COMMUNITY
WELLNESS
SCENE
Friends, supporters and strangers chipped in to buy 9-year-old Victoria Williams a seizure dog to warn her family when a seizure is imminent. 6
Rosalyn Carter Institute and Georgia CARE-NETS seek nominations to recognize caregivers who serve the elderly and teh sick. 8
Chamblee High graduate Angelica Hairston will perform with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra during a free concert at Ebenezer Baptist Church. 9
Helpful dog on the way
Copyright © 2011 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.
Nominations sought
July 9, 2011
Young harpist in concert
Volume 17, Number 10
www.crossroadsnews.com
Georgia Military College opening in Stone Mountain By Donna Williams Lewis
Workmen were preparing classrooms for the opening of the new Georgia Miliary College just off Main Street in the city of Stone Mountain.
Georgia Military College was ranked No. 12 on Washington Monthly’s 2010 list of “America’s 50 Best Community Colleges.” Founded in 1879 in Milledgeville, the school is a liberal arts, two-year junior college with about 5,500 students at eight campuses around the state and online. Stone Mountain makes the ninth location. A military component continues with a corps of cadets at the main campus in Milledgeville, which is a prep school for West Point. Veterans who apply can earn academic credit for military experience. City Councilwoman Susan Coletti believes the college will attract additional attention to Stone Mountain, which has
Of all things, a college is coming to downtown Stone Mountain. Georgia Military College is opening an “extension” campus in the heart of the little city. City Manager Barry Amos can barely contain his fever pitch. Not in a city that is constantly consumed with invigorating and reinvigorating its business district. “We’re going to become a college town!” Amos said Tuesday. “A lot of people don’t fully understand how big this really is.” Georgia Military College is the first college within Stone Mountain’s city limits since a short-lived girls’ seminary petered out there around the time of the Civil War. And this is not just any old college. Please see COLLEGE, page 2
Carla Parker / CrossRoadsNews
‘I am living in a county that is going into ghetto mode’
Residents irked over inaction on code enforcement By Donna Williams Lewis
Every day, when Joel Edwards leaves his home in the Kings Ridge subdivision in Decatur, he drives past not one, but three burned-out houses on South Hairston Road. One of the houses has been in that condition for seven years. “That house is a quarter of a mile from my house,” he said. “It is 300 feet from the entrance to my subdivision.” The sight makes him angry. “We’ve pleaded with the county to no avail,” Edwards said. “It’s a dumping ground. It’s an eyesore. You could hide a body in there and no one would know.” His fight to have his neighborhood cleaned up landed Edwards, a retired MARTA worker, on a citizens advisory committee that worked for months to fix code enforcement. Now Edwards and supporters of a proposed ordinance that would significantly revamp code enforcement in DeKalb County are demanding that commissioners take action on the proposal. “We’re frustrated, and we do feel like there’s some feet-dragging going on because we’ve been at this for 10 years,” said Joe Arrington, a member of the Advisory Council for Code Enforcement. The council began working in December to craft the ordinance in concert with county government staff. “It appears to us that if a majority of the Board of Commissioners wanted to do something about code enforcement, it would get done,” Arrington said. The ordinance was presented May 10 to the County Operations and Public Safety Committee, chaired by Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton. And there it has remained. Advisory board members picketed the
For the last seven years, Joel Edwards has had to drive by this burned-out house in his Decatur neighborhood despite constant complaining to the county. He is frustrated about the inaction of the county’s Code Enforcement Department.
Carla Parker / CrossRoadsNews
Barnes Sutton was angered by June 14 Board of Commissioners the suggestion that the ordinance is meeting and vow to renew their languishing in her committee. She protests if the ordinance does not said the ordinance is under research move forward. and legal review. “We are prepared to go public “The commission is absolutely to the extreme,” said Edwards, who not dragging its feet,” Barnes Sutis vice president of the Kings Ridge ton said Wednesday. “We have to Homeowners Association. “The do our due diligence before we southeastern part of this county is S. Barnes Sutton change any ordinance. It was a long littered with filth.” Edwards said that when he moved into process for them. It’s going to be a thorough his subdivision 28 years ago there were roll- process for us.” ing hills and the place was clean. “It was beautiful,” he said. “Now I am Citizens group launched The process began a year ago after a living in a county that is going into ghetto group of residents met with DeKalb CEO mode.”
Burrell Ellis to complain about conditions in South DeKalb. Ellis asked them to serve on a task force that would be directed by former County Commissioner Connie Stokes. After a series of town hall meetings across the county, the residents returned to Ellis saying the talk was great but action was needed and they wanted to get involved. Gil Turman, president of the South DeKalb Neighborhoods Coalition, was asked to chair a board that would come up with measures to address the issues. Out of the group’s efforts came an ordiPlease see CODES, page 4