This morning I ran (sorta) my first 5K race, and this mid-morning I am nursing my first 5K injury.
Today's race was the first Dunwoody Late Harvest Run through the streets of west Dunwoody. The proceeds ($25 to enter) benefit the Dunwoody Farmhouse and The Atlanta Humane Society. My cat is from the AHS and the Farmhouse is near and dear to my heart so it seemed like a good thing to do on a crisp fall morning.
The race started at the Farmhouse, went north past Publix and Mellow Mushroom, then veered left toward Redfield, staying on Chamblee Dunwoody Road. At the intersection of Chamblee Dunwoody Road and Spalding (Dunwoody's most dangerous intersection), runners turned left on Spalding (headed toward Woodland Elem School), then made a sharp left on Dunwoody Road, then merged back onto Cham Dun Road. Runners again went past Redfield on the return back to the Farmhouse finish line.
A nice addition to the race was FarmHouser Al passing out cups of water, hot chocolate, or jello-shots of vodka at the race's halfway point on the Chamblee Dunwoody Road Expressway near Redfield. Al is co-owner of Horizon Windows and they were a part of today's event (handing out cups of water to participants and providing an excuse for people like me to stop and catch my breath for a minute or two).
Horizon Windows & Doors, a Dunwoody company, offers quality windows and doors for the metro area. The nice thing is that they are local. They are participating in a federal program that can help you save up to $1,500 on your purchase.
I started out in the front of the pack and was in 10th place or so for the first 50 yards. Then, as expected, I fell back into the pack. I met up with my 9 year-old daughter just past Publix and did the race with her. My wife and 7 year-old ran together.
I am not sure how many people ran the race, but I think it was around 200 people. I'm sure there will be an official story on the race in The Crier so they'll probably have a more accurate number. My entire family was there as where our neighbors. They finished way ahead of me as they are in great shape and like to run. I like to watch football on TV, without risk of injury.
The race was won by a lady that seemed to be a pretty fast runner. She started in the lead and never looked back. Her time was less than 20 minutes. My neighbor's friend Adam finished 3rd with a time of 20 minutes 30 seconds. My oldest daughter beat me by a minute or so. She swims every day so she has some endurance.
Tonight (Saturday) the race participants get to enjoy a live band and food at Dunwoody Tavern. I haven't been to the Tavern in a while so I'll let you know how it goes. I'll be sure to have my share of Red Hook Late Harvest Autumn Ale tonight since they were a sponsor (their distributor).
Aside from the race itself I was interested to see how Dunwoody Police would do with this event. At the same time over at Perimeter Mall was the Young Survivor Coalition's Tour de Pink. The bike race and the 5K actually intersected at Spalding and Chamblee Dunwoody Road, but the bike part was nearly all done by the time of the running race.
I was impressed with Dunwoody PD as they did an excellent job with traffic. They kept the runners safe and allowed for cars to sneak out of subdivisions in between runners (when there was a big break, with no interference of the race or infringement of runners' safety). I think Dunwoody PD had about seven cars dedicated to the 5K. Not sure of their presence at the Tour de Pink.
I did not see any of the usual FarmHousers at today's event. This was a young crowd mostly and I saw no one doing the 5K in a scooter or walker. I was hoping to challenge Farmer Bob or Bob Fiscella in the race. No Council folks there either. This may have been one race I could defeat the General in, but probably not. He seems pretty fit. There were lots of activities around Dunwoody today and I'm sure a few of our city officials were out and about somewhere.
Why do boring chores around the house when you can be enjoying a cool fall morning helping to tend the Dunwoody Community Garden at Brook Run?
The Dunwoody Community Garden is the first community garden established in the City of Dunwoody. The 60 community plots are surrounded by wide open spaces, grassy knolls and shady resting areas, but they need a little TLC from folks like you! We’ve got all kinds of interesting and fun stuff to do – from spreading mulch to digging a trench to painting the pavilion - and a bunch of things in-between. You choose!
