Sandy Springs Crier - June 6, 2024

Fulton County Jail is at a crossroads

► PAGE 11

Pitts Road bridge is one of two in Sandy Springs that are part of Ga. 400 bridge replacements project.

Pitts Road bridge reopens

by HAYDEN SUMLIN hayden@appenmedia.com

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — The last of the three bridges over Ga. 400 was set to reopen to traffic May 31 in preparation for the Georgia Department of Transportation’s Express Lanes project.

The GDOT pulled forward the Ga. 400 Bridge Replacements project as a part of the phased delivery of the planned Express Lanes project, which will add two lanes in each direction from the North

Springs MARTA Station to McGinnis Ferry Road.

One express lane is also planned in each direction from McGinnis Ferry Road to McFarland Parkway, or exit 12, in Forsyth County.

Because the three bridges were more than 50 years old, the state needed to replace them with taller, wider structures to fit the planned expansion of Ga. 400.

Metro Atlanta commuters may have noticed the construction of three

bridges over Ga. 400, starting in early 2023, at Kimball Bridge Road, Pitts Road and Roberts Drive.

The Ga. 400 overpass on Kimball Bridge Road opened to traffic May 8 after a 365-day closure.

Contractors with C.W. Matthews Contracting Company added two lanes with a raised median, a multi-use path on the north side and a sidewalk on the south side of the Alpharetta bridge.

See PITTS, Page 13

Gen Z wins day in Atlanta area primary races

By ALESSANDRO MARAZZI SASSOON Atlanta Civic Circle

ATLANTA — It was Gen Z’s night on Georgia’s May 21 Election Day: All but one of the youngest cohort of statehouse candidates cruised to victories in metroAtlanta.

One big upset stood out in particular, sending shockwaves through the political establishment. That was Gabriel Sanchez’s victory over State Rep. Teri Anulewicz in the Democratic primary for her Cobb County legislative district, which covers parts of Smyrna and Marietta. Sanchez won with 56.8 percent or 2,249 votes – compared with 43.2 percent or 1,711 votes for Anulewicz.

Anulewicz, who has represented District 42 since 2017, rose through party ranks to become deputy whip for Georgia’s House Democrats, while serving on key House committees, such as Appropriations and Transportation. Her reputation for working across the aisle earned her a broad base of support, even among Republicans. She won endorsements from a long list of state and local officials, including U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath and the AFL-CIO of Georgia.

Her unexpected loss to a 27-year-old waiter and member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) may signal a

See PRIMARY, Page 12

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COMPARING POLICE TRANSPARENCY

Sandy Springs vs. Johns Creek Sandy Springs Johns Creek

Each week Appen Media requests police incident reports to inform residents about the safety of their community. Sandy Springs continues to withhold what it calls the “narrative reports.” It is the only city Appen Media covers that follows this practice, which goes against guidance from the Attorney General, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Georgia Sheriff’s Association, Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia and Georgia Press Association. Appen Media will continue pursuing the release of more detailed documents that belong to the public in order to inform residents how safe – or unsafe – their city is.

North Fulton cities team up on ambulance services

By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — Cities in North Fulton are partnering up in a contract with American Medical Response for subsidized ambulance services.

Johns Creek Fire Chief Chris Coons told the City Council at its May 28 work session the negotiations between AMR and the cities of Johns Creek, Roswell (which also represents Mountain Park), Sandy Springs, Alpharetta and Milton have been long-standing.

Coons said the cities have studied the current service delivery model under AMR with the intent of providing “top-shelf” service in the future, resulting in a one-year agreement with four successive one-year terms.

The contract will require a $2 million subsidy in the first year, split among the cities based on a three-year average of population and number of service calls. Subsidy increases will be negotiated but capped at no more than 3 percent.

Johns Creek’s monthly share in the first year will be around $28,400.

Paying for service

There had been no cost to Johns Creek for ambulance services in previous years,

SCREENSHOT

Johns Creek Fire Chief Chris Coons answers questions from the City Council at its May 28 work session regarding a contract between American Medical Response and North Fulton cities, including Johns Creek, Roswell (which also represents Mountain Park), Sandy Springs, Alpharetta and Milton. The council agreed to move forward with the contract, costing a combined $2 million subsidy in the first year.

based on a North Fulton-wide agreement in place from 2013 to 2018. Coon said this was because participating cities, excluding Sandy Springs, were not receiving the level of service they had asked for from the provider.

In January, Appen Media reported that Sandy Springs was looking at a price hike with AMR from $260,000 a year for 8-minute response times to $3.6 million, an 850 percent increase.

“Government subsidizing a private

ambulance service to ensure response time parameters are achieved, appropriate standards of care are followed, and the number of ambulances and service at any moment in time, is not a novel approach,” Coons said.

