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BrookhavenReporter

MAY 13 - MAY 26, 2016 • VOL. 8 — NO. 10

See CITY on page 12

BY DYANA BAGBYdyanabagby@reporternewspapers.net

The Brookhaven City Council voted May 10 to approve an agreement allowing the DeKalb County Board of Education to pur-chase Skyland Park for $4.7 million.

The school system would use the prop-erty as the location for a new elementary school as part of the district’s efforts to alle-viate overcrowding in the Cross Keys cluster.

As part of the deal, the school system will turn over 4 acres and the Skyland Center building to the city for use as a future park.

► New city manager will ‘live the job’ PAGE 2

► Cranes carrying loads over streets covered by differentrules PAGE 10

PHIL MOSIER

Justin Carpenter, and his son Logan, 2, take in the sights and sounds of the 43rd annual Lynwood Days Parade and Festival on May 7. See another photo on page 10.

City to sell Skyland Park to DeKalb for new publicschool

Watching the parade go by

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BustourmovesBufordHighwayideas forwardBY JOHN RUCHjohnruch@reporternewspapers.net

More than a hundred MARTA-riding tourists got a taste of Buford Highway’s famed multicultural restaurants—seasoned with expert takes on the corridor’s safety and gentrification challenges—on an April 27 “bus crawl” staged by We Love BuHi and the MARTA Army.

The bus tour and similar programs by We Love BuHi are exposing strong tensions about the highly diverse immigrant commu-nity’s future, and stirring some big ideas for supporting it.

The property manager of the Latino mall Plaza Fiesta, a bus tour stop, in an interview after the tour, blasted Brookhaven for “driv-

See BUS on page 14

Georgians head to the polls May 24 to cast ballots in local party primaries and non-partisan elections. Sandy Springs has a five-candidate election for City Council, and Brookhaven, Buckhead, Dunwoody and Sandy Springs all have partisan primaries to choose nominees for the state Legislature.

To see if you’re properly registered, where to vote or to view a sample ballot, check the My Voter Page on the Georgia Secretary of State’s website, mvp.sos.ga.gov/MVP.

Learn more about local candidates by go-ing to the Voters Guide on page 13. Find the complete versions at ReporterNewspapers.net. Check our website on Election Night for the results in local races.

Page 4

Timetogetoutand vote!

MAKING ADIFFERENCEProgram assists Latino children

Hard work, persistence and resilience are more important than raw ability. What you decide to study is more important than where you go to school. Think about growth opportunities when you make your education choices.Gary A. Piligian Math and statistic teacher, Mount Vernon Presbyterian School

See Exceptional Educator Page 6

CALENDAR | P16

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New Brookhaven city manager will ‘live the job’BY DYANA BAGBYdyanabagby@reporternewspapers.net

Christian M. Sig-man says he’s ready to hit the ground run-ning as Brookhaven’s new city manager.

“What drew me here is [the council] has great visions and really wants to im-plement them,” he said during a short break while attend-ing the council work session and City Council meeting on May 10.

“They want ac-tion … with parks and paving, they want to get things done,” he said. “They have the means and the will — let’s get things done.”

The council will vote May 24 to formal-ly approve Sigman as the new city manag-er. His official start date is June 6. He was the sole finalist of four candidates inter-viewed by council last month.

Sigman is moving to Brookhaven from Ohio, where was the administrator of Hamilton County. Cincinnati is the county seat. He held the post for five years.

As the county administrator, he helped lead the $338 million development of the high-profile “Banks Project,” creating a res-idential, work and entertainment district surrounding the stadiums for the two Cin-cinnati professional sports franchises — the Reds of Major League Baseball and the Bengals of the National Football League — along the banks of the Ohio River.

News reports from Ohio say Sigman was nearly fired from his job last year af-ter some county commissioners became upset when he suggested the possibility of hiring a new developer for the Banks Project. Instead of firing him, the commis-sion stripped him of handling the econom-ic development duties and oversight of the

Banks Project.Specifically, Sigman raised concerns

about developers Carter and The Daw-son Co.’s slow prog-ress in building a hotel. Carter is the master developer and program man-ager for the $287 mil-lion Sandy Springs City Center project.

Certain mile-stones weren’t met, Sigman said when visiting Brookhaven, and the pace of the project was not go-ing as fast as he be-lieved it was to be go-ing, according to the

contract. “This was a city/county project … and I

pushed pretty hard,” Sigman said. “Part of my job was to hold the developer account-able, whether schedule or quality of con-struction and tenants.”

Sigman said Brookhaven, as a new city, is not burdened by “legacy issues” and deal-ing with a long history of policies and prec-edents of how things have always been done. Helping shape a new city is part of the allure of the job, he said.

“This is like starting with a clean slate, starting from scratch … everything is blue sky here,” he said. “The city is seeking to be the best in class.”

Sigman said his first days on the job would be assessing the city and its make-up. But he does know that the first thing he will focus on is communication — lay-ing out protocols on how staff will commu-nicate with each other as well as with the council.

“I’m excited, I’m loyal and I want to be an active part of the city,” he said. “As city manager I will be available 24/7. You live the job,” he said. “You represent the organi-zation and I look forward to representing this community.”

DYANA BAGBY

Christian M. Sigman

BK

MAY 13 - MAY 26, 2016 ■ www.ReporterNewspapers.net Community | 3

2989 N. Fulton Drive, Suite B, Atlanta, GA 30305

KATHIE GANNON.LISTENING.

RESPONDING.

DeKalb County Super District 6 Commissioner

Please Vote MAY 24TH in the Democratic Primary

Early Voting continues through May 20th

www.kathiegannonlistens.com

CommunityBriefsSECOND ANNUAL CHERRY

BLOSSOM FESTIVAL ATTRACTS 20,000 PEOPLE

Former Mayor Rebecca Chase Wil-liams, and founder of the city’s Cherry Blossom Festival, updat-ed the City Council May 10 on the festival’s sec-ond annual event.

She said it was es-timated 20,000 people visited Blackburn Park over the two days of the festival.

According to state numbers, the event also had a $500,000 financial impact on the city.

“This is a good, compelling reason … to continue doing festivals,” she said.

Expenses for the festival totaled $93,000, while the city had raised more than $106,000 to cover costs, meaning the city did not lose any money.

Williams said she understands the city may no longer want to “be in the festival business” and she is currently exploring nonprofit opportunities.

She said she still hopes the city and festival can have a cooperative relation-ship, including an agreement to allow Blackburn Park to be used.

Council members discussed the pos-sibility of implementing a policy to guide the city when it comes to sup-porting festivals.

CITY APPROVES $25,000 FOR PCID LAST MILE CONNECTIVITY STUDY

The City Council recently approved to pay $25,000 to be used toward a last mile connectivity study in the Perime-

ter Community Improvement Districts. The council approved the funding

April 26 and was the final municipality to do so. Sandy Springs and Dunwoody, as well as the PCID, also agreed to pitch

in $25,000 for the study that will look at options to cover the “last mile” between MARTA and rid-ers’ final destinations, such as offices, homes or stores.

Councilmember Joe Gebbia has expressed in-terest, along with San-dy Springs Mayor Rusty

Paul, of the possibility of monorails be-ing utilized as part of a last mile con-nectivity plan.

The PCID study is to include those options as well as traditional models, such as bike paths and walking trails.

COMPANIES SELECTED TO REPLACE MURPHEY

CANDLER BRIDGEThe City Council voted May 10 to

award Integrated Construction and No-bility Inc. its bid to replace Murphey Candler Bridge for $241,421.31.

The pedestrian bridge has been closed to the public since November when a tree fell on it, causing heavy damage.

The council has approved more than $309,000 for the construction of the new bridge and Brian Borden, director of Parks & Recreation, said the city is saving approximately $67,000 with the low bid.

Borden said he hopes the project will be completed by mid-July.

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Where the Extraordinary Happens Every Day

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With Saturday School, Los Ninos Primero helps Latino children feel at home in Sandy SpringsBY DONNA WILLIAMS LEWIS

In one classroom, 3-year-old yoga students on blue mats shifted like pros into their “downward dog” and “warrior” positions. In another, 4-year-olds tapped beats on drums to practice counting.

Down the hall, other pre-schoolers created paper pyramids and squares to be tossed in a game. Each side of the figures revealed a direction such as “Count to 50” or “Do something nice for someone.”

This was Saturday School at Los Ninos Primero, now in its 16th year of serving Latino children in a year-round educational program at Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church in Sandy Springs.

For the little ones, the morning was all about fun.

For their teachers, fun is a power tool for building a passion for learning, and for nipping in the bud the inhibi-tors to kindergarten readiness that can arise from language and cultural differ-ences and socioeconomic situations.

Every activity had a role in that mis-sion — even yoga, which they teach to prepare the children to deal with stress.

Executive Director Maritza Morelli, a child psychologist, is very sensitive to that need.

“The school and the church are very open and protective and embracing,” Morelli said, “but this is a very differ-ent environment than we see in some other ways.”