So gather up some gardening tools (wheelbarrows, rakes, shovels, gloves, paint brushes and scrapers are really needed) and join your friends on:
Saturday, October 17th 8am til 11am
Dunwoody Community Garden at Brook Run just past the dog park, for details and to sign-up Contact Page Olson at gardengirlpage@bellsouth.net
Over here on the west side of Dunwoody we are pleased to have Councilmen Shortal and Wittenstein. Both like to give us updates via email. I suggest you contact these two men through the Dunwoody web site and sign up for their emails. Of course District 3 (east side) has King John's daily posts.
Do members of council reply to you when you have a concern or question? Does city staff get back to residents? So far I've been satisfied with replies from my district representatives and city staff. My biggest issue for my part of Dunwoody is the dangerous intersection of Chamblee Dunwoody Road and Spalding Drive and the need of a sidewalk (connecting to Sandy Springs sidewalks)on Spalding between Pitts Road and Chamblee Dunwoody Road. Lots of people walk/run this area and the sidewalk would make things safer.
Here's the latest from Mr. Wittenstein:
Dear Dunwoody Friends and Neighbors, October is budget month for the City of Dunwoody. On October 19th at 7pm at City Hall we will have a public hearing on the 2010 budget proposal. We will approve the budget a week later on October 26th. Budgets can be boring for some people but they are the most important way for us to set our priorities for the coming year. We expect our revenue for 2010 to be about half a million dollars lower than 2009. This is primarily a timing issue. In December of 2009, we will collect over $2 million in franchise fees from Georgia Power. Our 2010 GA Power franchise fees won’t arrive at the city until early 2011 so we can’t include them in next year’s budget. To partially replace the GA Power franchise fees in 2010, we will be able to collect about $1.6 million in insurance premium taxes we earned in 2009 but that doesn’t get paid to us by the State until next year. The good news is that in 2011, we will be able to collect both sources of revenue and our income will jump.
Our 2010 budget proposal assumes the same property tax rate. I’m a little disappointed in that; I had hoped to make a small (5%) property tax rollback into the 2010 budget but the one-year gap in the GA Power franchise fees made that impractical. I promise to push harder for that millage rate tax rollback in 2011.
On the expense side, police service continues to be our largest expense, accounting for approximately one third of our budget. The current draft budget includes one additional detective and one additional officer who will join an area-wide narcotics task force. Not currently in the budget, but a source of a great deal of discussion, is Chief Grogan’s request for two additional patrol officers. Adding those two patrol officers would bring our sworn officer count to 44 and cost approximately $240,000. Several council members (Including me) have suggested we wait until our income increases in 2011 before adding additional patrol officers, but the council is anxious to support our police department so it isn’t clear which way this will get resolved.
A related item is a budget appropriation to conduct a feasibility study on switching from DeKalb’s 911 service to either our own Dunwoody 911 center or joining one or more of our near-by cities in a joint 911 center. I believe we can improve response time performance without increasing costs by joining Sandy Springs/Johns Creek or Chamblee or Doraville. I look forward to getting this study completed.
The budget proposal also includes a substantial amount of money for zoning and land use planning. We are setting aside $100,000 to start a multi-year process to completely rework our zoning code. When we incorporated in December of last year, we adopted DeKalb’s zoning code as a placeholder. In 2010 we will begin a massive rewrite to reflect what Dunwoody residents want and to begin to implement our newly minted 20-year Comprehensive Plan which will be adopted next Spring. We have also set aside $500,000 to complete master plans of Dunwoody Village and the Georgetown/Shallowford areas. These areas are ripe for redevelopment and the master plans will provide details to potential developers showing them exactly what the city would like to see (and will approve) for these commercial centers.
Our budget calls for over $1 million dollars to be spent on repaving our worst streets. Over the last several weeks a laser truck has driven over every mile of asphalt in Dunwoody and grading it. Late this year we will build a resurfacing plan and publish it. We will also commission a citywide transportation plan and fund engineering studies for two of our worst intersections: Mt. Vernon and Vermack and Tilly Mill and North Peachtree.
Finally, we have set aside funds to purchase and manage our parks if we can reach an agreement with DeKalb regarding the park turnover. At the moment I’m not optimistic that our ongoing discussions will yield an agreement quickly, but if they do, we will have money in the budget to operate the parks. If we don’t reach an agreement, that money can be reallocated elsewhere.
