DHS teacher Chris Billingsley writes in and sends these pics…

Two DHS Close Up teams competed at the fourth Dearborn Park/Renewal cleanup on Saturday, November 12. Twenty six students and several brave parents spent the morning removing privit ivy during the three hour competion. DHS Super Close Up came in second place and won $500 to be used to provide travel grants for CU sstudents to attend the 2012 Washington, D.C. trip. It was a great day for Dearborn Park, Renewal Construction (sponsor of the competition) but most of all the DHS students, who learned something about “service over self” (the motto of the Decatur Rotary Club which had a team at the competition.)

Though DeKalb’s cities recently lost a long fought battle with the county over a decade of HOST money not paid, they still will soon join Dunwoody to get their fair share of local sales tax money to be used for capital improvement projects inside their borders.  That amounts to around a cool million dollars a year for Decatur, at last check.  The AJC has a nice little article on DeKalb’s recent road and sidewalk project cutbacks and a couple lines about Decatur’s initial plans towards the end….

Decatur plans to use $500,000 of its projected $2.3 million share on an ongoing renovation to its 53-year-old recreation center. The $6.9 million overhaul is expected to take a year.

The city also could use HOST money on everything from sidewalk projects to park pavilions, though no official list has been prepared. City Manager Peggy Merriss said she plans to introduce a policy for spending that money in February.

“We have got plenty of projects that need to be done,” Merriss said. “We won’t have any problem coming up with a list.”