From the last Decatur City Commission meeting…

Four local streets are going to be repaved as part of GDOT’s Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant program.

Congrats to Swanton Way, Chelsea Drive, Olympic Place, and Midway Road!

The originally proposed repaving of Eastland Drive and Pensdale Road has been postponed until next year, due to the lowest bid exceeding to originally estimated cost.

Avoid the dangers of a max-capacity Pay-As-You Throw bag!

In case you did know, Decatur’s Neighborhood Clean Up Days (formerly “Super Trash Day” or “Trash Amnesty Day”) commenced earlier this month and run thru Saturday, June 4th.

If you’re new to Decatur, this is the one day a year when you can put most anything out by the curb and the city will pick it up and dispose of it.  The city summarizes the items it will take, thusly…

• Yard trimmings
• Building materials (not from the work of private contractors)
• Tires
• Furniture
• Appliances (not containing Freon)
• Trash that won’t fit into pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) bags

Pretty sweet huh?  However, they won’t take everything.  You can’t throw out the following items on Neighborhood Clean Up Day: Liquids, Dirt, Bricks, Blocks, Stone, rocks, or concrete, or Motor vehicle batteries or parts.

It’s that easy.

“OK, great.  So when is this glorious day?”, you ask.

Well, it’s staggered by neighborhood. Some neighborhoods’ clean up day have come and gone already (my bad), but here’s a quick summary of when neighborhoods should get their old water heaters and ovens out to the curb.

• April 4th – Oakhurst Neighborhood #1
• April 16th – Oakhurst Neighborhood #2
• April 23rd – Winnona Park 
• April 30th – MAK and College Heights Neighborhoods
• May 7th – Westchester Neighborhood
• May 14th – Decatur Heights Neighborhood
• May 21st – Great Lakes Neighborhood
• Jane 4th – Lenox Place Neighborhood

For the full list of streets associated with the following neighborhoods click HERE.

Trash on, dear neighbors.

Photo courtesy of Chris

Over the past months there’s been a fair amount of confusion about the finer points of Decatur’s recycling program.  I even ranted a bit recently about how the “big blue bins” naturally make humans – and by extension, Decatur residents – worse recyclers.

So it sure was nice that when the city came around with their annual “Solid Waste & Recycling Services City Holiday Schedule” they included handy, dandy new recycling one-sheet.  (See above.)

A lot of items on the list are no brainers – cans, paper, plastics, glass etc.

But we’ve read contradicting rules over the years about some of the more nuanced trash.  Let’s quickly run through them here and what this new one-sheet tells us.

• Styrofoam – this one as been relatively clear for a while, but the note clarifies that you CAN recycle styrofoam with the little recycling logo.  You can’t recycle an styrofoam without it.  So you’ll still have to curse anyone who sends you something cushioned in packing peanuts.
• Plastic/wax coated cartons – Good news.  This one is allowed.  I’m still not sure what sort of recycling can occur with wax soaked cardboard, but hey, you don’t need to add it to your Pay-As-You-Throw bags, so that’s reason for celebration, I suppose.
• Plastic Grocery Bags – this one has not been allowed for some time but people tend not to notice it.  Plastic bags are one of the banes of the recycling system’s existence.  So take them to Publix or Kroger and recycle them there or you’re gonna have to just chuck them.
• Greenware cups – Personally, I have trouble even telling “greenware” items from regular plastic.  Even when I do identify a Dancing Goats coffee cup lid as “greenware”, it still feels weird throwing them in the regular trash, but that’s what we’re suppose to do!

Check out the rest of the one-sheet for other details.  And note that you can now include any old tires you have hanging around in your recycling too.  The rubber market must be looking relatively good these days.

As always, if you need new recycling bins contact Public Works at 404-377-5571 and they will hook you up.

Was your street selected to be paved by the city of Decatur next year?  Here’s the list being presented to the Decatur City Commission this evening…

• Eastland Drive – between Willow Lane and the City Limits (0.15 miles)
• Pensdale Road – between Willow Lane and City Limits (0.04 miles)
• Midway Road – between S Candler Street and City Limits (0.22 miles)
• Chelsea Drive – between Coventry Road and Kathryn Avenue (0.24 miles)
• Olympic Place – between E College Avenue and Dead End (0.25 miles)
• Swanton Way – between Commerce Drive and Dead End (0.08 miles)

The city selects streets after an evaluation of streets (using “Road Surface Management Pavement Condition Evaluations System”), complaints and inquiries received from citizens.

Photo courtesy of Paula

Better late than never, right?  :-/  Neighborhood Clean Up Days started last weekend and continue thru June.  Details from The Decatur Minute…

The City of Decatur offers Neighborhood Clean-Up days once a year to allow residents to dispose of bulky items that aren’t normally placed in Pay-As-You-Throw bags.  Each street in the City is assigned to one Saturday each spring, generally between March-June.  Don’t forget that Decatur also accepts bulky items year round as a part of the regular sanitation pick up!

> Download the 2015 Neighborhood Clean Up Schedule Here

If you have any questions, please contact Sean Woodson at [email protected]  or 404-377-5571.  For more information visit decaturga.com/neighborhoodcleanup

INSTRUCTIONS: 

All items to be collected should be placed at the curb no later than 7:30a.m. This ensures that we do not have to rerun routes for late setouts. Collections run until 3:30p.m., or until finished, whichever is sooner.

ACCEPTABLE ITEMS 
• yard trimmings
• building materials (that are not from the work of private contractors)
• tires
• furniture
• appliances (not containing Freon)
• trash that would not normally be placed in pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) bags

WE WILL NOT COLLECT: 
• liquids
• dirt
• bricks
• blocks
• stone, rocks, or concrete
• motor vehicle batteries or parts

As some of you were asking.  From the Decatur Minute…

Decatur’s Design, Environment & Construction Division shares the following information: 

City construction activities are scheduled from Oct. 13 to Oct. 24, 2014, weather permitting, on Ansley St. from Oakview Rd. to the west side of the Kings Highway intersection.

The City’s contractor, Stewart Brothers., will be performing all of the required work to mill, patch, resurface and replace street humps with speed tables on this street and will post signs on the street three days in advance of the start of construction. ALL VEHICLES MUST BE REMOVED FROM THE STREET DURING DAYLIGHT HOURS, 7AM to 6PM, WHEN WORK IS PERFORMED.  Vehicles parked on the street during the posted times are subject to towing. PLEASE WATCH FOR THE POSTING ON YOUR STREET.  PLEASE CONTACT THE DESIGN, ENVIRONMENT AND CONSTRUCTION DIVISION @ and ask for John F. Madajewski for further details, if necessary.

And actually, we reported Ansley would be paved mid-September.

The City of Decatur sent out this announcement this morning…

Please join City of Decatur Public Works and City Schools of Decatur Facilities Maintenance on Monday, March 24 at 8:30 a.m.for the ribbon cutting ceremony of the recently renovated Eloise T. Leveritt Building

***Tours of the facility will also be available upon request***

The building is named for former City of Decatur Mayor pro tem (and Commissioner) Eloise T. Leveritt. She served from 1957 – 1972.