If you would like to view the budget, you can download it at this link (caution, it takes a while): http://www.dunwoodyga.gov/Government/departments/Finance_Administration/City_Budget.aspx If you would like to learn more, or to comment, please come to our public hearing on October 19th, 7pm at City Hall.
It's been a while since I last posted. Thankfully we have King John to rely on daily for news and updates in Dunwoody.I've been busy at home and work and all is well here. Good news is that I planted strawberries over at the Community Garden last weekend. Now I'll just sit back and wait until late March to eat them.
I've been in contact with some important people over at City Hall and have been planning a TV show for Dunwoody. It would broadcast out on the Comcast public access channel.
I have a talent search person on contract right now and he is working out appearances from some major Dunwoody stars. Hopefully Dunwoody Talk (the blog) will soon become Dunwoody Talk TV show.
Prior to my current job I taught sixth graders over in Cobb County. Back then I developed a closed-circuit TV show for the middle school, broadcasting live every morning at 9 AM. The show was called ECTV and the students did most of the work. Teachers submitted news items, as did clubs and admin staff. The show started the school day with the Pledge of Allegiance, morning announcements, skits, recognitions, etc. All live TV! We archived the footage and taped various segments in the hallways once a week during the year then put out a Yearbook DVD. All filming and editing done in house. Quite the project back in 1998.
Now on to something more relevant, Councilman Shortal has a few things to say, so please listen up.
Fellow Citizens ... The following are some updates on items of interest:
1. Schools .... Tomorrow night - Tuesday / 6 OCT - @ 6 PM there will public meeting to explain the planned renovation/enhancement of Dunwoody High School (DHS). Construction is slated to begin in MAR, 2010 with an estimated completion date of late fall 2011. This should be of interest to everyone as DHS is a community asset. I have seen the plans and I think the committee has done some very good work.
2. Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) .... The last scheduled CLUP meeting was held on 24 SEP. Over 40 citizens attended. Some very thought provoking questions and comments were brought forth. Acting on the CLUP Steering Committee's recommendation your City Council voted last Monday to spend an additional $18,500 on five additional meetings with each meeting focused on a specific area of our city .... those general areas are Dunwoody Village, Georgetown/Shallowford area, Jett Ferry Gateway, Tilly Mill Gateway and Winters Chapel area. The meeting times, dates and locations are still in the finalization stage. The plan is to hold each meetings as close to the area of discussion as possible to encourage max local as well as city wide attendance. The CLUP is the legal bases for future zonings and thus it is critical to get it right. As most of you know, in a poll of our citizens during the march to city hood, CLUP/Zoning was the number one reason why our citizens wanted to become a city. In this case I feel the extra expenditures are a good use of your tax dollars. When the specifics of the meetings are announced I would strongly encourage each of you to make max effort to attend. The CULP is the ground work of what your City will look like thru 2030.
3. Website .... The City Website ... dunwoodyga.gov .... should be your number one source of information for what is going on in our City. On the Home page, click on "Residents" then scroll down to "Calendar" and you will see the schedule of events for our City. I am seeking to get the "Calendar" moved up to the main topic line with Home, Residents, Visitors, etc.Please stay informed by checking the City Calendar often.
4. City Council (CC) Meetings ... As a reminder your regular CC meetings are held on the 2nd and 4th Monday of each month with a work session being held on the 3rd Monday of each month. Unless otherwise posted, all CC meetings start @ 7 PM at your City Hall.
5. 911 ... As a reminder if you see someone/something suspicious call
911 ASAP. Again, do not hesitate ... call 911 ASAP!!! By calling 911 ASAP you are enhancing the security of our City. We are all the "eyes and ears" of our police force. Call 911 while the information / description etc. you witnessed are fresh in your mind ... this is the best intelligence our police can receive.