The City of Dunwoody recently agreed to pay a $600,000 yearly subsidy to ensure one ambulance is posted within its city limits during peak hours.

Forsyth County also pays a subsidy for its negotiated standard of care with its service provider, and DeKalb County is in negotiations on the amount of the subsidy for its service provider.

Response times

The $2 million combined subsidy will buy a system-wide 12-minute response time for critical, emergency calls and a 20-minute response time for minor or uncertain issues.

The contract also will implement a system-wide priority posting plan, using

See AMBULANCE, Page 13

Dunwoody High School to get path lighting

By HAYDEN SUMLIN hayden@appenmedia.com

DUNWOODY, Ga. — The Dunwoody City Council approved a revised contract with Georgia Power May 28 for installation of post-mounted path lighting along Vermack Road.

Elected officials approved the contract with a 3-2 vote, setting up the installation of 18 or 19 pedestrianlighting poles along Vermack Road from Womack Road to Vanderlyn Drive.

Last summer, contractors with Autaco constructed phase one of the Dunwoody High School path from the school’s exit driveway to Vanderlyn Drive..

The second phase, slated to be completed before the 2024-25 school year begins, involves the section of the path from Womack Road to the southern entrance to the school.

At the April 29 City Council meeting, elected officials approved two contracts for phase two, including just under $110,000 with a 10 percent contingency to Sol Construction for the path itself and just under $300,000 with a 20 percent contin -

gency to Southern Premier Contractors for stormwater improvements associated with the project.

The path lighting element along Vermack Road led to a debate among councilmembers.

Public Works Director Michael Smith said there are currently some widely spaced streetlights on Vermack Road, but there is little light on the multi-use path in front of Dunwoody High School.

When students are getting to school during the winter months or leaving campus after extracurriculars, it’s dark outside and dangerous for pedestrians.

Smith said the city’s standard maximum spacing is 60 feet, but staff recommends revising the distance for this project to around 70 feet.

“That would cut two to three lights, we don’t have exact numbers because we weren’t able to get a new design and a new agreement from Georgia Power in between meetings,” Smith said. “We think it would cut two to three lights, cut costs between 10 and 15 percent and still provide the light level we think is appropriate.”

During an April 29 discussion of the contract, councilmembers voted unanimously to postpone approval of a lighting services agreement after some expressed concerns about cost and light levels.

The original contract called for 21 pedestrian-lighting poles with an installation cost of just under $195,000 and an ongoing monthly fee of around $600 for maintenance and power.

While the 12-foot multi-use path runs in front of a high school with significant foot traffic, single-family residential homes sit on the opposite side of the street.

Councilmembers indicated they wanted to explore their options with the Georgia Power contract to potentially reduce the number of light poles, which would lower costs and reduce concerns about light pollution.

“We talked to Georgia Power, and these will have a dimmable feature,” Smith said. “I would suggest cutting them in half after 11 p.m,. and then they can go back up at 6 a.m. or something like that.”

CITY OF DUNWOODY/PROVIDED

A recent look at phase one of the Vermack Road path in front of Dunwoody High School shows the current lighting on the street and multi-use path at nighttime. City staff said most of the light in the image is from camera flash. See LIGHT, Page 13

Contractor delivers new athletic fields for schools

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Sports Turf Company announced competition of phase one of the athletic facility renovations May 29 at high schools in the Fulton County district.

Phase one includes the renovation of high school practice fields at Alpharetta, Milton, Westlake in Atlanta and Langston Hughes and Creekside in Fairburn.

Sports Turf turned the existing natural grass practice fields at all five high schools into an artificial turf system, providing more durability and better shock absorbency.

The school district awarded a $13.6 million contract last November to the sports construction and surfacing company to renovate 11 practice fields, one stadium field and two shot put and discus sectors.

Phase two, already scheduled to be underway, calls for a new practice field, stadium field replacement and track resurface at Cambridge High School.

The second slate of projects also includes construction of a track surface at Langston Hughes and Johns Creek high schools, a practice field at Tri-Cities High School in East Point and a practice field with shot put and discus sector at Banneker High School in unincorporated Fulton County.

The third phase will install new practice fields at Roswell, Centennial and Chattahoochee high schools.

Todd Higgins, president of Sports Turf, said his team is excited to see phase one completed.

“It is a privilege to work for a school system that places such a high importance on their athletic facilities,” Higgins said. “We’re excited to keep working on the next two phases to give them the facilities their athletes deserve.”

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Home farmer shines light on mushroom as superfood

By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com

CUMMING, Ga. — Shannon Williams probably fits in with other mushroom enthusiasts, wearing one of several mushroom T-shirts and advocating for a holistic healthy lifestyle, skeptical of silver bullets.

He’s the type to notice a kinship with all things around us.

