The question seems to be not “will Sunday alcohol sales pass?” but “by how much?”

Patch reported on its live blog that with 3 of 7 precincts reporting, Decatur was skewing 90%/10% in favor of Sunday Alcohol Sales.

So, will Decatur post the largest “Yes” number?  According to AJC.com, thus far many metro cities are posting around an 80% “yes” vote.   No one else is up at 90%.

According to Garrett Goebel’s campaign, he has won the District 1 school board seat being vacated by John Ahmann.  More details as we get them.

An update on takeover of Decatur First Bank by Fidelity Bank.

Carl Black took this picture of the sign at what was once the main branch of DBF yesterday, which announces that both the main Commerce Drive office and the Kroger satellite locations will close.  Carl reports that Fidelity must provide 30 days notice to customers before doing so, but the plan is to close both branches before Christmas.

In related news, an inside source tells DM that six former Decatur First Bank employees have been laid-off to date due to the change in ownership.

I never know which way these threads will go.  Sometimes they’re mostly about wait times at polling locations, sometimes they’re just about the issues on the ballot.  Whatever! It’s Election Day in Amur’ca!  Let the freedom of comments sections ring!

Oh, as for my Election Day experience…a good 5 second wait at First Christian Church around 8:30a this morning.  However voting location was moved to a smaller room, so I was all kinds of thrown off.

Decatur’s City Commission meeting last night was a surprising package of the abnormal.

First, many city commissioners showed open frustration over a completed MAK Historic District new construction home, which had multiple elements not approved by the Preservation commission that had “slipped through the cracks” and had been constructed.  After being denied by the HPC, because it didn’t follow the agreed upon specs, the home owner appealed to the city commission.  Many of the commissioners stated they hoped city staff would “close the holes” in the design review process and make sure that things did not escalate to this level again.  Mayor Bill Floyd stated that he believed this was a “staff mistake” and could not penalize the homeowner, forcing him to remove a metal deck from his backyard and take out double-columns on his porch, because of gaps in the system. The commission reversed the HPC’s decision to denying the Certificate of Occupancy.

Secondly, the city commission unanimously voted down the long-debated 1004 Clairemont Road subdivision project, which was originally approved by the Planning Commission in March 2010 with 14 conditions (see page 75 of meeting materials).   The development of the old Cliff Valley School property has a storied history among residents in the area, who strongly disproved of an original plan back in the mid-2000s of the construction of a traditional subdivision, complete with cul-de-sac on large lot that was originally compiled by a school that never was able to undertake its planned expansion.

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