WWW.CHAMPIONNEWSPAPER.COM • FRIDAY,
JUNE 8
, 2012 • VOL. 15, NO. 11 •FREE
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• A PUBLICATION OF ACE III COMMUNICATIONS •
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Serving East Atlanta, Avondale Estates, Brookhaven, Chamblee, Clarkston, Decatur, Doraville, Dunwoody, Lithonia, Pine Lake, Tucker and Stone Mountain.
See LFL on Page 17A
by Robert Naddrarobert@dekalbchamp.com
I
magine buildinga dollhouse-likestructure, sittingit atop a post and putting it in the ground in frontof a home or a park. Then fill itwith books and watch what hap- pens.
David Laufer
did just thatin April in front of his DruidHills home. Since that timeLaufer has met people he wouldnot have met and gets recog-nized on the street.Laufer put up the first LittleFree Library (LFL) in Georgiaand the grassroots concept iscatching on like wildfire. TheLFL movement began in Wis-consin two years ago and thereare an estimated 3,000 units inthe United States. The LFL hasits own website (www.little-freelibrary.org) where visitorscan learn more about the move-ment and view a map to deter-mine the closest library.There are at least seven inDeKalb County, most of whichare in the Decatur, Druid Hillsand east Atlanta area.The concept is simple. Take a book or leave a book and build com-munity involvement in the process.“It’s really about building com-munity at the local level and sup- porting literacy action,” Laufer said.“Since I put it up I’ve had peoplestopping by and chatting. It’s a wayto get to know your neighbors.”It is free to put up an LFL, butfor $75 an LFL steward gets his or her library on the map and is provid-ed a plaque to put on the structure.“It’s so free of rules, it’s re-ally refreshing,” Laufer said. “Theoriginators are more interested in themovement than the money.”Laufer has dedicated his LFL tohis late father
Anson
.“My dad read to me when I wasa kid,” Laufer said. “He was a lover of adventure books so it seemed likethe logical thing to do, to dedicatethe LFL to him.”Decatur Book Festival executivedirector
Daren Wang
heard aboutLaufer’s library and came up witha way to get the festival involved.Wang had local craftsman
MichaelMontgomery
build 13 libraries.Wang has commissioned 12 to bedecorated by local illustrators andartists and auctioned at the festivallater this summer. Montgomery alsowill decorate one.“This seems like such a perfectfit for Decatur in general,” Wangsaid. “I thought we should be takingadvantage of this one way or anoth-er. The whole [LFL] project has justgone through the roof. This will bean exciting part of the festival.”Those doing the decorating in-clude local children’s book author/illustrators
James Dean
and
Eliza-beth Dulemba
, and artist
RuthFranklin
. Dean’s latest book
Petethe Cat
recently topped the
NewYork Times
best sellers list, Wangsaid.“I suspect some of those will not be public. A James Dean [LFL] maygo for a couple thousand dollars so people may not want to put themup,” Wang said.The idea also is catching on inthe East Lake area where four LFLs
Book nooks
Little Free Libraries catching on
From left, Muffie Michaelson, Dr. Robin Dretler, Alexandra Dretler, GeraldineAdamich Laufer and Vincent Laufer gather around David Laufer’s Little FreeLibrary on High Haven Court. Photo by David Laufer
Page 2A The Champion Free Press, Friday, June 8, 2012
Dunwoody attorney agrees to severance rather than being fired
by Daniel Beauregarddaniel@dekalbchamp.comThe Dunwoody CityCouncil voted May 29 toapprove a settlement agree-
ment rather than re City
Attorney
Brian Anderson
for allegedly leaking detailsfrom an executive session tothe media.Anderson, who was on paid suspension pending theoutcome of the city coun-cil decision, will receive aseverance package of two
months’ salary and benets,
which total approximately$29,000.The council voted 6-1 infavor of the agreement withAnderson. Councilman
De-nis “Denny” Shortal
votedagainst the agreement be-cause he thought Anderson’sseverance package was toomuch. The agreement statesAnderson cannot seek fur-ther damages from the city.The city council tabled
a vote to re Anderson in
May because several mem- bers said they wanted to seethe results of an investiga-
tion performed by law rm
Wilson, Morton and Downs.Earlier in the year, the city
hired the law rm to inves
-tigate the alleged leaks and
the rm released a 40-page
report May 21 detailing its
ndings.