“Mushrooms are very close to us, not too far from us in the genetic pool,” he said.

Before news of the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, Williams said he came down with a sickness that resulted in a stick up his nose and hushed tones from medical professionals in the hall of the hospital, keeping away from whatever he had.

During his recovery, his son Shannon, the second, turned him onto turkey tail mushrooms. It was off to the races from there, carrying over some of the same equipment he used to brew his own ale.

“I remember I still was in pain when I decided I wanted to sell mushrooms to the public, so I decided I want to feed and heal my public,” Williams said.

Out of the basement in his Cumming home, he grows more than a dozen varieties of (legal) mushrooms. The 10-by-20 Gorilla tent is the last of three size upgrades for his burgeoning business Noble Fungi Farm.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever been born again, but it felt like that but without the politics,” Williams said. “It was my choice, right? It was like, ‘Hey, this is a good thing, and I benefited from it personally, like I am a witness. Have you ever met Mushroom Jesus?’”

Williams fetched a box of mushrooms from his car — pink and blue oysters, which he identified by their Latin names. He said they were the backbone to his farm as well as elm oysters and lion’s mane, though he also grows chestnuts, reishi, shitake. Cordyceps get their own

Pink and blue oysters are part of the backbone of Shannon Williams’ homebased farm in addition to shitake and lion’s mane. He grows more than a dozen varieties.

dreams, and she helps me make it make sense,” Williams said.

Valerie, responsible for marketing Noble Fungi Farm, chuckled every now and then from across the outside breezeway at Starbucks as Williams’ excitableness over mushrooms pulled him into tangents.

He dove into the weeds of mycology, a meticulous process helped by a skillset he developed working in finance and accounting for UPS before he retired.

room, and so would hen-of-the-wood if he chooses to add it to the bunch.

“Hen-of-the-wood, I believe, knows the difference between its spores and other spores,” Williams said. “If there’s too many other spores in the environment, it’ll grow, but it’ll be underwhelmed. It won’t be like, ‘Life!’ It’ll be like, ‘Life…’”

He sells whole mushrooms, mushroom jerky and mushroom tinctures at local markets, also listing mushroom-based recipes on his website like one concocted by his eldest daughter Rena for vegan rainbow mushroom stroganoff.

Soon, Williams will introduce chaga soap. Chaga is sclerotia, a byproduct of birch trees attacking the locale of a fungal parasite, similar to a mold. Like reishi, Williams said it is an immunomodulator and an adaptogen, nourishing organs to

provide chemical stability.

“It’s taking all the good stuff that the tree is throwing at it and making it grow,” Williams said.

Products or “value-adds,” as he likes to call them, are a third of his business. Another third is education, and another is having fun.

Williams said his wife Valerie gives his mind direction, one that sometimes takes him down into the grow room at 3 a.m., still finding it miraculous to see his mushrooms grow.

“I bring the purpose, and I bring the

“My grandmother used to say, ‘There’s a place for everything, and everything has its place,’ and that’s kind of my vibe,” Williams said.

He also shared insights he accrued while taking his health into his own hands, with a hope that people do the same.

“We shouldn’t lean so much on other things,” Williams said. “They all have their place, but people don’t know how to grow anything. They don’t know how to fix anything. Like it breaks, they just go buy a new one.”

PHOTOS BY AMBER PERRY/APPEN MEDIA

Shannon Williams and his wife Valerie stand next to a box of oyster mushrooms he grew at his home-based farm in Cumming. They started Noble Fungi Farm in 2021 after Williams used mushrooms to heal himself of illness and felt a need to pass that power to the community.

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International birthday parties and valuable life lessons

RAY APPEN Publisher Emeritus ray@appenmedia.com

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Marilyn Colarossi-Woods

Recently, my daughter celebrated her birthday at the beach with five of her closest friends, while I stayed at her place in Ellijay, babysitting her husky. Although I don't mind housesitting, taking care of that husky was another story.

I was struck by the diversity among my daughter's friends –their eclectic nature —so unlike the typical groups from my generation. These friends are difficult to categorize or stereotype, and their varied backgrounds made me wonder just how typical they are of their generation, many of whom are now in their mid to late 30s.

City – by herself. When I asked her how the birthday party was at the beach, she replied that it was like a "five-day slumber party," which brought a smile to my face and made my heart flutter.

The friend from upstate New York is originally from a small village in Bangladesh. He moved to the United States at 5 and became a successful computer programmer. While living at the house on Haight, he began developing Crowdcast, a website for video conferencing, just before COVID-19, which eventually became a popular app and platform used worldwide. Talk about timing.

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All except one friend met my daughter while she lived in California in a big house over a decade ago on the corner of Haight and Ashbury. The outlier is a friend she met in Berlin. Despite geographical distances and time, these friendships have remained strong and vital.

