First, a very happy Independence Day to everyone. I look forward to seeing many of you at the Dunwoody parade on Monday, July 5th. I congratulate the Dunwoody Woman’s Club as this year’s honorees and thank them for getting the tradition started and for all they do for our community.
My heart and prayers go out to the couple killed on Peeler Road on Thursday. This is a horrific incident and I am confident that our police department and the county are conducting the investigation with care and competence.
We continue to look at the advantages and challenges of taking over 911 emergency dispatch service from the county. We have broadened our discussion to include looking at the feasibility of taking over fire service from the county as well as 911. (Emergency Medical Service is tied to DeKalb County. The only way for us to take over EMS is to get DeKalb’s permission to withdraw from their service area or petition the state to re-draw the EMS boundaries. Neither seems likely.)
Many of you took the time to provide answers to the survey I created last month. There were 229 responses. 57% of you responded that you supported our taking over 911 even if it meant a small tax increase. 24% responded that you thought we should stay with DeKalb and the remaining 19% thought we should take over 911 but only if we made cuts in police, roads and parks spending to pay for it. Thank you to those who took the time to respond and to comment. I shared all the comments with the rest of the City Council and senior city staff.
As most of you are aware, we took over the parks properties from DeKalb County in June. We are now maintaining the parks and we have begun to make small improvements. This is reason for celebration! That said, we are horribly underserved by the parks we have inherited. At some point, as a community, we will need to make a commitment to create a parks and greenspace network for us, our children and our grandchildren. This will require an investment in land and capital improvements.
Also in June, we completed drafting our 20 year Comprehensive Land Use Plan. This fourteen month effort resulted in a document that provides a vision for Dunwoody. It is an incredible document and one we should be proud of. It has been submitted to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for review and will be posted on our web site shortly.
This past week, Mayor Wright, Danny Ross and I attended the annual Georgia Municipal Association conference in Savannah (along with Warren Hutmacher, our City Manager, and Sharon Lowery, our City Clerk). The conference allows us to take training, participate in policy sessions and discuss issues with state lawmakers. We also get to meet our counterparts in other cities and discuss solutions to common problems. It was a very worthwhile conference.
Finally, please be aware that in a week or so I will send out an e-mail with the subject, “Endorsements”. I have had the privilege to meet and talk with most of the candidates who are running for office in the July 20 primaries and I’ll provide my thoughts. This won’t have any Dunwoody news in it, so if you are not interested, please feel free to delete it unopened. Either way, remember to vote on Tuesday, July 20.
Regards,
Robert
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