KING HOLIDAY
Labor movement to honor King The labor movement will honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at its 14th annual MLK Human Rights Prayer Breakfast on Jan. 12. 2
COMMUNITY
Child safety assistance Georgia’s Department of Public Health has awarded $229,670 in grants to counties to help put children in car seats. 3
Let’s Keep DeKalb Peachy Clean Please Don’t Litter Our Streets and Highways
EAST ATLANTA • DECATUR • STONE MOUNTAIN • LITHONIA • AVONDALE ESTATES • CLARKSTON • ELLENWOOD • PINE LAKE • REDAN • SCOTTDALE • TUCKER • STONECREST
Copyright © 2018 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.
January 6, 2018
Volume 23, Number 36
www.crossroadsnews.com
Residents can apply for homestead, other exemptions DeKalb taxpayers who owned and resided in a home in DeKalb County on Jan. 1 may apply now through April 2 for a Basic Homestead Exemption and Property Assessment Freeze with the county. The eligible home must be the taxpayers’ primary residence that is used for registering their vehicles and filing their federal and state income taxes. The homestead exemption, which provides a significant tax savings to homeowners, is not automatically granted and residents must apply either in person, by mail or via the internet. Applications received after April 2 will be processed for the 2019 tax year.
Larita Ellis, a tax administrator with the Tax Commissioner’s Office, said there is no way to know how many homeowners are eligible for the homestead exemption but are not taking it. DeKalb has 206,694 residential properties with 70 percent or 144,415 taking homestead exemptions. The 62,279 properties without homestead exemptions include property owners who are unaware of the tax break and have not applied, as well as investment properties that are not eligible. “There is no method to quantify why a residential property owned by an individual who occupies the property doesn’t have a homestead exemption,” Ellis said Jan. 3.
Special exemptions are also available for citizens 62 years of age and older, disabled veterans and their widows or widowers, disabled residents, and for spouses of peace officers and firefighters killed in the line of duty. Applicants for special exemptions must apply in person. Applicants for senior or disability exemptions must present copies of the previous year’s federal and state income tax returns, all Social Security Form 1099s, proof of age and/ or proof of 100 percent total and permanent disability. Disabled veterans should also be prepared to provide a letter of adjudication or
other documentation regarding disability or widow(er) status. If disabled, disability must be 100 percent permanent and total. When applying, applicants must bring their state and federal income tax forms, Social Security 1099, and any other forms of income you may receive, to one of the three Tax Commissioner offices across the county. Applications can be made online at www. dekalbtax.org or in person to the Tax Commissioner’s Main Office at 4380 Memorial Drive, Suite 100 in Decatur; the South Office at 2801 Candler Road in Decatur; or to the North Office at 1358 Dresden Dr. N.E. in Atlanta.
Start of Lithonia Industrial extension irks neighbors No notification as $6.3 million project begins By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
The long-planned $6.3 million Phase 3 expansion of Lithonia Industrial Boulevard Extension in Stonecrest got underway Jan. 3 and precipitated a flurry of irate phone calls and emails to Councilwoman Diane Adoma. “People were asking, ‘What’s going on?’ and why didn’t I notify them,” said Adoma, who represents District 5. On a frigid Jan. 4, as three tractors were busy mowing down trees on the wooded property along Woodrow Road next to New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, Adoma told reporters that she was surprised that the project broke ground in her district without any notification to her or the community. “As far as I could ascertain, no one in the city of Stonecrest has been notified,” she said. State law requires local municipalities to be notified of local road activity and Adoma said Stonecrest residents deserve notification when a large project that could disrupt traffic and their lives gets underway. “If I had been notified I would have shared the information with my community,” she said. “No one has the right to do anything in the city without notification. That’s called transparency and accountability.” The 1.07-mile project is being built by DeKalb County. It will expand the Lithonia Industrial Boulevard Extension south from its intersection with I-20 to Evans Mill Road and Rock Springs Road. David Pelton, interim transportation director for DeKalb, said Thursday that he didn’t think anyone notified the city of Stonecrest. “We didn’t,” he said. “They probably wasn’t notified. Normally we would, but I don’t think we did. That was an oversight.”
Jennifer Ffrench Parker / CrossRoadsNews
Stonecrest City Councilwoman Diana Adoma stands in front of the new four-lane expansion of Lithonia Industrial Boulevard Extension at Woodrow Drive on Jan. 4 while three tractors clear the wooded lot of trees. She said the city was not notified of the start of the $6.3 million project.
Pelton said the oversight probably occurred because the city of Stonecrest hasn’t taken over the roads yet. He said the project will take about a year
“We promise to do that,” he said. to complete, and that there will be some lane GDOT approved the Phase 3 expansion closures along the way. He said the county will notify residents when travel will be Please see Phase 3 , page 5 impacted.