The friend from NYC, a computer programmer from India who grew up in Dubai, recently quit her job in the Bay Area to move to and experience New York

Two of my daughter's friends still live in the Bay Area. One is an architect. I would call her an “art connoisseur/entrepreneur.” When I first met her, she was running a converted warehouse in Oakland that she had converted into a live/work art collective to address affordable housing and work space for Bay Area artists. Think consignment store, except instead of booths for stuff to sell, there were spaces for artists to create their work. Wandering through the warehouse was mystical, almost like exploring some far-away land. You never knew what you would run into around any corner you turned.

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Amelia Appen , crouched in center, stands on the beach this April with an international group of friends.

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING

While covering Milton election operations, Appen Media analyzed historical voter data and identified possible disenfranchisement.

This reporting caused a statewide watchdog to get involved and, eventually, the city moved to add a polling place to the area. Later in the year, Appen discovered that the feasibility report the City Council used when voting to run their own elections was not the original document. Two residents on a working committee had altered it after city staff had completed it and before its presentation to council. Appen Media reporters identified all of the differences between the two documents and then created an interactive digital document. Readers and officials were able to scroll through the materials and read notes from the newsroom explaining the differences. You can find this document at appenmedia.com/electionsreport.

What are the current planting zones?

It seems like we hear comments about global warming every day. As the weather reporter or meteorologist can tell you, the average summer temperatures are increasing, but on the other hand, are the winter temperatures increasing or decreasing? In December of 2022, we had one day in North Fulton and surrounding areas when the temperature reached a low of 6 degrees for the first time in 30 years. As a result, many shrubs lost a significant number of leaves, died or had their overall growth significantly impacted. Some of the shrubs most significantly impacted by last year’s hard freeze were the camellias, azaleas, lorepetulum and gardenias. These four shrubs are evergreens, do not lose their leaves in the fall and are green throughout the winter. As a result of the deep freeze, some of my azaleas partially died and did not bloom last spring, and one of my large Camellia japonicas sadly lost all of its leaves, and its flower buds were frost damaged and did not bloom as they normally do in late February. When I saw what I thought was a dead plant, my impulse was to cut it down and remove it from my landscape. But fortunately, I got busy, and several months later to my amazement it started to show signs of life and began to produce a new crop of green leaves! I am happy to report it is alive and well, and this year it has 100 plus flower buds. If you lived anywhere in the Atlanta metropolitan area on January 28, 2014, I am sure you remember the history-breaking, catastrophic snow and ice storm that covered all of the roads and brought traffic to a halt. This storm even has a name, Snowmeggedon! It not only paralyzed everyone’s ability to get home from school, work or shopping, but it also had a devastating effect on plants in our yards, on the Georgia’s farm economy and people with nursery businesses. In my yard, every Indian hawthorn planted by the builder in 2004 died. Because the Indian hawthorns outnumbered all the other landscape plantings, I lost 35 bushes as a result of the storm. When I researched to determine why these shrubs failed to survive while most of the other plantings survived, the answer was that the shrubs were the wrong plants for my planting zone. Indian hawthorns are winter hardy in zones 8 through 10.

Although the Indian hawthorns survived for nine years during mild winters, 2014 was too much for these zone 8 plants! As a result, I caution all gardeners in north metro Atlanta to carefully read the plant tags and note the Plant Hardiness Zones. Think carefully before purchasing any plant recommended for zone 8 and higher and determine if there is a safer option.

During the current winter season, the temperatures dipped into the mid and low 20s for several days. Taking these high and low temperatures into account, what effect do these temperatures have on the plants we try to grow in our landscapes and flower and vegetable gardens? What are the current planting zone designations, and have the plant zones changed because of global

PROVIDED

About the Author

This week’s “Garden Buzz” guest columnist is Carole MacMullan, a master gardener and a Milton resident. She taught biology for 35 years in the Pittsburgh area. In 2012 after moving to Milton, Carole completed the Master Gardener training program and joined the North Fulton Master Gardeners (NFMG) and the Milton Garden Club. Her favorite hobbies are gardening, hiking, biking, and reading.

and regional warming? If you do an internet search to determine your planting zone, you will find two sources of information. Based on the USDA 2012 Plant Hardness Zone map, North Fulton, Cherokee, Forsyth and most of north Georgia were identified as zone 7b. In November 2023, the USDA modified the Plant Hardiness Zones for Georgia, and now Fulton, Cobb, Forsyth and Cherokee have been reassigned to Planting Zones 8. These changes are based on weather data collected over a 30-year period from 1991 to 2020. The 2023 map reflects a half zone shift for our area of Georgia.

CAUTION - Even as the climate warms, there will always be extreme weather events, and new plantings should be selected with these extremes in mind.

