WELLNESS
YOUTH
Aspiring green thumbs can pick up tips on organic gardening at a free composting demonstration at Exchange Park. 7
Students at Stephenson High School got an insider’s view at sports medicine through a class in the health science department. 9
Replenish the earth
Leg up on a career option
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Copyright © 2012 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.
May 5, 2012
Volume 18, Number 1
www.crossroadsnews.com
Decatur family evicted from home of 18 years By Carla Parker
Frazer; and her 3-year-old grandson, Malachi Frazer, were homeless, all of their belongings strewn about them on the street in front of the house they had lived in for 18 years. The eviction was not a surprise. The Frazers had been expecting it since their home was foreclosed last October and sold on the steps of the DeKalb County Courthouse. Occupy Atlanta activists had been monitoring the family and had been camping in Frazer’s front yard since early March in an attempt to save her home. DeKalb Sheriff ’s spokesman Sgt. Adrion Bell told WSB-TV Channel 2 news on May
It was 3 a.m. Wednesday when an insistent knock on the door woke Christine Frazer. At the door of her three-bedroom, twobathroom ranch on Wellhaun Road in Decatur were 20 gun-wearing DeKalb Sheriff ’s deputies. They had one message for her. “ ‘Grab everything and get out,’ they told me,” said Frazer, 62. They took the locks off the doors of her house and began moving her and her family to the street. In no time, her 85-year-old mother, Daisy Fields; her 22-year-old daughter, Rasheeda Please see EVICTION, page 4
Carla Parker / CrossRoadsNews
Christine Frazer with her 85-year-old mother, Daisy Fields, and their belongings on the sidewalk.
South River Canoe Trip Opens Eyes After 4.5-mile excursion, group sees possibilities By Carla Parker
On a bright and sunny morning on April 28, more than a dozen men and women set sail – er, went paddling – from Panola Shoals at Panola Road and State Highway 155 in Lithonia. In bright red, yellow, blue and multicolored canoes, they took off from the sandy shore to do something that was both historic and rare for the neglected and abused river. The canoers, mostly members of the South River Watershed Alliance and their guests, went down the river that runs 15 miles through south DeKalb County to prove a point – that the river, yes, the South River, has enormous potential to be a focal recreational point for the county. After donning life jackets, the river enthusiasts set off for a 4.5-mile trip to Everett Park on Klondike Road, where they had a light lunch before heading back to their cars at the trip’s start. Even while they were taking off from Panola Shoals, county signs still warn residents against fishing and bathing in the river, which has high fecal coliform levels because of repeated sewer overflows. The signs and wire fence were erected two years ago when families began taking their children to bathe and play in the river following parking and landscaping improvements made on the shoals for users of the multi-use South River Trail installed by the PATH Foundation. On last week’s three-hour trip were people who have never seen the South River before and others who knew of its existence but had never entertained the idea of paddling its waters. The boaters navigated through submerged tires and other trash, paddled along
Photos by Carla Parker / CrossRoadsNews
More than a dozen canoeists paddled the South River from Panola Shoals to Everett Park in order to see its beauty and warts up close.
stretches covered with beautiful tree canopies, and encountered plenty of wildlife. At the end of the trip, Jackie Echols, the South River Watershed Alliance’s president, pronounced it “wonderful.” “We saw a deer run across the river and about 30 different types of birds,” she said,
adding that it was educational for all. “They now have an appreciation for the beauty of the river and its potential,” she said. The April 28 trip was the first of many planned down the river. Echols had invited DeKalb commission-
ers, but the kickoff date conflicted with a county commissioners conference in Savannah. Some sent representatives from their offices. CEO Burrell Ellis was in town and attended the kickoff at Panola Shoals. He got into one of the canoes for photographers to take his photo but did not stay for the trip down the river. Bruce Morton, a South River Watershed Alliance member, was glad he made the trip. “It was great to see people out doing something active and addressing issues relating to health and environmental health,” he said. Echols said she wants to do a cleanup day so citizens can help clean the river. “It’s on our agenda to get trash out of the river,” she said. For more information, contact Echols at jmechols@bellsouth.net or 404-285-3756.