Veronica Toscano de Leger, direc-tor of the Georgia Liaison Office of the state government of Guanajuato in Mexico, said Los Ninos Primero is help-ing children who may have difficult home lives flourish with confidence in a loving, welcoming environment.

“That makes a difference in a child. It makes them start working harder to succeed,” she said. “You can see the pas-sion when they play an instrument, the passion when people care for them.”

A church bus picks the children up from across Sandy Springs, where 14 percent of the population is Hispanic or Latino. Ninety-nine percent of the program’s children were born in the U.S. and their first language is Spanish. Most of them are from low-income fam-ilies.

Steve Whisenant, CEO of Haven Campus Communities, was the found-ing chairman of Los Ninos Primero’s board of directors. He said the nonprof-it program was born out of Mount Ver-non’s research on the needs of the ar-ea’s growing Latino population. “We found out very quickly that to say it was underserved was an understate-

ment,” he said.Los Ninos Primero began as a two-

week summer program that served 17

children on the preschool campus of Mount Vernon Presbyterian School.

Today, 250 children participate in its free programs: the three-hour plus lunch Saturday School for 3- and 4-year-olds; a month-long summer pro-

A DifferenceMaking

PHOTOS BY DONNA WILLIAMS LEWIS

Volunteer Carmen Morales, 15, started with Los Ninos Primero as a 3-year-old

preschooler. The Riverwood International Charter School student plans a future in medicine, education or criminal justice.

Sophia Monje, 4, gives a goodbye hug to Maritza Morelli, executive director

of Los Ninos Primero, as she leaves the program’s Saturday School.

Los Ninos Primero art teacher Alison Calefati helps Emiliano Salas, 4, left, and

Edwin Esteva, 5, create an educational game.

APR. 01 - APR. 14, 2016 ■ www.ReporterNewspapers.net Making a Difference | 5

gram for ages 3 to 6; and weekday ex-tracurricular activities for ages 5 and up. Orchestra, soccer, karate and cho-rus are offered.

All of the program’s 15 teachers are certified and paid, except for a volun-teer retired teacher. They are assist-ed by dozens of volunteers, including many former Los Ninos Primero stu-dents.

“I think we’ve had about 1,000 chil-dren come through this program,” said Whisenant, who now serves on the pro-gram’s development committee. “I’ve been pleased with the ability to stay vi-able and to grow, and to have a lot of people who feel like we’ve done the right thing, for the right rea-sons.”

Summer pro-gram teacher Katrina Verde sees first-hand the difference Los Ninos Prim-ero makes in school prepared-ness. She is a kindergarten teacher at Sandy Springs’ Lake Forest Elementary School, a school where 94 percent of students are Hispanic and 59 percent of students receive language services.

“Programs like Los Ninos are pret-ty vital for these kids,” Verde said. “We want to bridge the academic gap so that nobody would notice a difference be-tween kids who come from Lake For-est and the kids who come from other schools in our cluster.”

Morelli was lead bilingual com-munity liaison for the Fulton County school system when she was asked to create and lead Los Ninos Primero.

The Venezuelan native was a perfect fit. “Being an immigrant myself, I un-derstand how difficult it is for the par-ents to understand the school’s expec-tations,” Morelli said.

Parent involvement is not only key here, it is required.

“I want parents to feel that that they have something valuable to offer, to help and to feel proud of their own cul-ture,” she said. “Building their self-con-fidence will help the children.”

Morelli said parents help with fun-draising, go on cultural field trips, and must attend at least 50 percent of the classes offered to them, such as school system expectations, their “rights as hu-man beings” and stress management.

“I’m planting hope in these par-ents that their children can go to col-lege, because they were born here and they have more opportunity,” Morel-li said. “They have to believe that. And they will learn, little by little, the steps they need to to make sure the kids are on track.”

Fifty percent of the program’s first 17 students are in college, and Carmen

Morales, 15, is headed that way. The Riv-erwood International Charter School student plans a future in medicine, ed-ucation or criminal justice.

She grew up with Los Ninos Prime-ro, starting in the program as a 3-year-old and staying connected through her family’s participation and her volun-teer work as the program’s assistant soccer coach.

“They gave me fond memories of my childhood and I want to give that back to them,” Carmen said.

She said the program is like a small community for its families.

Carmen’s parents came to the U.S. from Mexico 20 years ago. She rare-

ly sees her father, ex-cept on week-ends, because he works two jobs. Her mother works nights clean-ing three floors of an office build-ing.

“You learn about people who might have the same story as us,” Carmen said, “like the struggle of getting here and then wanting their children to have a bet-ter future than them. … I wish there were more people like Ms. Maritza.”

The school and the church are very open and protective and embracing.MARITZA MORELLI

Facebook.com/TheReporterNewspapers ■ twitter.com/Reporter_News6 | Education

VOTEMAY 24TH

Running for Wendy Shoob’s Open Seat

The BroadexperienceWe deserve

Gary Alembik has a broad range of experience. On top of his 27 years as a member of the state bar in private practice, he is the only candidate for judge who has served Fulton County for 10 years as a magistrate and judicial officer. He truly knows how our court system works… and where it needs to be fixed.

WWW.GaryalemBik.com

ExceptionalEducator

Editor’s note: Through our “Exceptional Ed-ucator” series, Reporter Newspapers is showcas-ing the work of some outstanding teachers and administrators at our local schools. If you would like to recommend an Exceptional Educator, please email editor@ReporterNewspapers.net.

Gary Piligian teaches Ad-vanced Placement statistics, statistics and other math classes, including pre-calcu-lus and algebra 2, at Mount Vernon Pres-byterian School in Sandy Springs. He’s been a teach-er for four years. Before teaching, he was trained as an engineer and worked on Wall Street as a finan-cial investment banker. He’s also the school’s cross-country coach and runs marathons.

Q: What attracted you to teaching at first?

A: My path was dif-ferent than that of most teachers - I was an en-gineer by training who worked at a management consulting firm after getting my bachelor’s degree, and, af-

ter I went to graduate school for an MBA, worked in the institutional fixed-income business for 25 years - 11 years for Salo-mon Brothers (now part of Citigroup), and 14 years for Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. I’ve always been interested in education, as it played a huge role in my own career, and was at the stage of my life when I had the fi-nancial flexibility to teach.

Like many non-teacher parents, I was a critic of how kids are taught, and I decid-

ed that instead of simply being a critic, I should try and do something about it. Teaching, done right, is definitely more difficult than most critics think it is. I have tremendous re-spect for my colleagues at Mount Vernon Presbyteri-an School, and I’ve learned a great deal from them.

Q: Has the appeal changed?

A: I love working with the kids and with their par-ents, so from that perspec-

tive, the appeal hasn’t changed at all. I draw energy from seeing the students learn chal-lenging concepts, and from helping them connect the dots between the skills they learn in class and the opportunities that are open to them in the business world.

Q: What keeps you going year after year? A: Honestly, it’s the notes you get every

now and then from a student, a parent of a student, or a former student telling you about the personal impact that you’ve made on the student. That’s the key. I want our students to be successful and then to pay it back when they are in a position to do so.

I’m also fortunate that I work at Mount Vernon, where teachers have the flexibili-ty to experiment with new ideas and tech-nologies to keep things fresh. All teachers at Mount Vernon have learning outcomes that drive our instruction, but we have tre-mendous latitude in how to get our stu-dents to best achieve the learning out-comes. We can tailor our instruction and style to our special expertise. As an exam-ple, the school has let me create a two-se-mester elective for next year - introduction to personal finance, and introduction to investments. These are life-worthy topics, they are right up my power alley and I can involve our parent community as resourc-es. I’m excited to see how this class unfolds next year.

Q: What do you think makes a great teacher?A: I used to think subject matter exper-

tise was the end-all and be-all, and, obvi-ously, that is hugely important. In fact, it’s a given - it’s the price of admission to the ball game. But, after that, what really matters

DAN CARMODY

Gary Piligian

MAY 13 - MAY 26, 2016 ■ www.ReporterNewspapers.net Education | 7

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is something quite simple: Does the teach-er care about the students and about the subject matter? If a teacher cares, students pick up on that. And likewise if they sense the teacher doesn’t care.

Q: What do you want to see in your stu-dents?

A: I want to see students who are ready to tackle difficult problems; I value resilien-cy and persistence. I try to put the growth mindset into all students - the idea that anyone can learn anything if they put the effort into it.

Q: How do you engage your students? A: The biggest thing students are look-

ing for is relevance. Our Head of School, Dr. Brett Jacobsen, suggested all of our staff read a book called “Future Wise” by David Perkins. The book emphasizes that educa-tors need to make sure the concepts they teach are “life worthy” to students - in oth-er words, is what we are teaching likely to matter to the lives that students are likely to live? That’s a great lens through which to build engagement: Is it relevant, and does it have real-world applicability? I always link what we learn in the classroom to what I actually applied in my role in the invest-ment business; students are clamoring for that type of relevance.

Q: Do you have a project or special pro-gram you use year after year?

A: No. I change up my projects from year to year. You have to keep it fresh - re-fine what you’ve done before that worked well to make it better, and don’t be afraid to jettison things you did in the past that just weren’t that effective.