How can you avoid an expensive landscaping mistake? My suggestions are: do not fall in love

with a zone 8+ plant, and look at the plant tag before you purchase any plant. The gardenias and camellias are especially vulnerable to single-digit temperatures because some of the cultivars are zone 8 plants. If you want to purchase a gardenia, I would suggest the two most frost-tolerant cultivars, Frostproof or Foolproof. Both of these cultivars are designated as zone 7 plants. The same is true of camellias. Some camellias are more frost-tolerant and are designated as zone 7. Here is a quote from Tom Money, a landscape designer from Scottsdale Farms in Milton, when asked about planting zone 8 plants: “l would not plant zone 8 plants because in a year or two I would need to return to replant.”

Please compare the 2012 and 2023 planting zone maps that accompany this column and note the current changes. If you are a vegetable gardener, I suggest you read the Georgia Vegetable Planting Calendar cited in the “Learn More” resources.

Happy Gardening!

North Fulton Master Gardeners, Inc. is a Georgia nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization whose purpose is to educate its members and the public in the areas of horticulture and ecology in order to promote and foster community enrichment. Master Gardener Volunteers are trained and certified by The University of Georgia Cooperative Extension. Learn more at nfmg.net. Previous Garden Buzz columns are featured at https://appenmedia.com/opinion/ columnists/garden_buzz/.

CAROLE MACMULLAN Guest Columnist

Left: 2012 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, Right: 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map

OPINION

Fulton County Jail – Band-Aid or build?

Something needs to be done about the Fulton County Jail. It’s a critical part of the public safety ecosystem and its failing. We’ve seen horrific deaths and conditions so shocking that the Department of Justice has launched an investigation which is still ongoing. What you might not know is that a cycle of incidents, investigations and Band-Aid repairs has been going on for decades.

In 2015, the AJC reported on the county’s successful response to a lawsuit after 11 years that included addressing issues of jail overcrowding that had inmates sleeping on the floor, and conditions “so unsafe that inmates could wander about because of faulty locks.”

The article noted that “conditions would improve and then deteriorate again” over the 11-year period but were now fixed and that the “cost to taxpayers [had been] about $1 billion in renovations, repairs and ongoing programs.”

I don’t know how long those fixes lasted but I do know that by 2021, the Board of Commissioners were acknowledging that the same problems were occurring and started looking for solutions.

We spent almost a billion dollars between 2004 and 2015 and it bought us a few years, at best.

In January, 2023, shortly after I took office as a Fulton County Commissioner, I toured the jail at 901 Rice Street and saw firsthand how deteriorated and overcrowded it is. I saw pallets on the floor where men were bunking because there weren’t enough beds, and I saw how small the cells built for one man looked with two men living in them. I saw the handmade weapons the inmates were able to make with pieces of the building they could pull apart with their bare hands, and I talked with the sheriff about how challenging it is to hire and retain frontline law enforcement folks to work there. This year the stories of broken locks and doors sounded like a repeat of the 2015 story.

It was clear to me that something had to be done, and I was glad to learn that a year before I took office, the Board of Commissioners had contracted with a group of industry experts to conduct a Jail Feasibility Study for $1.2 million so that they could address the issues in a more holistic way than had been done in the past.

The study, presented to the board on

Feb. 1, 2024, concluded that the “existing jail is obsolete,” “creates public safety concerns” and is “adversely affecting employee retention.” It also stated that the “current buildings are deteriorated” and that the Fulton County Jail, which opened in 1989, exceeded the 30 year “average useful life of comparable jails.” The study came with a data analysis of the projected inmate population growth for the next 25 years, and a recommendation for a new jail at the 901 Rice Street location, with the lowest cost option estimated at $1.68 billion. After much debate that day and over the weeks and months that followed, it was clear all six of the district commissioners agreed that a new building was necessary. Only the chairman felt otherwise.

For the six of us, the debate was not about whether we should build a jail, but about how big it should be, how much we should spend, and where we would get the money. While that debate continued, we agreed that moving forward with at least the next two phases would not preclude us from working to improve inefficiencies in the justice system which might allow us to build a smaller building, or pursuing the option of a sales tax to help cover the cost and reduce the burden on property taxpayers.

With that in mind, we went ahead with Phase 2 of the Jail Feasibility Study at a cost of approximately $800,000, and approved bond funding and the issuance of a request for proposals (RFP) for the next phase of planning.

But now, the project is at a standstill. At the May 15 Board of Commissioners meeting, an unexpected vote was called to rescind the RFP for the next phase. It passed.

So, what changed? We were not able to get help from the state on the sales tax front, we were able to make improvements to the justice system, make more use of ankle monitoring which has lowered our current jail population, and the idea of renovation has re-emerged for some as a viable solution.