6. City Staff ... There has been a few changes in our city staff. One of the most note worthy was the change in the Director of Community Development. The former director, Jennifer Peterson, resign on 4 SEP and Michael Tuller (Michael.Tuller@dunwoodyga.gov) was hired as her replacement. Michael started work on 28 SEP. Jennifer did an outstanding job in getting our City up and running. She resigned due to meeting the "man of her dreams" and will be getting married in NOV.
We all wish her much happiness.
7. Election ... As most of you know there will be no election for City Council in NOV. The reason is that all three of us - myself, Councilwoman Bonser and Councilman Taylor, were unopposed for reelection. I didn't know there was such a stipulation in Georgia law until the week of qualification (candidate registration) which ended 4 SEP. To paraphrase "Georgia Title 21. Elections", (in the event there is no opposed candidate in a precinct in a special or general election, no special or general election SHALL ( my point .. note the word SHALL) be held in such precinct unless more than one write-in candidate has qualified as provided by law or unless there are issues to be submitted to the electorate). In our case, no write-in candidate qualified and there were no other "issues" (things like bonds, referendums, etc,) to be submitted ... thus an election will not be held. On the financial side, not having an election saved approx.
$25,000 to $30,000 of your tax dollars that can be put to good use in several others areas. My personal sincere thanks to each of you for your support and the confidence you have shown in me. I will continue to work to justify your support every day that I am your City Councilman.
8. Convention Visitors Bureau of Dunwoody (CVBD) ... the nine member board of the CVBD is up and running. It will be functioning as a
501c(6) organization. The CVBD is currently in the search stage for an Executive Director who will run the day to day operations of the CVBD.
In simple language, the mission of the CVBD is to promote Dunwoody as a place where folks will want to come to use our fine hotels, restaurants and other places of business. The funds to run the CVBD come from a portion of the 5% Hotel Tax that we collect from the Hotels in Dunwoody. State law mandates that 40% (or 2 of the 5%) of the Hotel Tax be spent on attracting tourism to Dunwoody. The remaining 60% (or 3 of the 5%) of the Hotel Tax goes into the general operating revenue fund of our City. We have a 90 day notification clause in the contract that we signed with the DeKalb County CVB
(DCVB) last April to provide CVB services. I am happy to announce that the City gave the DCVB that 90 day notification on 30SEP09. Thus, on
31DEC09 the CVBD will take over all functions involved in the Convention Visitors Bureau. I hope you could follow all the above abbreviations ... there will be a test later!
9. Audit Committee and Audit Policy ... At our last City Council meeting we voted on and approved this policy which governs the City audit oversight committee. I voted against adopting the policy as written due to the stipulation that two members of the City Council would be on the five member committee. I believed then and I believe today that City Council members should not be assigned to this committee. IMO,this committee should be composed only of citizens who are not members of the city government or city staff. Your comments are welcomed.
10. I best end this before I have to get a copy right. Please pass this on to your friends and neighbors. If anyone would like to be added to my email update list just let me know and I will make that happen. My sincere thanks to each of you for your continued interest, support and involvement in our City. You are an important factor in our success!! Denny Shortal, Dunwoody City Councilman District One - Post 1/Mayor Pro Tem
Tonight was the first of three scheduled public forums on the sanitation issue here in Dunwoody. Warren and Council should save everyone the time and hassle of two more forums and cancel them both. The Dunwoody sanitation issue is done - stick a fork in it. After tonight's presentation I cannot see how any council member can go ahead with issuing an RFP on sanitation. Doing so would be a waste of time and money.
I liked tonight's set-up. I congratulate whomever set it up (perhaps Warren?). After hearing opening remarks from City manager Warren and Jeff Timler the audience was treated to six well-informed speakers on the issue.
I was expecting more folks in the audience, but it was rainy and a decent football game was on TV. Only the Lawrence Welk crowd showed up, in addition to the entire council (except Danny Ross) and the mayor. Of course farmer Bob was there as were maybe three other folks under age 65. The Dunwoody elderly folks are still mad about that closing post office so don't mess with them on this trash issue.
