Dunwoody Late Harvest Run

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 think the Dunwoody PD needs to establish a volunteer program for events like this. Have a basic traffic control class and 'certify' residents to help in events like this. Each Citizen Volunteer would be issued an ANSI approved vest, two collapsible traffic cones, a Taser X3, a Glock 21 with AmeriGlo night sights, and a box of AmeriGlo 10" ChemFlare light sticks. Of course a shiny badge from Blackington would top off the kit.

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.

Garden Help Requested

Tending the Garden

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

District 1, Part II

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.

Regards,

Robert

Councilman Shortal Message, TV

Hello All,

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