Clairmont Heights Civic Association

Notes from Beth Nathan via the Civic Association Network listserv.  Beth would like it noted that these reflect only what she heard as an individual.  Subjects:  Cell towers @ schools; Heritage School; Re-districting; Construction lawsuit; Toco Hills Shuttle; Budget town hall 2/1; Parks/Rec budget; County Planning Director; PLanning Commission; Code compliance and Neighborhood Ambassadors; Senior Center; City of Brookhaven; Parks Coalition.

CAN Networking Dinner                  January 25, 2012                   Mack Love Center, Mason Mill Park

Attendance: 

Guest:  Don McChesney, DeKalb School Board

Ted Daniel, Leafmore Creek Park Hills

Sharon Johnson, Medlock Area

Nancy Love, Sagamore Hills

Beth Nathan, North Briarcliff.

Rock Nelson, LaVista Park,

Betty Phillips, North Briarcliff.

Derek Scheidt, Sagamore Hills

Deb Schneider, Victoria Estates, Commissioner’s office

Nikki VanDerGrinten, Dresden East

After some difficulty gaining entrance to the building, despite an afternoon reconfirmation of our meeting there (learning that the room we thought we had reserved was going to be occupied by a dance group from 6-7 pm; that group didn’t get in and dispersed), there was an excellent small group sharing of what we know is going on.  Though the discussion with Don McChesney can in the middle of the evening, I recount it first, then the entirety of the rest of the discussions.

Don McChesney discussion

CELL TOWERS @ SCHOOLS.  Public meetings were held in April/May with a vote coming in July.  Many people felt they had not been properly advised of the vote in advance and have protested the outcome.  The public meetings were advertised through school channels (PTA, etc) and public media (AJC, etc).  Don was advised that school channels don’t reach the entirety of our communities.  He will be provided with a comprehensive list of civic associations for the use of the school board’s publicity person.  He did meet with Medlock School about their closing at around that time; that discussion turned to cell towers.  Given the overwhelming opposition to a cell tower at Medlock it was removed from the list.  Had other groups come to him, he would have similarly considered their opinions.  However, there is now a contract in place containing a list of sites.  That contract is unlikely to be modified.  He read something like 700 pages of material on cellular systems, including materials about the safety and hazards of cell towers.  There seems to be little hard evidence of dangerous radiation around cell towers.  One local citizen with a meter to measure that kind of radiation reported to Don that his measure barely budged next to a cell tower but went nearly off-scale next to his cell phone.  Briarlake Elementary continues to fight the cell tower designated for their location while Lakeside High School is totally fine with it.  The cell tower system is intended to bring in school funding to take some load off taxpayers.

QUESTION on FUTURE USE OF HERITAGE SCHOOL.  He is a proponent of using it to relieve crowding at Oak Grove Elementary, using it as a first & second grade annex.  Oak Grove parents have been strongly opposed.  It is not for sale.  Many closed schools are being used as charter schools.  DeKalb has more choice schools than any other county in the state.  State funding is being drained from DeKalb; there was a lawsuit last year when funding due to go to DeKalb (and Fulton?) was diverted to Gwinnett.

QUESTION on GOING TO 7 DISTRICTS, down from 9.   The way this was passed, it will occur this summer, impacting the lines of the 4 districts which are up for election this year, forcing those 4 down to 2.  Districts not up for election this year are safe.  At least two of these four incumbents will  definitely lose their seat this year …Mr McChesney and Pam Speaks are two of those four.

CONSTRUCTION LAWSUIT with Heery Mitchell Construction involves $100million from SPLOST II.  RICO violations are involved.  Still in progress.

COMMITTEES/ROLES .  All assignments shifted at the beginning of the year.

Man found dead off McConnell Drive this week died of natural causes, evidently a massive heart attack.

A TOCO HILLS SHUTTLE is in the planning stages with stops at many commercial locations, including several miles north and south of Toco, e.g. Loehmann’s Plaza.  I didn’t get the whole list.

