In discussing the coming North McDonough Streetscape Improvement project at Monday’s Decatur City Commission meeting — which Deputy City Manager Hugh Saxon sounded sure would happen next summer (You may recall that Decatur first secured $1.77 million grant funding for this project way back in April 2010) — he mentioned a couple of other items that may be of interest…

1.  The traffic signal upgrades that Decatur is working with DeKalb County to implement has been pushed back two years.  When I spoke with the City Manager last summer she said that the timeline had installation happening late 2014/early 2015. Mr. Saxon mentioned at Monday’s meeting that the project isn’t likely to be implemented until 2017.  Past Citizen Surveys have shown that traffic signal timing is one of the most common transportation-related complaints in Decatur.

2.  All of Howard Avenue is part of CSX’s right-of-way.  Did you know that?  I didn’t.

Included in a report from Decaturish late last week – about the North McDonough Streetscape Improvements and how it relates to renovating Decatur High Schoo – was this nugget…

The streetscape project will begin in June of 2015 and will last for 12 months. The city will shrink the road from four lanes to two in order to make it friendlier for bicyclists and pedestrians.

Upon request, Deputy City Manager Hugh Saxon provided DM with a digital version (PDF) of the most recent streetscape plan so that everyone can get a closer look what North McDonough will eventually look like once the project is completed.

Click the PDF link above or the photo to view the plans up close.

A reader sent in photographs to DM and Decaturish yesterday documenting evidence of a fuel spill into Peavine Creek at the Beacon Hill construction site.

Decaturish followed up with Deputy City Manager Hugh Saxon, who said that the Georgia Environmental Protection Division had been alerted by someone that the stream smelled like fuel downstream near Vickers Drive.  They investigated and found a hydrolic fuel tank that had overturned during heavy rains this past weekend. The EPD is now monitoring clean up.  More from Decaturish HERE.

Oil in Peavine Creek behind The Marlay

Over the years, there’s been much discussion regarding the future of the Dawn Redwood trees on the 315 West Ponce property and whether they would be spared when the site was developed to include a mixed use building fronting West Ponce.  Ultimately the developer, property owner, neighbors, city and other interested parties came up with a plan to keep the trees on-site without disturbing the root system.

Too bad no one spoke with the Dawn Redwoods themselves, who reportedly have caused their own bit of trouble late last week.

According to an incident report from the property manager, which was sent to the Deputy City Manager Hugh Saxon, around lunchtime on Friday, December 15th water started bubbling up out of the ground near the water meters on West Ponce.  This ultimately resulted in the stream you see flowing down Ponce Place in the pic above.

A plumber was called out to the site and it was determined that there was a leak in the water line to the existing office building, which needed to be addressed immediately or the ground could potentially become saturated and make the trees unstable.

As reported by Mr. Saxon to DM…

While repairing the water line, the plumber excavated the area around one of the large dawn redwoods that are to be preserved at the property and damaged the tree’s root system.  The City’s forester and Arborguard Tree Specialists examined the damage and Arborguard has prepared a preservation plan to treat the damage and to provide support for the tree. It is unclear at this time whether treatment will affect the long-term viability of the tree.

 

However, the rub of all this is that the leak was reportedly caused by the Dawn Redwood tree roots and not the ongoing construction at the site, according to the incident report.  Mr Saxon reiterated this in a response to DM stating “This appears to be completely unrelated to the new development taking place on the property.”

Here’s to hoping that the remediation plan works!

Dawn Redwoods photo courtesy of Neil

My apologies!  See my corrections below and in the headline.

On the agenda for tonight’s Decatur City Commission meeting: providing $1 million more to renovate Ebster Pool.

Back in August, the city estimated $1 million to renovate Ebster Pool with the following new amenities:

• Changes to the pool to reduce its length from 25 meters to 25 yards and to widen the pool to provide 8 lanes for competitive swimming.
• Overhead lighting to allow longer hours for swimming meets.
• New mechanical systems to replace the original filtration tanks and pumps installed when the pool was built over 30 years ago.
• Complete renovation of the bathhouse to include new men’s and women’s changing rooms, a family changing room, new staff office.
• New lift for disabled swimmers, new water fountains, fencing and other amenities

Now a letter from Deputy City Manager Hugh Saxon states that the pool renovation will cost an additional $1,094,000 to complete the project as part of the Beacon Hill complex development.  That’s an extra $94,000.  Mr. Saxon says that there are still funds to in the project’s larger budget to cover the increase.

In an effort to limit costs Mr. Saxon notes…

…we are planning to re-use existing shade structures and to rough-in a spray pad. As we get closer to completing the entire Beacon project. We’ll be better able to determine whether we can add back the equipment for the spray pad.