Q: Is there a “trick” that works to get stu-dents involved?

A: Candy. All students will work for candy. Seriously, there’s no trick - students can tell if you are working hard on their be-half. They can sense that you care, and they

respond in kind. Now, if you can only tell me the key to keeping graduating seniors involved. That’s a tough one, because, quite understandably, they’re starting to put high school in the rear-view mirror as they look forward to college. I love teaching se-niors, because they are mature, they are thinking about their future, and they want to know what it’s like out there in the real world. But it does get challenging to keep them involved as you move toward Gradu-ation Day.

Also, I’m totally honest with my stu-dents. I tell them that I never had the occa-sion to use imaginary numbers in my work experience, but I used the concepts of com-pound growth almost daily. I build trust with my students, and don’t take that trust for granted. If you can expand your role from being a teacher to being a life coach, students appreciate it.

Q: What do you hope your students take away from your class?

A: Hard work, persistence and resil-ience are more important than raw abil-ity. What you decide to study is more im-portant than where you go to school. Think about growth opportunities when you make your education choices - if I were 18 years old today, I’d make sure I’d closely in-vestigate technology, energy, health care and data science.

Effort matters. Luck matters. Ethics matter. Skills matter. Some jobs pay more than others because of supply and de-mand; make sure you get the skills that will put you in high demand, and make sure you protect your reputation. You are the master of your own destiny.

It’s graduation season. To find out when and where your local high school holds its graduation ceremony, check ReporterNewspapers.net.

Facebook.com/TheReporterNewspapers ■ twitter.com/Reporter_News8 | Commentary

Community Survey

1Q is an Atlanta-based startup that has devel-

oped a technology which sends questions and sur-

veys to a cellphone via app or text message from busi-

nesses and organizations across the coun-try. Respondents are paid 50 cents per an-

swer, through PayPal, for sharing their opinions. Payments may also be donated di-rectly to charity. Sign up to be included in our local community polls at 1Q.com/re-porter or by texting REPORTER to 86312.

Question: What is the minimum post-high school education that you think is necessary today to get a good job? Do you think it is worth taking on debt to get more education?

Despite the cost, a college degree remains the key to a good job, according to the people who answered our most recent 1Q survey. Two-thirds of the 200 respondents in the cellphone-based survey consider a college degree the minimum post-high school education needed to find a comfortable spot in the workplace.

“Continuing education increases the chances of getting a better job and con-sequently, making more money,” a 36-year-old Atlanta woman said when asked whether it was worth going into debt to secure a college degree. “It is an investment that is likely to pay off.”

And during this graduation season, when local colleges and high schools award degrees and diplomas to hundreds of new graduates, others echoed her belief that the extra years of schooling were worth the cost. “In today’s world, it is worth the debt to receive higher education,” a 23-year-old Brookhaven woman with a high-school diploma said.

Not everyone saw it that way, however. About 23 percent of the respondents to the survey of adults across the communities served by Reporter Newspapers and At-lanta INtown thought high school graduates could do well with only two years of college education, a few college courses or no college at all. “As an executive for a 200-employee company,” a 41-year-old Buckhead man with a high-school education said, “I’ve found that some of the best people have no degree, but rather a great un-derstanding of the subject matter for a given position.”

Then again, about 10 percent thought college wasn’t enough. New graduates, they said, needed at least a master’s degree.

Others questioned the high cost of college, which often requires students or their families to go deeply into debt. “I have recently graduated with my bachelor’s de-gree,” a 23-year-old Atlanta woman commented. “I think it is crazy how much we have to spend and put ourselves in debt to find a job just to make it. It’s insane that there are no other options than to put ourselves in debt in order to get a job, because to get any decent job today you need at least a bachelor’s degree. I am all about the education, but not being punished financially for receiving it.”

AgeEducation

Total Respondents (200) WHAT RESPONDENTS HAD TO SAY

“Only if that debt can quickly be paid off. The education needs to lead to a job in a field where there is need.”47-year-old Sandy Springs wom-an with a master’s degree

“No, work experience is more important.”61-year-old Sandy Springs man with a college degree

“No, not unless you are in a spe-cific field that requires it (aka doctor, lawyer, etc.).”31-year-old Sandy Springs wom-an with a bachelor’s degree

“Yes, but you need to be strategic and have a career in mind. A degree is only valuable if employers think it is.”31-year-old Brookhaven man with a master’s degree

“Only if it (debt) is flexi-ble and low interest!”51-year-old Buckhead man with a bachelor’s degree

“Depends on how much the job you expect to get will pay.”24-year-old Dunwoody wom-an with a master’s degree

“No. Success is based on effort, de-termination and focus, not finan-cial background. Plenty of rich kids who have access to a college ed-ucation make nothing of it.”40-year-old Atlanta wom-an with a master’s degree

“It’s an investment, but only to get a job that can pay it off.”27-year-old Atlanta man with a graduate degree

HS5%

BS/BA63%

POST GRAD32%

29 &YOUNGER

41%

30-3929%

40 &OVER30%

None

Some college cours completed

Associate’s Degree

Bachelor’s Degree

Graduate Degree

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Contributor

Donna Williams Lewis, Phil Mosier

MAY 13 - MAY 26, 2016 ■ www.ReporterNewspapers.net Commentary | 9

I carried them to term, thirty-eight weeks. They were 6.5 lbs. and 6.7 lbs. and each measured 19.5 inches, a remarkable dual heft for a 5’1 me.

I carried them, hip on hip, side to side, front and back, for the first year. I carried them one at a time -- on a Boppy pillow in my lap and draped across my shoulder. I carried them tandem--strapped into stroll-ers and car seats, in a backpack, and in a front sling. I carried them through colicky days and feverish nights, through Chuck E. Cheese bouncy-ball pits and Chick-fil-A slides.

I shuttled them to school, karate les-sons, swim meets, soccer practice, base-ball games, campouts and Scout meetings. I hauled them to shoe shopping and suit fit-tings, and countless times to REI. I drove them to doctors’ offices and school dances, to birthday party days and movie meet-up nights.

I drove them to airports for departure to grandparent vacations and summer ad-ventures.

I carried them to college visits and spring breaks and school dance picture parties.

This month as I watch my twin boys carry their high school diplomas across the stage, I will continue to feel their weight in my arms.

They may not know it, they may not like it, but they are a part of me and I carry them with me as completely and naturally as I carry my own heart.

And after graduation, I will carry them still.

We all carry our children. They are there in our minds and our guts, our hopes and our fears. We carry them through sickness, disappointments and breakups. When they don’t make the team, when their friends move away, we feel the loss and we share in the sadness. We carry them through health, accomplishments and satisfaction.

When their team wins, when they made the cut, we feel the elation and we share in the thrill. And through all the ups and downs, we carry them…with love and prayer and wringing hands and gleeful hugs.

We teach them to stand and to walk and to be in-dependent; raising self-sufficient adults is, af-ter all, our ul-timate goal. (And yes, you can throw-in “happy,” “well-adjust-ed,” “contrib-uting member of society,” and any num-ber of enriching adjectives, but you get my point). Yet our children are irrevoca-bly connected to us through the bonds of parenthood, and it is within those parental bonds that we carry them.

We carry them with joy and pride and utter astonishment that these beings grew up before our very eyes and developed into strong and capable adults.

We will carry them still, through dorm move-in day and college football games, through interviews and job searches, through engagements and weddings and births, through new lives and new dreams and new families emerging.

It is the way of the world. Once we car-ry our tiny miracles as helpless infants, they become ours, and we carry them with us, forever.

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BY JOHN RUCHjohnruch@reporternewspapers.net

A heavy load of wooden building frames dangled from a crane over traffic on a Sandy Springs street April 29. Hoist-ing a load over an open street is a move the crane’s owner says should not happen, and various construction industry guidelines discourage it.

But in the patchwork world of localized construction codes, officials say, that lum-ber lift broke no legal rules in that specif-ic spot, the One City Walk project’s side facing Sandy Springs Place. But the same lift might violate city or state rules if it happened just a few miles away in Buck-head—or even just a few feet away on Ro-swell Road.

In the April 29 incident, workers had placed the load of wood in a travel lane of Sandy Springs Place without any special traffic control. As vehicles drove around the load, two workers connected it to the crane, which then lifted it over moving traffic and onto the job site. The crane is a rental from North Carolina-based Heede Southeast.

“I was like, ‘Holy…’ It’s not the best feel-ing,” said Heede General Manager Jason Kenna about seeing a photo of the lift. “Hoisting loads over occupied streets is not a common practice,” he added, say-ing workers usually will stop traffic “so no one’s under the load.”

Kenna said it appeared the crane oper-ator was working “in the blind,” meaning he could not see the load directly due to the angle and relied on “flaggers,” or ground workers, to direct him. Heede provides only the crane and the operator, not the flaggers, who are general contractor CW Construction’s responsibility, Kenna said.

