CrossRoadsNews, October7, 2017

Page 1

YOUTH

SCENE

More than 80 kids pledged to protect the earth at the Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area on Sept. 30. A8

Tickets are on sale now for Stompin’ at the Savoy, the Howey Hudson Lowe Foundation’s Roaring 20s-themed fundraiser. A10

Promise to the world

Let’s Keep DeKalb Peachy Clean

Spats, hats and fancy duds

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 Š 2017 CrossroadsNews, iNC.

October 7, 2017

Irma costs at $11 million and growing By Rosie Manins

www.crossroadsnews.com

Volume 23, Number 23

power lines. Irma broke records in DeKalb, with more than 40 people working in the county’s emergency operations center that was open for about 95 hours, from midnight Sept. 10 to the evening of Sept. 14. DeKalb schools were closed for four days while campuses and offices were cleared of hazards and electricity was restored. Sue Loeffler, DeKalb’s Emergency Management Agency director, said the state insurance commissioner identified $11 million in insured damage across the county. During the storm’s peak on Sept. 11, there were 2,423 emergency calls to DeKalb 911 – 1,304 for fire and 1,119 for police. Loeffler said 911 received more than 600 per

DeKalb County’s tab for Tropical Storm Irma now stands at $11 million, but the county says it will probably continue to rise. The storm, which tore through DeKalb on Sept. 11 after devastating parts of Florida and the Caribbean, killed at least three people in Georgia and knocked out power to more than 1.2 million people. In DeKalb, 170,000 – roughly 54 percent – of electric customers lost power. The storm also destroyed 15 homes and damaged more than 200 others. In the four days following Irma, county crews cleaned up more than 130 tons of debris, including 245 fallen trees, and cleared more than 100 roads closed by fallen trees. More than 60 downed trees were entangled with Please see IRMA, page A2

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There will be lots to learn and plenty of fun to go around at the 2017 Seniors/Baby Boomer Expo in the Mall at Stonecrest on Oct. 14. Read all about it in Section B.

Stonecrest’s Amazon idea makes national news 53 newspapers, tv stations, websites reported on plan By Jennifer Ffrench Parker

The city of Stonecrest’s vote on Oct. 2 to carve out a city of Amazon, if the online retail giant picks it for its second world headquarters, has attracted national attention. Through Thursday, the story about the vote had been reported by 53 newspapers, televisions stations and websites from Florida to California. They include The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Miami Herald, St Louis PostDispatch, The Seattle Times, Brunswick News, The Telegraph, USA Today, the St Louis Post-Dispatch, the Charlotte Observer, Modesto Bee, The Island Packet, The Witchita Eagle, CNN, Bloomberg Technology and a host of others. The Stonecrest council voted 4-2 to support the resolution that will be submitted with the city’s request for proposals that is due to the state of Georgia on Oct. 9. Georgia will pick the offers it will present to Amazon, which has an Oct. 19 deadline for bids. Districts 3 and 5 council members Jazzmin Cobble and Diane Adoma opposed the resolution. All other council members, Rob Turner, Jimmy Clanton, Jr. and George Turner, and Mayor Jason Lary voted for it. Amazon’s Sept. 7 announcement that it plans a second headquarters with easy access to an airport with direct flight to its Seattle headquarters, New York, San Francisco and Washington, DC, strong public transit, and low costs of doing business, has cities and counties nationwide lining up for the opportunity. So far, more than 100 cities, states, provinces and counties nationally and in Canada are courting Amazon. While Stonecrest’s Amazon City is out of the box, its not the only city going out on a limb. Last month, Tucson, Ariz. announced

City of Stonecrest

its bid by sending a 21-foot saguaro cactus onto a flatbed truck to Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos in Seattle. To create the city of Amazon, GA, the Stonecrest council proposes to ask state legislators to de-annex 345 acres, along the northern portion of Lithonia Industrial Boulevard, for Amazon to create its HQ2. It hopes to encourage Amazon to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with it to operate the city. Lary had first proposed changing the

The area above is the 345 acres owned by members of the Kelly family that the city of Stonecrest hopes to have deannexed from District 1 to create the city of Amazon, Ga., if the online retail giant picks the site for its HQ2.

changer and that the resolution would allow the city to be seen as a player. “We are shooting for the stars. I know that very well,� Lary said while encouraging the council to approve the resolution. “I am not asking for your Jason Lary newborn. I am asking for you to give Ms. Wright [economic development manager Sabrina Wright] and I, a swinging opportunity at bat and this is the differentiator that we have.� Amazon is expected to invest more than $5 billion in construction and bring more than 50,000 high-paying jobs with annual compensation exceeding $100,00 over 10 to 15 years after it begins operations. Stonecrest is one of hundreds of cities and counties in Georgia and around the country vying for the opportunity to become home to the Amazon’s second headquarters. It will only proceed with creating the city of Amazon if the retailer selects it.

name of the new city of Stonecrest to Amazon, but in the face of strong opposition to the idea, he scuttled it for the township resolution. Even Lary’s friend Joel Thibodeax opposed it. Thursday he said “they went for national publicity and they got it.� Lary said creating a city for Amazon gives the city a fighting chance to be selected for the retailer’s headquarters. He said that if the new city of 53,000 landed Amazon’s HQ2, it would be a game Please see AMAZON, page A4


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