VOLUME 25, NUMBER 33
NOVEMBER 22, 2019
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Lithonia Post Office’s first black postal clerk retires after 35 years By Mackenzie N. Morgan Staff Writer Stonecrest resident Gwendolyn Springfield has many things to be grateful for this holiday season. The 60-year-old postal worker retired on Oct. 31 as the first black mail clerk at the Lithonia Post Office after 35 years of service. Hired as a mail carrier in 1984, Springfield, then 24, delivered mail for one week before being reassigned to clerk carrier – a customer service job typically reserved for whites. “My boss held a meeting to notify and prepare white staff members that I’d be coming on board to work front desk. Even though it wasn’t that long ago, whites were still not accustomed to working with blacks,” said Springfield. “I remember going to the post office as a kid every Saturday and never seeing any black employees. One day, while
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Gwen Springfield
Internal committee recommends new emergency ambulance service for DeKalb DeKalb County medical response Board of Commissioners contract. received a Set to expire in recommendation on Nov. December 2018, the 19 to enter into a five-year contract was extended contract with American through December 2019 Medical Response, an allowing the county time emergency ambulance to evaluate the responses service provider. CEO Michael Thurmond to the emergency medical After conducting response request for a national search and proposals. eight-month review, the internal In January 2019, DeKalb evaluation committee, comprised implemented the First-on-the-Scene of representatives from the DeKalb Model of Care, a dual emergency County Fire Rescue Department, response system that prioritizes the E-911, DeKalb Medical Examiner’s initiation of immediate lifesaving Office and the CEO’s office, found care. American Medical Response to be DeKalb’s fully-integrated the highest-scoring proposer. model of care is designed to “DeKalb is building an ensure that trained para-medical innovative countywide ambulance personnel and equipment are on transport service system that the scene as quickly as possible. prioritizes the lives and safety of The strategy utilizes medicallyour citizens,” said DeKalb County trained fire/rescue personnel who CEO Michael Thurmond. “The work in concert with the county’s emergency ambulance service emergency response vendor. provider recommendation is the All DeKalb County Fire Rescue product of public feedback, detailed firefighters are licensed emergency evaluation, numerous meetings and medical technicians and can discussions.” perform basic lifesaving services. After learning of complaints Additionally, 14 percent of DeKalb about slow ambulance response firefighters are licensed paramedics times, Thurmond initiated a and can perform the same advanced comprehensive review of DeKalb’s lifesaving services offered by a emergency medical response contracted ambulance service system. Following months of provider. analysis, the county concluded that In July 2019, a subcommittee the root cause of the longstanding from the State of Georgia Office of problem was ineffective Emergency Medical Services was management of the county’s poorly tasked with reviewing the county’s constructed 2013 emergency ambulance transport system. The
subcommittee acknowledged significant improvements to DeKalb’s countywide emergency services that included: • Enforcing $1.9 million in noncompliance penalties that included $590,000 in cash and in-kind services such as including increased staffing. • Executing a memorandum of understanding with the City of Dunwoody to improve countywide emergency ambulance service. The agreement included stationing four additional ambulances to serve DeKalb’s northern corridor. • Appropriating $1.3 million to purchase seven new ambulances to improve countywide response times. • Appropriating $2.2 million in special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) revenue to purchase 10 state-of-the-art rapid response vehicles, increasing the department’s ability to initiate lifesaving care and stabilize patients. Five vehicles are currently in service. • Appropriating $339,210 to fund 20 new Fire Rescue paramedic positions in the FY2019 budget. • Appropriating approximately $32 million to construct five new fire stations in the south west section of DeKalb County. • Partnering with the City of Brookhaven to build a new northern corridor ambulance substation.
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Commissioner Lorraine Cochran-Johnson to host ‘Lock-in for Life’ to support male youths DeKalb County Commissioner Lorraine CochranJohnson is partnering with the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority (FDHA) to host the 2019 Lock-in Lorraine Cochranfor Life, a program Johnson designed to promote healthy relationships among middle and high school teen males. The six-hour event will be held Friday, Dec. 6, 6 p.m. to midnight, at Berean Christian Church, 2201 Young Road, Stone Mountain. The program was designed after taking a critical look at the needs of male students within DeKalb schools and the unique challenges they face. The program seeks to fill the gap that a modern education may not be equipped to bridge. “The Lock-in for Life has a core focus of youth empowerment, a process in which children and young people are encouraged to take charge of their lives,” Commissioner Cochran-Johnson said. “Youth can do this by addressing their situation, taking action to improve their access to resources, and transforming their consciousness through their beliefs, values, and attitudes.” In addition to promoting the mentorship of DeKalb’s male youths, the event also will address bonding, social preparedness, soft skills, critical life skills and conflict resolution. Featuring an all-star cast of some of DeKalb’s most distinguished male professionals, civic leaders, attorneys and community members, attendees will participate in candid discussions on topics critical to their development as young men. “Modern education can no longer address the needs of our male students,” said Ennis Harvey, principal of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. High School. “Increasingly, our teen males need wrap-around services, mentors and a support system to cope with peer pressure and their environments.” Topics of discussion include “Ignorance Is No Defense,” “Understanding the Consequences of Decisions,” and “Am I My Brother’s Keeper?” During each panel discussion program participants will hear from distinguished panel members including nationally acclaimed poet and civic activist Hank Stewart; attorney Mawuli Mel Davis; DeKalb Board of Education member Diijon DaCosta; criminal attorney Dwight Thomas; retired DeKalb County Police Major K.D. Johnson; author Omar Howard; Judge Anthony Scott; Pastor Kerwin Lee; and attorney Derrick Bo“The
SEE LOCK IN page 7