The investigative reportfound that Anderson andcouncilwoman
AdrianBonser
leaked condential
information. However, bothdeny any wrongdoing andBonser said, “The integrityof the investigation itself ishighly questionable.”“
[Bob] Wilson
and his
associate had a specic
agenda and set of targets,”Bonser said.The city spent $25,000on the investigation andDunwoody spokesman
Bob Mullen
said it expectsanother invoice from Wil-
son’s rm in the future but
couldn’t speculate on theamount of the bill. Bonser said the investigation wasalso a waste of taxpayer money and described it as“sloppy at best and politi-cally motivated at worst.”Anderson could not bereached for comment on thisstory but claims he did noth-ing wrong, reports state.“The city is just doingwhat it needs to do nowto move forward,” Mullensaid. He said the next stepfor the city is to hire a newattorney.
To learn more, visit www.dekalbmedicalhillandale.org
Our specialty is treating people sufering rom the status quo.
How it is in healthcare, is not how it has to be. That’s why we challenged what a state-o-the-art healthcare acility should look like,how it should operate and even where it should be. DeKalb Medical at Hillandale became the rst all-digital master planned hospitalin Georgia and brought advanced medicine outside o the perimeter, where people actually live. We recruited nationally-acclaimedphysicians and a dedicated support staf who are passionate about providing world-class service. We made sure that the hospital didn’tlook or smell like one and that the ood was actually delicious, all o which make close to home, eel more like home. We even make apoint to care or the community outside o our doors. Every day, we continue to ask ourselves, “What can we do diferently? What canwe do better than them?” because the last thing we want to be is like everybody else.
TOGETHERWE’RE
Hunger is closer than you think. Reach out toyour local food bank for ways to do your part.VisitFeedingAerica.orgtoday.
HGEREE O
cuRREnT
EVET
,
TOO
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1 6 AmERATRGGE WTH HGER.
Page 3A The Champion Free Press, Friday, June 8, 2012
Stone Mountain businessgroup says tax paying off
by Andrew Cauthenandrew@dekalbchamp.comFor a year, some StoneMountain business ownershave been taxing them-selves to help curtail crime, blight and empty commer-cial buildings along Moun-tain Industrial Boulevard.Businesses owners in theyear-old Stone MountainCommunity ImprovementDistrict (CID) say their investment is beginning to pay off.“Since the CID [wasformed], we’ve seen an aw-ful lot of improvements,”said
Jim Boldt
, vice presi-dent of sales and marketingof the 67-year-old, family-run Deeks and Company.
