The Decatur McDonald’s wants you to try its newest burger.  (Note the Town Center building in the background.)

Big thanks to Clark for providing us with a much-needed laugh.

I submit this question to the masses.

Sam writes in…

Do you know a good way of finding out how safe the bike racks at the Marta stations are? Particularly the East Lake Station? I wouldn’t leave my bike overnight, and I would use a chain on both wheels. Anything else I should do? Thanks.

I inquired with Asst. Superintendent Thomas van Soelen about the extent of flooding at CSD facilities.  Bottomline is that while there were a couple issues, overall CSD is grateful to the city for its stormwater management planning.

Here’s Thomas’ response…

No official flooding.

Summary of leaks that have been rectified:

* Winnona Park: 2 rooms and cafeteria, debris washed down onto the drainage covers (even though we wash them every day)

* Oakhurst: slight amount of water at cafeteria

Kudos to the city of Decatur for their fine work in stormwater management. Their planning and foresight prevented flooding in our facilities.

CSD’s Maria Lewis makes the announcement to the community…

City Schools of Decatur is excited to announce the opening of Decatur High School’s new gymnasium and auditorium. Doors will be open to the public on Sunday, October 11th from 2-4 p.m. Please come join us in the celebration!

While his highways flooded, Federal Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood managed to stay dry yesterday inside the 5 Points MARTA station, where he announced the distribution of $100 million in nationwide “clean-transport” grants distributed across 43 local transit agencies.

MARTA came out a big “winner” in this disbursement, getting over $10 million of the total money to build Georgia’s largest solar-panel installation at the Larado Bus Facility, just east of Decatur.

A bit more detail from Streetsblog…

Georgia: Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, $10,800,000. Laredo Bus Facility Solar Canopies: Provide shade structures with integrated, grid tied photovoltaic cells to be erected on the bus storage lot at the Laredo Bus Maintenance Facility. PV canopies will produce power and reduce temperatures underneath canopies. MARTA anticipates that the power produced by these photovoltaic panels will be sold to Georgia Power under their Distributed Generation Contract Program. The largest PV installation in Georgia.

Thanks to Ridgelandistan for the Streetsblog link!