NORTH BUCKHEAD Newsletter · A Better Atlanta, A Better Park By Marianna Lee Friends of Mountain Way Common Board North Buckhead Drive As a young woman from a small Mississippi town,

Page 1 North Buckhead Newsletter July 2016

Inside this Newsletter

Newsletter NORTH BUCKHEAD

North Buckhead Civ ic Assoc iat ion — Ju ly 2016

Mai led four t imes each year to 4 ,300 North Buckhead homes

www.nbca.org - [email protected] Newsletter Arch ive: www.nbca.org/newsletters.htm

By Denise Starling Executive Director, Livable Buckhead, Inc.

Phase II of PATH400 (between Old Ivy Road and Wieuca Road) is really taking shape. Crews have finished pouring the massive concrete wall (which looks great). The new sound wall along GA400 has also been installed. Things are mov-ing quickly and we expect to be finished with this segment in September, giving us the first contiguous mile of trail on PATH400!

(Continued, See PATH400, page 12)

PATH400: New Segments

PATH400 construction nears Wieuca Road.

By Ammar Divan Friends of Mountain Way Common Board

North Stratford Road On a recent Sunday, my son and I spent some time exploring Little Nancy Creek at Mountain Way Common. We were intent on finding the perfect pebble for his rock collection. It was an hour that we spent in a small corner of North Buckhead that remains relatively untouched by development, unfettered by the hustle and bus-

(Continued on page 10)

Perfect Pebble

By Robert Sarkissian, NBCA Vice President and SRS Go Team Member On July 1, Atlanta Public Schools (APS) becomes a Charter School System. With this historic and innovative re-structuring of public education, elementary, middle, and high schools that serve our community will be afforded a new degree of operational flexibility. This ranges from systemic practices to curriculum shaping to appointed lo-cal stakeholders having a voice in the decision process. It ends the “one size fits all” central-ized governance. It establishes a distributed and local team of leaders who are able to influ-ence and direct school resources tailored to the needs and capabilities of students attending a particular school.

(Continued on page 13)

Sarah Smith Now a Charter

Recycling: Through a Glass Darkly ……………. 2 Need Help from the City? Try 311 ……….….. 3 2016 Annual Meeting ………………………………... 4 A Better Atlanta, A Better Park …………………. 5 NBCA’s Next Traffic Radars ………………………… 6 Land Use and Zoning …………………………………. 7 Facebook: Willie & Snakes ………………………… 7 Blue Heron Summer Events ………………………. 8 Camp Wieuca & Little Nancy Creek Park …… 9 Neighborhood Parks Aren’t Free ……….………. 11 About NBCA’s Email List ……………………………… 14


NBCA Standing Meetings (NBCA meetings are open to the public)

Board — 6:30 pm, 4th Monday of month ex-cept March, Nov., and Dec., Room S-103, Wieuca Road Baptist Church. March meeting: the Annual Meeting. Joint Nov./Dec.: Dec. 5, 2016. Land Use/Zoning — 6:30 pm, 3rd Monday, Room S-103, Wieuca Road Baptist Church.

Through a Glass Darkly that 5.5 million pounds of glass from the City of Atlanta would go into the landfill this year.

We have heard from a North Buckhead neighbor who went to Waste Pro on a field trip with his son. Waste Pro told the group they did not re-cycle glass because it didn’t make financial sense. “It turns out that recycling contracts are fairly complex. The recycling company pays the City for every pound of recyclable material that it collects and is able to sell, but it charges the City for every pound that it is not able to recycle and has to send to the landfill.”

It is not clear to us, at the time of this newslet-ter, why the City continues to encourage us to wash glass, prepare it, add it to the other recy-clables, and take it to the curb to “be recycled”. It’s a lot easier to just throw something in the trash than to, for example, wash out all that old salad dressing and get the bottle clean to be recycled. We can only surmise what the City has been thinking. Is the City measuring their recycling progress by the pound, and having glass makes their statistics look better? Do they not want to change because including glass is the way they have always done it? Do they pre-fer it go into the Cherokee County landfill rather than the City of Atlanta landfill? Were they looking through rose-colored spectacles, think-ing the glass market would soon improve?