A BUDGET TOWN HALL will take place February 1, 6:30-8:00 pm, at the Greek Orthodox Church on Clairmont.

PARKS/REC  BUDGET (per handout at this week’s Parks/Rec Citizens Advisory Board)

Assumptions in this budget:  A private entity will be running the Rec Centers and mowing will be out-sourced.

Of the  30% of a homeowners tax bill goes to the county proper (rather than the school board), 51% goes to courts and public  safety.  Some departments are funded by Enterprise Funds and are income-based, like water and sanitation.  Parks/Rec is among the departments funded out of the General Fund and all funds they collect go to the General Fund rather than back to them.  Those departments’ budget/funding comes from the  15% (30% * 49%) of the tax bill that goes to the non-enterprise-funded county departments.

Payroll currently takes 65% of the existing parks/rec budget; that equals 91% of the CEO-proposed budget.  Funds for things like replacement of old play structures have been nearly non-existent this year.  Capital maintenance, some of it required by law, is being funded by drawing down the interest on the 2001 & 2006 Parks Bond funds.  New Park Acquisition & Development is funded out of those bond funds which were divided among the Commission districts and a countywide fund.

COUNTY PLANNING DIRECTOR.  CEO nominated Gary Cornell, former District 2 Planning Commissioner, for Planning Director (I’ve probably got the title wrong) but he was NOT approved by the BOC.  CEO then appointed Gary Cornell as Interim Planning Director; his power to do so is being questioned.  Meanwhile Andrew Baker was made Acting Planning Commissioner, then moved to Permitting & Code Compliance.  Gary Cornell has a lot of experience dealing with projects throughout the county, but may have proved difficult for some people to work with.

PLANNING COMMISSIONER, district 2.  John West has been appointed.  Mr West works for the state (DHR?) and is a planner.  CAN may invite him to participate in a future meeting.

CODE COMPLIANCE / NEIGHBORHOOD AMBASSADORS.  The notice requirements for code violations have been changed, such that “personal service” of a code violation ticket is no longer required.  A first group of Neighborhood Ambassadors are being trained this week (4 hours training) to become the Code Compliance officers’ best contacts in a neighborhood.

SENIOR CENTER.  An RFP is out now for a new senior center to be located somewhere near Mason Mill (current senior center & library) but with the exact location unspecified.  The bidder can choose to place the building on their own property (maybe also building affordable senior housing) or on county property.  It is to be finished by mid-2013.  A new management model for this Senior Centersis being worked out with some kinks.  It involves Parks/Rec (main mgr), Senior Connections and NORC (Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities).  At the new center, Senior Connections may take the main manager role within this group.  The funding for the new senior center comes from the Community Development Dept and an HUD grant.  The HUD grant came with a stipulation or assumption that this would be new construction and not remodeling of the old center.  $5million is available for land, building and furnishings.

CAN FUTURE.  Minimal discussion.  Beth and Sharon will work on developing more/better communication tools.  This small meeting has been very productive and perhaps it should be repeated monthly or bimonthly, perhaps alternating the day of the week.  Wednesdays had been being used because that’s the night the center was open for other classes and didn’t require overly special arrangements.

CITY OF BROOKHAVEN.   Rep Elena Parent has dropped a bill proposing alternate boundaries for City of Brookhaven, more favorable to the DECA area which remains the only area north of I-85 that would not be part of a municipality if the City of Brookhaven comes to be.  The Brookhaven cityhood bill will be heard in committee at the Capitol next Tuesday; more details to be forthcoming.  DECA has had some discussion with Chamblee about the possibility of annexation. 

PARKS COALITION.  Nancy and Beth are working on bringing together folks who are leaders in their local parks and community gardens, including but not limited to Friends groups.  The purpose would be to share ideas, experiences, ways to get things done.  Tentative date:  February 27.  Location TBD.