If water rates need to be twice as much as it is now, who the heck calculated the old rate?

Take it away AJC…

A DeKalb County family’s water and sewer bill could increase 110 percent from 2009 to 2014 — and even more if the state declares a drought.

The upgrades are needed to help pay for $1.79 billion in capital improvements to DeKalb’s water system, Watershed Management director Francis Kung’u said.

“Our water and sewer infrastructure is aging,” Kung’u told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday. “If we don’t do this, it will continue to degrade. We will get more breaks and won’t have enough capacity of wastewater treatment. We won’t be able to support growth of the county.”

SCENE: a poorly lit room where people do things like calculate water rates:

Worker 1: “Well, if you ignore that $1.79 billion we’ll be needing for capital improvements, the rate would only be X amount.”

Worker 2: “Oh that’s much better!  Let’s just go with that for now and hold out hope that by 2010 everyone will just be bathing and watering their lawns with Coca-Cola  products.”

Daren Wang finally gives us details over on VERB about the Rosanne Cash event he hinted at a few weeks back. The event will take place at Agnes Scott’s Presser Hall on August 14th.

What’ll it be?

Cash has promised to share some stories [from her new memoir "Composed"], sign your books and also play a couple of songs at the end of the event. She will perform on a custom-made Martin guitar donated by America’s oldest brewery, Yuengling. And it gets better—this awesome guitar will be auctioned after the event, proceeds of which will go towards the festival’s literacy efforts.

And better yet, purchasing her memoir at the door is all it takes to gain entry to the event!

No wonder there are so many cities and counties in the U.S. named “Decatur”.  This dude ruled the high seas.

From a post on the Naval History Blog this morning…

195 years ago today, Commodore Stephen Decatur sailed his squadron of ten ships to the Mediterranean Sea to take part in the Second Barbary War, whose goal was to suppress a growing piracy industry. Decatur was dispatched to Algiers to secure the release of American sailors taken prisoner and held in slavery, to put an end to the payment of tribute (state-to-state extortion), and finally, to procure favorable prize agreements.

According to the Naval History Blog, Decatur captured two ships on his way to Algiers, which provided him bargaining power.  Within 48 hours, he had a treaty signed, accomplishing all the objectives stated above.  Decatur then sailed on to Tunis and Tripoli and demanded and received compensation for the War of 1812 that had previously been withheld.

For this campaign, he became known as “the Conqueror of the Barbary Pirates.”

An interesting blurb from page 29 of Decatur’s 2010-2011 city budget…

Priority Two: Online Taxes

The Revenue division has reviewed proposals and viewed demonstrations from a number of vendors for online tax information. The division is prepared to move forward with a particular vendor that will provide the ability to view tax accounts, re‐print tax bills and eventually pay taxes over the Internet.  This will be an enhancement to our customers who must call, email or visit the office during regular business hours to obtain tax information today.