To be clear we spent $2 million on experts who gave us their best advice and we didn’t like the advice.

Something has to be done about the Fulton County Jail. But what? Will we spend another decade in a cycle of incident, investigation and Band-Aid response to the tune of $1 billion+ or will we invest in a long-term strategy that is humane, safe and improves public safety countywide?

Dana Barrett is the Fulton County Commissioner representing District 3.

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DANA BARRETT Fulton County Commissioner District 3

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shift in local politics — one where young, organized progressives running to the left of the establishment can win elections.

By all accounts, Sanchez ran an impressive campaign. Anulewicz outraised him more than two-to-one, bringing in $123,648 in donations, compared with Sanchez’s $50,097, according to campaign finance disclosures. But nearly half the contributions to Anulewicz came from political action committees, while Sanchez’s contributions were overwhelmingly smaller-dollar, individual donations.

That reflects the grassroots get-outthe-vote mobilization that Sanchez’s campaign has undertaken since last November to win. About 100 volunteers knocked on 17,000 doors, with the target of swaying 2,500 voters to defeat Anulewicz, according to Sanchez campaign manager and DSA-Atlanta co-chair Kelsea Bond.

“Our main takeaway from this campaign — and it’s something that we already knew in our gut — is that there’s a huge disconnect between what the average voter or American actually believes in, and what politicians are doing,” Bond said. Consequently, the Sanchez campaign’s approach was to go out and talk to constituents about their topline issues — housing, healthcare, a green economy — and connect them to DSA ideals. “This win just really validates what we’ve been saying all along, which is that our ideas are actually popular. It’s just that a lot of politicians are afraid to champion them,” Bond said.

Anulewicz did not respond to a request for comment.

Even for Cobb Republicans, her loss is a wake-up call. Skylar Akins, the Atlanta Young Republicans’ executive vice president and a resident of District 42, said it was completely unexpected.

If anyone had foreseen it, he added, a number of Republican voters in Anulewicz’s district would have chosen a Democratic primary ballot just so they could vote for her. “They definitely would have [picked a Democratic ballot]. The only thing we were deciding on the Republican side in Cobb County was the sheriff’s race,” he said.

Akins acknowledged the “sweat equity” Sanchez’s campaign put in. “I know they flooded this district with people because I was personally canvassed by his campaign three or four times,” he said.

Sanchez will face off against Republican Diane Jackson for the House legislative seat in November. Jackson ran unopposed in the Republican primary.

Other Gen Z wins

The other Gen Z candidates to win Democratic primaries for state legislative seats include Bryce Berry and Ashwin

More information

Here’s a rundown of run-off elections expected for the five-county, metroAtlanta area based on preliminary election returns:

Fulton County

• Democratic primary for Fulton County Commissioner, District 4: Incumbent Natalie Hall v. Mo Ivory.

Clayton County

• Democratic primary for Clayton Sheriff: Incumbent Levon Allen v. Jeffrey E. Turner.

• Democratic primary for Clayton County Commission Chair: Alieka Anderson v. Terry L. Baskin

• Democratic primary for Clayton County Commissioner, District 3: Tashe’ Allen v. Attania Jean-Funny.

DeKalb County

• Democratic primary for DeKalb CEO: Larry Johnson v. Lorraine Cochran Johnson.

• Democratic primary for DeKalb

Ramaswami in Metro Atlanta and Madeline Ryan Smith in a Middle Georgia district.

Berry bested a crowded field to win the Democratic primary for House District 56, which runs from Ansley Park, through Midtown, all the way southwest to Beecher Hills. The district’s two-term incumbent, Rep. Mesha Mainor, caused a stir last July when she switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party – attracting Berry and four other Democratic challengers.

If Berry wins against Mainor in

County Commissioner, District 4: Lance Hammonds v. Chakira Johnson.

• Judicial runoff for State Court Judge Division A-3: Yolanda Mack v. Dionne McGee.

Gwinnett County

• School Board District 1: Karen Watkins v. Rachel Stone

• School Board District 3: Steve Gasper v. Shana White State Legislature

• Democratic primary for State Senate District 55: Iris Knight-Hamilton v Randal Mangham (DeKalb and Gwinnett Counties)

• Democratic primary for State Senate District 38: RaShaun Kemp v. Ralph Long III. (Fulton County)

• Democratic primary for State Senate District 34: Valencia Stovall v. Kenya Wicks. (Clayton and Valencia Counties)

• Democratic primary for State House District 96: Arlene Beckles v. Sonia Lopez (Gwinnett County)

November, he could be the first public school teacher in the Georgia House of Representatives. The 2023 Morehouse College graduate teaches 7th grade math for Atlanta Public Schools. He told Atlanta Civic Circle last month that education reform, including greater teacher pay, along with affordable housing and accessible healthcare are his top issues.

