COMMUNITY
FINANCE
SCHOOLS
Supporters of death-row inmate Troy Davis gathered to pray for clemency in the case that has drawn national attention. 3
People tasked with planning their family’s next reunion can attend a workshop and learn about options in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. 6
DeKalb County Schools’ decision to allow cell phone towers at schools will be discussed at a town hall meeting in Clarkston. 8
Candles for Davis
Head for the hills
Towering presence
EAST ATLANTA • DECATUR • STONE MOUNTAIN • LITHONIA • AVONDALE ESTATES • CLARKSTON • ELLENWOOD • PINE LAKE • REDAN • SCOTTDALE • TUCKER
Copyright © 2011 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.
September 17, 2011
Volume 17, Number 20
www.crossroadsnews.com
Commissioners balk at extending smoking ban to parks etc. DeKalb residents can still light-up in many public spaces after smoking ban expansion fails.
Smokers can continue to light Gannon voted in support of it. up their cigarettes in DeKalb parks, District 5 Commissioner Lee May playgrounds, bars and strip clubs was absent but had indicated at an following a vote by the DeKalb earlier meeting that he could not Board of Commissioners on Tuessupport the amendment. day. Johnson, the board’s presidWith a 4-2 vote on Sept. 13, the ing officer, said he didn’t want commissioners squashed the efforts the county to go down “a slippery of the DeKalb Board of Health and slope” with an expanded smoking Larry Johnson anti-smoking advocates to amend ban. the county’s Clean Air Ordinance to expand DeKalb already bans smoking in restauthe smoking ban to most public spaces. rants and businesses. After four months of considering the The Board of Health and anti-smoking amendment, Commissioners Larry Johnson, advocates had pushed for prohibiting smokStan Watson, Sharon Barnes Sutton and ing in all public places, including entrances Elaine Boyer voted against the amendment. Only Commissioners Jeff Rader and Kathie Please see SMOKING, page 4
Extension Service Hanging On Agency relevant despite changing times, tight budget
Extension agent Gary Peiffer discusses gardening with Lorene McCall while she tends the Stone Mountain Woman’s Club plot.
By Donna Williams Lewis
Karri Thomas, 16, is in the 4-H Club at Arabia Mountain High School. And yes, kids ask her what that group does “all the time,” she said, laughing at the question. “I say it’s not about raising chickens and horses,” Karri said, “and then I give my 4-H speech about all the fun things we do.” The 4-H Club is a program of the local Cooperative Extension, another source of confusion for many. Just shy of 100 years old nationally, the Extension is still providing some of the same services offered in the early 1900s – soil testing; information on canning, preserving and pickling your harvest; how to deal with pesky insects. But with today’s partnerships with community gardens; “green industry” certification training; online classes in everything from honeybee production to continuing education for child care providers; and 4-H programs for youth in science, engineering and technology, this, as the local Extension folks say at their Memorial Drive office, is “not your grandmama’s extension service.” Over the decades, DeKalb’s Extension has been operating basically under the radar, quietly morphing with changing times. That changed last year, when the agency found itself thrust into the glare of a most unwanted spotlight: the chopping block of the most challenging budget DeKalb had seen in many years. County CEO Burrell Ellis presented a $529 million county budget in December that called for significant cuts, including the elimination of all county funding to the local Extension.
Carla Parker / CrossRoadsNews
The DeKalb office could not have survived that ax, said its director, Jessica Hill. County funding has typically represented about half of the DeKalb Extension budget. The other portion is state and federal funding received from its parent agency, the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension. The DeKalb Extension received $763,594 in state/federal funding this year. The final 2011 county budget, at $540 million, kept the DeKalb Extension service alive, restoring $689,132 to the 14-person agency. That was down from $891,746 in county funding in 2010, but typical of the deep cuts made countywide. Lee May, the commission’s Budget Committee chairman, said commissioners received lots of feedback from the community about “the great work [Extension agents] do
with youth and the really innovative things they do with the funding they receive.” May said government service providers across the board need to be “more progressive” about funding sources, he said, seeking more public-private-nonprofit alliances and going for grants. As the DeKalb Extension recovers from its scary budget wake-up call, Hill is eager to tell county residents that the agency is as relevant today as in 1914 when the National Cooperative Extension Service was founded. The statewide program’s academic home is within the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and includes a partnership with the College of Family and Consumer Sciences. UGA researchers provide expertise and support to Extension agents statewide,
helping them inform their constituents and respond to issues in their areas. “We provide top-of-the-line researchbased information in the areas of agriculture, horticulture, 4-H and youth development,” Hill said in an interview Monday. Right now, she said, the DeKalb Extension is helping individuals and groups with maintaining natural resources; fighting childhood obesity, diabetes and other chronic diseases; food safety; and leadership development through consultations with agents, off-site presentations and in-house programs. “The bottom line,” Hill said, “is improving the quality of life for all DeKalb citizens.” A timeline of extension work in Georgia Please see EXTENSION, page 4