Empty Nest
Sponsored Section ►►PAGE 20
Avossa flies south Leaves Fulton for Florida ►►PAGE 5
Merkel announces candidacy Will run for Alpharetta council ►►PAGE 7
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Honor Air
Veterans get trip of lifetime ►►PAGE 7
Alpharetta-Roswell
REVUE NEWS
April 23, 2015 | revueandnews.com | 75,000 circulation Revue & News, Johns Creek Herald, Milton Herald & Forsyth Herald combined | 50¢ | Volume 33, No. 17
Rail, buses proposed for northern MARTA expansion Public transit plan open for comments By JONATHAN COPSEY jonathan@appenmediagroup.com
SUZANNE PACEY/STAFF
Rhythm n’ Shoes performs on the main stage. Several local bands and performers took part in the event.
Art comes alive in Alpharetta Arts StreetFest returned for busy weekend By JONATHAN COPSEY jonathan@appenmediagroup.com ALPHARETTA, Ga. – Despite the weather threatening rain and overcast skies, Alpharetta still turned out for the annual Arts StreetFest
See STREETFEST, Page 25
JONATHAN COPSEY/STAFF
NORTH FULTON, Ga. – MARTA is pushing ahead with extending services north of the Chattahoochee River, clear up Ga. 400 to Windward Parkway. Plans call for five stations to dot the 12-mile distance from North Springs to Windward – Northridge Road, Holcomb Bridge Road, Encore Parkway/North Point Mall, Old Milton Parkway and Windward Parkway. These locations are generic – no specific sites have been chosen yet. Instead, these are vague locations of where stations are preferred to go. Linking these stations could be either heavy rail or heavy bus routes. “There is a lot of travel demand from the population here,” said Mark Eatman, the project manager of the study, “and there will be more from the population coming in the future.” Population projections call for a steady influx of new
The next MARTA meeting is April 30 at 6:30 p.m. at East Roswell Park, 9000 Fouts Road, Roswell. residents in the north metro area. Milton, for instance, will double in population in the next 10 years. Last month, the MARTA Board of Directors approved the “Locally Preferred Alternative” – the choice from public meetings – which is the heavy rail option, similar to what dead-ends at North Springs station today. Another possibility is using heavy buses, which would be more like the trains but on wheels. There are positives and negatives, said Eatman. Heavy rail is already installed at North Springs. However the construction costs are high, more than $2 billion. In comparison, bus rapid transit could use Ga. 400 to travel or could use new, dedicated lanes. The cost to implement this would be closer to $600 mil-
See MARTA, Page 4