From the Druid Hills website…

President Obama and other officials are expected to visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Clifton Road tomorrow, Tuesday, September 16, for a briefing about the CDC’s response efforts to Ebola in West Africa.

Traffic will be severely affected along the entire Clifton Corridor and in surrounding areas for several hours Tuesday afternoon, beginning around 2 pm. Seek alternative routes and avoid the area if possible!

Thanks to a $209,000 balance remaining in the paving budget for this year, three more sections of Decatur roads are planning to be paved.

In the note from David Junger on the Decatur City Commission meeting agenda, the city is recommending paving…

• Ansley Street from Oakview Road to the westside of Kings Highway
• Talley Street in front of the Talley Street Lofts and Public Works facility
• The northside of Sams Crossing (GDOT recently repaved the southside of Sams Crossing when it paved College Ave)

Didn’t someone complain about Sams Crossing relatively recently?  Oh yes, here it is.

Decaturish reports that Houndstooth Road, the specialty bike shop on Church Street, is closing its doors.

The shop opened back in 2012.

Photo courtesy of Houndstooth Road website

Remember the upside down tree decorations last year?  And how when they didn’t measure up to anyone’s standards, the city replaced them with the old wreaths?

Well, apparently some of those wreaths are 20 years old, so the city and Downtown Development Authority are looking to replace the decorations along with the contractor hired to install them.

From the Decatur City Commission meeting agenda this evening, Asst. City Manager Lyn Menne writes…

The purpose of this memorandum is to request approval to enter into a contract with Universal Concepts for the installation of holiday decorations for the 2014 season.  We bid out the project this year and selected Universal Concepts.    Universal Concepts presented us with the highest level of product recommendations at the lowest cost for installation.  This company is well-respected in the industry and we have worked with them in the past.

Many of the holiday wreaths we currently have in stock are over 20 years old and they show it.   Last year we tried to switch out some of the older wreaths with a different design but the result was less than satisfactory.  We also had a very bad experience with the installation services provided by our former contractor.  Universal Concepts’ proposal includes the purchase of 150 new wreaths for the street lamps, refurbishing 50 of our newer wreaths, lighting downtown street trees and shrubbery, lighting of the bandstand and lighting on all city-owned buildings.   LED lights will be used in all installations and the tree lights will remain through the winter months.  The proposal includes the installation, take down and storage of all decorations.  We propose to add to the inventory over the next few years until we have all new wreaths for the street lamps in downtown and for the Oakhurst business district.  We also asked that simple decoration schemes be developed for each city building to reflect its architectural style.  We plan to add these new items over the next five years.

The total cost for this proposal is $107,000.    We are requesting $50,000 from the City of Decatur to support this project.  The balance of the funds will be paid by the Downtown Development Authority and the Beer Festival fund.   This amount is included in the Community & Economic Development Department budget for FY 2015.  I recommend approval of this request.

Photo courtesy of Chris

Just one more friendly reminder for readers that Decatur Beer Festival tickets go on sale at noon today, since you’ll likely only get one 20 minute window to purchase them.

You can buy $40 regular admission or $100 VIP tickets directly from Ticket Alternative HERE.

Cindy writes in…

Hi there, can you do a post asking the “Best Vegan Options in the City of Decatur”?

I’d like to know vegan specifically (not just vegetarian) because for instance, the Brick Store and Square Pub have veggie burgers but either have eggs or cheese in the patty’s so they’re not vegan.

My husband and I eat out a lot and we don’t want to get in our cars to drive anywhere, so we eat in the city of Decatur almost exclusively. We’re also strict vegans, so I’d like to hear about more options than our usual 2 or 3 restaurants we go to (EVERY SINGLE WEEK!).

I’m going to expand the thread a bit so folks can suggest other options, but hopefully we can help Cindy out!