Remembering Veterans Day

While remembering Veterans Day, if you're at the Orchard Park Kroger, support the local VFW and wear a poppy today.



The Soldier

It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves under the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag.

By Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, USMC



For my father, US Navy, 1950s
For my father-in-law 101st Airborne, WW2

For my great great great great grandfather, Thaddeus Skelton
Union Army Infantry, 84th Brooklyn Volunteers, 1861
Served with distinction at the First Battle of Bull Run/Manassas

For my great great great great great great great great great grandfather Captain Daniel Lyon, Continental Army of New York, 1776

For my great great great great great great great great great grandfather, Lt Nathaniel Tibbetts Jr, Continental Army of Massachussetts, 1776

For my great great great great great great great great great great great grandfather, Thomas Prence, Governor of Plymouth Colony during King Philips' War.

To everyone serving overseas, my prayers you get your jobs done and get home safely.

Opportunity Pounding: THIS is a property Dunwoody should buy

The infamously empty residential lot at the corner of Tilly Mill and North Peachtree is up for sale.  This sign had to be recent - maybe even today.  I happened to snag the photo while returning home.  I've heard all kinds of stories about this lot from "a house is going to be built there" to "someone cut down and stole the trees for firewood."

Here's why this would be a good purchase for Dunwoody:

• Given the size of the lot, it's probably not going to break the regular budget.  No bond referendums, etc.  Given its long time vacant status I predict there will be no bidding war.
• It is unoccupied.  No one is going to be displaced by the sale.  It shouldn't be hard to steer clear of the neighboring residential properties if you put your mind to it.
• The lot can be used to improve traffic in an intersection that carries more cars daily than it was designed for. Improving traffic flow in this growing area is a documented NEED, not a recreational WANT.
• The positive impact the realignment of the intersection provides will benefit anyone who drives on the road.  That's a cross-section of the entire "Dunwoody" community, including homeowners, renters, students, employees and commuters.
• Depending on the type of street alignment built, you can make it a secondary gateway, inside the city limits. Think of the foyer to a house and additional hallways are built off of it.  Great place to start the recently-discussed "wayfinding" system.  (Also useful, although I'd like to see some efforts to reach out to the "daytimer" community to find out what those needs really are before building anything.)

Talk about incredible timing!  Right after the majority of voters turned down the parks bonds, a piece of land crops up suddenly that fills a clear NEED to improve our basic infrastructure.  How lucky can you get??

2011 Dunwoody Elections - The Morning After

Turns out the early returns were accurate.  This is the official tally distributed by the City:

2011 Election Results

The following results are the unofficial results from DeKalb County.

Mayor
     Bob Dallas - 3787   43.21%
     Mike Davis - 3389  38.67%
     Gordon Jackson - 1540  17.57%
     Write-in - 48  0.55%

Council Post 4
     Terry Nall -3824  44.73%
     Robert Wittenstein -3564  41.68%
     Rick Callihan -1133  13.25%
     Write-in - 29  0.34%

Council Post 5
     Kerry de Vallette -3694  44.48%
     Lynn Deutsch -4593 55.30%
     Write-in 18 0.22%

Council Post 6
     John Heneghan -7087  98.90%
     Write-in 79 1.10%

Parks Acquisition Bond
     yes - 3080  33.32%
     no -  6163  66.68%

Parks Improvement Bond
     yes - 3715  40.18%
     no -  5531  59.82%

Redevelopment Powers Act
     yes - 4759 54.25%
     no - 4013  45.75%

Sunday Alcohol Sales
     yes -  7395  79.51%
     no -  1906  20.49%

Education SPLOST
     yes - 33114  62.18%
     no - 20141  37.82%


The Education SPLOST succeeded across all of DeKalb but Dunwoody locally voted it down.

It's not over yet - we've got two runoffs in the coming month.

Keep keeping it classy.  If your candidate or issue won the day, you don't have to gloat.  Don't do that to your neighbors.  If your candidate or issue lost, try to work with it/them anyway.  You may be pleasantly surprised that it works out.  If not, you can vote again in the next election.

I am glad that we have local accountability for our votes.  We have to look each other in the eye in the coming weeks.  We still have to deal with each other.  That's better than a government half a county away that couldn't care less about our community except for what they can take from our wallets.  I wouldn't have it any other way.