Donna Pittman has sent us two announcements about upcoming events.
The first is an event that people have been wanting to see for years — a free movie in honeysuckle park. This one is a showing of Alvin and the Chipmunks on Saturday, May 17. The show starts at sunset and concessions will be available. Contact councilwoman Pittman for more information. Hopefully this s just the first of many such events.
Also, Pittman sent the following press release about “The Great American Clean-up” which will happen on April 26. Text of the press release is below:
DORAVILLE, Ga. – On April 26 from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM, Doraville officials and residents will partner with Keep America Beautiful (KAB) and a dozen corporate sponsors for the “Great American Clean-up,” the nation’s largest community improvement program aimed at collecting litter and debris.
KAB is the nation’s largest volunteer-based community action and education organization. Their “Great American Clean-up” takes place annually from March 1 through May 31. Last year, volunteers collected 200 million pounds of litter.
The clean-up effort in Doraville will be led by Councilwoman Donna Pittman and the City’s Quality of Life code enforcement unit. Area partners like Chick-Fil-A will be on hand to supply refreshments and coupons to volunteers. According to Pittman, “the event is a great opportunity for residents, businesses and elected leaders to come together for the environment. It’s also a great chance to solidify community pride and a spirit of unity.”
Councilwoman Donna Pittman represents Doraville’s 1st District, which includes the city’s northern territory between Winters Chapel Road and Peachtree Industrial. She has served on the Council since January 2005.
I recently furnished GDOT a list of items for GDOT consideration at the Buford Highway / I-285 interchange. GDOT to its credit repaired a damaged guard rail and replaced a damaged stormwater cover within days and advised me to expect that paved over and poor condition crosswalk striping will be installed or renewed in the next few weeks, and that a missing section of sidewalk connecting an existing sidewalk to a crosswalk will be installed.
The items also included a request that GDOT examine the need for pedestrian crosswalk signals at the Motors Industrial Parkway / Buford Highway / I-285 ramp intersection on the south side of I-285, this being the only signalized Buford Highway intersection located north of Chamblee-Tucker Road inclusive not already equipped with pedestrian signals. GDOT reported its examination found that pedestrian volumes were such that pedestrian signals at the intersection had merit, but the situation did not fully meet warrants for the reported $130,000 order of magnitude signal installation. GDOT advised the intersection would examine the intersection again in the summer.
I advocate that Doraville consider using some of the revenue obtained from red light camera enforcement at this intersection to contribute to GDOT installation of pedestrian signals. It’s logical to think that GDOT would use different criteria if city government were willing to fund some of the cost.
I lack standing to aggressively advocate that Doraville contribute to funding the signals, not being a resident. Doraville contributing to Buford Highway safety infrastructure would lessen my opposition to Doraville’s proposed reduction to a 35mph speed limit on the portion of Buford Highway away from I-285 where it is now 45mph. (The change will cost road users 90,000 hours annually, the time one person spends over the course of a lifetime on the job—the safety benefits don’t seem to be commensurate with the cost!) Doraville’s contributing to pedestrian signals weakens the argument that the speed limit reduction is about revenue, not safety.
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) will be coming up for renewal. The testing and school labeling has not been without controversy.
School administration internally can use test results to reallocate resources and measure effectiveness and efficiency. Externally citizens can use test results to assist in evaluating school performance. NCLB is a net benefit if the combined internal and external utility exceeds testing costs, testing requiring resources to administer and publicize, and reducing instruction time among things.
I am unaware of any explanation other than the aggregation of immigrant children at Sequoyah Middle and Cross Key High based on the schools’ attendance boundaries. I accept that as effective and efficient when resources are allocated and deployed accordingly.
I am now of the opinion NCLB has benefited Cary Reynolds and Sequoyah schools. NCLB has resulted in more resources and better administration at these schools, something of special significance given parents that are not generally well-equipped to advocate for the schools. I’m less certain of NCLB net benefit districtwide however, and don’t have much opinion on state or national scales. What are others perceptions of NCLB’s effect on our local schools?
(Please respect this as a local blog by maintaining a specific local schools connection in comment thread!)
Councilwoman Maria Alexander, who has been a very helpful resource in understanding exactly what’s going on with the Doraville annexation bill, has passed along this information:
The Doraville Annexation Bill, HR 1378, passed the Senate today, 42 to 8.
The bill will be signed by the governor and if approved by the U.S. Justice Department, will be on the ballot for November.
Now the big question is: “Will the people who live in these jig-saw areas will vote to become a part of our city?!”
Update (April 3, 2007) - Luke Howe at City Hall sent me this press release today:
DORAVILLE, Ga. – On Wednesday Doraville’s annexation proposal (House Bill 1378) was approved by the Senate, marking an exodus that began two weeks ago when it garnered the support of the House.
Provided the Governor signs it and the Justice Department approves it, the measure would be placed on the ballot in November, giving voters in the Cherokee Hills, Sequoyah Woods parts of Oakcliff Estates, and neighborhoods north and northwest of QuickTrip at Chamblee-Tucker and I-85 the final say in becoming part of Doraville. According to Mayor Ray Jenkins, “after the citizens approve the annexation would square the city’s jig-saw borders, enabling better planning and future redevelopment.”
If it’s approved by residents Doraville’s territory would grow by 66 percent from 3.5 square miles to 5.95, while increasing the population by 72.9 percent from just over 10,000 to 17,072. These figures are based on fiscal analysis that the Carl Vinson Institute presented to the city in December 2006. The estimates were based on 2000 and 2005 census figures for the annexation area and city, respectively. The new borders would go into effect December 31, 2008.
