WELLNESS
YOUTH
MINISTRY
Each year holiday-related fires involving Christmas trees, candles and other items cause millions of dollars in damage. We offer tips to avoid tragedy. 7
Students enrolled in the Youth V.I.B.E. mentoring program are learning the value of giving back this holiday season. 8
In celebration of the season, Decatur Bible Chapel and Ousley United Methodist Church are hosting holiday cantatas. 9
Avoiding holiday disaster
Copyright © 2010 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.
Good vibe in giving back
December 18, 2010
Music in the air
Volume 16, Number 34
www.crossroadsnews.com
Interim school superintendent seeking bigger paycheck By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
After working for the equivalent of “superintendent peanuts” for almost 10 months, DeKalb Schools interim Superintendent Ramona Tyson wants a raise. Tyson kept her old salary of $163,899.02 when she was tapped on Feb. 25 to lead the school system in the wake of the sudden departure of former Superintendent Crawford Lewis amid a grand jury investigation into the district’s construction program. She is now seeking to renegotiate the terms of her contract that ends on Feb. 26, 2011.
Tyson reportedly met with board members on Dec. 10 and asked for a $76,100.98 increase, which will bring her pay to $240,000. She is seeking this salary for two years and a position of adviser to the new superintendent when that person is hired. In a statement Thursday, Tyson said there are tough issues ahead and she is prepared to work as long and hard as possible to get the job done. “I am appreciative of the board for recognizing my efforts with a proposal for compensation that is commensurate with the hard work,” she said. Tyson manages a system with
98,000-plus students and 7,200 teachers. School system spokesman Jeff Dickerson confirmed Wednesday that there are contract negotiations under way with Tyson but said he is not at liberty to discuss the details. “I am concerned that there is some board member sharing information from an executive session when SACS [the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools] could be here any day now,” he said. When Lewis left the system in the midst of a criminal investigation, he was Please see TYSON, page 4
Ramona Tyson was asked to lead the school system in February after Crawford Lewis’ sudden departure amid a criminal probe.
$2.3 Billion to Fix County Sewers DeKalb to spend $2.3 billion to fix water, sewer woes By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
DeKalb County will spend more than $2.3 billion in fines, cleanup costs and improvements for fouling the state’s waters in violation of the Federal Clean Water Act and the Georgia Water Quality Control Act. The price tag includes: n $1.34 billion to overhaul its water and sewer systems; n A civil penalty of $453,000; and n $600,000 to clean up segments of the South River, South Fork Peachtree Creek, and Snapfinger Creek. The DeKalb Board of Commissioners approved a $1.34 billion Capital Improvement Plan at its Dec. 14 meeting. It will increase water rates for residents by 11 percent annually between 2012 and 2014. The $453,000 civil penalty will be split equally between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division and must be paid within 30 days. The river cleanup will focus on the removal of trash and debris from the river and creeks. The public will have input into which segments will be cleaned. The consent decree – announced Dec. 13 by the U.S. Justice Department and the EPA – comes in the wake of 256 reported sanitary spills in 2006 and an EPA audit of the county’s management, operations and maintenance of DeKalb’s wastewater collection and transmission system in March 2007. In its announcement Monday, the EPA said overflows pose a significant threat to public health because raw sewage can have high concentrations of bacteria from fecal contamination as well as pathogens and
The aging Snapfinger Wastewater Treatment Plant in Decatur will be improved as part of the $1.34 billion Capital Improvement Plan approved by the DeKalb Board of Commissioners.
Water rates to increase, p. 3 viruses. “Ultimately, this will benefit the local community and improve water quality in the Upper Ocmulgee and Chattahoochee watersheds,” said Stan Meiburg, the EPA’s Southeastern office deputy regional administrator. He said that sewage overflows are a significant problem in the Southeast because of inadequate and aging infrastructure. DeKalb County operates more than 2,600 miles of sewer pipes, and more than 50 percent of them are 25 to 50 years old. “This agreement demonstrates DeKalb County’s commitment to address longstand-
ing sewage problems,” Meiburg said. “Ultimately, this will benefit the local community and improve water quality in the Upper Ocmulgee and Chattahoochee watersheds.” DeKalb and the federal agencies began the negotiations in January 2009 but kept them secret. As recently as Dec. 4, county officials denied during a question-and-answer session at the DeKalb Legislative Meeting at Chapel Hill Middle School that they were under any EPA mandate to make the repairs. Ted Rhinehart, the county’s infrastructure manager, said Monday that the negotiation had to be kept confidential. “Up until the point today where the EPD signed the document that says we agree with this settlement and filed it with the court,
it’s still a matter of pending litigation,” he said. “That is why we had to keep it confidential.” DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis said that while they were not allowed to talk about the consent decree before it was agreed upon, the DeKalb Board of Commissioners was kept briefed during the entire negotiation progress. “And we did share with the public that we were federally mandated to go ahead and make these upgrades at this time,” he said. The settlement requires the county to develop and implement a comprehensive program to “ensure effective capacity, management, operations and maintenance” of Please see DECREE, page 4