From CSD….

City Schools of Decatur will be closed Thursday, February 26, for the safety of our students and staff due to potential icy conditions. All employees who work 225 days or more should report at 11 am if conditions are safe for travel.

Atlanta and DeKalb are also closed on Thursday.

Just in from City Schools of Decatur…

CSD Administration has been following the National Weather Service forecasts closely. Models are predicting potential icy conditions on the roads in the morning and possible snow accumulation in the early afternoon. Our primary concern is to make sure that all students and staff are able to travel safely to and from school. Therefore, City Schools of Decatur will be closed Wednesday, February 25^th.

Atlanta Public Schools and DeKalb County Schools are also closed.

The Decatur Minute announces that Trees Atlanta and volunteers will be planting trees in Decatur right-of-ways on Saturday, February 28th.

Through a partnership between the City of Decatur and Trees Atlanta‘s NeighborWoods program, volunteers will be planting trees on Saturday, Feb. 28 in city right-of-ways. Trees Atlanta has been planting and caring for trees in neighborhoods across metro Atlanta for about 30 years. The organization waters the trees diligently for two years, and mulch and prune the trees for three years after planting to insure that the trees are well-established.

If you’re interested in volunteering to plant trees in Decatur, gather at Glennwood Elementary, 440 East Ponce De Leon Ave., at 9 a.m. on Feb. 28.

If you have any questions regarding your right of way tree, do not want a right-of way tree, or would like to add an additional shade tree in your front yard, contact NeighborWoods Program Manager Susan Pierce Cunningham at [email protected] or 404-681-4896.

Atlanta tree sign photo courtesy of Trees Atlanta

The threat of black ice on the roads this morning has some schools closing and others delaying opening today.

Here’s what we know thus far of schools in and around Decatur (Full list from WSB here):

K-12 Public Schools

• Decatur and Atlanta schools are already off this week for winter break, but Decatur’s College Heights has a 10a delayed opening this morning.
• DeKalb County Schools are closed today, along with the other major public systems around Atlanta: Fulton, Gwinnett, and Cobb.

Area Colleges and Universities

• Agnes Scott College opening is delayed until 11a.
• Emory University opening is delayed until 11a.

Apologies for breaking the site late yesterday and depriving everyone of their evening dose of Chick-Fil-A cow quotes and burger discussion!

Looks like we’re back up and running for the most part this morning, thanks to our hard-working DM technical support team.

Everyone out there all right?

What did you all do without DM for an evening?  Enjoy the lack of chatter and catch up on the Walking Dead prior to Sunday’s new season?  Panic-search for annexation discussions on Facebook?  Dig deeper into the Decaturish archive and learn a little something new?

Enjoy this random “falcons along the Beltline photo” that I took a couple of weeks back.

The City of Decatur just sent out an announcement saying that they’ve retired the Code Red emergency alert system in favor of enhanced services from Smart 911.  Residents now must take action and opt-in to enhanced Smart 911 features in order to continue to receive emergency alerts from the city.  More below…

This week, the City of Decatur transitioned to an enhanced Smart911 system to make communication between residents and public safety agencies easier and more convenient. In addition to providing details about their household to 9-1-1 dispatchers on emergency calls, Smart911 now gives users the option to opt-in to receive emergency and general notifications from the city. This Smart911 option replaces the CodeRed emergency and weather notifications. Since the City of Decatur is no longer using the CodeRed system, all CodeRed users who wish to continue to receive emergency alerts from the city should create a private and secure Safety Profile at www.Smart911.com. Anyone already registered with a Safety Profile at Smart911.com can simply log into their account to opt-in to the new enhanced features.

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Ann writes in that her husband was bit by a dog at Adair Dog Park yesterday afternoon and needs to get back in touch with the owner for proof that the dog has had its rabies immunization.

They can be contacted at [email protected]