pedestrian progress Left, PEDS considers policy changes and increased funding for sidewalk repairs in the city of Atlanta essential, like these along Howell Mill Road.

Right, PEDS promotes crossing treatments that increase safety for everyone who walks.

SPECIAL PHOTOS

BY CLARE S. RICHIE Next time you safely walk in a crosswalk, think of the advocacy group Pedestrians Educating Drivers (PEDS). In January, PEDS and its partners will celebrate 20 years of progress making the Atlanta metro area safer and more accessible for people who walk.

PEDS, led by founding president and CEO Sally Flocks, has promoted safety improvements that helped change driving behavior.

“Crosswalks changed from two parallel lines to a more visible ladder design,” Flocks said, noting that in-street signs, median islands and high-tech beacons are other tools PEDS promoted to help people cross busy streets.

In 1995, the Georgia legislature changed the crosswalk law, requiring drivers to “stop and stay stopped” for pedestrians in crosswalks, not to just yield to them.

Flocks started PEDS a year later.

Flocks grew up in California during the 1960s, where drivers stopped for pedestrians and police enforced pedestrian laws. After moving to Atlanta in the 1970s, she was diagnosed with epilepsy and had to stop driving. She experienced how dangerous it was to walk to work – broken sidewalks, insufficient crosswalks, poor street design and drivers indifferent

SANDY SPRINGS NOTICE OF REZONING Petition Number:

RZ15-0084

Petitioner:

City of Sandy Springs

Property Location:

124 & 126 Johnson Ferry Road

Present Zoning:

O-I (Office Institutional; RZ08-011) & R-4 (Single Family Dwelling)

Request:

To rezone the property subsequently to a land exchange between 124 Johnson Ferry Road and former Masonic Lodge property to O-I.

Public Hearings:

Planning Commission January 21, 2016 at 6:00 p.m.

Mayor and City Council February 16, 2016 at 6:00 p.m.

Location:

Sandy Springs City Hall, Morgan Falls Office Park 7840 Roswell Road, Building 500, Sandy Springs, Georgia 30350 770-730-5600

to walkers. After successful brain surgery in 1995, Flocks was eager to start a new chapter in her life. She started PEDS as a full-time volunteer.

In 1999, PEDS led crosswalk demonstrations at 13th and Peachtree streets, where 50 years earlier a speeding car had struck and killed “Gone With the Wind” author Margaret Mitchell. Drivers honked and yelled, and Flocks was nearly hit as she tried to walk in the crosswalk.

In 2001, thanks to PEDS’ efforts, North Highland Avenue and Peachtree at Woodruff Park received the first in-street crosswalk signs. As more were added, driver behavior changed.

“Good engineering breeds good driving,” Flocks explained. “Police felt better about enforcement and the public learned that pedestrians do have the right of way.”

PEDS’ initial focus was to educate drivers, but the advocacy group later realized that road design was more critical.

For example, one-way multilane streets like Courtland Street in Downtown facilitate speeding. In contrast, adding center turn lanes like on Ponce de Leon Avenue reduces the number of crashes.

Thanks to PEDS, transportation agencies are installing pedestrian refuge islands, Pedestrian Hybrid Beacons, Rectangular Rapid Flash Beacons and other safe crossing tools.

PEDS also learned that Atlanta’s most vulnerable pedestrians were transit commuters. The Atlanta Regional Commis-

SANDY SPRINGS NOTICE OF VARIANCE PETITION Petition Number:

V15-0045

Petitioner:

Thomas & Emily Followill

Property Location:

380 Montevallo Drive

Request:

One (1) primary variance from Section 6.4.3.C of the City of Sandy Springs Zoning Ordinance to encroach six (6) feet into the required ten (10) foot setback to allow for an existing carport and to encroach one and half (1.5) feet into the required ten (10) foot setback to allow for an existing home and a proposed second floor addition.

Public Hearings:

Board of Appeals January 14, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.

Location:

Sandy Springs City Hall, Morgan Falls Office Park 7840 Roswell Road, Building 500, Sandy Springs, Georgia 30350 770-730-5600

20

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DEC. 25, 2015 – JAN. 7, 2016 | www.ReporterNewspapers.net

sion found that more than 20 percent of pedestrian crashes occur within 100 feet of a transit station or bus stop, half within 300 feet. PEDS’ Safe Routes to Transit Initiative pushed for making safe crossings at transit stops a local, regional and state priority. State and local agencies responded. Georgia DOT added Pedestrian Hybrid Beacons on Buford Highway.

Midtown Alliance partnered with the city of Atlanta to install Rapid Flash Beacons on 10th Street at the Midtown MARTA station.

