Not quite expensive enough to justify bathing in Dasani just yet…

From GoDeKalb

The DeKalb County Board of Commissioners voted 6 to 1 on Oct. 23 to approve new water and sewer rates effective Jan. 1, 2008. The rate change is expected to increase revenue by 16 percent each year from 2008 through 2011 to help fund $1.4 billion in proposed capital improvement projects.  Commissioner Jeff Rader said audiences at community meetings applauded the proposed rate changes because they will drive conservation. There was little discussion before the vote was taken. Commissioner Elaine Boyer voted against the rate changes.

Examples:

• The 14 percent of the residential water customers with a ¾ inch meter who use up to 2,000 gallons of water every two months, pay $20.42 this year. Under the proposed rate changes, their bill would go up 7 percent to $21.76 in 2008, and then it would gradually rise to $33.97 in 2011.
• The 28 percent of the customers that use from 4,001 to 8,000 gallons bi-monthly would see their current $52.88 bill rise 16 percent to $61.40 in 2008 and gradually go up to $95.84 in 2011.
• The highest change in the 2008 rates would be 29 percent for the customers with ¾ inch meters who use 20,001 to 40,000 gallons bimonthly. Their bills would go up from the current $226 to $292 in 2008 and gradually increase to $455.78 in 2011.

Decatur Metro wonders what the motivation is behind an opposition website to the “long term” transportation option of light-rail on Clairemont Road found in the Community Transportation Plan (page 23). The site says its authored by “a group of concerned citizens who believe that railed transportation on our historic and pastoral streets is not in the best interests of our neighborhood.” But their concerns seem quite scattered…trolleys are unsafe, trolleys drive inflexible routes, trolleys are costly, trolleys may hurt mature trees. I never knew the terror trolleys caused! Also don’t miss the sensational YouTube videos of trolleys smashing into cars!

Here’s a hint to those who are afraid of being hit by a trolley…don’t step/drive in front of it. It’s the same rule as with the MARTA buses that scream down Clairemont, refusing to stop at crosswalks.

This excessive use of scare tactics always makes me suspicious. What’s the real impetus of this?

Hattip: In Decatur – who deftly points out that trolleys ran in Decatur through the late 1940′s.

After a bunch of wealthy, drunken table revelers ruined a performance of A Prairie Home Companion at Chastain Park in the summer of 2005, Garrison Keillor snubbed his nose at Atlanta by relocating his show to Columbus, GA in April 2007. While the Columbus audience may have behaved better than the corporate lushes in Atlanta, his take away from that show may have been even worse.

Apparently at that performance, Keillor was unlucky enough to gain the attention of one Andrea R. Campbell, 43, of Hawkinsville, GA. Campbell’s subsequent”transcendental” love of Keillor compelled the mother of five to send the radio host a myriad of strange gifts (like alligator feet and dead beetles) along with unwelcome letters of fantasized sexual encounters. After trying to break into Keillor’s home in St. Paul (perhaps in an attempt to get him to read a hilarious “greeting” to her kids during the intermission of his next broadcast?) he obtained a restraining order against Campbell.

Even with a restraining order against her, the Hawkinsville resident is inclined to believe that its not Keillor who does not desire her taxidermy-laden affections. The AP quotes her saying “I believe that he’s paranoid, or some woman, his wife, is upset and told him he has to do something about it,”.

Sigh.

So, all of this begs the question…will Keillor ever return to the Georgia or has the parade of love-starved locals and unappreciative transplants scared him away forever? If he never returns, his trips will be sorely missed. Not only by me, but also by local son Roy Blount Jr., who will have to make due with “Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me” appearances to showcase his wit.

MSNBC

Mud Pit Photo Courtesy of the New York Times

What happens when people begin to fear the imminent depletion of a natural resource? Fisticuffs! (of sorts)

While the Governor Sonny Perdue has framed his fight for water against endangered mussels and the Army Corps of Engineers, actual human beings that live downstream are starting to pointing out to Atlanta politicians that there are more than just clams that depend on the water that is released from Lake Lanier.

Alabama’s governor has written a letter in opposition to Perdue’s request to the President that would force the Army Corps of Engineers to stop releasing water from the lake. In it, Gov. Bob Riley points out that the water released from Lanier isn’t just used to cool off the endangered mussels downstream, but also more vital human creations, like nuclear power plants.

Valdosta is also enraged by Perdue’s Atlanta-centric request. A scathing editorial in the Sunday Valdosta Times blames poorly planned Atlanta development for the impending water crisis…

“Gov. Sonny Perdue’s temper tantrums against the Army Corps of Engineers, the state of Florida and anyone else associated with not giving into his demands continued through the weekend, with meetings at Lake Lanier and declaring northern Georgia a disaster area Saturday to further enforce what everyone else has long known — Atlanta is a greedy, poorly designed behomoth of a city incapable of hearing the word “no” and dealing with it. ”

Read the full editorial here.

Hat Tip: Fresh Loaf