the News
Jan. 31, 2015
Volume 6, Issue 44
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Lifetime Achievement winner and other Chamber awards Page 8 Serving Rockdale County and Conyers
rockdalenews.com
NEW CITY HALL COMING SOON KEEPING IT 1,000 Page 12 Ready for
snowpocalypse?
Page 3 Probate judge faces more lawsuits Page 2 Like us at facebook.com/ rockdalenews Follow us @rockdalenews
By John Ruch
jruch@rockdalenews.com
Plans for a new Conyers City Hall are moving ahead at a fast clip, with architect bids expected within the next week, city officials said at their Jan. 24 annual Winter Retreat. But the exact site and the funding mechanism for the $7.5 million project are still up in the air, leaving the timing a bit uncertain as well. “We put a lot of effort into this one,” city Chief Operating Officer David Spann said of the request for quotations from architecture firms. A similar request for construction management firms will go out shortly after the architect bids come in, he said. The current multi-building City Hall complex on Scott Street is aging, crowded and inefficient, officials have said. Last summer, the city had a consulting firm create the interior plans for a new City Hall to be located elsewhere, with the Scott Street complex remaining as a public safety headquarters. City officials previously identified a stretch of Oakland Avenue as the site for the new City Hall, but have since backed off to speak more generally of finding a location somewhere between I-20 and Green Street, where the city owns much land. However, it will need to be a big area, as the City Hall is expected to cover about 5 acres. Spann noted that the land situation is changing in that area, with a couple of vacant properties undergoing city condemnation.
See CITY HALL on PAGE 3
Conyers man charged with murder of elderly roommate By Michelle Kim
mkim@rockdalenews.com
A 23-year-old Conyers man has been charged with the death of his elderly male roommate. Daniel Charles Lee Shaw, 23, has been charged with malice murder for the death of James Roberts, 72. Roberts was reportedly stabbed and beaten. An autopsy report concluded that the cause of death was combined blunt force trauma to the head and multiple stab wounds to the throat and chest. The two, who are not related, had lived together in Roberts’ single-story duplex for about a year. Shaw was reportedly homeless when Roberts picked him up and took him in.
Shaw was unemployed and assisted Roberts. Roberts had previously been arrested in Rockdale by a regional drug task force in 2001 for obtaining a contained substance by fraud (prescription fraud) SHAW and for shoplifting in 2004. Police were called to the home on the 1000 block of Pine Street early Thursday morning, shortly after midnight, according to Conyers Police spokesperson Investigator Kim Lucas. Shaw called 911 and told police that Roberts was unresponsive and had been down for about an hour. On the phone, Shaw reportedly indicated he detected some pulse or breath
and then indicated there was none. But when first responders arrived, “the victim was clearly deceased and had been deceased for some time,” said Lucas. “Physically, on the suspect and victim, they had signs of a physical altercation. Inside the home there were signs of a physical altercation,” said Lucas. There were reportedly no appearance of gunshot wounds. Investigators collected weapons from the scene, including knives. The two reportedly had an argument over medications. Both had prescription and over the counter medications, which were present in the home. Shaw has been charged with malice murder and is currently booked in the Rockdale County jail.