This past Saturday, “Our Way Cafe” in the Avondale Estates’ Twin Oaks strip mall on E. College Avenue suffered damage from a fire caused by a clothes dryer motor.  Tweets from @stacyreno and @danayoung, sent Dave and Geoff to the scene where they documented the damage.

While initial eyewitness accounts reported minimal damage, Dave followed up yesterday with news that the “kitchen and walk-in areas were destroyed and smoke damage throughout.”

Dave also reported yesterday that a “fire recovery fund” had been opened at Decatur First Bank.  Here are the details from Rob Elrod…

We have set up a Fund for Ava Marie’s Our Way at Decatur First.

Please ask folks to make checks payable to: Our Way Cafe Recovery Fund with an ATTN: Ms. Ann Berg on the checks. The checks can be sent to the bank at 1120 Commerce Drive, Decatur, GA 30030.

A year after Decatur led a failed effort to annex a portion of College Avenue into Decatur and Avondale Estates’ city limits, Avondale Estates has now taken the lead and is making a serious effort, during the current state legislative session, to bring this strip of “blighted” land under the two cities’ jurisdiction.

In a letter to his community this morning, Avondale Estate mayor, Ed Rieker, urged Avondale residents to contact elected state and county representatives and urge them to support Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield’s effort to pass legislation that would bring College Ave land west of Sam’s Crossing into the city of Decatur and land east of the Crossing into Avondale’s city limits.

The mayor’s letter includes an attachment that summarizes Avondale’s argument to approve the annexation, which Rieker promises he “will also be distributing…to those elected officials at the state and county level that we are lobbying to help State Representative Stephanie Stuckey-Benfield pass the annexation legislation during the 2010 session that started today.”

Among the mayor’s stated reasons for annexation are to “regulate future growth and development, increase the presence of law enforcement and to beautify the gateway into our city.”  Rieker notes that the area under consideration, which consists of 23 properties belonging to nine separate owners, has become “blighted and considered by residents an area prone to criminal activity”.

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DeKalb History Center Executive Director Melissa Forgey sends along the details…

The DeKalb History Center’s 2009 Archives Lecture Series concludes in November with a presentation by Terry Martin-Hart on the history of Avondale Estates. The City of Avondale Estates was founded by George Francis Willis in 1924 after a trip he took with his wife to Stratford-upon-Avon.

In 1999, Terry Martin-Hart released the book Images of America: Avondale Estates, through Arcadia Publishing, which shows the history of this unique town through a vivid collection of historic photographs.

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Michele Hennessy, a Glennwood teacher and owner of the soon-to-open Savage Pizza in Avondale Estates gives us a quick update…

We have an existing location in Little Five Points that has been open for 13 years. The new location is slated to be open at the end of May. It is located on the corner of Clarendon and Laredo Dr. We will deliver to the Avondale and Decatur areas. It has a huge patio, nice bar and overall a beautifully designed building.

So, by now you’ve probably heard about the city staff layoffs and proposed property tax increases in Atlanta to pay off their big, fat $140 million debt, but were you aware that Avondale Estates is also considering a tax hike?

The AJC reports that Avondale is considering a 5.96% increase as a result of the new city budget.  A closer look at the budget (by yours truly) shows that unlike Atlanta’s blatant overspending, the Avondale property tax increase is due to the city’s new “Master Plan”, which redevelops much of the tutor-style downtown and needed improvements to an aging sewer system.

You want to improve your community, you gotta foot the bill!  As Decatur residents are well aware…