The AJC gives DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis high marks for his first year on the job, noting a long list of housekeeping-ish accomplishments, such as consolidating public safety, naming permanent heads of departments, cutting costs, and firing the county’s telecommuting police chief.

And while Ellis certainly seems more the pragmatist and less the politician than his maddening predecessor, there must be some more valid critiques than the ones dug up by the AJC driving around DeKalb and polling people on the street. (Seriously, that’s what the article says.  I can’t help but imagine the exchange going something like this… “Hey!  Excuse me!  What do you think of your CEO Burrell Ellis?!  Forget it, the light is changing!  Thanks anyway!”)

Now that Ellis has proven himself a capable and less divisive leader than Vernon Jones, what County issues would you like to see addressed by his administration in 2010?

J Murdoch posted this question in this week’s Free-For-All Friday.  I thought we might be able to help ‘em out.

Does anyone know of any good New Year’s Eve events in Decatur? We’re looking for something fun, not too DJ-ey, and maybe a little dressy.

“$250?!  I’ll extricate myself thank you very much.  Uh…could you give me a hand?”

From the AJC…

The county has adopted a $250 fee for anyone who must be cut from a crash by the county’s Fire Rescue Department. The service had been free.

The county projects making $750,000 on this new fee, which means it’s projecting around 3,000 nasty car wrecks next year.

Agnes Scott College announced today that it has launched a new way for students, faculty and staff to communicate with librarians; via text message.  In addition to the increasingly popular librarian IM chat, students on-the-go can now ask their school librarian simple questions via text.

“Cell phones are so ubiquitous that it made sense to offer this convenience to students, faculty and staff,” said Elizabeth Bagley, director of library services at Agnes Scott. “We’re expecting it to be popular around campus and potentially with our students abroad.”

Other potential uses?

Beyond answering short questions, the library foresees future uses for texting such as being able to alert students or faculty when an interlibrary loan book has arrived for their research, [Director of Library Services Elizabeth] Bagley said.

Take note children looking for a career path, “librarian” may be the coolest job out there in about 5-10 years.

Editorial

There’s been a lot of talk of late, both here and in much larger discussion circles, about how the erosion of urban centers has permanently changed entire industries.  The sacrifice of the corner market at the alter of supermarkets is a frequently cited example.  Simultaneously, there’s also been a sickening amount of narcissistic talk about the demise of hometown newspapers.

Yet rarely do these two concurrent discussions overlap.

To my knowledge, urban planners and journalists don’t spend much time tracing the connections between the city one builds and the city the other covers.  Yet it’s no secret that a city’s layout can have important implications on its methods of communication, so it stands to reason that newspapers may also have been affected by their urban environments.

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