DeKalb Sanitation started things off with a presentation from Billy Malone and Ted Reinhart. A Powerpoint display (no popcorn) covered the basics, reminding and educating the audience of DeKalb's umbrella coverage regarding removing waste. DeKalb has been sending trucks out here since the 1940's. Rumor has it the first ever Dunwoody trash pickup was five empty cases of moonshine from the beloved Farmhouse. Seems like even back in the day the Dunwoody folks could throw a party.
DeKalb made many great points. One thing I did not know is they do not collect before 8 AM. I like that. A Waste Management truck used to rumble through our neighborhood around 7 AM - I did not like that.
Next we heard from a representative from the city of Chamblee. Chamblee handles its own trash service. Chamblee has only 12,000 folks and only 900 homes so their situation is unlike Dunwoody. Chamblee has three garbage trucks (costing over $100,000 each). I won't waste time on the Chamblee situation as Dunwoody never was considering starting our own service, but at least we got that option out of the way. It is important to note that Chamblee fees do not cover the costs and the city has to pull several hundred thousand dollars a year from their general fund to subsidize sanitation.
Moving on we heard from Mr. Howe from Doraville. Doraville opted out of county sanitation and went private in 2005. Doraville is much smaller than Dunwoody. Folks in Doraville pay $200 instead of the county rate of $265 but their level of service dropped as well. In the end, Mr Howe advised Dunwoody to keep what it has with DeKalb and not go private. Big words from someone whose city four years ago was where we are now.
Next was Sandy Springs representative Mr. Black. Being that Dunwoody is the little brother of Sandy Springs, I'm glad our neighbors sent someone over. I have to note that although Mr. Black works for Sandy Springs, he was with DeKalb for many years so he may be either biased or just wise with experience. I'll call him wise. He mentioned that Sandy Springs is private but said,
"I don't know why you'd go private here. It's (DeKalb) an excellent service at a great price."
One key thing Mr. Black reminded us about was the 1998 tornado that hit Dunwoody. he worked for DeKalb then and said DeKalb sanitation sent 60 crews out here and got the roads cleared and the debris out of here. He did not mention it but it goes without saying that Waste Management nor any other private company could not offer that level of service if such a disaster were to happen again. I think this was one of the most important points of the night. Warren and the other outsiders working for / running the city did not live here then and do not know of the destruction that took place.
Side note: This same issue was raised during the police decision. Could a Dunwoody PD handle a large-scale operation like DeKalb police could? Could Dunwoody PD have investigators, air support, SWAT, etc? The answer is no now, but sanitation and law enforcement are different. With a civil unrest situation or a need for tactical officers, we could call in other government agencies. With a tornado type situation Sandy Springs could not lend a hand with Waste Management and Doraville could not send ADS (their private trash hauler) to assist. Not comparing apples to apples, but worth noting.
Mr. Black states that DeKalb Sanitation has one of the top composting sites in the entire USA. Mr. Black of Sandy Springs could not speak more highly of DeKalb Sanitation.
Last up was a man from the State Dept. of Community Affairs. He said DeKalb is the largest public sanitation operation in the state. He said DeKalb landfill has 65 years worth of room, the largest on the east coast. The state average for landfill capacity is 27 years. He did mumble something about a use-based system whereas the more trash you have the more you pay (pay by the bag kinda deal). He said this type of system encouraged waste reduction. The only thing it encouraged tonight was grumbling from the Lawarence Welk folks sitting in front of me.
In review, the entire panel was pretty clear that Dunwoody should keep what it has now.
Public comment was not much, just a few supporters. One thing I liked was my district (district 1) councilman Robert Wittenstein standing up to ask a question during public comment.
Side note: The mayor and council folks had to sit not in their comfy leather swivel/rocker chairs up front, but instead the hard seats in the audience. The council folks brought padded seat cushions for their delicate butts. They were made of corduroy, all matching, with an image of the Farmhouse stitched in silk. I think they were gifts from the Dunwoody Preservation trust knitting club.