“We’ll probably do a site visit and talk to the contractor to figure out what happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again,”

Kenna said.Grant Stackhouse, CW’s exec-

utive vice president of construc-tion, said that the tightness of the site requires lifts from the street at times, but that the company does not want loads passing over traf-fic. “That isn’t our policy. We want to do our best to not fly things over [the street],” he said.

Stackhouse said the site super-visor informed him that traffic had been blocked during the April 29 lift, but acknowledged he had not directly witnessed it. Stackhouse said the supervisor has been in-structed to emphasize the need for traffic control during crane lifts.

While the crane and contract-ing companies are taking action, the city of Sandy Springs proba-bly would not, because no specific rules cover the situation, said city spokesperson Sharon Kraun.

“Our current code does not cov-er ‘means and methods’ as it relates to cranes and construction within the city,” Kraun said, adding that the state code the city borrowed from doesn’t, either. “However, our building inspectors are able to take action if they witness activity that they believe is unsafe or presents a life safety issue.”

One City Walk is also bordered by Roswell Road, a state route where crane operations have different rules. “If GDOT was overseeing this work…we would not have any vehicles moving under our crane, period,” said state Depart-ment of Transportation spokesperson An-nalysce Baker.

On state routes, even moving the crane’s arm over the street requires a “right of way encroachment” permit, said Baker.

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And hoisting a load over the road would re-quire a traffic control plan involving stop-ping vehicles “until the load went from Point A to Point B. Nothing should be un-der that load.”

The city of Atlanta has similar permit requirements, said spokesperson Jewan-na Gaither. “Public safety is always our top priority,” she said in an email. “All construc-tion activity in our public right of ways, to include material handling and equipment

therein, requires a right-of-way construc-tion permit and any associated needed sidewalk, lane or street closure permits to ensure protection of the public.”

The cities of Brookhaven and Dun-woody do not often have projects using the large tower cranes like the one at One City Walk and do not have specific crane-relat-ed construction codes, city spokespersons said. Both cities do require permits and traffic control plans for construction use of a public street’s travel lane.

Dunwoody in 2014 issued special ease-ment permits for tower cranes at the new State Farm tower under construction at Hammond Drive and Perimeter Cen-ter Parkway. Michael Smith, Dunwoody’s public works director, said those permits were not about carrying loads over the streets, but simply giving permission for the crane’s arms to pass over public right of ways. The city considered it a property-rights issue, not a construction code issue, he said.

Dunwoody city spokesperson Bob Mul-len said the city does require all construc-tion projects to follow “federal and state re-quirements, guidelines and best practices.”

The federal Occupational Safety & Health Administration, which governs em-ployee safety issues, has a standard that broadly suggests cranes avoid lifting mate-rials over workers, “consistent with public safety,” said Lindsay Williams, a spokesper-son for OSHA’s southeastern regional of-fice. But OSHA does not have jurisdiction over general public safety, he said.

Shane Adams, president and CEO of Crane Safety Associates of America, an in-spection and training firm in McDonough, Ga., said that a crane’s load-carrying path should be planned to meet voluntary in-dustry standards from the American Na-tional Standards Institute, including one that says: “The operator should avoid car-rying loads over people.”

Localrulesdifferonconstructioncraneshoistingloadsoverbusystreets

JOHN RUCH

A heavy load of wooden building frames dangles over a portion of Sandy Springs Place on April 29.

Jaclyn Maxwell, left, with sons Mark, 1, front, and Harrison, 4, right, along with Carter Lucking, 3,

center, give the Lynwood Days Parade their full

attention on May 7.

PHIL MOSIER

Lynwood Days Parade and Festival

BK

MAY 13 - MAY 26, 2016 ■ www.ReporterNewspapers.net Community | 11

Northside plans 8-story tower, 10-story garage

BY JOHN RUCHjohnruch@reporternewspapers.net

Northside Hospital hopes to add an 8-story tower and a 10-story parking ga-rage to its Pill Hill campus in plans now under state and city of Sandy Springs re-view.

Last December, Northside received state approval to build a 5-story tower—an addition to its main building at 1000 Johnson Ferry Road—to add 53 in-pa-tient beds. That would boost the total bed count to 590.

This month, the hospital filed an up-dated tower plan that keeps the same number of beds, but adds three more stories containing other services to the building, according to spokesperson Katherine Watson. The application for a “Certificate of Need,” includes:

•Expansion and renovation of the hos-pital’s food services.

•Four additional shared operating room suites and expansion of surgical support space.

•Renovation of existing space to house a conversion of existing medical/surgi-cal beds into critical care beds.

•25 physician sleep rooms.•Refurbishment of the hospital’s La-

bor & Delivery area.•Renovation/conversion of existing

space to house 29 additional 23-hour ob-servation/extended recovery beds/bays.

A community meeting about the plan

is slated for May 23, 6 p.m. at

Sandy Springs City Hall, 7840 Roswell Road, Building 500.

NORTHSIDE HOSPITAL

Northside Hospital hopes to add an 8-story tower and a 10-story parking garage to its Pill Hill campus. The tower’s height has increased from five stories to contain other services, according to a hospital spokesperson. For a larger version, go to ReporterNewspapers.net.

•Renovation of space being vacated in the existing hospital for other clinical and non-clinical uses.

If the tower gains state approval, con-struction could start this fall, Watson said.

BK

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City to sell Skyland Park to DeKalb for new elementary schoolEssentially, the city agrees to swap 10 acres of city parkland for the 4 acres and the Sky-land building while receiving an additional $4.7 million cash payment, explained City Attorney Chris Balch.

The vote to approve the sale was 3-0, with Mayor John Ernst and Councilmem-bers Linley Jones and Joe Gebbia voting in favor. Councilmember Bates Mattison, ex-ecutive director of the Brookhaven Inno-vation Academy, which last year want-ed to purchase the park property for its new charter school, recused himself from the discussion to ensure there was no per-ceived conflict of interest.

Councilmember John Park, who repre-sents the neighborhoods around Skyland Park, was absent. Park issued a statement May 11 saying he was traveling for work and was unable to attend the meeting, but said he would have voted yes.

The city’s May 10 vote followed the DeKalb school board vote on May 9 ap-proving the purchase of the 10-acre park from Brookhaven and also agreeing to buy the Skyland Center building next door from the state government for $2.8 million. The building currently houses the State Vi-tal Records office.

Of the $4.7 million being paid to the city,

$2.3 million will be used to demol-ish the state building and build the new Skyland Park to include dog areas, a multi-use field and a play-ground, according to draft plans drawn up by GreenbergFarrow.

The estimated cost to build the new Skyland Park is about $2.3 million, according to the city. Con-struction is expected to begin in January and be completed within six months.

The remaining $2.4 million will be used specifically to purchase more green space. The school dis-trict is expected to close on the properties with the city and state by January 2017, with the new school slated to open in three years.

The school system’s plans to construct a new $22 million, 900-seat elementary school on the current Skyland Park prop-erty did not sit well with those living in neighborhoods near the park.

Residents voice complaints Rob Smith of Skyland Drive said he was

upset no news of the deal was made public until the day before the council vote. “I’m really upset with the process,” he said. “It’s going to be hard to get on board with proj-ects in the future.”

Matt Ades said he was so angered by the agreement he planned to put a “For Sale” sign in his yard on Wednesday and “move out of Brookhaven and say goodbye.”

Sunil Singh said the City Council gave the public lots of time to voice opinions when other development moves in, such as gas stations. “But for this we were not given any warning,” he said.

Outspoken neighborhood activist Ron-nie Mayer was visibly upset after the vote and berated council members. “Shame on you all,” he said. “This just makes my blood boil. You just sold the whole city out.”

Balch said the city is allowed by state law to discuss real estate matters behind closed doors. He explained that because the school board voted on May 9 to ap-prove the deal and the state’s deadline of May 15 on the sale of its Skyland building meant the city had to act quickly.

Balch also said voting in favor of such a transaction despite concerns from mem-bers of the public upon learning of the deal at the last minute is “part of governance.”

“We live in a representative republic and a representative democracy,” he said. “This is not ancient Athens where we have direct participation. And the reason you were each elected was to provide the voice of people and to make decisions for the cit-izens of this city.”

The city was on track to purchase the Skyland building late last year, but that

deal was nixed after Ernst, who had just been elected to office, told then-mayor Rebecca Chase Wil-liams he planned to kill the deal after taking office.

Ernst said he was presented the new land proposition from the school district a month after tak-ing office. He agreed to hear the district out and was satisfied with what was offered. Being an elected official also means making tough decisions, he added.

“This will be the first school built in Brookhaven since the 1970s … and I believe it will be a pillar for our community,” he said. “We have to make decisions, that’s what we were elected to do. And I

know I’m going to disappoint people. I tru-ly understand your concerns. The advo-cates … need to start speaking out publicly.”

Gebbia said the decision to sell Sky-land Park to build a new school is a region-al issue, not just a city one. Jones said she agreed to the deal because it meant the city had some leverage in deciding what devel-opment took place on the property.

‘Decisions of generational consequence’

Several residents spoke in support of the sale and plan for the new school.

