The City of Decatur’s Linda Harris sends this announcement from Decatur Police Chief Mike Booker…

The Decatur Police Department is investigating the theft of catalytic converters from (7) vehicles in the past 72 hours. All of these thefts occurred during the overnight hours. Six of the thefts were from Honda Elements and one was from a Honda CRV. These thefts occurred on Jefferson Place, Adair Street, 5th Avenue, Spring Street, Cambridge Avenue and Feld Avenue. Some vehicles were parked in driveways and some were parked on the street. Please pay extra attention to these types of vehicles if you or a neighbor owns one and call police immediately if you see or hear anything suspicious.

If you have information related to the thefts, please call Sgt. Jennifer Ross 404-373-6551.

Chief Mike Booker

When Little Shop of Stories opened its current location five years ago they installed new light fixtures, mostly using standard spotlight bulbs. The best available alternative at the time was compact florescent lights (CFLs). As CFLs do not emit a full spectrum of light, they are not great in terms of reading .

In the meantime Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) have become more affordable. The quality of light is excellent. Compared to CFLs, LEDs last six times longer and use one-half the electricity for the same amount of lumens. (Compared to incandescents, LEDs last 40 times longer and use 1/10th the electricity.) Unlike CFLs, LEDs contain no mercury.

The downside is the cost. While considerably cheaper than even a year ago, the price of an LED bulb is about five times that of an incandescent.

Little Shop, with the help of Intown Ace Hardware (the Coolest Ace on the Planet), is switching over to LEDs this month. Given the lower electricity use, lower replacement cost, and lower air conditioning use (these LEDs do not emit a lot of heat), they hope to make the investment back within a year. They’ll keep you updated. If their experiment works, you may want to consider these for your home.

This Week

I’m a bit late to this game, but Patch reported yesterday that after a 5 hour meeting on Monday, the Zoning Board of Appeals rejected all complaints filed from residents living around 315 West Ponce that procedures were not properly followed during neighborhood discussions surrounding the mixed-use development of that property.

Patch editor Ralph Ellis reports that “Unless residents take the next step and file a lawsuit, the decision clears the way for the developer, Carter, to build 235 apartments, 10,000 square feet of retail space and a seven-story parking garage in the asphalt parking lot behind the office tower at West Ponce and Ponce de Leon Place.”

Reagan sends in this announcement…

Once again the sights, sounds, and smells of the Decatur BBQ Blues & Bluegrass Festival will invade Harmony Park in Oakhurst Saturday, August 17th from 4pm – 10pm. This year’s event promises to be one of the best with a terrific line up of live musical acts, first class BBQ from Fox Bros and Black Tie.

This year’s musical lineup includes some amazing performers. We’re staggering our announcements because they’re too good to give away all at once-check-out our website, decaturbbqfestival.com, for band announcements.

Harmony Park in the Oakhurst section of Decatur will play host to this 13th annual event. Along with BBQ, Music, and cold beer, there will be fun for the entire family including a kids area complete with train rides, face painting and arts and crafts.

There is a nominal festival fee of $10 in advance ($15 at the gate) that along with 100% of all proceeds goes to support the Decatur community through local grants and community based programming throughout the year.