Anyway, Mr. Wittenstein put it out there, asking the county directly, 'can we stay with DeKalb and continue to pay the same as other DeKalb residents'? I could not think of a better question to ask. The answer from DeKalb was 'yes'. Although thy cannot guarantee the same rate we have now (they can't promise that rate to anyone in DeKalb either), they said things would stay the same through 2010. But he did say if their was an increase in 2011, it would be for everyone in DeKalb. We'd experience that increase if we did not become a city, so it's a wash. That was good news to hear. Of course the ultimate voice on this will be the DeKalb CEO and the DeKalb commissioners. But from what I gathered the CEO would go along with his Sanitation director. The city of Lithonia is in DeKalb and has kept DeKalb sanitation. They pay the same as we do now.
An interesting comment from the Doraville guy. He mentioned their failed annexation from last year and blamed part of it on sanitation. Those unincorporated DeKalb residents now have DeKalb trash but would have had to switch to Doraville's private system if annexed.
Our fear should be that if we try going private and it fails, would DeKalb Sanitation take us back? Would the CEO an commissioners allow us back in? Probably not.
I see no reason for Dunwoody to venture out and seek bids form private sanitation service. I feel even stronger about this after tonight's meeting.
I anticipate we'll keep DeKalb, with the city taking over the billing and adding a fee of $20 or so per household. Just hope they do a better job than they did getting business licenses switched from DeKalb to the city. But I think the sanitation department will be more willing to simply email an Excel file over with the current accounts.
Roll On DeKalb Trash Man!
Please take a look at my post from last week regarding my visit to the DeKalb Central Transfer Station and SP Recycling.
Would Dunwoody parents be in support of a private company setting up a charter school in the city of Dunwoody? Depends on the grade level, I guess. Imagine sending your kid to an office building with a floor converted into a school, down near Perimeter Mall. Or perhaps in a renovated building in Brook Run. Your kid would receive a quality education from certified instructors, without much interference from DeKalb County School System.
How does it work? Who pays?
Right now DeKalb School System gets a certain dollar amount per student. I do not know the amount but be sure it is more than enough to educate a child and provide a safe environment (a school, be it a traditional school building or a converted office building).
The state allows charter schools and funding is distributed to the charter school based on enrollment. Depending upon where those kids live, their local district is not issued the funding to educate that child.
What if that money could be assigned to your child then distributed to a charter school (not a typical private school like Marist) instead of say Peachtree Middle School?
I envision a privately run charter school in Dunwoody, serving grades 6-12. The school would be open to city of Dunwoody residents, upon qualifying. The parents would also be required to chip in at the school, perhaps with tutoring, guest lecturing, etc. I'll volunteer to be the school's principal for the first year. Al T. will be the boy's basketball coach and Sustainable Pattie will teach horticulture. Arts Festival Lady of course teaches art class, and General Shortal will be our Civics teacher. Farmer Bob will teach public speaking.
Currently there is a home school type program in Georgia that 'takes' money from DeKalb if you enroll your student in said program. The school is virtual and called GVA. The curriculum is a mix of state required stuff (too bad for that) and content developed by K12, a private company that develops school curriculum. But virtual schooling is not for everyone.
There is a case in the courts now involving the Gwinnett School Board versus Georgia's superintendent of schools and a few other folks. The Gwinnett educators don't want competition for 'their' tax dollars. They (as do all other state school boards) prefer the monopoly system whereas the county/state collects money from everyone then passes that money back to the local school systems.
I'd like to see a true voucher system in place; one allowing for parents to choose between traditional government operated schools, a private charter school, a religious based school, or a home-based education.
Here is one link on the issue. And another link. Here's a final link with lots of interesting (and informing) comments on the Gwinnett issue.
Soon Dunwoody residents will be asked to speak at public hearings regarding the issue of trash pickup in Dunwoody. The city has a deal in place with DeKalb that expires in 2010. The city can renew with DeKalb or choose a private vendor (most likely Waste Management or Allied).
The city could choose to open things up and let us, the homeowners, choose who we want. The city could set guidelines and approve private haulers to operate within the city, then homeowners could then select (like we do for natural gas). But I doubt that will happen so no use me discussing that here.
Since I know Council will not open things up, I firmly believe staying with DeKalb is our best option. Many of us did not like some of the 'services' DeKalb provided BD (Before Dunwoody), but I am convinced trash hauling is something we keep.
