Dunwoody Green Market is in it's 5th year as a Producer only Market which means that only vendors who make or grow what they sell can participate. The vendors offer a wide range of seasonal vegetables, fruits (including hard to find heirloom varieties), locally produced honey, and free-range eggs (chicken and duck). Beef, pork, and poultry, including heritage breeds, are sold on a preorder basis, however, cured meats (bacon, sausages) are available at the market each week. Various artisans, bakers and unique food purveyors complete the market. All of the produce vendors grow using organic methods and most are Certified Naturally Grown or Organic.
The market is located in the parking lot next to the Dunwoody Village Post Office
The City of Dunwoody didn't exist a year and a half ago therefore when laying out a data infrastructure we were at an advantage of not having years of data tied up in legacy systems. We decided early on to invest in best of breed interrelated systems whereby the various computer systems would talk to one another and share all related data. For example, we assured that the police citations were electronic, the information could be uploaded wirelessly from the cars, input into the court management software and then tied the court payments into the city's financial system. Though these records management software systems were expensive on the front end, the amount of manpower savings over time will prove that these were wise purchases.
Today the Dunwoody Police Department implemented the latest records management system to come on line, the Police-to-Citizen (P2C) software package now pushes the last seven days of police reports onto the web for all to see. The OSSI P2C Application is a browser-based solution that provides a convenient solution for citizens to perform simple searches and to map the results. On many of the event searches, residents can easily click the document view icon listed on the right of the results and the complete incident report is downloaded in a pdf document.
In playing with the software, I like what I see but there are a number of improvements that might be able to be made. First the software package doesn't like any browser software except Microsoft Internet Explorer, so I guess you just need to know that on the front end. Second the Daily Bulletin should have an option for daily e-mail delivery, since I know a number of people who would be signing up for that if it was offered. Third, the software allows the printing of incident reports straight from the web but for traffic accident reports it asks that the report be requested from City Hall after paying a $5 processing fee. Knowing that this fee covers the processing cost, I would like to see the city to explore an on-line payment for the accident reports and therefore allow direct access via the web. Finally, my last question regarding the data is why was the access limited to only seven days? Was this a function of the software or was it a city decision programed into the software?
In this day of high tech computer databases and instant information; how much do we really want to know about our neighbors and those who live around us? How much is needed for public safety and how much is just voyeuristic curiosity? I guess I enjoy having my DeKalb Mugs emailed to me daily based on the offenders home address and then I'm very capable of checking the status of all criminal and civil cases on the DeKalb OJS (Online Judicial System) when ever I feel I have the need to do so. The real question is what do the residents of the City of Dunwoody want published on this database and for how long should it be available? When my wife, or your son little Johnny gets a speeding ticket, should it still be able to be found on our public access website a month or two later after the matter has been settled?
I don't know the answer, but I will be asking my wife in the morning.
The Honorable J. Randolph Babbitt
Administrator
Federal Aviation Administration
800 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20591
Dear Administrator Babbitt:
I am writing to express concerns about the proposed airspace change at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and its impact on neighboring Peachtree-DeKalb Airport. Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is the busiest airport in the United States. As such, many recreational aviators have opted to use surrounding county airports to pursue their passion for flying. Likewise, the surrounding communities of Dunwoody and DeKalb County have voiced concerns over potential noise problems from PDK airport if the airspace change is adopted. It is imperative that the FAA balance the needs of recreational aviators and the communities surrounding these local airports before making a final determination regarding airspace changes.
The Editor of the Dunwoody Crier, Mr. Dick Williams hosts a political talk show at 8:30 am Sunday mornings on Fox called the Georgia Gang. I try to real hard to get up out of bed even though Sunday is the only day of the week that I am actually "allowed" to sleep in since I usually have an early boys soccer game on Saturday.
Anyway if you know Dick, you know he is opinionated and has no fear in saying what is on his mind. Well I know the Georgia Gang show is taped on Friday mornings therefore the breaking news that Vernon Jones the ex-CEO of DeKalb County will be forced to pay damages in a discrimination case, whereby the county has already paid Millions of Dollars in legal fees, and now because of these findings the County may also have to pay the plaintiffs legal fees, will more than likely not go unnoticed by Mr. Williams.
