You may have seen this blurb in the latest Decatur Focus…

Next year marks the 25th anniversary of the Decatur Arts Festival. To mark this milestone, we are planning a yearlong arts celebration. The 2010 Strategic Plan calls for expanding public art and a wider variety of art opportunities. Mayor Floyd came up with a great idea for “Sidewalk Saturdays,” featuring an assortment of informal, fun activities throughout the city’s commercial districts. We want to combine this idea with our focus on arts activities and would love your suggestions.

What type of “pop-up events” would you suggest? Are there specific art projects you want to see and would you be interested in working on a committee to implement a community celebration of the arts? Please contact us at info@decaturga.com with your ideas or to volunteer.

Hmmm…sidewalk pottery? Mimes? Stand-up? Caricature drawings? Barbershop quartets?

Eric points to this new article in the Neighborhood Newspapers this week, which gets reaction from the Atlanta Regional Commission, Mayor Floyd and Asst. City Manager Lyn Menne regarding the city’s recent rare designation as a “Great Place”.  According to the article, Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area was the first recipient in Georgia to receive the designation last year.  Here’s an excerpt…

Mayor Bill Floyd said the city was thrilled to be chosen for the award out of all the great places in metro Atlanta.

“Downtown Decatur is great for residents and visitors, because it is so walkable and there is always something going on,” Floyd said in a statement.

Reuter said the jury that selected the award winner — a group which included area architects and planners — recognized Decatur as being a modern downtown community where residents and visitors have plenty of options.

“The city of Decatur puts a lot of effort into creating a strong sense of community,” said Lyn Menne, assistant city manager for community and economic development.

From Asst. City Manager Linda Harris…

The City of Decatur announces the launch of streaming video for the Decatur City Commission meetings beginning Monday, August 6, 2012.  The option has been in the Pilot Testing Phase and goes live Monday night.

“This feature is part of our ongoing commitment to offering a variety of ways to access our City Commission meetings and information,” said Mayor Bill Floyd.  “We hope that those who have an interest will take advantage of this new service.”

To access the streaming video option, visit www.decaturga.com and click on City Government, City Commission, Streaming Video.  Once the service moves out of the Pilot Testing Phase at the end of August, there will be a button from the front page of the website that will take viewers directly to the streaming video page.

The City Commission meetings continue to be broadcast live on Comcast Channel 25 in addition to this new service.  We encourage your feedback and suggestions during this testing phase so that we can make any needed adjustments.

A casual conversation with AMB yesterday about potential, future property annexations around Decatur’s edges prompted City Manager Peggy Merriss to follow up with a few developments on the annexation-front over the past couple months.

As AMB mentioned, Mayor Bill Floyd has begun speaking publicly about annexation again this year, most prominently during his State of the City speech back in March.  After a good three year hiatus, Ms. Merriss reports that city staff and the commission are in the beginning stages of considering larger-scale property annexation again.

Though discussions are very preliminary at this point, the city has posted a potential annexation areas map on their website.  (Here’s a link to the PDF if you’re interested in zooming in.)  Most of the areas under consideration include large portions of commercial real estate on the northern edge of the city, along with the United Methodist Children’s Home and a couple residential neighborhoods along the eastern city limits.

Why were these particular areas selected for the map?  Ms. Merriss explains…

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Big news for Decatur parkers who don’t carry around much coinage these days.

During discussion of purchasing new parking control equipment for the Decatur Conference Center last night, Mayor Bill Floyd followed up with Asst. City Manager Lyn Menne about when the city would move forward with plans of replacing all 301 coin-only city parking meters with new meters that also accept credit and debit cards.

“That is the next project.  We’re going to be issuing requests for proposals to purchase that equipment now that it has been approved.”

Follow up questions by Commissioner Fred Boykin clarified that the meters would take credit and debt cards in addition to coins and that all 301 city meters would probably be replaced, depending on the cost per meter.