Kim Gokce, president of the Cross Keys Foundation, praised the council for ap-proving the deal. “These are decisions of generational consequence,” he said. “I un-derstand concerns raised, but we have to have public schools. All current schools are over capacity. ... I think once [the communi-ty] sees the context of this decision, I think you will win them over.”

Lissie Stahlman, a former public school teacher, thanked the council for its deci-sion to help alleviate school overcrowding.

“I guarantee you, there won’t be as many trailers with kids who have to hold it because they can’t use the bathroom and wind up with urinary tract infections; that’s what’s happening right now,” she said. “I’m 100 percent in favor of this.”

DYANA BAGBY

Rob Smith, seated, right, explains his concerns about a new elementary school to be build in Skyland Park

to Mayor John Ernst, seated, left, and Community Development Director Ben Song, left.

Continuedfrompage1

BK

MAY 13 - MAY 26, 2016 ■ www.ReporterNewspapers.net Community | 13

VotersGuideState Sen. Fran Millar confronts chal-

lenger Paul Maner in the May 24 Republi-can Primary for the Senate seat represent-ing District 40, which takes in much of Brookhaven. The winner will face Democrat Tamara Johnson-Shealey in the fall election.

The Reporter submitted questions to the candidates, and here are selections from their responses, edited for space. To see their full answers, go to ReporterNewspapers.net.

In House District 80, three Brookhaven Republicans are competing in the prima-ry for the right to challenge the incumbent, Rep. Taylor Bennett of Brookhaven. Those candidates were featured in the April 29-May 12 edition of the Brookhaven Report-er. Their responses may be found at Report-erNewpapers.net.

PaulManerFinancial advisor

Neighborhood: Em-bry Hills Past political experi-ence: None. Other experience in the community: I have served as a mis-sionary on both for-eign and local mis-

sions, as well as working with the needy and indigent.

Q: Why are you running for this office? A: I have always strongly believed in rep-resentative government. My opponent believes the best form of government is powerful men making decisions behind closed doors. Career politicians thinking that way have hurt our communities, but not beyond repair. I will fight to restore active representation to State Senate Dis-trict 40’s residents at the Georgia Capitol.

Q: Why should the voters choose you?A: I am sick and tired of the corruption and lack of results from DeKalb County. When my opponent leaves office, he will leave the county worse than he found it. I will push to end political corruption, cut taxes and improve our educational and transportation concerns. There are too many issues being ignored and I will not need on the job training to solve these problems.

Q: If elected, what’s the first thing you want to accomplish in office? A: If elected, I will be the leading Taxpay-er Advocate in Georgia. Georgians are paying too much in taxes every year and I will question each and every tax the cit-izens are being forced to pay.

Q: What do you see as the biggest prob-lem facing the state? A: Education, Transportation and Taxes.

Q: If a “religious freedom” bill similar to

the one passed this session and vetoed by Gov. Deal is offered again next year, how would you vote on it?A: I would vote for it.

Q: If it comes up again in the legislature next year, would you support some form of new tax to expand MARTA?A: I could only make that decision if the residents of District 40 told me that they wanted it. MARTA has a huge presence in District 40, but it’s an issue that I want to address in regular town hall meetings across the communities in the District. Too many politicians are either in the pockets of big business or political ma-chinery.

Fran Millar (I)Marking Consultant/state Senator

Community: Dun-woodyPast political expe-rience: State Repre-sentative for 12 years; state Senator for six years.Other experience in the community:

Member of Dunwoody United Method-ist Church; board member, Dunwoody Homeowners Association.

Q: Why are you running for this office?A: To continue serving the people of the 40th Senate district

Q: Why should the voters choose you?A: Experience and I get results. I focused on property tax relief, career readiness options and increased opportunities for the disabled

Q: If elected, what’s the first thing you want to accomplish in office?A: Continue to control costs of higher ed-ucation

Q: What do you see as the biggest prob-lem facing the state?A: Educational achievement and regional transportation

Q: If a “religious freedom” bill similar to the one passed this session and vetoed by Gov. Deal is offered again next year, how would you vote on it?A: It will not be similar. I would rath-er focus on education, healthcare and transportation issues.

Q: If it comes up again in the legislature next year, would you support some form of new tax to expand MARTA?A: I voted against just Fulton and DeKalb bearing the burden. Other counties and the state need to contribute.I=incumbent

Paul ManerFran Millar (I)

BK

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Meanwhile, Brookhaven City Council member Joe Gebbia revealed that he wants the city to buy Buford Highway property to ensure redevelopment includes affordable housing and local businesses. City-owned redevelopments, Gebbia said, may be the only way “to serve the community and not just maximize the profit.”

Similar food for thought was served alongside food for the belly on the bus tour. While noshing on sample plates, attendees heard from such officials as MARTA plan-ner Amanda Rhein, who set up an easel at the Plaza Fiesta mall and explained the agency’s proposed transit-oriented redevel-opment around the Brookhaven/Ogletho-rpe station.

The bus crawl ended at Brookhav-en’s Royal Lounge nightclub with keynote speaker Ryan Gravel, the urban planner who dreamed up Atlanta’s BeltLine park/transit ring.

“There’s certainly the challenge of change and displacing the thing that makes [Buford Highway] special,” Gravel said in an interview at the lounge about the corridor’s immigrant culture. “Nowhere else has that sense of identity, that sense of place…There’s nothing else like it” in metro Atlanta or most other suburban corridors nationwide, he said. “What happens to it is really important.”

Without a new kind of culture-focused planning, Gravel told the crowd, Buford’s main asset will be displaced for another ge-neric strip-mall suburb. He suggested turn-ing two lanes of the roadway into bus-rap-id-transit lanes. And instead of pumping money into standard redevelopments, he called for investing in affordable housing or “a venture capital fund for immigrant businesses.”

Gentrification tensionsBringing busloads of mostly white, non-

Hispanic cultural tourists to Buford High-way was a tricky part of the bus crawl’s own displacement discussions, and sparked

some local curiosity. As one group walked through the Plaza Fiesta parking lot, a pass-erby cracked, “Did y’all’s bus break down? That’s a lot of white people.”

Julio Penaranda, the property manager at Plaza Fiesta, said that Brookhaven city policies are displacing the mall’s Latino customer base, even as it adapts to serve a new, upper-middle-class “white Anglo” de-mographic.

“Brookhaven has been, hands-down, anti-low-income, anti-Latino, anti-immi-grants since Day One,” said Penaranda, pointing to the city’s approval of luxury housing in place of apartments, and its li-censing crackdowns on local restaurants and nightclubs. He contrasted Brookhaven with the city of Chamblee, which he char-acterized as more supportive.

Penaranda said Plaza Fiesta’s mall has changed with local demographics over the years, starting as a Woolworth’s depart-ment store in the 1950s, shifting to Asian

businesses in the 1970s, and then a Lati-no mall in 1998. Now Plaza Fiesta is mak-ing sure its retailers welcome the new de-mographic by accepting credit cards, using bilingual signage and showing “that it’s not scary to come into a place that is mostly Hispanic.”

MARTA Army founder Simon Berrebi said bus crawl organizers tried to not pres-ent Buford as exotic, but instead to high-light the good and the challenging. “That’s how people who live and work here live it every day,” he reminded the nightclub crowd.

“It’s not just, ‘Let’s go eat.’ It’s, ‘Let’s go eat and learn,’” said We Love BuHi founder Marian Liou about the bus crawl’s intent.

Why they love BuHiMany attendees did just that, enjoying

exploring Buford and trying out MARTA’s 39 bus. Katie Lambert of Atlanta and Lin-da Niederhausen of Marietta teamed up to

join one of several groups led from stop to stop by volunteer guides.

“This is one of the few parts of town [where] I haven’t gone to every restaurant,” said Lambert, while Niederhausen was impressed with MARTA’s service. “It was clean. That’s one of the myths—that the bus is dirty,” she said.

Chamblee residents Katja and Joerg Lauterbach said they’ve been on We Love BuHi’s previous Buford bike tours.

“We just love Buford Highway…We are adventurers, but [we attend] to be more ad-venturous,” Katja Lauterbach said, adding that as immigrants themselves—from Ber-lin, Germany—they appreciate the corri-dor and its people. “I really support the mis-sion [Liou’s] taking on to celebrate Buford…We know how it is to be having certain lan-guage barriers.”

At Yen Jing, a Chinese restaurant in Doraville, a dumpling-munching crowd heard about the work of the Center for Pan

PHOTOS BY JOHN RUCH

“Bus crawl” attendees dig in at Plaza Fiesta on April 27. The crawl, staged by We Love BuHi and the MARTA Army, gave patrons a chance to explore the Buford Highway corridor and hear about redevelopment plans.

Continuedfrompage1

BK

MAY 13 - MAY 26, 2016 ■ www.ReporterNewspapers.net Community | 15

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Asian Community Services from its vice president, Victoria Huynh. Sally Flocks of the Atlanta pedestrian advocacy group PEDS explained Buford Highway’s traf-fic dangers outside the Bangladeshi mar-ket and café Bismillah, where there’s a dirt path instead of a sidewalk.