Whatever. At our household, we no longer re-cycle glass. We have heard rumors of specialty recycling of glass where it actually might get recycled. Also, if glass is not recycled, but pa-per and cardboard are, wouldn’t it be easier for the recycling plant to process those items with-out broken pieces of glass in them?

If we find out more about all this, we will share it with our readers.

By Sue Certain, Associate Editor

To recycle or not to recycle, glass? This has been an ongoing dilemma. In our March 2016 issue, we reported that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution had an article in December 2015 that said no recyclers in the metro area recycle glass because, as a commodity, the price of re-cycled glass did not justify it. When we asked the City of Atlanta about it, we were told that the City continues to recycle glass. They were very clear, so we at our home continued to put glass in the blue recycling bin, washing the glass and taking it to curbside.

But the issue did not go away, and it appears the City was not as transparent as they could have been. On May, Friday the 13th, Richard Belcher, on WSB Channel 2 Action News, report-ed a similar situation as the AJC article. He in-terviewed Stephanie Benfield, City of Atlanta Sustainability Director, who admitted the City sells recyclables, including glass, to a recycler named Waste Pro. Waste Pro doesn’t find glass profitable, so they take it to a landfill in Chero-kee County, where the glass is dumped, rather than remade into new items. There’s no market for glass at this time. Action News estimated


Need Help from the City? Try 311 or Atl311.com. The screen print below is what Atlanta’s award-winning ATL311.com looks like. We are includ-ing this copy of one of the site’s pages so you can understand some of the range of city ser-vices you can request help with.

Of course, if you have a land line you can simply dial 311 and tell one of the courteous employees answering what you need. If you’re calling from a cell phone, you’ll need to call 404-546-0311. (You might choose to add that number to your phone’s contact list.)

The most common use many residents probably make of the 311 service is missed recycling and

yard waste pickups.

You’ll be asked for your email address. Expect an email from 311 when your service request is established and another when it is completed.

We learned that if you call by phone, have a pen and paper so you can write down the reference number the city uses to track the service re-quest. If the requested service doesn’t happen (unusual, but it does happen), without the refer-ence number you may need to start over.


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will now be able to vote on a one-half cent sales tax. If approved by voters, it would help fund MARTA and could help fund the Beltline. After much thought, prayer, and input from constitu-ents, she voted against the so-called “religious freedom” bill and the “campus carry” bill. Lee Morris, our District 3 Fulton County Com-missioner, addressed the group. He informed us of the functions of the county: court system (marshall, sheriffs, jail); health department; li-braries; arts and culture; and tax collection. The county performs municipal functions for south Fulton County, such as schools, fire de-partment, police and roads. If South Fulton be-came its own city, Fulton County Government would be out of the municipal services business. Howard Shook, our District 7 City Councilmem-ber, shared that the City purchased land for a new park along PATH400 near Loridans. This year crime is down in our area. To augment this trend, there is funding for installation of 35 traffic surveillance cameras. Cameras will also be installed at both Sarah Smith campuses. We, the NBCA membership, voted electronically in advance, and at the meeting by paper ballot. Incumbent Board members Andrea Bennett, Michelle Carver, Rita Christopher, and Robert Sarkissian were re-elected.

2016 Annual Meeting

On a perfect spring evening, March 29, the North Buckhead Civic Association held our 44th year annual meeting at St. James United Meth-odist Church. There were about 100 people at the social event and the program. The keynote speaker this year was Atlanta His-tory Center CEO Sheffield Hale, who was witty and entertaining. Did you know part of “The Hunger Games” movie trilogy was filmed at the Atlanta History Center? And the Cyclorama will be coming to the History Center. This 360-degree work of art depicting a Civil War battle scene is now housed at Grant Park, next to the zoo. The Cyclorama is not properly hung, and much of the original has been left out. It suffers from wrinkles and water damage. The Atlanta History Center will hang it properly, repair damage, and restore ten feet of sky plus another six feet. $32 million has been given for this purpose. This visual epic should be beauti-ful and will be seen in historic context at the Atlanta History Center. Beth Beskin, our Representative to the Georgia House, also spoke. She told us the emphasis this legislative year was on education, transpor-tation, “God and guns”. A highlight was a bill that became a “MARTA bill”. The City of Atlanta