More pedestrian advocacy is still needed, especially for city of Atlanta sidewalk repairs, Flocks said. Sidewalk funding and policies are both broken, she said. City officials cut the proposed $40 million for sidewalk repairs and $35 million for curb ramps on the infrastructure bond project list to $5 million. The city also maintains the option to bill property owners for sidewalk repairs, something Flocks said the city is unlikely to enforce.

To PEDS, sidewalks are shared resources that increase walkability and connectivity, and improve public transit accessibility. So, sidewalk repairs should be funded by all taxpayers – like in Charleston, Charlotte and D.C. “Every sector – and every one of us – has a role to play in increasing walking and making our communities walkable,” Flocks said.

A PEDS 20th Anniversary Celebration will be held Jan. 26 from 6-8 p.m. at The Wrecking Bar, 292 Moreland Ave. For more about PEDS, visit PEDS.org.

SANDY SPRINGS NOTICE OF VARIANCE PETITION Petition Number:

V15-0046

Petitioner:

Kacy & Ross Homans

Property Location:

220 Abington Drive

Request:

One (1) primary variance from Section 4.3.4.B.2 of the City of Sandy Springs Zoning Ordinance to encroach three and a half (3.5) feet into the required ten (10) foot setback for play equipment.

Public Hearings:

Board of Appeals January 14, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.

Location:

Sandy Springs City Hall, Morgan Falls Office Park 7840 Roswell Road, Building 500, Sandy Springs, Georgia 30350 770-730-5600

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DEC. 25, 2015 – JAN. 7, 2016 | 21

PUBLIC SAFETY

Brookhaven Police Blotter Brookhaven police blotter: Dec. 4 - 17

Way—On Dec. 7, an arrest was made for aggravated assault.  Buford

Highway at North Cliff Valley Way—On Dec. 11, an arrest was made for simple assault.

The following information was pulled from Brookhaven’s Police-2-Citizen Portal Event Search website and is presumed to be accurate.

 3500

Buford Highway—On Dec. 11, an arrest was made for simple assault.

HOM ICIDE  First

block of Jessie Hill Drive—On Dec. 8, an arrest was made for murder.

ROBBERY  2400

block of Briarcliff Road—On Dec. 10, an arrest was made for robbery.

 None

A UTO T H EFT  None

block of Peachtree Road—On

reported.

 1400

 150

block of Brookhaven Avenue—On Dec. 8, an arrest was made for theft by taking.

block of North Cliff Valley

 1800

block of County Services Parkway—On Dec. 4, an arrest was made for failure to appear.

 1800

block of Corporate Boulevard— On Dec. 4, arrests were made for disorderly conduct, obstruction and possession of marijuana; On Dec. 8, an arrest was made for disorderly conduct.

 2600

TH EFT/LAR CEN Y

reported.

AS S AULT

BURGLA RY  4400

FR AUD

Dec. 8, an arrest was made for burglary.

ARRESTS

block of Buford Highway—On Dec. 4, an arrest was made for theft by deception; On Dec. 8, an arrest was made for failure to appear; On Dec. 9, arrests were made for no driver’s license and public intoxication; On Dec. 11, a wanted person was arrested and an arrest for

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KELLEY city monor Kasim ter on ey to buil Reed veto move Moores Mil d a road ed a plan for a shop to forward l On anyw Road, ping use spend Nov. 2, Atla ay, city but the proj cenment $800,000 nta Cityofficials say. ect will sion of impact feesfrom tran Council sportatio voted vetoed Moores Milto partially n deve to NO l Roa wwfund lopbeen the expe V. 27d. On w.Re ndit auth exte ure, sayi— Nov anpo ministra orized rte nng D . 10, Ree rNew tion for by the d mill.

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BY DYAN to be Head wan and robo rison, A BAGBY well rou ts tics overis academi et the Nov nde the Sutt s.n e basketba Schools . 18 mee d and to on Middle N RUC spaper reduc On ll E6 he head to find ting of the be more phy School

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Am Flowe t soccer, offers stud ad Our Ro to get ” sai suitab rts an is for cussio er sai house and chee dens, a covere mesteaduld pay ntioned e cou San m lacrosse ents tennis and softball basback a tha complia g fro it in, d the nis cou seller the disGay lat ild a map bring an are nal gar right, ta int rs’ ho s wo were me ly by som nt withrleading. , tennis, cross cou wrestling., socd to ihaving en rythin tione e ten perty’s nn, aron to bu floopes res rists to nd ter, g a pionee pment costs d warm Title North Atla football ntry, voll fea durin tly list 13 ho ew ug er eve touh tured g Lig IX, werla n off-sitThe pro k Du ey Sh ended 20or en nta athl , baseball eyball, atin e develosaid. Nos greete a is an issu rric dre togeth SEE NOR the fede , thon.not store Flork sessio gam ht Up s to the Th d, he

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Delivered to homes and businesses in 5 great communities! www.ReporterNewspapers.net 22

|

DEC. 25, 2015 – JAN. 7, 2016 | www.ReporterNewspapers.net

www.AtlantaINtownPaper.com BK

PUBLIC SAFETY failure to appear was made; On Dec. 13, two arrests were made for failure to appear in court; On Dec. 16, an arrest was made for overtaking and passing a school bus.  3300

block of Buford Highway—On Dec. 4, an arrest was made for no driver’s license.

