Which means potentially lower county taxes for city residents!

At tonight’s Decatur city commission meeting, Mayor Bill Floyd took a minute at the end of the hour to note the Georgia Legislature’s recent passage of House Bill 1508 during the just-concluded legislative session.

The bill requires that DeKalb County calculate the “particularized millage rates” of four specific district services: basic police services (traffic unit, patrols, etc), non-basic police services (SWAT, bomb squad, K-9 division, etc), parks and recreation, and streets and road maintainable.

Each “special services tax district”, which basically is either a DeKalb city, the county, or “Atlanta in DeKalb”, then has the ability to say “no” to any of these services by sending a certified letter to the DeKalb CEO and commissioners by September 2010 and thus not pay the associated tax next year.

The mayor did not mention which specific services Decatur might “opt out” of (My guess would be basic police and parks and rec), but did say that the planned action by the city would probably knock 1 1/2 points off the county millage rate for City of Decatur residents.

Hooray for not paying for things you don’t receive anyway!

The AJC is reporting that both Montclair Elementary School up between Buford Highway and Clairmont Road and the Maloof Auditorium in downtown Decatur have been closed due to flooding.

Montclair students were moved to Cross Keys High School after a creek near the school flooded.  The Maloof Auditorium had no such excuse.  It’s just a mess.

County commissioners said the Commerce Drive auditorium’s roof is leaking and damaged several ceiling tiles.

The commission announced Monday morning that it is moving its Tuesday meeting to the Decatur library auditorium on Sycamore Drive.

“The roof has leaked to the point it was raining in the auditorium,” Commissioner Larry Johnson told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Although the fallen ceiling tile debris is being removed, the carpet is wet. Getting it ready for tomorrow won’t happen with continued rain in the forecast.”

An estimated repair cost was not immediately available.

The National Weather Service has issued a flood warning for South Fork Peachtree Creek, which flows just north of Decatur. The creek was already above flood stage by noon today.

Here’s an image of South Fork Peachtree Creek at about 1:00PM today. As you can see, it had already reached the bottom the Clairmont Lake bridge (100 feet upstream from the Clairmont Road bridge).

Please be safe and don’t walk or drive through flood waters. It seems like an obvious enough warning, but someone always does it.

(Post by Andisheh Nouraee)

UPDATE: The Decatur City Commission is scheduled to take up this ordinance at tonight’s meeting.  See agenda HERE (pdf).

Over on its Open City Hall online feedback forum, the City of Decatur is asking residents how they feel about a new ordinance that explicitly prohibits skateboard and “similar devices” in public areas downtown and “on private property without consent of the property owner.”

The synopsis on Open City Hall explains that the proposed ordinance (pdf) is a result of resident complaints the city continues to receive “about skateboarders who disregard pedestrians and cause unsafe conditions on crowded sidewalks and in crowded public areas”, along with recent damage done to the Celebration Statue on the MARTA plaza.  The post includes multiple pics of damage done to the statue by skateboarders.  (One example above)

In terms of private property damage, the Open City Hall post notes damage done to the marble planter out in front of Leon’s Full Service at the corner of Ponce and Church Street.

In explaining what prompted this new ordinance, City Manager Peggy Merriss reiterates the above points to DM and adds that the Decatur Police Department has asked the city to adopt a more specific ordinance relating to these activities.