“We couldn’t be more pleased,” said Boldt, whosecompany is a supplier of raw materials and contain-ers to the paint, coatings, plastics and ink industries.Deeks and Company has been in the industrial park since 1961. “Our security iscertainly better.”Once formed, the CIDhired security guards andoff-duty DeKalb County
Police ofcers. Their pres
-ence has cut crime in theindustrial park by 25 per-cent, said
Rusty McKellar
,director of land develop-ment at Pattillo IndustrialReal Estate and CID boardmember.The CID also hired alandscaping company thatisout four times a week toremove trash and maintainMountain Industrial Bou-levard. Other areas of theCID are maintained at leastonce a week.Crews are also in the process of completing
trafc signal and signage
upgrades throughout theCID. DeKalb County andthe Georgia Department of Transportation are changing
trafc lights in the industri
-al park from wired signalsto new mast arms extendingacross roadways.“The owners are ex-cited about having the areaupgraded,” said
EmoryMorsberger
, president of the CID. “It’s nicer for your folks to come to work in anice place with nice trees
and owers and no trash
and no people harassingthem for money for maltliquor.”Morsberger said themain goal of the CID is tospur economic develop-ment.“It does no good to havea bunch of very pretty, verysecure empty buildings,”Morsberger said. “That’skind of defeating the pur-
pose. We are working to ll
up these buildings. We areworking to make this entirearea a mecca for new busi-ness development.”To help with that goal,the CID has received an$80,000 grant from AtlantaRegional Commission and$20,000 from the DeKalbDevelopment Authority.“Our goal is to use thatto bring new kinds of busi-nesses in here,” Morsberger said. “Our goal is to create2,000 jobs by the end of 2013…by making the placelook and feel good, mar-keting the area much morethan it’s been marketed inthe past and by rebrandingthe area and identifying
specic target industries
that we want to attracthere.”Morsberger said jobswould be created if thetwo million square feet of empty commercial space
is lled. The largest empty
area in the CID, which hassix million square feet of commercial space, is a 63-acre tract that once houseda Sears processing center.U.S. Rep.
Hank John-son
, who visited Deeks
and Company May 24,
said CIDs “can pay closeattention to the needs of that particular area and dothings like security, light-ing, streetscaping and other
things that benet that par
-ticular community.”“It’s all to create an en-vironment where jobs can produce the income that thesurrounding residents canuse to become prosperousthemselves,” Johnson said.“It’s all about creating more business opportunity for the people that are in that particular district.”Johnson called the StoneMountain CID a “hidden jewel.”“It’s composed of anumber of good businessesthat people don’t know areoperating right there un-der their noses,” Johnsonsaid. “It’s tucked back off the main roads so a lot of people don’t get back hereto see what’s going on, butthere are a lot of jobs back here.“There are a lot of independent, small busi-nesses here,” Johnson said.“That’s the backbone of our economy in this nation.”
David Westcott
, presi-dent of Pierre ConstructionGroup, said before the CIDwas formed businesses inthe industrial park wereignored by the county gov-ernment.“We’ve got some cloutnow,” said Westcott, whosecompany moved to the in-
dustrial park ve years ago
from Clarkston.“As a group of owners,we feel like we are better organized,” Westcott said.“As individuals we reallydidn’t have any clout.“What we’re able todo with this is to use themoney we would pay for property taxes for proj-
ects that specically t
our needs,” Westcott said.“We’re improving out prop-erty values here.“Our idea is to create jobs over here,” Westcottsaid. “We’re all in business.DeKalb County recog-nizes that we’re good for DeKalb.”By upgrading the area,Westcott said, more busi-nesses will want to relocateto the industrial park.“That’s the hope and prayer,” he said.
Larry Callahan
, CID board chairman, said the business owners are work-ing to make the industrial park “as vibrant as it can be.”“Raising the employ-ment base and attractingnew companies is the bestthat we can do for thearea,” Callahan said. “It’s avery positive thing.”
CITY OF DORAVILLEPUBLIC NOTICEFiscal Year 2013 Budget
Notice is hereby given that the proposed budget for the City ofDoraville shall be available for public inspection, in the CityClerk’s office from 8:00 to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday atCity Hall, 3725 Park Avenue, Doraville, GA.A
special called meeting
shall be held on the 25
th
day of Juneat 6:30 p.m. at City Hall, 3725 Park Avenue, Doraville, before theMayor and Council of the City of Doraville at which time theFiscal Year 2013 (July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2013) budgetshall be approved and the budget ordinance adopted inaccordance with O.C.G.A. 36-81-5. All citizens of Doraville areinvited to attend.
Improved lighting and increased security are two main benets
of the year-old Stone Mountain Community Improvement Districtwhich has a goal of creating 2,000 jobs by the end of 2013. Cur-rently, the district has two million square feet of empty commercialspace in the district. Photos by Andrew Cauthen
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