FINANCE
WELLNESS
YOUTH
Deal-hunting shoppers flocked to the stores early for Black Friday sales locally and nationally and spent more money than they did last year. 6
The National Sleep Foundation says the number of motorists who drive while drowsy should be a “wake up call” to lawmakers. 7
For students visiting the Mayfield Dairy Farms in Braselton, it could mean an ice cream party if they come up with the winning name for dairy’s Jersey cow replica. 9
Black Friday delivers
Copyright © 2010 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.
Road napping can kill
December 4, 2010
What’s in a name?
Volume 16, Number 32
www.crossroadsnews.com
DeKalb picking new MARTA board from old By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
DeKalb County members on the MARTA board will be headed to the Maloof Center on Dec. 7 for interviews that will help determine whether they get a seat on the new MARTA board in January. JoAnn McClinton, Jim Durrett, Fred Daniels, Harold Buckley and Keith Adams are among seven candidates invited for interviews by the Board of Commissioners’ Planning, Economic Development and Public Works Committee. The years of service of the five range from Daniels with 11 months on the board to Buckley, who was appointed in
Gov. Sonny Perdue signed into law on June 2. The law reconfigures the MARTA board from 18 members to 11. It requires all current members to vacate their seats on Dec. 31 and new members be appointed for the new board that will begin sitting on Jan. 1, 2011. On Wednesday, the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce submitted a list of names – Daniels; Durrett; retired AGL Resource CEO Keith Adams Harold Buckley Fred Daniels Jim Durrett JoAnn McClinton Isaac Blythers, who lives in Stone Mountain; Lithonia accountant and 100 Black Men of 1985 and has 25 years of continuous service. The seven are being screened for four DeKalb President Matthew Ware; and Stone Also joining the current board members for DeKalb seats on a new, slimmed-down Mountain Chrysler Dodge owner Darryl interviews are attorney Wendy Butler and MARTA board created by House Bill 277, the former MARTA board member Ed Walls. Transportation Investment Act of 2010 that Please see MARTA, page 2
Residents balk at proposed water rate hike County: System needs $1.4 billion in improvements By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
Years of neglect and population growth now equal a huge price tag to fix DeKalb’s aging water and sewer system, and taxpayers are being called upon to foot the bill. At a Dec. 1 public meeting about proposed improvements totaling $1.4 billion, Ted Rhinehart, deputy chief operating officer for the county’s infrastructure group, and Dr. Francis Kung’u, the county’s watershed management director, said the choice is simple – pay $1.4 billion now, or pay more later. They say the proposed repairs and improvements are Ted Rhinehart critical to overhauling the county’s 40- to 50-year-old system that is threatening public health and the environment with spills of untreated sewage. “We are unfortunately at this critical juncture where a lot of the old water mains are really on borrowed time,” Rhinehart said. “We can’t avoid the major investments. We can’t avoid the major improvements.” Over the five-year capital improvement program, the county plans to spend: n $600 million to repair, replace and update the wastewater collection system. n $378 million to rebuild, upgrade and expand the Snapfinger Wastewater Treatment Plant. n $179 million to repair, replace and update parts of the water distribution system. n $82 million to begin water reuse and to return treated wastewater to the Chattahoochee River.
Jennifer Parker / CrossRoadsNews
John Evans, president of the DeKalb NAACP, questioned the timing of the proposed $1.4 billion investment in the county’s water-sewer system. “People are out of work. People don’t want to be taxed any more, whether it’s a fee or sales tax,” he said.
n $65 million to upgrade sections of Pole missioners for a full vote on Dec. 7.
bridge Wastewater Treatment Plant. n $38 million to upgrade the Scott Candler Water Treatment Plant. n $36 million for vehicles and equipment. Representatives of community groups and residents who spoke at the meeting questioned the timing of the hefty price tag that residents are being asked to absorb in increased compounded water rates that rise to 110 percent by 2012. DeKalb District 6 Commissioner Kathie Gannon organized the Dec. 1 meeting after uproar from residents and community groups that there had not been enough public input into the proposal, which had been scheduled to come before the Board of Com-
More than 100 people from the South DeKalb Neighborhoods Coalition and representatives from homeowners groups like Brook Glen, Kings Ridge and Chapel Lake subdivisions attended the meeting at the Maloof Auditorium. Rhinehart said that the county plans to sell bonds and spread the payments over time. The payments will increase water and sewer rates 13 percent compounded over five years, elevating DeKalb among metro Atlanta counties with the highest water rates. John Evans, president of the DeKalb NAACP, wanted to know whether this is the right time for such a major investment and what other options for funding the county
looked at before seeking to burden taxpayers with water rate increases. “You know what is happening in this country and this county,” he said. “People are out of work. People don’t want to be taxed any more, whether it’s a fee or sales tax. It doesn’t matter. The major question is what would happen to this county if it postponed this decision for a later date. I don’t think this county would fold up and go away because we didn’t do it now.” Evans said there should be a referendum in the county to let the people decide if they want to pay higher water rates. County spokesman Burke Brennan said Please see WATER, page 6