The star of the tour was Gravel, who grew up in Chamblee and whose 1999 grad student project of turning old railroad beds into the BeltLine is transforming Atlanta—currently as a multiuse path, but with a strong push for his original light-rail pub-lic transit vision. (Gravel said he’s “super-excited” about a transit-funding tax that goes before Atlanta voters this fall.)

Grassroots challengesGravel signed a copy of his new book,

“Where We Want to Live,” for Rebekah Morris, a teacher at Brookhaven’s Cross Keys High, while she told him about her students’ project to design their own Bu-ford Highway visions. That student project is partly a response to a lack of Buford com-munity input in local plans, partly due to language or cultural barriers.

Grassroots input is a big theme of Grav-el’s book, he said in an interview. For the BeltLine plan, he said, Atlanta’s Neighbor-hood Planning Unit system was crucial for getting quick and easy community input from everywhere in the city. He said he is not an expert in Buford-area local govern-ments, but that they appear not to have

anything like NPUs. Brookhaven created a plan for its sec-

tion of Buford Highway in 2014 that is con-troversial, Liou and others say, for suggest-ing a renaming to “Buford Boulevard” and only lightly addressing diversity with such ideas as a globe sculpture. The published plan included public comments from only nine people.

Local input from the diverse commu-nity is “an uphill climb for everybody,” said David Schaefer, the director of poli-cy and advocacy at the Latin American As-sociation, which is based on Brookhaven’s stretch of Buford Highway.

Language barriers, meetings not acces-sible by public transit, immigrants from places without traditions of public input,

the daily struggles of poverty—all of those and more are among the obstacles, Schae-fer said. And with immigrants from dozens of countries, the Buford corridor’s commu-nity is not a “monolith” with an easy repre-sentative to contact, he said.

“I think there’s deeper relationship-building that both sides need to engage in,” Schaefer said of city-community relations. He added that Brookhaven is generally re-sponsive, but “sometimes market forces are bigger than any of us.” State-level af-fordable housing policy may be the real so-lution, he said.

“There’s also the culture of thinking about it,” he said. “Sometimes the law fol-lows the culture.”

Rethinking redevelopmentGravel made a similar point about

broadening the definition of urban plan-ning. With metro Atlanta’s population booming and local governments doing cleanup projects like the Peachtree Creek Greenway and shutting down strip clubs, change is coming to Buford Highway, Grav-el said. With a “thoughtful” approach, it can change in ways that build wealth for the existing community, he said. And with new priorities driving the planning, it could suddenly “be very easy to take [some of] those lanes away from cars and give them to people.”

“Buford Highway has to be a corridor not just for moving people in cars along,”

but also for community development, health and the arts, Gravel said. “All of those things are part of what its job is.”

Gebbia, the Brookhaven City Council member who represents the area, praised Liou and Morris as leaders raising some of those new ways of thinking. He said it has helped inspire him to work for more for-mal, regional planning with Chamblee and Doraville on public transit advocacy and such marketing efforts as a possible “inter-national festival” on the entire corridor.

Gebbia’s biggest idea is using a poten-tial new city agency—a Downtown De-velopment Authority—to “take control of [a] project…assemble the land…then dic-tate the outcome to bidders.” One or more city-developed projects could retain Buford

Ryan Gravel, left, signs his book for Cross Keys High School teacher Rebekah Morris at Brookhaven’s Royal Lounge.

Highway’s workforce housing and multi-cultural businesses, he said, adding that the idea is under city internal review.

But time may not be on the side of new-fangled development ideas. Gebbia said he has talked with the Latin American Associ-

ation about a “contingency plan” in case a major apartment complex was bought out and its hundreds of residents are sudden-ly displaced.

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BROOKHAVEN • BUCKHEAD • DUNWOODY • SANDY SPRINGS

FOR KIDSKIDS TO PARKS DAY Saturday, May 21, 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. For the sixth year, Sandy Springs participates in the Na-tional Park Trust’s “National Kids to Parks Day.” Activities for all ages include: obstacle course challenges, water slides, inflatables, face painting, balloon artist, raffles, DJ music and more. Free. Hammond Park, 705 Ham-mond Dr., Sandy Springs, 30328. Find out more: sandyspringsga.org.

A SEUSSOME TWOSOMESaturday, May 21, 11 a.m. Using the poetry of Dr. Seuss’s classic stories, “Gertrude McFuzz,” and “Green Eggs and Ham,” this children’s program is an easy to understand introduc-tion to opera. Tickets, $10 per person. Q&A with performers follows show. Conant Per-forming Arts Center, Oglethorpe University, 4484 Peachtree Rd., Brookhaven, 30319. For further details and tickets, go to: ccityopera.org. Call 404-364-8555 with questions.

LEARN SOMETHING!HERBS & TONICSSaturday, May 21, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Learn “sim-ple” medicine-making skills using native and nonnative plants found at Blue Heron Na-ture Preserve! This class covers plant identi-fication, and the medicinal and edible value of plants. Hike the woods, learn proper har-vesting skills and discuss plant safety. Make a “pre recipe” tonic to take home. Light snacks and beverages provided. $30 per person; $15 for children under 12. 4055 Roswell Rd., Atlan-ta, 30342. Call 404-345-1008 for information. Register: bhnp.org or email: amyz@bhnp.org.

SPRING FLORASaturday, May 21, 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Bring your canoe or kayak and join National Park Service Naturalist Jerry Hightower for a three-mile float on the Chattahoochee River, exploring plants, geology and wildlife. You will encounter three, mild class 1.5 rapids suitable for beginners. Meet at the Powers Island entrance at 10 a.m. to un-load equipment. Wear warm, quick-drying clothes and good river shoes. No flip-flops! Bring lunch and water for a picnic. Reservations re-quired by calling 678-538-1200. $3 park pass or current annual pass or America the Beautiful Pass required. 5450 Interstate North Parkway, Sandy Springs, 30328. Find out more: nps.gov.

SCREENAGERSSunday, May 22, 11 a.m.-12:45 p.m. The Marcus Jewish Com-munity Center of At-

lanta and Jewish Family & Career Services co-present the film,” SCREENAGERS: Growing Up in the Digital Age.” The documentary explores challenges families face over social media, vid-eo games, academics and internet addiction. Authors and brain scientists discuss how to help kids navigate the digital world. Tickets, $12. To purchase, visit: YTFL.org/screenagers. 5342 Tilly Mill Rd., Dunwoody, 30338.

INTRO TO MEDITATIONWednesday, May 25, 6:30-7:30 p.m. Learn what meditation is and what its benefits are. Free and open to the public. Suitable for adults, elders, college and high school au-diences. For more information, contact the Buckhead Branch Library at 404-814-3500 or email: comments@co.fulton.ga.us. 269 Buck-head Ave., NE, Atlanta, 30305.

MILITARY TIMELINE

Saturday, May 28, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. The Atlanta His-tory Center honors U.S. veterans of generations past as well as those of today during the fami-ly program, Military Timeline. Meet veterans sharing personal stories of wartime and mem-orabilia. Travel the military timeline from the Revolutionary War to current conflicts. Enjoy self-guided tours of Veterans Park using smart-phones to access recordings of veterans’ stories. Free for members; included in general admission for non-members. For details or tickets, visit: at-lantahistorycenter.com or call 404-814-4000. 130 West Paces Ferry Rd., NW, Atlanta, 30305.

FUNDRAISERSBROOKHAVEN BOLTSaturday, May 21, 8 a.m. Join the crowd at the Brookhaven Bolt! 5K runs through Ashford Park. Begins and ends at Village Place Brookhav-en, 1418 Dresden Dr. Walkers, strollers and pets start at 8:05 a.m. Rain or shine. Post-race festiv-ities include raffles, awards, food. $30; $35 race day. Proceeds go to Ashford Park Elementary School. Learn more and register: brookhaven-bolt.com. Caldwell Road, Brookhaven, 30319.

GEORGIA BEER FESTIVALSaturday, May 21, 2-6 p.m. The second annual Tap into Georgia Beer Festival rolls into Brook Run Park, featuring local Georgia brewers. Live music. Rain or shine. Tickets, $30 in advance; $35 at the door. Designated driver ticket available, $10. Pro-ceeds benefit the Dunwoody Nature Center. Ticket includes tastings, souvenir glass and access to on-

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site concessions. 4770 N. Peachtree Rd., Dunwoody 30338. Questions? Visit: dunwoodynature.org.

SALUTE TO OUR TROOPS 5KSaturday, May 28, 8 a.m. Come out and hon-or the men and women of our armed servic-es! This 5K provides financial support to our troops with food, rent, utilities and medi-cal expenses. Grab your family, friends and fuzzy buddies for a run/walk around Chas-tain Park. Rain or shine. Strollers and walk-ers welcome. $30; day of $35. Children 6-18, $23. 110 W. Wieuca Rd., Atlanta, 30342. Regis-ter at active.com or find out more: mycbf.org.

VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTSSOUTHEASTERN PASTEL SOCIETY

Thursday, May 19, 6-8 p.m. Reception for the 17th annual international juried exhi-bition, featuring 100 submitted paintings from the Southeastern Pastel Society. Show runs through June 26. $5 for adults; free for OUMA members; children un-der 12, free. Free parking. Low-ry Hall, Third Floor, Oglethorpe Museum of Art, 4484 Peachtree Rd., NE, Brookhaven, 30319. Call 404-364-8555 or go to: museum.oglethorpe.edu.

THE MIKADOFriday, May 20, 8 p.m. Capi-tol City Opera Company pres-ents Gilbert and Sullivan’s light-hearted comic operet-ta production, “The Mikado,” set in Japan. General admis-sion: adults, $40; seniors/stu-

dents, $30; free with a Petrel Pass. Additional shows: Saturday, May 21, 8 p.m. and Sunday, May 22, 3 p.m. Conant Performing Arts Cen-ter, 4484 Peachtree Rd., Oglethorpe Universi-ty, Brookhaven, 30319. For more information and tickets, go to: ccityopera.org.

ZYDECO DANCE

Saturday, May 21, 8 p.m. Known for their smooth harmonies and Motown-era influences, this young band, Curley Taylor & Zydeco Trou-ble, makes audiences want to stay on the dance floor. Free beginners dance lesson 7-8 p.m. $18; $5, students; $14, active military. No partner re-quired. All ages welcome. Cajun food for sale. Dorothy Benson Center, 6500 Vernon Woods Dr., Sandy Springs, 30328. For further details, go to: aczadance.org or call 877-338-2420. ATLANTA CONCERT BANDSunday, May 22, 4 p.m. The Atlanta Concert Band continues its 2015-2016 season with a free performance of “Take the High Road: A Musical Tribute to the Fallen” at The Galloway School. No tickets required. In the Chaddick Perform-ing Arts Center, 215 West Wieuca Rd., NW, At-lanta, 30342. For more information, call 404-358-1966 or visit www.atlantaconcertband.

SOULHOUNDSaturday, May 28, 7-9 p.m. The Dunwoody Nature Center’s Concerts in the Park series welcomes Soulhound, who play groove-ori-ented R&B, as well as soul and greasy funk of the late ‘60s and ‘70s. Grab a chair, blan-

ket and picnic din-ner. Beverages avail-able for purchase. Seating on first-come, first-served basis. Free for DNC members; adults, $5; students, $3; children 3 and un-der, free. 5343 Rob-erts Dr., Dunwoody, 30338. For further de-tails, call 770-394-3322 or go to: dunwoody-nature.org. Find out about the band: soul-hound.com.

Facebook.com/TheReporterNewspapers ■ twitter.com/Reporter_News18 | Dining Out

Dining OutMegan Volpert Megan Volpert lives in Decatur, teaches in Ro-swell and writes books about popular culture.

In the April edition of Atlanta Maga-zine, Corby Kummer gave four stars to Sta-plehouse—the first four-star rating giv-en by that magazine since 2010. Within the same 24 hours as that incredible re-view, news also broke that Staplehouse is a James Beard Finalist for Best New Restau-rant.

After I ate there, I immediately posted on social media: “Don’t wait for my review, ATLiens, get tickets to eat at Staplehouse now, before they’re the hardest table to get in this city. I’m not a sentimental person, so when I say you won’t regret it…” and then posted a photo of the slogan painted over their kitchen. It’s a quotation from Ryan Hidinger that reads, “Anything long last-ing or worthwhile takes time and complete surrender.”

Everyone knows the late Hidinger’s story by now. In short, he was a talented chef with plans to open a restau-rant, but instead he died af-ter the industry raised quite a lot of money to aggressive-ly but unsuccessfully treat his gallblad-der cancer. What remains is the small but fiercely determined clan of his wife, Jen; his sister, Kara; and Kara’s husband, Chef Ryan Smith. What remains is The Giving Kitch-en, a means of raising charitable funds for members of the industry who are in need of help with expensive medical bills. All of the after-tax profits from Staplehouse go to The Giving Kitchen.

So to begin with, this is an easy way to give back to the chefs and servers who liter-ally put food on your table. And it is incred-ible food. I have had the pleasure of experi-encing the majority of fine dining offerings in Atlanta, and without hyperbole of any kind, I want to state unequivocally that I have never been so impressed with a meal in our fair city as I was with the one at Sta-plehouse. Kummer said it’s a meal worth a plane ticket and I agree.

There are many dishes worthy of anal-ysis, but little point in detailing them be-cause you should not order them. Staple-house offers an a la carte menu, but you

should get the tickets. Don’t argue with me about the merits of tick-eting; trust Smith to de-liver you an amazing feast that is twice as large as you ex-pect. The tick-ets are for a five-course menu, but there were four surprise courses threaded between those and one

of them had four completely different bites on it. It’s dy-namite bang for your buck. Trust in Smith, whose tastes, techniques and plating will all prove themselves to you as worthy of the ridiculous

amount of praise already bestowed upon them.

This brings me to my only point of dis-agreement with Kummer’s review. He says that the food “is of a seriousness that sug-gests, perhaps even demands, white table-cloths and a hint of formality.” Noooo! I would say instead, “welcome to Atlanta, where the very best chefs have no need of white tablecloths.”

Fine dining establishments in New York or Los Angeles are free to serve you expen-sively boring four-star food, resting as-sured that you can sweep your disillusion-ment under their white tablecloths. That is not how we do it in the South. Not only is Staplehouse free of white tablecloths, it doesn’t even require servers to wear stan-dardized uniforms and it also features – gasp! – an open kitchen floor plan. We are unfussy and we have soul, and we should not make concessions or apologize for it.

One other thing: we like to drink in the South. The long line of glowing Staple-house reviews often neglects to mention its

Res ta u r a n t R e v i ew

Staplehouse

MAY 13 - MAY 26, 2016 ■ www.ReporterNewspapers.net Dining Out | 19

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Quick Bites

bar program, directed by Stephen James. James is not a formally trained sommelier. He is a glam band rocker from Athens with little patience for some other expert’s idea of good taste. A self-taught connoisseur, he paired a superb set of wines to go with the tasting menu. Every pour was a generous one and he personally chatted us up table-side when, after having very much enjoyed not making any choices for the past two

and a half hours, we struggled to decide on a simple aperitif.

Get tickets to Staplehouse. Complete-ly surrender to it, as Ryan Hidinger want-ed. Traditionalist fine diners and the James Beard Awards should find it worthwhile, too.

Staplehouse is located at 541 Edgewood Ave. in the Old Fourth Ward. For more in-formation, visit staplehouse.com.

Create Your Cupcake is open in Sandy Springs at 203 Hilderbrand Drive. The shop allows customers to personalize their own cupcake creations in person for delivery or for group and corporate meetings and events. For more information, visit createy-

ourcupcake.com.

Jamba Juice is now open at 6623 Roswell Road, Suite J, in Sandy Springs, offering up fresh juices, all-natural baked goods, sandwiches and more. For more infor-mation, visit jambajuice.com.

Brookhaven Provisions is now open in Brook-leigh Marketplace. The combination restaurant and shop features sandwiches and salads from both Café at Pharr and Hungry Peach as well as items like olive oils, honey, jams, jellies and more. For details, visit facebook.com/BrookhavenProvisions.

From left, Kara Hidinger, Chef Ryan Smith and Jen Hidinger.

Facebook.com/TheReporterNewspapers ■ twitter.com/Reporter_News20 | Community

HERE’S LOOKING AT YOU

Above, Lost Corner Preserve, Sandy Springs’ newest park, was recently transformed into a classroom for 103 first graders from Dunwoody Springs Elementary School. The students learned about nature, gardening, history and beekeeping. At right, Sandy Springs Mayor

Rusty Paul, a third-generation beekeeper, shows off his skills handling the insects.

Austin Elementary School in Dunwoody held its annual International STEM celebration on May 5, providing an opportunity to learn about other nationalities.

At left, second-graders Erik Johansson, left, and Viggo Klint, dressed in the colors of Sweden, have a snack.

The celebration gave students a chance to showcase their implementation of STEM practices and principles as well as their use of engineering and design concepts.

Emma Kate Sellers, a student at the Atlanta Girls’ School and a member of Youth

Leadership Sandy Springs, spent part of her final day in the program studying

the biodiversity of a creek at Island Ford, headquarters of the Chattachoochee

River National Recreation Area.

Students found a variety of wildlife including frogs, invertebrates, dragonfly

larva, water bugs and crawfish.

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DYANA BAGBY

Lt. Mike Carlson of the Dunwoody Police Department addresses a crowd of people attending a recent Civilian Reaction to Active Shooter

Event (C.R.A.S.E.) at Dunwoody United Methodist Church.

LocalpolicedepartmentstrainingpubliconactiveshootereventsBY DYANA BAGBYdyanabagby@reporternewspapers.net

The class began with the Pledge of Al-legiance. Then, Dunwoody Police Depart-ment’s Lt. Mike Carlson asked the crowd, “Why do you think you are here tonight?”

A woman from the audience vol-unteered, “To learn how to react when there’s an active shooter.”

