Questions - Is Dunwoody working towards Google Fiber, what are you doing about gravel in streets, unkept sidewalks, See Click Fix, Crosswalks, steel plates?

Another letter from my inbox...

John,

Hope you are doing well. I am sending you this email with a few topics that I would love for the city to look into.

• Google Fiber is potentially coming to Atlanta and surrounding cities. I was surprised to see that Dunwoody was not currently one of those cities. However Sandy Spring and Brookhaven are included in their plans. This is based on the fiber.google.com website. Is the Dunwoody city council working with Google to get Dunwoody included in the Google Fiber expansion plans?
  
  Answer - Barney, Yes we pushed hard for Google Fiber, we applied in 2010 with neighboring cities whereby they were picked and we were not.  We too were surprised but we have the capability of moving very fast if they want to expand but until then we will be watching the process and learning what we can. 
  
  
• Over the past few years I have pleasantly seen the city expanding bike lanes and side walks. This also comes with the responsibility to ensure those bike lanes and side walks are maintained and clear of debris. Following this winter, gravel and debris are covering many of the bike lanes forcing riders to travel outside those lanes and/or at time forcing them to swerve at the last minute.
  
  Answer - Barney, I do not have details but the Public Works Director stated on Monday that the Streets of Dunwoody will be swept in the coming weeks.  Look for a vehicle like above on your streets soon.
   
• I have also observed side walks sections on North Peachtree and Tilly Mill road being over grown with grass or other plants/debris and trees not being trimmed forcing pedestrian to potentially step off the side walk.
  
  Answer - Dunwoody acts on a customer driven complaint system for code enforcement and then once in a while we will do sweeps looking for a specific issue like making sure the sidewalks are clear.  I will reach out to code enforcement (not taking for granted that they are daily readers of my blog - but they are) asking if a sidewalk sweep could be done on the major jogging routes in the city.   I also highly recommend the See Click Fix app for your smart phone where city complaint like above can be logged in seconds with a photo and gis location.  Please try it.
  
• As you know I am still hopping that the city will realize the need to help pedestrian cross our streets safely by adding cross walks in areas where they don't exist today. Tilly Mill between city limit and before Andover, North Peachtree by Brookrun park to name a couple.
  
  Answer - Barney the city does realize that crosswalks are needed and I am looking for lit crosswalks in specific places and in critical locations where there are no traffic lights.   An independent study on crosswalks near schools should be out any day and I will be reaching out to council to fund those improvements as soon as possible.  The City has recommended the crosswalk on Tilly Mill be located near Stonington because of the sight lines and hill but the problem is that the street at that point is in the City of Doraville and we (the two cities) have yet to figure out the funding mechanism as we (Dunwoody) are not allowed to pay for a capital improvement in another city even though 100% of the crossings would be Dunwoody residents.  A crossing at the front of Brook Run also makes sense and I will ask staff to analyze but that entire area will be redesigned in 2015 with the reworking of the Nroth Peachtree, Tilly Mill, Peeler intersection.
  
• Lastly we continue to have utility work on main streets that go unfinished for weeks with metal plates and pot holes. On Tilly Mill past Peeler road two metal plates and a major pot hole (was filled in with gravel yesterday) have now been there for weeks. Past reasons for those have been that the city, to save money, was coordinating  paving of utility work in groups. Utility work was paved on Tilly Mill by Perimeter college last week but not by Peeler road, a mile away.
  
  Answer - Barney I don't have the best answers for you except that the City of Dunwoody only controls the top 8 inches of asphalt on the roads and most things below that depth are controlled by DeKalb Water & Sewer or another utility (Natural Gas comes to mind today).  They do the work they need to do and when told to do so we repave when appropriate.  Sometimes there are scheduling issues or with the big metal plates being in place, the work under ground is on going.   I will see if I can get specific updates on the streets in question.

I guess this is it for now. 

Regards,

Barney  (Please say hi to Wilma, Pebbles and the two BamBam Brothers)