COMMUNITY
FINANCE
WELLNESS
The chain-link fence around the former Wachovia Bank on Wesley Chapel, which violates overlay district ordinances, is temporary, the building’s owner says. 3
Fresh fruits and vegetables will find a home at the Mall at Stonecrest Plaza this fall when a Farmer’s Market opens there for six weeks. 5
With bedbug infestations on the increase, the Environmental Protection Agency has released a database of approved pesticides to battle the bloodsucking pests. 7
Fence under fire
Copyright © 2010 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.
Freshness at Stonecrest
October 9, 2010
Fight the bite
Volume 16, Number 24
www.crossroadsnews.com
Ramp closures to cripple commute on I-20 east this weekend
The ramps from I-20 eastbound to I-285 will be closed this weekend as crews continue work on the ongoing resurfacing project.
Interstate and local motorists will find their I-20 east commute through south DeKalb County nightmarish this weekend. Starting at 9 p.m. on Friday, weather permitting, Georgia Department of Transportation said that the ongoing I-20 resurfacing project will close ramps at Columbia Drive, and Evans Mill and Turner Hill roads. It will also cut off access from I-20 eastbound lanes to I-285 north and south. Thomas Parker, DOT’s area engineer, said that there will be significant delays throughout this corridor. “We would ask the public to avoid the area if possible,” he said. “And if they must drive through it, allow themselves extra time and be extremely careful.” The $28.6 million resurfacing project has been under way since June 18. It is resurfacing 9.8 miles of I-20 between Columbia Drive and Turner Hill Road. The project has snarled traffic and made the weekend commute difficult for residents and interstate travelers.
Weekend work wraps up at 5 a.m. on Monday. Motorists traveling eastbound on I-20 who wish to access either north or southbound I-285 should continue east on I-20; exit at Wesley Chapel Road (Exit 68), and return westbound on I-20 to I-285. The resurfacing will continue for two miles between Evans Mill and Turner Hill roads. The eastbound entrance ramp from Evans Mill to I-20 and the eastbound exit ramp from I-20 to Turner Hill will be closed throughout the weekend, as will the outside lane of I-20 between the two interchanges. The resurfacing project will continue on weeknights and weekends until temperatures get too cool to pave. It will be completed in the spring. Work hours are weeknights from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. and on weekends continuously from Friday night at 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. on Monday. For more information, call 511 or visit www.511ga. org.
Great DeKalb Cleanup Under Way County launches cleanup of ugly, neglected areas By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
Get ready South DeKalb. It’s cleanup time. After years of litter and neglect of public spaces, DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis and the Board of Commissioners have launched the Great DeKalb Cleanup. The effort kicks off Oct. 9 at 7a.m. at the DeKalb Community Achievement Center, on Flat Shoals Parkway in Decatur. The county says the cleanups will be held every weekend through Oct. 31. “As part of a committed effort to stabilize property values throughout the county, the Great DeKalb Cleanup will address areas of unincorporated DeKalb County that have not been maintained,” the CEO’s office said in a statement. “The cleanup is designed to have the maximum level of impact on the worst affected areas by encouraging the involvement and investment of the community in policing and maintaining these areas in the future.” The Great DeKalb Cleanup comes on the heels of a Sept. 25 CrossRoadsNews front page article that documented longstanding neglect of sidewalks and medians across south DeKalb County, including its commercial corridors and most travelled arteries. In its Aug. 28 issue, the newspaper also spotlighted an overgrown media on Turner Hill Road leading to the entrance to the Mall at Stonecrest. It was cut days later. The county’s Sanitation Department began the cleanup on Oct. 2. Crews cleared the kudzu-covered sidewalk on Flat Shoals Parkway pictured on the newspaper’s Sept. 25 front page, and picked up trash along portions of Flat Shoals and Wesley Chapel Road. Crews also mulched
Photos by Jennifer Ffrench Parkeer / CrossRoadsNews
Same sidewalk, a week apart. Since Oct. 2, this stretch of sidewalk along Flat Shoals Parkway near Snapfinger Road has a new look. DeKalb Sanitation workers mowed the weeds and trimmed back the kudzu, leaving a clean sidewalk for pedestrians and this happy cyclist.
portions of the median on Wesley Chapel Road. South DeKalb Neighborhoods Coalition president Gil Turman was on his way to a football game Saturday morning when he was pleasantly surprised to see people fanned out along Wesley Chapel Road and Covington Highway picking up trash. “I saw trucks,” he said. “I saw people, some looked like prisoners working off their fines, trying to do something to beautify this
ugly situation. I saw people picking up trash on these streets.” He said it was a beautiful thing to behold. Turman said that he is working with an organization of residents to put in place a plan to ensure that going forward, the county is better maintained. CEO spokesman Burke Brennan said that cleanup effor was part of the Sanitation Department’s scheduled cleanup.
On Oct. 9, county employees and community service workers will document and remove illegally posted signs on the rightof-ways, cut back overgrown weeds and shrubs, pick up litter and place debris near the roadway for sanitation pickup the following day. The Quality of Life Improvement (QOL)/ Great DeKalb Cleanup (GDC) Team will Please see CLEANUP, page 4