 2900

block of Buford Highway—On Dec. 6, an arrest was made for driving on a suspended or revoked license; On Dec. 16, an arrest was made for driving on a suspended or revoked license.

 3100

block of Buford Highway—On Dec. 6, an arrest was made for disorderly conduct; On Dec. 11, an arrest was made for failure to appear in court; On Dec. 12, two arrests were made for conspiracy to commit a crime.

 3200

block of Buford Highway—On Dec. 6, a wanted person was located and arrested; On Dec. 15, an arrest was made for no driver’s license.

 1000

block of Lenox Park Boulevard— On Dec. 6, an arrest was made for DUI.

 2900

block of Clairmont Road—On Dec. 6, arrests were made for theft by taking and possession of marijuana.

 3000

block of Clairmont Road—On Dec. 6, an arrest was made for disorderly conduct.

 3500

block of Buford Highway—On Dec. 7, an arrest was made for overtaking and passing a school bus; On Dec. 8, an arrest was made for no driver’s license; On Dec. 15, an arrest was made for tag light required; On Dec. 17, an arrest was made for failure to maintain lane.

 3900

block of Peachtree Road—On Dec. 7, an arrest was made for driving on a suspended or cancelled registration.

 Peachtree

Road at Redding Road—On Dec. 7, an arrest was made for no driver’s license.

 3000

block of Buford Highway—On Dec. 8, an arrest was made for disorderly conduct.

 1500

appear. block of North Druid Hills Road—On Dec. 8, an arrest was made for possession of cocaine; On Dec. 15, an arrest was made for disorderly conduct.

 1900

 4400

block of Peachtree Road—On Dec. 8, an arrest was made for loitering or prowling.

 4000

block of Peachtree Road—On Dec. 8, an arrest was made for DUI; On Dec. 10, a wanted person was located and arrested; On Dec. 16, a wanted person was located and arrested.

 2200

block of Briarwood Way—On Dec. 10, an arrest was made for possession of marijuana.

 First

block of Corporate Boulevard— On Dec. 10, an arrest was made for loitering and prowling.

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 5000

block of Peachtree Road—On Dec. 10, an arrest was made for failure to appear.

 2300

block of North Druid Hills Road—On Dec. 10, an arrest was made for failure to appear.

 3000

block of Century Boulevard— On Dec. 10, an arrest was made for improper use of the central turn lane.

 3300

block of Clairmont Road—On Dec. 11, an arrest was made for no driver’s license.

 3600

block of Buford highway—On Dec. 11, two arrests were made for overtaking and passing a school bus.

 3800

block of Buford Highway—On Dec. 11, an arrest was made for possession of marijuana.

 2000

block of Curtis Drive—On Dec. 12, an arrest was made for disorderly conduct.

 2500

block of Apple Valley Road—On Dec. 12, an arrest was made for reckless driving.

 4400

block of Memorial Drive—On Dec. 12, an arrest was made for failure to appear.

block of Lake Hearn Drive—On Dec. 8, a wanted person was located and  Northeast Expressway at Clairmont arrested; On Dec. 9, arrests were made Road—On Dec. 14, an arrest was made for loitering and prowling and obstrucfor operating a motor vehicle without a tion; On Dec. 13, tag. an arrest was made Read more of the for possession of  Clairmont Police Blotter online at marijuana.

Road at Century www.reporternewspapers.net Place—On Dec.  2600 block of 14, an arrest was Atlanta Road— made for driving On Dec. 8, an arrest was made for failwithout car insurance. ure to appear.  1200 block of Dresden Drive—On  2000 block of Burton Plaza Lane—On Dec. 15, an arrest was made for no drivDec. 8, an arrest was made for failure to er’s license.

BK

Dunwoody Dermatology, LLC “The Patients’ Choice Award” 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

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DEC. 25, 2015 – JAN. 7, 2016 | 23

Celebrating

the opening of the new Atlanta Ronald McDonald House near Children’s Heal thcare of Atlanta a t Scot tish Rite .

© 2015 RMHC

Keeping Families Close when it matters most.

The mission of Atlanta Ronald McDonald House Charities is to nurture the health and well-being of children and families. At our Ronald McDonald Houses, no family is turned away if they cannot afford the $20 per night contribution and many of these families stay at our Houses for weeks, even months, while their children receive medical treatment at local children’s hospitals.

Donate today at www.armhc.org 24

|

DEC. 25, 2015 – JAN. 7, 2016 | www.ReporterNewspapers.net

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