Ramaswami ran unopposed to win the Democratic primary for Senate District 48 in Johns Creek, where he grew up. Ramaswami, a software engineer who just graduated from Georgetown

Law School, will face off against Republican incumbent Sen. Shawn Still in November. The Democrat has said he decided to challenge Still after the latter’s indictment in the sprawling Fulton RICO case against former president Donald Trump.

In Middle Georgia, Smith also ran unopposed to win the Democratic primary for House District 158, located between Macon and Savannah. Smith is challenging longtime incumbent Rep. Larry “Butch” Parrish, who just completed his 20th term. This will be her second bid for the seat, after losing to Parrish in 2022.

A Gen Z challenger in Albany, Joshua Anthony, wasn’t able to unseat first-term Rep. David Sampson in the Democratic primary for House District 153. Sampson won a resounding 58 percent of the vote.

Incumbents fare well

Outside of Sanchez’s upset, incumbents fared well in the primary.

Georgia Supreme Court Justice Andrew Pinson staved off a competitive challenge from former Democratic Congressman John Barrow, winning 55 percent of the vote in the closely watched nonpartisan primary. Pinson was appointed to the state Supreme Court in 2022 by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, so now he’ll serve a 6-year term.

In another nonpartisan judicial race, incumbent Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee also won with a commanding 83 percent of the vote. McAfee is overseeing the historic case alleging election interference against Trump and 14 co-conspirators.

Fulton Sheriff Pat Labat and District Attorney Fani Willis, the prosecutor for the Trump election-interference case, both cruised to victory in their Democratic primaries. Another Democratic incumbent, Clerk of Courts Che’ Alexander, also attracted primary challengers, but won 52 percent of the vote to narrowly avoid a runoff. These primary victories all but assure their wins in November in the heavily Democratic county.

Gwinnett County Sheriff Keybo Taylor trounced three fellow Democrats, winning 67.8 percent of the vote in their primary. He’ll face off against Republican primary winner Mike Baker, a former Gwinnett deputy, in the Nov. 5 general election.

Run-offs to watch

Several other elections will head to a runoff on June 18. In contests with more than two candidates, if no candidate secures over 50 percent of the vote, a runoff election between the top two vote-getters is held within four weeks.

Claire Becknell contributed to this story. This article was originally published on atlantaciviccircle.org.

ATLANTA DSA/PROVIDED

Gabriel Sanchez, center, in a blazer and tie, celebrates with his supporters May 21.

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data analytics, and establish an avenue for seeking liquidated damages if there’s noncompliance with performance standards. Penalties range from $5,000 to $30,000 a month.

City Councilman Larry DiBiase raised concern about potential liability associated with not buying down the best response time.

But, Coons said he felt the response time set in the contract is reasonable based on the Fire Department’s ability to place a paramedic at the scene in around six minutes, its average response time.

The contract, currently under legal review by American Medical Response and the attorneys for each of the North Fulton cities, is set to come back before the council at its work session June 17.

Tax buffer

In other matters at the work session,

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The other friend still living in the Bay Area is much of the time, literally living “in the bay.” His story is remarkable. He is from the Midwest and dropped out of college and that traditional career track thing, and moved to California where he started working as a computer coder –self-taught. He found his place in one or several of the Silicon Valley tech companies and lives with his long-time partner who was one of the first, say 20, employees of one of the huge tech companies –think like a Google or similar. Most of his time today is split between his new job at yet another tech company and working on the large sailboat he bought and learned to sail in San Francisco Bay – hence “living literally in the Bay.”

The odd-man-out, the one she did not meet in California, is probably the most interesting of them all. Think a modernday Indiana Jones or similar. Whether it was hiking across much of eastern Europe and the Middle East, to moving to Israel

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A May 1 statement from Alpharetta said some additional work is required for installation of decorative fencing and pavers, as well as general cleanup. A part of the GDOT’s project includes local agreements with municipalities for bridge aesthetics.

the City Council debated whether to maintain its property tax millage rate stabilization fund or add new parameters for use as part of the city’s Budget Policy.

The fund was initially implemented to offset property tax increases, which City Councilman Chris Coughlin likened to a floating homestead exemption.

Over the course of several work sessions, some councilmembers cautioned against using it to automatically roll back the millage rate each year, without consideration for other city priorities like capital projects.

At the work session May 28, the council voiced support for a proposal from City Councilwoman Stacy Skinner which advised considering the fund as part of the adoption of the millage rate for the closeout of the current fiscal year, rather than during budget preparation that looks ahead at future fiscal year projections.