For more information about the fiscal impact visit the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute website at http://www.cviog.uga.edu/spotlight/news/item.php?id=456 to view a summary of the report.
Luke also included a map showing Doraville’s current boundaries, and what they would be if the annexation goes through.
A poster at PeachPundit.com mentioned that Doraville used to post city expenditures as part of the city council minutes online.
I’m not familiar with this particular poster, or if he’s from Doraville. Does anybody remember this practice, and does anybody know why it might have been discontinued? With some of the expenditures lately (like some of the campaign expenditures at the city’s expense), I wouldn’t mind seeing that online.
Several news outlets have been reporting that Governor Perdue signed Senate Bill 82, which will allow voters in Dunwoody vote on whether they would like to form a city or not. Looking at the text of the bill, it does not appear that the legislators have written in anything relating to Doraville, except to establish that Dunwoody will be our new neighbor. Am I misreading this, or has Dan Weber thrown us (the city of Doraville) under the bus? What happened to all the promises that we would be able to round out the city’s boundaries and make sure that our police are allowed to patrol a more sensible area than the zig-zag borders we have today? I’m very disappointed.
As pointed out by a commenter, the Doraville legislation was in a separate bill — co-sponsored by Jill Chambers. I’m glad that this was separated from the issue of Dunwoody, which I think sank the legislation last year. A commenter below says that people living in portions of unincorporated Dekalb will be able to vote on whether they want to be annexed by the city later this year. If you want, check out the full text of HB1378 here.
Update: Councilwoman Maria Alexander sent me an e-mail letting me know that the state senate will be voting on the bill this Friday if it ever comes out of committee.
For those of you who don’t subscribe to the Northwoods e-mail list, there was some interesting information about an updated city website that will actually allow us to pay our bills online. According to Luke Howe, the mayor’s assistant, he will be shooting to finish a new website by mid-May. According to Howe, “This is going to be the Cadilac of websites with e-newsletters, electronic bill paying, new logo — the
works! It will be the City’s central nerve system as far as communication.”
If they pull this off, it will be a huge accomplishment. The city’s existing website has been a very sad embarrassment for many years, offering little functionality for users. Thanks should go out to the mayor and the new council once they get this going. Other special thanks should go to former city-council candidate Chris Avers for passing this information along.
This week, I ran across a couple of interesting resources, which I’m adding to the sidebar.
The first is a blog that appears to be written primarily by anonymous Dekalb County police officers. The general tone of the officers seems to be generally fed up with the county government and Vernon Jones in particular. An interesting insight into what the officers in Dekalb county (as opposed to Doraville) are thinking.
In the aftermath of the tornados that hit downtown Atlanta on Friday, I wanted to direct everyone to another resource that could be helpful in an emergency. Scan Dekalb is a site that allows you to listen to DeKalb County, Georgia Police and Fire Department radio communications. In the event of an emergency or natural disaster, listening to the audio on this site can let you get a better picture of what’s going on than the local media may be able to immediately show.
Both sites are now added to the sidebar.
I received two e-mails in the past couple of days, both about opportunities to help clean up the city. The first came from Councilwoman Donna Pittman about a “Keep Doraville Clean” day she is sponsoring next month:
Councilwoman Donna Pittman and the Doraville Police Department’s Quality of Life Unit (QLU) are proud to announce “Keep Doraville Clean” day on Saturday, April 26th, 2008, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. We invite you to join community members as we work to clean up litter in our city. Let’s not just shake our heads at litter and wonder why someone would do that. Let’s get active and do something about it!!! This is a great way to show community pride and show people we do care about our city.
Volunteers will be provided equipment such as gloves, hand sanitizer and trash bags. These items were provided by Keep DeKalb Beautiful and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs as a part of the “2008 Great American Cleanup” campaign. Lt. Lowe will coordinate volunteers and assign them to areas needing to be cleaned. The Doraville Maintenance Department will furnish trucks.
We are also arranging for Chick-fil-A to have lunch available for volunteers to purchase immediately after the clean-up event. Look for more information in upcoming publications. You can also get more details by contacting Councilwoman Pittman at 678-334-9141 or the Quality of Life Unit at 678-530-2006 or qualityoflife@doravillega.us. We look forward to seeing you there!
Councilwoman Pittman initiated this event in Doraville during her first year in office. It was very successful, and we would like to see it remain an annual event.
The next event came from Eleanor, who is a frequent commenter on the blog. It’s about a campus beautification day at the local elementary school:
Saturday, March 15th, from 8:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. is campus beautification day at Cary Reynolds. If interested in helping, please bring gloves, shovels, rakes, wheelbarrows, garden shears, bags of mulch (if you care to). Please do not bring any plants.
All welcome - parents, teachers and community volunteers.
Our General Assembly House Representative, Jill Chambers, has been getting a lot of flak from proponents of the City of Dunwoody for her committee vote that stopped incorporation referendum legislation. Her opposition to the legislation is a red flag that it is or may be flawed or otherwise not in the best interest of District 81 citizens, given Jill’s general support of local control, philosophical differences with a DeKalb County government opposed to Dunwoody incorporation, and GOP support of the measure.
Dunwoody incorporation legislation requires special attention because proponents will dismiss DeKalb County opposition as merely partisan. Don’t allow any discontent you may have with DeKalb County government to cause you to be supportive or indifferent to this legislation without an understanding its consequences. Dunwoody’s responsibility for existing DeKalb County bond indebtedness, and the manner in which local sales taxes are to be distributed are two areas of concern to me. I wish I knew more about the details and consequences.
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