SCENE
WELLNESS
To find waffles at these prices today, you’ll have to mosey down to Avondale Estates to see the exhibit at the Waffle House Museum. 8
Three DeKalb organizations that serve minority women with breast cancer programs will receive grants from the Komen Foundation. 11
Taste of days gone by
Copyright © 2009 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.
YOUTH
Grants for the cure
April 10, 2010
Motivational art
Competition is likely to be fierce in the 2010 Congressional Art Competition. Winners could receive up to $10,000 in scholarships and have their work displayed in the U.S. Capitol. 10
Volume 15, Number 49
www.crossroadsnews.com
County’s early retirement package proving popular By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
DeKalb County’s early retirement package is proving popular with county employees. On Tuesday, with the April 16 deadline on the offer still 10 days away, 598 people had already said yes. Commissioner Connie Stokes, the Board of Commissioners’ budget committee chairman, called it “a great response.” “We are still about protecting jobs but we are excited by the response,” she said Thursday. Commissioners were hoping that 551 of the eligible 1,217 employees would take the package at a savings of $10 million to $17.5 million. Facing a $100 million shortfall in revenues, the county – which has 7,900 employees – offered the early retirement program to
help balance its 2010 budget. It is offering a lump-sum cash payment and an additional two years of service on the pension of employees with 10 years of service. Eligible employees must be 50 years and older with 10 years of service, or employees of any age who have 25 years of service. County spokeswoman Shelia Trapier Edwards said that 657 of the eligible employees had returned their forms through Tuesday. With the level of the response so far, Dr. Michael Bell, the county’s finance director, said there won’t be a need for a second offer to lure employees. “It looks like a very well-received program,” he said Thursday. “Maybe people are getting more confident about the economy.” County officials had worried that the
program might have been a hard sell in an economy with a 10.9 unemployment rate. “We were afraid that people might not want to leave if they feel they may not be able to find other jobs,” Stokes said. “But there is also a lot of uncertainty and they don’t know what might happen, and what we may have to do.” DeKalb Watershed Management was leading the departments with the most employees. It had 79, followed by the Sheriff ’s Office with 76, the Police Department with 71, and Fire and Rescue with 63. Dr. Francis Kung’u, director of Watershed Management, said he knew ahead of time that he had a lot of qualified employees who might accept the offer. “A lot of people have been here for 25 to 30 years,” he said.
Watershed Management has 750 employees. When the longtime employees depart, Kung’u said they will have to ensure that they will have coverage for the county’s 5,200 miles of sewage and water lines. Sheriff Thomas Brown has said that the loss of 76 employees will leave the jail, which has 828 people, understaffed and unsafe. He said that he will have to resort to overtime to cover the jail and other duties. Employees who take early retirement will leave the county by May 31. Stokes said that the county is determined to have a good transition as the employees leave. “We are talking to the administration about how we develop a transition plan so that we do not hire everybody back as consultants,” she said.
Wastewater plants await funding to increase capacity By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
Even though the design for the expansion of two wastewater treatment plants in South DeKalb was completed on schedule last month, their construction is not on the fast track. DeKalb Commissioner Lee May, who heads the Board of Commissioners’ Planning Economic and Public Works Committee, said the $755 million expansion of the Snapfinger Waste Treatment Plant in Decatur and the Pole Bridge Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Lithonia can’t progress until the board approves its Capital Improvement Program. “The improvements are part of a bigger program,” he said Thursday. “It is $1.7 billion to $2 billion with 83 projects.” Dr. Francis Kung’u, director of the county’s Watershed Management Department, said that they are hoping the commissioners will approve the bond funding for the construction by June so the project can go to bid in late summer or early fall. “We hope to start construction in first quarter 2011,” he said. Despite the administration’s aggressive schedule, May said he and committee members Jeff Rader and Kathie Gannon, are wading their way through the plan, program by program. “A great many of them we just have to have,” he said. “But we can’t go for the bond until the CIP is approved.” With population growth, the county is under the gun to expand the treatment plants. The 140-acre Snapfinger Plant o Flakes Mill Road was built in 1963 with a capacity of 2 million gallons a day. By 1983, its capacity had increased to 36 million gallons a day. David Hayes, the plant’s assistant superintendent, said the aging plant, which works round the clock, is now close to its volume limit, handling 30 million gallons of sewage daily.
Jennifer Ffrench-Parker / CrossRoadsNews
David Hayes, assistant plant superintendent at Snapfinger Wastewater Treatment Plant in Decatur stands alongside an aeration tank built in 1963 when the plant had a capacity of 2 million gallons a day. Today, the plant, which has a capacity of 36 million gallon, is processing 30 million gallons a day. Proposed improvements will take it to 54 million gallons daily. Once funded, the expansion will be built along the tree line at left.
“We are nearing capacity,” he said. Hayes said many of plant’s parts are no longer available and replacements have to be custom made at great cost. “The new facility will be half the size and will treat twice as many gallons a day using less energy,” he said Thursday. The Snapfinger Plant’s improvement is estimated to cost $375 million. It will increase capacity to 54 million gallons. If begins construction early next year, it
will be completed in 2014. The Pole Bridge Creek Plant on 690 acres on Browns Mill Road, was built in 1973 with a capacity of 3 million gallon per day. It was expanded to 20 million gallons in 1990. It’s proposed expansion to 39 million gallons a day is estimated to cost $380 million. If construction begins in 2011, Kung’u said it is slated for completion in 2015. May said the planned improvements are to provide capacity for the future.
He said his committee is working to have the CIP approved before June but that the bond may not issued by then. May said commissioners are also viewing the $2 billion CIP as a stimulus package for the county. “I want to make sure that DeKalb businesses have a strong opportunity to vie for this,” he said. “And that any company that gets any of it, hires DeKalb County residents.”