Dunwoody's Teachers of the Year

The Dunwoody Chamber of Commerce celebrated its area teachers by naming a Teacher of the Year from each of the Dunwoody feeder cluster schools.

Most of Dunwoody's elected officials and the Chamber's board members have children in area public schools.  Ensuring quality education and supporting our teachers is not just a political issue.  It's personal.

View the list of winners with their school and grade/subject.

Candle in the Rain

Congrats to Stan Jester, running unopposed for DeKalb County School System's District 1.

You know that the Central Office is nervous about this outcome when one of their lackeys posts to DeKalb School Watch 2 expressing hope that Stan "understands his role".

If you're on the straight-and-narrow, "Fred", you have nothing to worry about.

Don't forget to Vote Jester for GA State Superintendent of Schools

Dunwoody Building Code Point & Counterpoint

The next City Council meeting on March 10 will include discussion on building ordinance changes.

Let's see if the link to SIRE on the city's website works.

Bottom line, the proposal on the table is to guarantee that any building over 3 stories tall must be built with fireproof materials (concrete, steel, etc).  Anyone who has seen a news report with an apartment fire in DeKalb County can see the logic here.  This type of construction is supposed to slow the decline in value that apartments always seem to face.

Counterpoint:  the construction industry is not too happy with this.
In a recent Constant Contact mail, the Council for Quality Growth spelled out their opposition to this requirement.  Essentially it would make construction of apartments and similar sites prohibitively expensive to build.

The incentive for this amendment came out of the plans for the "senior living" apartments presented to the DHA on Sunday.  The representatives stated outright that their complex is to be "stick built" - that is with wood, rather than concrete/steel.

Some random thoughts:

Check out the comments in the link to the DHA meeting above.  Interesting point that "Dunwoody doesn't want apartments - unless it's built for seniors, then that's OK."  Not the first time we've seen plans edited because "Well, we want plans that accommodate my lifestyle and choices, but not for anyone else."  Don't get me started down that road.  Any council member who talks out of both sides of their mouth on any part of the municipal code is playing with fire come election time.

To the Council for Quality Growth and its friends:  Dunwoody incorporated because so many apartments were being thrown up (so to speak) and the homeowners felt their quality of life threatened.  Many long time Dunwoodians don't want to see more apartments built in this city.  Take. The. Hint.

I've been hearing about the "high demand" for these types of developments from different directions.   Does anyone have any numbers to back that up?

Now you know the issues and the players.  If you have something to say, you know where to be on March 10.