Organizations host teen safety training at Roswell Area Park

By DELANEY TARR delaney@appenmedia.com

ROSWELL, Ga. — Metro Atlanta nonprofit Revved Up Kids partnered with the Roswell Police Department to host a day of personal safety and self-defense workshops for children and teenage girls on March 11 at Roswell Area Park.

The two-hour sessions were split by age, with the first for children 6 to 11 years old and the second sessions for teenage girls ages 11-18. About 15 teenage girls and their parents gathered in the auditorium for a conversation on personal safety and a lesson on basic self-defense moves.

The seminars were hosted by Alli Neal, founder of Revved Up Kids. She began the organization in 2009 to protect children from sexual abuse exploitation.

“We want to proactively equip them, but also want to prepare them if things go wrong,” Neal said.

The workshop is split into a few main sections. First, Neal presents various scenarios and asks the girls what they would do. She provides tips on how to safely navigate dark parking lots, parties and various social situations while pointing out common red flags for exploitation.

Then the girls practice self-defense moves on prop figures. After the activity, they reaffirm the lessons from the day. Parents can participate at certain points, but Neal said its important that the information comes from her.

“Even though a lot of the stuff we say may be similar to what their parents say to them, they hear it differently from us,” Neal said.

The workshop pushes parents to have “family conversations” about difficult topics. Neal said she sees that parents don’t know how to have conversations with their kids about sexual predators.

Paige Laine brought her daughter Shelby to the seminar after the teenager was pulled over by police on a quiet road at night. Laine said she’s glad it was a real police officer that pulled her over, but it helped her realize all she had not told her daughter about personal safety.

The founder said the solution to sexual predators is not to bar children and teens from common activities, like using Snapchat and TikTok.

“You can’t just do that if you want to keep your child safe,” Neal said. “If you forbid it, they’re going to sneak behind your back, and if they get in trouble they won’t come to you.”

Instead, Neal tries to meet parents and children where they are. She knows social media is how children interact with each other, so she runs multiple workshops devoted to navigating the internet, both for parents and children.

“Most of the time it’s the adults fear that gets in the way of children’s knowledge and safety,” Neal said.

Neal said parents are grateful to be taught the “dialogue” they can have with their children on safety and exploitation.

She listed several key tips she wants parents to teach their children.

The first, bodily autonomy, emphasizes that children get to decide who touches them. She also said parents should teach their kids to trust their instincts and understand that respect is a two-way street.

Roswell Police Department hosted the sessions as part of an ongoing partnership that Neal said started before the onset of COVID-19. The organization has hosted a few self-defense sessions each year with the police department.

“It’s a priority for the Roswell Police Department to equip our young people with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to keep themselves safe,” Roswell Public Information Officer Tim Lupo said. “Our partnership with RevvedUp Kids who provide an excellent, well-received curriculum, is one of the ways we accomplish that goal for our community.”

Neal hopes to eventually replicate those police partnerships in nearby communities like Johns Creek, Milton and Alpharetta. She also is seeking enough funds to make the program free for all.

For every group that pays tuition, the nonprofit trains another group free of charge. The Roswell workshop offered scholarships for teenagers in need after some attendees paid the “tuition.” She also runs seminars in disadvantaged parts of the community at no cost.

The nonprofit plans to hold another self-defense and personal safety training with Roswell Police Department sometime in summer 2023.

Specialists visit Black cemetery to plan for ground radar survey

By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — Macedonia Cemetery, a Black historical cemetery off Medlock Bridge Road, saw visitors Feb. 28 for a preliminary ground penetrating radar survey.

Devon Ramey, a geospatial analyst with Nelson Intelligence Solutions, monitored drones aerial-mapping the area. Meanwhile, Rauf Hussein, a geotechnical engineer, walked around the cemetery mapping locations using a phone application. Hussein said he has been doing ground penetrating radar (GPR) for a decade.

Real-time data collection would take place in a second visit, Hussein said.

Kirk Canaday, Johns Creek Historical Society member, followed Hussein around to provide guidance on the area. Sabrina Aquell, a Macedonia descendent, was also there to key in on the process.

GPR focus is going toward the area where the first church was, near the St. Ives fence. But for best results, Canaday said the City of Johns Creek will need to clear the ground.

Because moisture kills radar signals, Hussein said GPR should be performed before next winter.

Roswell residents, clad in red shirts, packed City Hall March 13 to support the Roswell City Council decision to deny a rezoning request on Eves Circle that would have increased a property’s allowable residential density.

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Continued from Page 1 use as a walking trail, and the large trees provide a shade cover for the area.

Applicant Igor Dubinsky, along with developer AEC Inc., had applied to rezone the parcel for 11 residential lots. The site is currently zoned RS-30 for single estate with restrictions, which allows five homes with a minimum lot size of 30,000 square feet each.

The lot was rezoned to RS-30 in 2016 when it was owned by a different party. The 2022 request for RS-12, singlefamily suburban living would allow 11 lots at 12,000 square feet each.

Zoning and land use attorney Julie Sellers gave a presentation on behalf of the developer to explain the reason for the request.

Sellers said the plot has been undeveloped in large part because of the challenges developers have with the property under its current zoning.

“The RS-12 with current conditions as approved in 2016 does not allow for reasonable economic use of the property,” Sellers said.

City Councilman Mike Palermo proposed the council remove some of the additional conditions on RS-30 that are adding to development difficulty instead of rezoning the parcel entirely.

Palermo specifically pointed to the first condition, which requires developers to build Eves Circle all the way to the southernmost boundary of the subject property with a road, curb and sidewalks. He also pointed to the fourth condition, which requires the developer to provide a 14-foot access easement connection from a public road to the adjacent River Terrace subdivision.

Mayor Kurt Wilson then opened the floor to resident comments. Michael Wright, president of the Windfaire Homeowners Association, a neighborhood adjacent to 8800

Eves Circle, said the parcel up for development on Eves Circle is accessed through Windfaire.

“That should be the primary driver for the character and consistency of what we’re going after here for this bit of land,” Wright said.

The developer’s representative referenced other nearby neighborhoods as proof of consistent “character” in the rezoning request, but Wright said his neighborhood should be the focus.

“The consistency and character is driven by Windfaire, not what’s through the trees and over a hill,” Wright said. “Northcliff adjacency shouldn’t be as relevant as Windfaire, the way you access the property.”

He also said the developers have not proven there is economic burden under the RS-12 zoning. Wright said residents are concerned about possible flooding issues, as well as a significant increase in traffic in the area.

Other residents took the floor to explain concerns about the development, including changes to the heavily trafficked dirt road that residents use as a walking trail, stormwater release from the parcel impacting other neighborhoods and a loss of large growth trees as construction begins.

Residents also showed videos and photos of the nearby creek and the damages increased stormwater caused to their properties.

After hours of discussion and a brief recess, the City Council unanimously denied the rezoning request while removing the first and fourth conditions from the 2016 RS-30 zoning agreement.

Northcliff resident Leta Wood said her neighborhood was pleased with the outcome.

“Residents in Northcliff have been walking the Eves Circle path for 34 years, it’s a sanctuary for hawks, fox, deer and families,” Wood said.

She added the developer “also won” by being able to build estate lots with access to an already paved area.

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