The Dunwoody Sustainability Commission is working towards this endeavor which is highlighted in a recent AJC article.
Federal Flood Insurance is now Available in Dunwoody as per this press release.
Childhood Cancer research has been a cause that is dear to me and I am starting to think about this years St. Baldricks fund raising drive but before this happens, I wanted to tell you about a Dunwoody Charity that I came across by the name Just Heart Foundation which helps families with children going though medical crisis. If you know of a family that needs help or you are in a position to help this foundation financially, please do get in touch with them.
I have played with Google Maps in the past but really liked what it can do with election results. I'll have to try this in 2011 for the city wide Dunwoody election.
Kingsley Elementary held a Safe Routes to Schools meeting this morning inviting representatives from all of the Dunwoody schools as well as the City Public Works Department to talk to Ms. Abby Mattera, the Georgia SRTS Outreach Coordinator. I heard the meeting went very well with the city's new Public Works Director, Mr. Michael Smith answering many questions. For those interested there is a webinar entitled Safe Routes to School: Schools and Local Government Working Together which will be highlighting the City of Decatur on Mon Dec 7th at 2pm that looks interesting. I was also told that because of today's meeting, a full day training course is already being scheduled at Kingsley on Feb 4th aimed at educating public officials, school administrators, engineers and interested citizens.
DeKalb County officials will update the public about the county greenspace program at a forum next week. The county has used bond money to buy and improve land for parks and recreation, acquiring more than 3,000 acres since 2001, according to the office of county CEO Burrell Ellis. Officials will discuss the program at 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 10 at the Maloof Auditorium, 1300 Commerce Dr. in Decatur. For more information, call the county Parks Bond and Greenspace Office at 404-371-2082.
Mr. Bob Fiscella, writer of the Springfield in Dunwoody Blog praised and thanked the City Council on our first year but raises a number of concerns and mentions several things he would have done differently. He and I disagree on the parks and police funding but maybe his opinions will spark some conversations on the topics raised.
Thursday night at 5:30 there is a special called meeting of the City Council to listen to a presentation by the Georgia Tech College of Architecture on their Redevelopment Project of the Dunwoody Village area and related discussion. All are invited.
Following the Georgia Tech presentation is the Zoning Board of Appeals which takes place at 7:00 pm and their meetings are always interesting.
Gwinnett County just raised their property taxes by 21 percent. Ouch.
6 comments:
John: The AJC article link is broken. It's http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/six-communities-get-green-221337.html.
FYI, the City of Dunwoody will be ending the year with at least 100 points towards ARC Green Community certification (we'll know for sure at our December 10 meeting--7:45 AM at City Hall--I'll do a post on it).
We anticipate reaching at least 175 (required for bronze) by June, 2010 but we are going to need the ongoing support not just of City Council, Mayor and City Staff, but also of the community at large since many of the upcoming measures are community-related. The measures that don't work just yet for us, let's pass on without any big acrimonious "for and against" headlines, and the ones that could, let's embrace as a community, with whatever compromises are necessary to make it work for our particular city's pace on the green journey. See www.dunwoodysustainability.ning.com for links to the actual measures, and lots more info on our efforts.
If there is enough groundswell of support, it is even conceivable that we could achieve the Silver level of certification in 2010. But that's ambitious (although Dunwoody has certainly proven itself capable of ambitious goals!)
And gold? Even without the 70 points or so for which we won't qualify until we own our own buildings and parks, we could achieve that level within a couple years, if we really want it.
John,
Again I applaud your transparencey for pointing folks to my site to read my comments. Hopefully no one on the council talks anything I had to write personally, because it is far from it. I view the citizens of Dunwoody are being like a family - we may not always agree on every issue, but at the end of the day, we all want what is best for the city.
Sincerely,
Bob
www.dunwoodyusa.org
John: as always, thanks for all the updates. I do have a question regarding the parks. As I see it today, Dekalb county maintains the parks, staffs, them, insures them etc, presumably out of their existing budget. If the CoD should get the parks, will the ongoing expense come out of the existing CoD budget? I would imagine that there would be some expense for equipment, etc. Thanks in advance for your response and feedback.
Worth,
I could easily question the level of DeKalb's service in Dunwoody parks but I am not going to get into that discussion here, nor discuss the on going park negotiations, nor the pros and cons of various options in this forum but I can shed some light onto some issues.
The 2010 budget has $250,000 for maintaining the parks for an estimated half year.
I believe (and DeKalb may disagree) that the parks bond referendum still has $7 million dollars attached to Brook Run for capital improvements (i.e. building demolition & theater renovations).
As with the rest of Dunwoody government services, I would guess that future park services would be contracted out and/or provided though public/private partnerships.
Thanks John. I certainly understand that part of the reason for city hood was for increased levels of service, i.e. police. If the citizens of Dunwoody will experience an increased level of park maintenance, etc please share with us what that plan is. Otherwise, spending $20K a month to provide service that Dekalb already does frankly doesn't make any sense to me.
Some good news on the speeding front:
The city of Dunwoody is installing eight new speed radar signs in school zones after a recent report showed those installed near Dunwoody Elementary School prompted motorists to drive more slowly on Womack Road.
http://dunwoody-neighbor.com/detail/154423.html
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