Free-For-All Friday 7/1/16
Decatur Metro | July 1, 2016 | 7:21 amFeel free to use this post to make comments and ask questions about local topics not yet discussed here over the past week.
Feel free to use this post to make comments and ask questions about local topics not yet discussed here over the past week.
Macarolina
Nicole Kaplan
brianc
brianc
brianc
DocG
Decatur Metro
Irene
brianc
Upatoi Boy
sansho1
Chris Billingsley
Happy 4th of July everyone. Have a safe weekend!
From Al Fowler of the DeKalb police department:
“How late can you shoot Fireworks in DeKalb County?? With the 4th of July approaching I wanted to pass this information along.
July 3 – 4 & December 31, Fireworks are allowed from 10am until 11:59pm.
January 1, Fireworks can be shot between midnight and 1am.
All other days Fireworks are allowed from 10am – 9pm.”
This is a welcome change to the state law passed last year, which if I remember correctly mandated the use of fireworks at all hours.
Want to add to make sure your dogs are inside and have up to date contact information on them. Animal shelters are very busy on July 5th.
Curious if anyone has any recommendations on a local babysitter? Ours recently moved out of state and our nearest family lives 3+ hours away.
http://decaturbabysitter.com
Two thoughts:
1) Where was this when I needed it?
2) There’s not an app for it yet?
I’ve seen people recommending babysitters on Nextdoor. I’d try posting in there to see if you can find a good one. Lots of sitters home on break during the summer 🙂
Can anyone recommend a place in Decatur to work out at 6am(ish) that has some room to run, stairs, etc. that is NOT a gym?
I used to work out at a boys and girls club over in EAV, or sometimes at old fourth ward, but that’s a little too far in the mornings from Decatur.
Would medlock park or glenlake park be open at those hours?
Appreciate any ideas!
Medlock park would be my first suggestion. It is dawn to dusk and I have run there training for my half-marathons on the nature path between Medlock and Mason Mill. It is ~1.1 miles each way and it has two big ascents (one hill and the train platform) that should provide a similarity to stairs.
They also have the baseball camp there that has 2 flights of stairs headed to the 2nd story platform in the middle of the park, you could also use those (even though that is a lot of up and down). Since most of the trail is shaded it makes a great workout spot during the summer.
Excellent! I am going to check that out. Thanks Don.
I used to incorporate several flights of stairs at the downtown courthouse parking deck in my run. What made it particularly challenging was doing each flight in one breath so you didn’t smell the urine. And if your runs started late enough, you had the added bonus of dodging pedestrians walking down the stairs on their way to work.
haha! Sometimes at O4W park there is large dog feces on the big stair set that takes long. Have to do it in one breath also.
Thanks Sam the Man. I would recommend Glenlake Park. An organized group exercises at 6:00 am. In my opinion, if you are going to workout at a park that early then it’s good to have people around. A bonus feature is that Glenlake Park has a public restroom that is open 24/7, the only one I know of in the city. The park trails tie into the cemetery which makes a run both physically and spiritually satisfying. One more thing, the park has a Civil War Era dirt road that Yankee troops exercised on while preparing for the Battle of Decatur. Those Yankee boys got whooped which makes me believe they were in poor shape. I guess they needed better personal trainers.
The Yankee boys got their revenge on the way to Savannah
Where is the dirt road in Glenlake Park, Chris? I’d like to check it out!
It’s “above” the park, up the hill, where the upper parking is. To get to it, heading northwest on Church St., go past Glenlake Park and then turn right onto it before the apartment complex. It seems like a dirt driveway but it’s a road.
Does anyone have an update on the School Board’s closing on the property between Talley and S. Columbia? The last article I read was that they voted to close during the June 14th meeting. If they did close, any opinions on whether they will build a new elementary school or make College Heights and elementary school and build a new pre-school?
Looks like they did close – article in AJC today:
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/city-schools-decatur-closes-on-six-acre-site/nrq5K/
From the article: “City Schools Decatur has closed on a six-acre tract of land at the corner of Talley Street and South Columbia Drive with a total cost of $7.195 million….David Dude, who became superintendent in November, has said the school board and community input meetings will determine what gets built there.”
AJC’s Bill Banks:
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/city-schools-decatur-closes-on-six-acre-site/nrq5K/
Does anyone know how this 6 acre site compares in size with the other elementary school properties? About the same?
Oakhurst Elementary is just under 4 acres. Winona is two and a half if you don’t count the park land behind it, six if you do count it. Clairemont is 3.75.
So comparatively, it’s a pretty big site. Given the severe shortage of athletic fields for CSD and DAL programs, here’s hoping an athletic field can be incorporated into the site plan.
I’d like to see the district go k-2, 3-5 and the new building on that land be a new 3-5 building OR a new k-2 building with one of the current k-3 buildings becoming a 3-5 building (if it was a better fit space- and DOE compliance-wise). But that’s just my $.02. 🙂
Hi all, Is it just me or is the apartment building at College and Trinity (Dairy Queen) taking forever to complete? Seems like a number of developments broke ground after this one and are now complete and occupied. Can anyone offer a plausible explanation for this excruciatingly slow…brick by…b..r…i…c…k progress? Now we won’t have dairy queen before summer’s end!
I’m sure there’s more to it but, as I recall, this one project got hung up in legal limbo for a number of months. DeKalb County issued them their sewer approval and then, once they were underway, had a change of heart and rescinded it. That led, I think, to a time consuming back and forth before they could get going again.
Don’t take as fact but I think that’s the gist of it.
Scott’s story is basically correct and the sewer project is now complete.
Thanks Scott (& Steve). That sounds like Dekalb tale of woe for the developer and construction team alike. I hope The Dairy Queen owners are not being too negatively affected by this.
BTW, Decatur Police were sitting in the driveway of the school on Scott Blvd running radar about a half hour ago.
Good.
They are there everyday at various times. Also in the driveway to the townhouses across the street. But they don’t “run radar”, first because radar doesn’t “run”, and secondly because they point lasers instead 😉
Thanks for the semantics. They were checking speeds.
If you really want to be semantic and pedantic, they can’t check your car for speed, or any other drug for that matter, unless you consent or there’s probable cause for arrest 🙂
Good morning. In the WSJ today is the obituary for William B. Johnson, who originally made his fortune acquiring Waffle House franchises and eventually bought the rights to the Ritz Carlton brand. He “grew up in Decatur Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta” and “At an early age, became the go between for parents that didn’t get along, learning to negotiate…” “He served as chairman of the board of trusting at Berry College …is survived by his wife of 55 years, Sandra. They had no children.” While teaching at DHS, I heard stories about Mr. Johnson growing up in Decatur. I wonder if he had good memories of our little town. Did any DM readers know him?
William B. Johnson, 1937-2016, died on June 12. RIP.
Mr. Johnson and my father were good friends. He will be missed.
Breaking: Build-out work inside the Dairy Queen is visibly underway.
Yay!