“I couldn’t think of a better response,” Carlson said. “Give her a round of ap-plause.” The audience did just that.

Carlson was teaching a recent Civil-ian Reaction to an Active Shooter Event (C.R.A.S.E.) at the Dunwoody United Methodist Church, one of several Dun-woody police have put on in the past cou-ple of years.

A crowd of nearly 100 people sat in folding chairs in the Fellowship Hall lis-tening to Carlson’s presentation, part of a growing number of people in metro At-lanta seeking answers for what to do if they somehow are caught in the middle of a shooting.

In addition to Dunwoody, police de-partments in Sandy Springs, Brookhaven and Atlanta also have offered such class-es, all free and open to the public, as news of “active shooters” continue to make na-tional headlines. An active shooter as de-fined by the FBI is “an individual active-

ly engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area.”

The Sandy Springs Police Department has offered three C.R.A.S.E. seminars to the public so far this year, and also 11 pri-vate classes, said Sgt. Forrest Bohannon. “We have a lot of private requests. We do lockdown drills at schools. Schools have different policies than what we teach with C.R.A.S.E. Some of the principles are the same, but some are not because of the younger children,” Bohannon said. “Some of the classes we have done are for medical offices, business offices, private school parents, citizen police academy.”

The Brookhaven Police Department will be scheduling more classes after the summer and the APD has held several successful classes this year.

Carlson told the Dunwoody crowd that there have been 160 “active shooter incidents” in the U.S. from 2000 through 2013.

► That’s an average of 11.4 inci-dents per year. However, since 2006, that number has jumped to 16.4 inci-dents per year.

► There were 486 people killed in these incidents and 557 wounded.

► 70 percent of the incidents oc-curred in either a business/com-

merce or school environment.

► 60 percent of the incidents end-ed before police arrived.

Avoiding ‘normalcy bias’Columbine High School, Sandy Hook

Elementary School, last year’s San Ber-nandino attack – these are all well-known active shooter events, Carlson said.

Carlson played a recording of Colum-bine teacher Patty Nielson calling 911 from the library as students Dylan Kle-bold and Eric Harris could be heard in the hallway shooting.

“Just stay down!” she shouts at stu-dents. Audible gasps could be heard from the crowd listening to the tape.

A video re-enactment of the shoot-ing, with actors portraying Klebold and Harris as well as injured and terrified students, is then played for the crowd. More gasps from those watching could be heard.

Carlson said most people have a “nor-malcy bias” and don’t believe anything bad, such as being in the midst of an ac-tive shooter situation, could happen to them. Classes such as this are meant to jar people into realizing they need to get out of that bias toward normalcy.

The number of deaths at an active shooter event depends on how fast police arrive and the “target availability” – how easy people are for the shooter to actual-ly kill.

It takes police an average of three minutes to respond to an active shooter event, which is like an “eternity” for those at the scene trying to survive, Carlson said. The best way to save lives is to teach civilians how to respond themselves, he

said.Playing dead doesn’t work, he said.

Nor does hiding behind desks, he said, because desks aren’t bulletproof. “Those are two bad strategies,” Carlson said.

Instead, people are urged to “avoid, deny, defend,” he explained.

Avoid: Make sure you have “situation-al awareness” when walking into a room. Know where all the exits are and con-sider secondary exits, such as windows. This gives options to escape.

Deny: If in a school or office build-ing, close the door to your office or room and use a belt or other strap to lock up the handle so the shooter cannot enter. Also, barricade the room shut by push-ing desks and other furniture in front of the door so the shooter cannot open the door.

Defend: If all else fails, be ready at the doorway for the shooter to come and sur-prise the shooter by positioning yourself to attack and take the gun away. “It’s you or them,” Carlson said. “Remember, you are not helpless. What you do matters.”

Barbara Pryor attended the presenta-tion with her husband, Jay Pryor.

“I feel it is of utmost importance for everyone to be aware … to practice in your mind this situation,” she said. “It is especially important for schools and for teachers, because it will all come as a shock and surprise when and if it hap-pens.”

“Unfortunately this is something we all need to know about these days,” he said. “You want to be prepared. The take-away I have is … don’t deny what’s going on. If it sounds like gunshots, act like it is gunshots. And if you think you need the police, call the police.”

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MAY 13 - MAY 26, 2016 ■ www.ReporterNewspapers.net Public Safety | 23

Police Blotter / BrookhavenBrookhaven police reports date

April24throughMay5The following information was pulled from Brookhaven’s Police-2-Citizen website and is

presumed to be accurate.

A R R E S T S � 3100 block of Buford Highway – On

April 24, arrest for no drivers license.

� 3300 block of Peachtree Road – On April 24, arrest for battery-family vio-lence.

� 1800 block of Corporate Blvd – On April 24, arrest for wanted person locat-ed.

� 3200 block of Buford Highway – On April 24, arrest for public intoxication and consumption.

� 1200 block of Apple Valley Road/North Druid Hills Road – On April 24, arrest for simple battery/family vio-lence.

� 3100 block of Buford Highway – On April 24, arrest for marijuana posses-sion.

� 2700 block of Buford Highway – On April 25, arrest for disorderly conduct.

� 3500 block of Buford Highway/Afton Lane – On April 28, arrest for overtaking and passing school bus.

� 4200 block of Peachtree Road – On April 30, arrest for loitering and prowl-ing.

� 3200 block of Buford Highway – On April 30, arrest for loitering.

� 3300 block of Buford Highway – On May 1, arrest for no drivers license.

� 3800 block of Peachtree Road – On May 1, arrest for expired tag.

� 2600 block of Buford Highway – On May 2, arrest for failure to appear.

� 3200 block of Buford Highway – On May 2, arrest for public drunkenness.

� 3500 block Buford Highway/Lenox Overlook Road – On May 2, arrest for no drivers license.

� 3300 block of Buford Highway – On May 2, arrest for disorderly conduct.

� 1500 block of Briardwood Road – On May 2, arrest for burglary.

� 3200 block of Buford Highway – On May 2, arrest for wanted person located.

� 1600 block of North Druid Hills Road – On May 3, arrest for failure to appear.

� 2400 block of Briarcliff Road – On May 3, arrest for forgery in the third de-gree.

� 3500 block of Buford Highway – On May 3, arrest for no drivers li-cense.

� 2400 block of Briar-cliff Road – On May 3, arrest for forgery of fi-nancial transaction card.

� 2900 block of Buford Highway – On May 3, arrest for wanted per-son located.

� 3300 block of Buford Highway/Briarwood Road – On May 3, arrest for no drivers license.

� 2200 block of Lake Blvd – On May 4, arrest for wanted person located.

�North Druid Hills Road/Peachtree Road – On May 4, arrest for operating vehicle without tag.

� 3300 block of Buford Highway – On May 4, arrest for suspended/revoked drivers license.

� 3300 block of Buford Highway – On May 4, arrest for loitering violation.

� 3300 block of Buford Highway – On May 4, arrest for shoplifting.

� 3000 block of Clairmont Road – On May 4, arrest for no drivers license.

� 3300 block of Buford Highway – On May 4, arrest for shoplifting.

� 3500 block of Ashford-Dunwoody Road – On May 4, arrest for reckless driving.

� 4400 block of Memorial Drive – On May 4, arrest for failure to appear.

� 3700 block of Buford Highway – On May 5, arrest for no drivers license.

� 1200 block of Reserve Drive – On May 5, arrest for wanted person located.

� 2900 block of Clairmont Road – On May 5, arrest for no drivers license.

�North Druid Hills Road ramp – On May 5, arrest for violation of prohibi-tion against littering in public or pri-vate water.

� 2600 block of Buford Highway – On May 5, arrest for failure to appear.

� 3100 block of Buford Highway/Bram-blewood Drive – On May 5, arrest for suspended/revoked drivers license.

� 3900 block of Peachtree Road – On May 5, arrest for forgery in the first de-gree.

� 2600 block of Dresden Place/Dabin Lane – On May 5, arrest for DUI.

� 3600 block of Buford Highway – On May 6, arrest for no drivers li-cense.

� 3100 block of Buford Hwy/Bramblewood Drive – On May 1, arrest for no drivers license.

B U R G L A RY � 1400 block of Sylvan

Circle – On April 25, report of burglary-forced entry-residence.

� 3600 block of Buford Highway – On April 26, report of burglary-forced en-try-residence.

� 3600 block of Buford Highway – On April 28, report of burglary-forced en-try-residence.

� 3500 block of Buford Highway – On april 28, report of burglary-forced entry-residence.

� 1500 block of Dresden Drive – On April 29, report of burglary-no forced entry-residence.

R O B B E RY � 1900 block of N Druid Hills Road – On

April 27, report of armed robbery of a business.

F R A U D � 2600 block of Buford Highway – On

April 26, report of fraud-impersonation.

� 2400 block of E. Club Drive – On April 26, report of fraudulent activity.

� 2200 block of Limehurst Drive – On April 28, report of financial identity fraud.

� 3100 block of Buford Highway – On April 29, report of financial identity fraud.

� 4300 block of Gables Drive – On May 1, report of fraudulent activity.

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