Not one to hide behind a keyboard waiting for someone to email me a hot story, I hauled myself down to DeKalb's new Central Transfer Station. This place is down near the county jail off of Memorial Drive at I-285.
I toured the new admin building there and met with a DeKalb sanitation official for my tour. Let's back up a minute. DeKalb has three transfer stations: Central, East, and North.
Pretend you are your trash bag. We'll call you 'Brown'. First you'll get filled with all sorts of nasty stuff, then you'll be placed into a large can, most likely outdoors beside the family garage. Then on Monday 'Big Yellow' comes rumbling down the street, a guy jumps off the back bumper and tosses you into the back of the truck. Here you'll make close friends with other Dunwoody trash bags, mainly from your own neighborhood.
Those trucks rolling through Dunwoody can carry 4000 to 16000 pounds of trash (average truck is 4 ton).
Once the truck is full of bags you'll take a ride to Buford Hwy. You'll arrive at the North Transfer Station on Buford Hwy. You'll be dumped onto the ground. Here you'll see your bag friends from the neighborhood, and you'll meet new friends from other parts of Dunwoody. You'll see bags from Vanderlyn area, Chesnut, Kingsley, and some of your Austin bag buddies. Sorta like a swim meet. But don't get too comfortable! A rubber tire loader will scoop you up and put you in a large trailer (these trailers hold 80,000 pounds of trash). This large trailer will then haul you to your final resting place; Seminole Road Landfill.. The Native American ancestors must be proud to have their tribe name chosen for the landfill road. (Waste Management operates their own landfill in N Georgia).
No one seems to care what landfill the trash ends up in, just so we can't smell it. I have heard chatter regarding the recycling program, thus the reason for my adventure to the Central Transfer Station off of Memorial Drive.
It is here your recycling materials go on Wednesday afternoons. I planned my trip to follow my blue bag of recyclables. I named this week's bag of empties 'Blue'. After being picked up over here on the west side of Dunwoody my recycled waste made it to 'Central' Wednesday evening where it was dumped on a concrete floor. I met my bag on Thursday morning and saw him get scooped up by a rubber-tired loader and dumped into one of those huge trailers.
Quick Fact: Dunwoody (ZIP Code 30338) has 2973 households participating in its recycling program, and has 10 businesses participating. I do not have numbers on other Dunwoody ZIP codes like 30350, 30346, and 30360. (I think that ten businesses participating in recycling is a very low number considering the number of businesses in that ZIP. Perhaps the Chamber could encourage businesses to sign up)
Side Note: DeKalb Sanitation will come up to our fairs and festivals upon request. They will offer recycling tips and show off those nice shiny blue tubs on wheels. Contact Sheri L Arnold.
Okay, let's get back to my boy Blue. Last we heard Blue was dumped on a floor then scooped up and thrown into a large trailer. What next for this mixed bag of recyclables? Blue will take a ride to Forest Park, GA to the SP Recycling Center. Don't let their pretty web site fool you. The recycling center is not lined with flowers and winding trails across lush green space. A recycling center is noisy, dusty, and noisy, yet a couple of steps above a land fill. I did some research on SP and found them to be one of the best in the business. They have locations across the country, including Forest Park, GA.
DeKalb has a contract with SP Recycling Corp. that probably expires around the same time Dunwoody's contract expires with DeKalb. DeKalb is not the only sanitation department taking their recyclables to SP. Haulers from Cobb, Atlanta, Gwinnett, and all over Atlanta take their recyclables to SP - and so does Waste Management. No matter who Dunwoody uses our recyclables will most likely end up in Forest Park at SP.
Quick Facts: SP takes in over 6000 tons a month of material. Summer months 'produce' the least amount of recycled materials through the year while November through January 'produce' the most.
Now that Blue, our bag of recycled goods , has arrived at SP, what next?
Oops, we need to back up a little bit. Along with that bag of plastic and aluminum, we all use the blue tub (we'll call him Tubby, Blue's brother). Tubby is full of paper and cardboard. Tubby's contents ride in the same truck and then the same trailer as Blue. Tubby and Blue end up on the same floor at SP.
