WELLNESS
Time to take shelter
A spate of local deaths and injuries from lightning strikes in metro Atlanta underscores the need to seek shelter quickly when storms are near. A5
Copyright © 2010 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.
EXPO PREVIEW
Entertainment galore The Conservatory of Dance and other performers will provide entertainment for the 2010 Family & Back-to-School Expo at the Mall at Stonecrest. Section B
August 7, 2010
EXPO PREVIEW
Focus on family, schools Exhibitors at the 2010 Family & Backto-School Expo on Aug. 14 will make a wealth of information available in one location. Section B
Volume 16, Number 15
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County officials ducking residents on South River By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
South DeKalb county residents are angry with DeKalb County government and their elected officials for ignoring their attempts to get information about the polluted South River and the county’s plans to clean up the river. At an Aug. 4 community meeting hosted by Miners Creek Circle Civic Association at the Wesley Chapel Library, no county officials or sitting elected officials showed up, despite invitations from the group. Only Stan Watson, the District 7 commissioner-elect who does not take office until January, was in attendance. State Rep. Pam Stephenson sent a representative who said that Stephenson had a previously scheduled meeting but that he would take the concerns back to her. Mikeya Herbert, the Miners Creek Circle association president, said the lack of county presence was telling. “It shows much because they are not here,” she said. “They don’t feel the concern that we feel Mikeya Herbert regarding a river that’s right next to us that’s polluted.” Herbert and the association of residents who live near the river and the new South River Trail, said they are just trying to clean up the river that has documented pollution dating back to 1961. “That’s 40 years of pollution that South River has experienced,” Herbert said. “We should do something before it’s another 40
Curtis Parker / CrossRoadsNews
Deborah Dunaway, secretary of the Miners Creek Circle Civic Association, addresses residents and South River advocates at a meeting to address concerns about pollution in the waterway.
years and we are still looking at a polluted river adjacent to our neighborhood.” The meeting came in the wake of a July 24 story in CrossRoadsNews that documented the river’s pollution and showed families with children frolicking in the river, which is on the state’s list of impaired rivers because of high levels of fecal coliform and PCBs.
The area has grown in popularity since the construction of parking and other improvements on the banks of the river for the new walking trail and as temperatures soar into the high 90s. The county did not post signs discouraging recreational use of the river until July 26.
Geraldine Champion, Miners Creek Circle’s vice president, said that when the river was hidden, nobody said much about its polluted condition. “Then when they put a walking path down there I said wow this is nice but that Please see RIVER, page A4
Wachovia donates building to entrepreneurial initiative By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
pete,” he said. “We need to change that.” The initiative, which hosted its grand opening on Aug. 5, will educate students on laptops. Its curriculum will be taught by professionals in their fields. Pannell said its located in South DeKalb because that is where it got the gift of a home at 2533 Wesley Chapel Road. “DeKalb is a good place to start,” Pannell said. “We will be part of the rejuvenation under way on Wesley Chapel Road.” Wachovia, which is a Wells Fargo company, donated the building to BDI in December 2009. Pamela Cross, a Wachovia vice president and senior community development officer for the Atlanta market, said the nonprofit’s mission was a good fit. “We look for opportunities to support nonprofits,” she said. “This is a group that will be working to develop our youth and be a catalyst for developing that area.” Cross said the donation of the building, valued at $700,000, is one of three vacant bank buildings that the company is donating
The focal Wesley Chapel corner at Snapfinger Woods Drive in Decatur is about to come to life again. The former Wachovia Bank building, which had been vacant for about five years, is finding new life as the headquarters of the Business Development Initiative, a new nonprofit that will expose middle and high school students to the world of entrepreneurship. Creed Pannell Jr., the initiative’s founder, said the year-old nonprofit is relocating from Union City to occupy the 4,000-square-foot former branch building that was donated by Wachovia Bank. “If we teach kids entrepreneurship while they are in high school, they won’t be looking for jobs when they graduate,” he said. “They will be creating jobs.” Pannell, who also publishes the Atlanta Business Journal, said it has bothered him for years that African-American kids are seen primarily as consumers. “As a community, we are getting further and further behind in our ability to com- Please see INITIATIVE, page A4
Jennifer Ffrench Parker / CrossRoadsNews
Publisher Creed Pannell Jr. founded the Business Development Initiative to expose high school students to the world of entrepreneurship. BDI has relocated to Wesley Chapel Road.