Can you come up with a better way to start the week than getting up to speed on storm sewer construction?

At Tuesday’s meeting, the Decatur City Commission will vote on a $65,000 agreement with Atkins International to design Phase 2 of “Downtown Decatur Storm Drainage Improvements”.

While Phase I installed new storm sewers along Maple and Church Street – and across N. McDonough – downtown, Phase II will focus on replacing an older section of the city’s drainage system that runs “cross-country” across residential properties, from Barry Street to Decatur Fire Station #1.

A note from Deputy City Manager Hugh Saxon to City Manager Peggy Merriss states that the current line “…is old, undersized and inadequate to carry the amount of storm water generated by frequent storm events, causing periodic flooding on several residential and commercial properties in the area.”

The new line will run under streets, from Fire Station #1 on Trinity Place, down East Howard Ave and turn up Barry Street, ending a few lots up. (See map below from the City Commission meeting documents)

Mr. Saxon states that the estimated construction budget will be $1.25 million.

Phase I photo courtesy of The Decatur Minute

Did your six-word story make it onto the city’s “I’m a Decatur, Georgia, Fan” fan?

Click the pic to enlarge it.  Also, if you forgot what was your own creation, here’s a link to the post with everyone’s original suggestions.

Don’t worry, the t-shirt is coming.

Looks like the city is a little dissatisfied with its unofficial description “Where Mayberry meets Berkeley” and may be looking for a new slogan.

Lyn Menne’s challenge in the latest issue of the Focus (not yet online), is to follow in the footsteps of Hemingway’s famous six word story and provide an accurate description of our fair city in 6 words – no more, no less.

Definitely not an easy task, seeing that I’ve been pondering it for two days straight and have yet to come up with anything worth jotting down.

Whatcha got smart-pantses?

I’m happy to report that in just one year and 10 months, DM has achieved an inconceivable milestone: one million page views!

Not too shabby for a blog that asks “What’s your favorite park/building?”, “How much trash do you throw out?”, yells at various post-modern buildings, and writes fictional posts about cross-dressing city-lovers and cantaloupe.

Thanks to all the clickers out there, both stoic readers and verbose commenters, who make this site so personally rewarding and endlessly interesting to me.  Without you, I would just be one more crazy yahoo, sitting in my proverbial underwear, posting ignorant observations for everyone (and no one) to read.  Also, continued thanks to all the Decatur/Atlanta bloggers and Creative Loafing journalists who guided me through those first, tough months with support and encouragement and remain dear friends to this day.

And finally, a huge thanks to my wife, who has always been supportive of this crackpot endeavor, but stands alone as the only person that can prevent me from becoming a bit too obsessive about “feeding-the-beast” and monitoring comment threads.  All it takes is a look.  THE look.

OK, so what’s next?  Good question!

Well, for better or worse, I have a few ideas in the works for DM, so keep your eyes and minds open in the coming weeks and months.  Should be interesting to say the least.

Here’s to the next one million!

Carl forwards a reminder from the Brick Store boys that tomorrow is the big, tap-a-keg-an-hour fest in celebration of 12 years on the Square in Decatur.

Here again is the lineup – with BeerAdvocate links for your convenience (don’t say I never did anything for ya!)

12pm –  Duck Rabbit Brewery “Pauls Day Off” American Strong Ale
1pm – Sweetwater Oak Aged (Bordeaux French Oak 2nd run) Creeper Belgian IPA
2pm – Highland Cattail Wheat (Trappist yeast version)
3pm – Allagash Interlude Wild Ale
4pm – Atlanta Brewing Co. ‘08 Winter Ale in Pappy Van Winkle
5pm – Allagash Confluence Wild Ale
6pm – Ballast Point Victory at Sea Coffe Vanilla Imperial Porter
7pm – Allagash Victor Strong Dark Ale
8pm – Oskar Blues Stranahan Barrel Aged Gordon Double IPA
9pm – Allagash Victoria Strong Pale Ale
10pm – Oskar Blues Stranahan Barrel Aged 10 Fidy Imperial Stout
11pm – Allagash Hugh Malone Belgian IPA
12am – Oskar Blues Stranahan Barrel Aged Dale’s Pale Ale

We’ve been hearing rumblings about a scooter store for months now. Most recently the city teased us in the Decatur Focus with news that a scooter store was coming, but gave few details. Well, thanks to Jeff at Whit’s End, I finally have a name and location for you! ….drumroll please….

Midtown’s Twist & Scoot will open a new store in the old Intaglia space on West Ponce. No details yet as to when, but they certainly couldn’t have picked a better time to expand, with scooter sales going up faster than gas prices. A recent Time Magazine article (“10 Things You Can Like About $4 Gas“) says that Vespa sales are up 109% since last year.

Perhaps the close proximity to our house will help convince my wife of my undying NEED for a sporty little scooter. But unfortunately, MARTA is still a more viable option for me.

Best of luck to all involved!

[Midtown location photo courtesy of Flickr]

Next Stop…Decatur notes the old look of the Pythagoras Mason Temple Building at the northeast corner of Clairemont and Ponce included street-level retail (specifically Glenn’s Pharmacy). This is actually the original layout/intent of the first floor, and a look at the current building (in a pic found in Next Stop’s post) shows that it would not be too difficult to revert the exterior of the building’s first floor back to street-level retail. The interior is probably another story.

I can only assume that the city would fully support such an initiative (especially if the change didn’t alter the exterior), but it’s probably up to the building’s owners (the Mason’s) to make the change.

As Next Stop notes, it would be a great extension of street-level retail along Ponce and Clairemont. Now…what to do about that really unfriendly Emory Clinic building on the northwest corner.