There is no love lost between Vernon Jones and Dick Williams as this "Death by Bow Tie" video clearly shows.
Another fun aspect of the Georgia Gang show is that Buzz Brockway and a number of bloggers over at Peach Pundit do an interactive live blog of the show with both a minute by minute summary as well as "colorful" commentary. The link to the live blog will likely be found at http://www.peachpundit.com early Sun morning.
To all the bloggers out there; congrats on the recognition by the State Legislature commending Georgia's political bloggers for their unique role in promoting openness and transparency in state government by naming April 1st, 2010 as "Blogger Day At The Capitol".
Hey wait a second, was that an inside joke played out on April Fools Day? Nah, I'm sure they real do love us.
Dunwoody, GA Third Wednesday of Every Month Autism Support Group 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The Marcus Jewish Community Center 5342 Tilly Mill Road Dunwoody, Ga 30338 770-396-3250.
This month, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that Dunwoody was entitled to a small share of the HOST sales tax revenue collected in DeKalb. Most of the $80-100 million collected each year in sales tax in DeKalb is used to reduce our residential property tax. Some is earmarked for capital/infrastructure projects. During the cityhood movement, we asked the state legislature to help ensure that some of that money would be available to Dunwoody and they passed a provision setting aside a small portion for us to direct. The County tried to stop the distribution in state court but lost. That means that Dunwoody will receive from $2-3 million each year for capital projects.
This revenue forms the bulk of the funds we will use to repave our streets. The same week we won the court case, we earmarked funds to work on the first group of streets. Some people may wonder how we picked them. We have agreed as a city council that politics will not play any role in deciding what streets to pave. Getting your street paved in Dunwoody will not be about who you know. It will be dictated by the condition of the road and the amount of traffic that road receives. This year we will complete the following:
Street
Range
Activity
Vernon Lake Drive
from Mt. Vernon to Trowbridge Dr.
Deep patch and pave
Vernon North Drive
from Mt. Vernon Way to end
Deep patch and pave
Dunwoody Club Drive
from Happy Hollow to Winters Chapel
Mill and pave
Winters Chapel
from city limits to Charmant Place
Mill and pave
Joberry Court
from Chestnut Ridge to end
Deep patch and pave
Amberly Court N
from Amberly Way to end
Deep patch and pave
Trapnell Court
from Vernon Lake Drive to end
Deep patch and pave
Littlebrooke Ridge
from Littlebrooke Drive to end
Deep patch and pave
Littlebrooke Way
from Brookelake Drive to end
Deep patch and pave
Hidden Branches Court
from Hidden Branches Drive to end
Deep patch and pave
Ashford Center Parkway
from Ashford Dunwoody to Womack
Patching
Chamblee-Dunwoody Road
from Buckline Crossing to Nerine Circle
Patching
North Peachtree Road
from Peachford to Barclay
Patching
Spalding Drive
from Chamblee Dunwoody to Weldstone
Patching
We all recognize that this is a modest beginning for streets that have been neglected for many, many years. We are establishing a 5-year paving plan. Below is a link to the map of Dunwoody that shows the streets we expect to improve over the next five years. We will re-look at this plan each year to make sure we are working on the streets in most need of repair.
While I am gratified that this is many times more road work than we would have received from DeKalb, I worry that it may not be enough to gain ground on the years of neglect. It costs a lot more to fix roads that are in bad condition than it does to provide lighter repairs to roads in fair condition. In the long term, the most cost-effective way to tackle this would be to invest heavily over the next few years to bring our roads up to a higher standard and then spend our money to keep roads from getting into bad shape. That, however, would either require us to borrow money or raise taxes. I don't know how the rest of the council feels, but I'm loath to support either. So for now, we may have to curb our impatience to do more than we can afford.
As an update from last month, the proposed ordinance to severely restrict, but not prohibit, backyard chicken coops fell one vote short, so it did not pass. The proposal to attempt to tax and regulate taxicabs based elsewhere but coming into Dunwoody to pick up passengers also failed. Thank you to all of you who replied to my e-mail last month; I got over a hundred replies.
On a final note, we are starting to see a little bit of rezoning activity. For the first time since we became a city we have a couple of rezoning requests working their way through the process. I hope this is a sign that our economy is starting to improve.