The contents of Blue and Tubby will be dumped onto a concrete floor, then scooped up onto one of many conveyor belts. During its first trip on a belt, sorters (human) will pull off and separate the cardboard and newspaper. You'd think metals or plastics would be the 'gold' in a recycling center, but not here. Newspaper is the thing SP wants the most. SP sells newspaper to a paper mill here in Georgia (pay attention and you'll see that most of what SP collects gets recycled and ends up somewhere here in Georgia). A single newspaper can be recycled up to five times.
Cardboard and paper are the easiest to sort and the most profitable. There are a couple of cardboard manufacturers in Georgia and your cardboard will end up with one of them.
What does a recycler not want? Glass. Glass is heavy, tears up machines, and cannot be sold easily. Since the US does not do much in the ways of reusing glass bottles like they do in Europe, most glass recycled in the US will be remelted or processed into a fiberglass product of some sort. I called a few recycling centers in a couple of states and found out most have to pay to get rid of glass. That's right. They can't sell it and have to pay to have it hauled away.
Those plastic grocery bags are not a good 'recyclable' item either. These things are considered 'dirty' plastic and have little to no value and may wind up in a landfill anyway.
Many folks toss items in the recycle tubs and bags and think all is well. When you place a garden hose or a wicker basket into a recycling bag, it will get sorted out and sent to the landfill. It's important for all of us to know what to recycle, but just as important for us to know what not to try and recycle through our trash provider.
What happens to the 'good' plastic (soda and water bottles) that we recycle? Much of it will be sold to a carpet maker in north Georgia where it will be turned into some type of floor covering.
The steel and aluminum will most likely go to a smelter here in Georgia for processing.
Do you throw non-recycling items into Tubby or Blue? If yes, you are hurting the process by making your 'clean' items 'dirty' and making the recycler's job more difficult (and more expensive).
Back to the subject of Dunwoody and trash. No matter who we choose our garbage will end up in a landfill in Georgia. One is up stream and one is downstream. No matter who we choose our recycled goods will end up at SP. There are not many players in the recycling game here in Atlanta. SP is the big boy on the block and with this economy and low materials costs don't look for another to come on line soon.
Did you know Dunwoody residents can pick up free mulch and compost from DeKalb Sanitation? DeKalb recycles all those yard trimmings and also fallen trees from throughout the county. Here's a great story by the DeKalb Master Gardener Association.
Quick Fact: DeKalb picks up 200-400 tons of yard debris a day.
DeKalb's landfill also produces electricity by harnessing landfill gas. (see DMGA link above)
When some in Dunwoody think of DeKalb County it is always not pleasant thoughts. Yet, in my opinion, the most pleasant thing about DeKalb is its sanitation department.
I ask that our city manager and council members contact Billy Malone or Charlie Gill at DeKalb Sanitation and request a tour of the transfer station, the landfill (including the mulch/compost area), and SP recycling. Go and see for yourself the top rate job they are doing.
Dunwoody Yes folks and our current council were hands-on for many of the decisions made in regards to service. Sanitation should be no exception. I'm asking King John, The General, Witty, Danny, Adrian, TomT, and Hizzoner to put on their dungarees and go see for themselves.
I expect DeKalb to raise fees for Dunwoody due to the recycling part. DeKalb contracts this out and will probably be paying more in the future for this service. However, even with an increase of say 25%, I strongly feel DeKalb Sanitation is our best option.
Residents are NOT interested in saving money in this area. I like to keep a hold on as much of my money as possible, but I also recognize a bargain when I see it.
Please voice your support at the upcoming public meeting on the sanitation issue. Encourage your council to meet with DeKalb Sanitation now to start negotiations for renewal.
Money is not everything. Dunwoody did not look for the least expensive pistols for its police department. We did not hire the least expensive city manager. Dunwoody did not buy the least expensive software for the police department. Warren did not buy the cheapest microphones for the council chambers (well, maybe he did at first, but he corrected that mistake).
Let's not look just at price when it comes to sanitation. DeKalb Sanitation provides a great service and its landfill operations are top notch.
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