Skinner also said use of the fund is only appropriate if there’s an increase to the millage rate, not when it is held steady or rolled back.

to learn Hebrew (just because), to moving to Indonesia to live in a orangutangrescue preserve camp for six months to who knows how many other adventures, he is the poster-child Peter-Pan. He is German and, like the others, a coder/tech guy. Think crazy smart, tech guy. His last “formal” job was rewriting the code for the French unemployment system – seriously. My daughter met him a week or two after she had moved herself to Germany to audition for ballet companies in Europe. She needed a place to live, and through a distant Appen cousin, connected with Stef who held the lease on a large multi-bedroom apartment on the fourth floor above the German headquarters of the Hells Angels in Berlin. Amelia lived there for the better part of two years.

Stephen flew in from Berlin for my daughter’s birthday. That alone touches me deeply, that my kid would have a friend who cared enough to do that. But on top of that, he recently raised money to buy an aging, rundown German resort “in the country” – think like a small Grove Park Inn – so he took the time out from his start-up hotel and resort business to spend time with my daughter

The Pitts Road overpass features a 12-foot-wide path on the south side and a sidewalk on the north side, which are separated from vehicular lanes with barrier walls.

The other Ga. 400 overpass in Sandy Springs, the Roberts Drive bridge, remained open as a new structure was built adjacent to the old bridge.

The new bridge, with the same design as the Pitts Road overpass, opened to traffic last December.

Restoration project

At the formal meeting following the work session, Public Works Director Chris Haggard described the Town Center Stream Restoration and Trail Project in relation to a $2.9 million construction contract intended to restore and stabilize an eroded streambank.

The project will also add a 10-footwide trail connecting McGinnis Ferry Road to Creekside Park, which will anchor the Town Center.

The item was originally on the consent agenda, a slate of typically noncontroversial items approved by the council in bulk. But, Councilman DiBiase singled it out for attention as it exemplifies major work the city is doing to address stormwater issues.

“[The project] is such a strategic importance to this council…” DiBiase told Haggard.

Groundbreaking for the project has been tentatively scheduled for June 19 at 12 p.m. on East Johns Crossing adjacent to the glass recycling dumpster.

and celebrate her birthday. And note to self, he had zero experience in running a business, or managing lots of people, or operating something, like a resort, that had to make a profit yet wrote a business plan that impressed a German bank and a few other investors enough to lend him the money (millions of euros). Who woulda thought!

Takeaways

Anyway, my daughters’ friends teach me lots of worthy life lessons by example. They do not bind themselves to accepted norms and expectations. They live lives that are driven to a significant degree by curiosity, by a desire to experience and explore. They embrace the unknown which I am sure produces just as much anxiety for them as it does for you and me, but they seem to thrive on it instead of fearing it. They don’t let “you can’t do this or that” stop them from trying. They are loyal friends, the kind you can count on. They are the kind of companions you strive for. Those kinds of friends are priceless. And the last lesson? Well, it might be to “never own a husky,” but don’t get me started on that one.

A statement from the GDOT’s project page said motorists and pedestrians may see some construction crews as punch list work concludes on the three bridges.

Kyle Collins, a communications and marketing strategist for the GDOT, said all work on the bridges should be finished by late August.

Collins said work also continues on the Mount Vernon Highway bridge over I-285, specifically opening the pedestrian components.

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While Smith’s adjustment to the Georgia Power contract reduces the cost and addresses light pollution, not all councilmembers were sold on a path forward.

Councilman John Heneghan said he was concerned about the cost of the lighting agreement with Georgia Power, with the 10-15 percent reduction.

Heneghan said he wanted to be sure who is responsible for the monthly cost of around $600.

“Right now, on Vermack, I can tell you that the residents don’t pay a streetlight fee,” he said. “I want to make sure that if we are putting these lights up for pedestrian purposes mainly, that we are not increasing the fees on those not already paying.”

Because the path adjoins Dunwoody High School property and not the single-family residences on Vermack Road, staff said the school district will pay the monthly fees.

Heneghan said he wants to ensure parties are aware if they are responsible for fees.

“I’m not against increased safety, but when it comes to the cost, I’m not sure where that money is coming from or how it’s being funded,” Heneghan said.

Mayor Lynn Deutsch and Councilman Joe Seconder were absent from the meeting.

Councilman Rob Price, who voted against the contract with Heneghan, said he wanted all councilmembers present before a decision is made.

After staff said they are not certain the pedestrian lighting will be ready for the start of the 202425 school year, Price said it may be worth waiting to decide on the contract approval.

Councilwomen Stacey Harris and Catherine Lautenbacher voted with Councilman Tom Lambert to approve the contract.

“In my mind, we have to put lights on the sidewalk,” Harris said. “So, whether we do it now or wait two weeks, we have to put lights on the sidewalk.”

DEATH NOTICES

Eugene Langston, 78, of Cumming passed away on Monday, May 27, 2024. Arrangements by Ingram Funeral Home & Crematory.