COMMUNITY
YOUTH
A new web portal allows filmmakers to apply for permits and find locals who want to provide movie location sites. 2
The Disney Dream Academy is taking applications from high school students who want to explore techniques for living their dreams. 6
One-stop movie shop
Put Litter in Its Place
Disney seeking dreamers
Let’s Do Our Part to Keep DeKalb Beautiful A PUBLIC SERVICE MESSAGE FROM CROSSROADSNEWS
EAST ATLANTA • DECATUR • STONE MOUNTAIN • LITHONIA • AVONDALE ESTATES • CLARKSTON • ELLENWOOD • PINE LAKE • REDAN • SCOTTDALE • TUCKER • STONECREST
Copyright © 2018 CrossroadsNews, iNC.
August 11, 2018
Volume 24, Number 15
www.crossroadsnews.com
GPTC’s Cannon ‘not taking meetings’ about closure plans By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
with Cannon. Emails and phone conversation transcripts obtained by CrossRoadsNews in an Open Records Request indicate that Cannon’s office has shown little interest in meeting with elected officials and the D. Glen Cannon Board of Commissioners, which has been a long-standing supporter of the Clarkston-based college. Demetrius McCoy, Davis Johnson’s chief of staff, first contacted Cannon’s office by
A month after CrossRoadsNews broke the news that Georgia Piedmont Technical College has targeted its South DeKalb campus in Decatur for closure, the college’s interim president, Dr. D. Glen Cannon, has refused to meet with elected officials to discuss the campus’s future. DeKalb CommissionM. Davis Johnson er Mereda Davis Johnson, who represents the area, has tried unsuccessfully since July 23 to set up a meeting Please see GPTC, page 3
GPTC, which is part of the Technical College System of Georgia, opened the South DeKalb campus at 2460 Wesley Chapel Road in August 2015. Its interim president wants to terminate the campus’s lease by the end of this year. Jennifer Ffrench Parker / CrossRoadsNews
Fires cause death and disruption in DeKalb Four dead, 100s displaced due to blazes in 2018
Capt. Scott Stroup (lower left) waits to catch a 4-yearold girl who was thrown from a ladder during a fire at the Avondale Forest Apartments.
By Bryce Ethridge
When a fire erupted at Avondale Forest Apartments in Decatur just two days after New Year’s Day, the parents of a 4-year-old girl had to throw her into the waiting arms of Fire Capt. Scott Stroup on the ground. While that heroic catch prevented any deaths from that Jan. 3 fire, it displaced 100 residents. Year to date through July 9, more than 215 fires – including a second one at Avondale Forest Apartments on July 8 – have killed four people and two puppies in DeKalb County; injured 18 people and one dog, displaced more than 250 people, destroyed 63 apartment units, eight homes, and three businesses, and caused $8,763,728 worth of property damage. Those fires have also cost the American Red Cross more than $200,000 in direct emergency assistance to 1,041 people from 339 families, who were victims of DeKalb County fires.
Among the identified dead are: n 74-year-old Onoloda Williams was found dead on Jan. 30 in her bedroom on the 1300 block of Hidden Hills Parkway after the fires were put out. n 71-year-old Quinette Ludlam was pronounced dead on May 2 at her home on the 1100 block of Mayfield Drive in Decatur, after firefighters were unable to resuscitate her. n 92-year-old Harold Smith died June 3 at his 751 Medlock Road home because smoke prevented his family from rescuing him. n 42-year-old Adelfo Jimenez died July 5 in his second-floor bedroom when his home in the 7300 block of Covington Highway in Decatur was set ablaze. So far, only eight of the fires have been identified as intentional. The others were
DeKalb County Fire Rescue
ruled unintentional, or due to equipment failure or acts of nature, or are still under investigation. David Abrohams, disaster program manager of the American Red Cross, said that on average the relief agency responds to three or four disaster events a day in metro Atlanta and that DeKalb County accounts for a fair amount of them. Since July 1, Abrohams said, more than 500 families have been displaced throughout metro Atlanta’s 10-county area. “DeKalb is our busiest and most active county,” he said. The Red Cross is usually called to the scene when a local fire department notifies its disaster relief team of a displaced family. It provides shelter and a credit card for food, clothing and other necessities.
Families struggling to recover Trenton Wyatt, who lost his apartment on July 9 in a fire at Le Parc Fontaine Condominiums in Lithonia, said his experience has been crazy.
A second fire at Avondale Forest Apartments in Avondale Estates on July 8, in which 60 residents were displaced, is still under investigation. Bryce Ethridge / CrossRoadsNews
“It was hard to explain,” he said. “It was an adrenaline rush, crazy, scary.” It’s only been four weeks since the fire that destroyed his home and life, and so far Wyatt said he’s had little to no updates about fixing his apartment. He said he received no assistance from the Red Cross. “I can’t even get back into my apartment,” he said. “It’s upsetting and devastating.” Between 2007 and 2010, Wyatt was a part of the DeKalb Fire Department’s Explorer program which teaches kids 14-18
years old about basic firefighting. “It trained us to be wary of fires and from there it was like if I see a fire, I’ll know what to do,” he said. Wyatt said that training helped him to help others escape the fire. Still, he wasn’t prepared for a fire leaving him homeless. The number of fires in DeKalb County through July 14 is just three less than the same time last year, when 218 fires razed homes and apartments across the county. Please see FIRES, page 4