houses now are sought after, prime real estate locations. What a difference a few decades have made! When GA400 tore a strip through our neighbor-hood scars were left, until a small group of neighbors decided to band together to form a Friends group. That group is hell-bent on revi-talizing that eyesore and converting it in to a neighborhood park. I’m proud to be part of that group. Our efforts make a difference. We dedicate hours discussing and debating our next moves, our goals, and how to engage all of you in our efforts. Yes, it takes a lot of dedication, but it also takes a lot of money to see transfor-mation made to Mountain Way Common. Last year we installed a bridge, paid for by neighbors and matched by Park Pride (the grant was for a $100,000 matching amount). The bridge is beautiful and gives us more than one entry/exit to the park.

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A Better Atlanta, A Better Park By Marianna Lee

Friends of Mountain Way Common Board North Buckhead Drive

As a young woman from a small Mississippi town, I moved to Atlanta when I was fresh out of college. In 1985 Atlanta seemed hell-bent to become a metropolis with newer buildings re-placing perfectly good ones — all the time. Roads widened, parking lots seemed to emerge everywhere. I remember watching that corner lot of Piedmont and Peachtree transform into Hotel Nikko — and I remember thinking, "There's no going back now..." Charming homes lined Peachtree Road for a few years, and I watched “progress” drop commercial building after commercial building along her path. And those rare dirt roads that I found around town — the very kind that held such a familiar place in my childhood heart — were “finally” paved. I thought I was living my dream: that my small town childhood was far behind me. Then I had a family and realized I had nowhere for my children to ride a bike safely in the neighborhood. Even our narrow neighborhood street was a cut-through path that left us scared for our lives during rush hour and Halloween. A nagging thought kept surfacing; I began to miss my childhood hometown. I longed to walk, to ride bikes, to rest assured that there was a spot where my children would be able to enjoy the outdoors and their community, just like I did so many years ago. I imagine most of you reading this grew up like I did in a community where there was a gathering spot: the tennis court, the neighborhood pool, the “uptown” area, or “in the country”. Like so many, I wished for more balance.

While I loved Atlanta and her growth, I like her even more now: the newer version of Atlanta seems to be more focused on community and family time. Change is happening all over the Metro Atlanta area. Who would have imagined that what used to be a corner pub is now a cor-ner park? And the abandoned railroad and ware-

Mountain Way Common’s new pedestrian bridge

Mountain Way Common volunteers create new path.

Earlier this year we were awarded another matching $100,000 grant by Park Pride. We now need your donations to take advantage of that generous offer. We desperately need your con-tribution, large or small, so we can begin con-struction of Phase 2: a concrete path that fur-ther defines the park's paths. We may want lights so that you can enjoy the park and her paths — safely — at dusk. We want to add a water fountain so you can stay hydrated. We hope to add an amphitheater and have teaching time with neighborhood artists. We'd like to of-fer you a shelter where you can sit and enjoy the trickle of Little Nancy Creek. Could I ask 100 of you to make a $1,000 tax deductible donation? We are able to offer a tax deduction because we are affiliated with Liv-able Buckhead, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation. Should you be so kind, make your donation through mountainwaycommon.org or write a check to Livable Buckhead as outlined in the box on page 11. Do this because you too are deter-mined to enjoy Mountain Way Common and Atlanta. Thank you.


NBCA’s Next Traffic Radars

By Robert Sarkissian NBCA Vice President and Traffic Liaison

Since 2009, when the NBCA acquired the first of two radar speed signs, we have collected tens of millions of data samples from over a dozen tar-geted zones. Over the last several years, these signs have become fixtures at two sites. During the school year, the installations on Old Ivy Road eastbound and Wieuca Road heading north near the two Sarah Smith Campuses have helped slow school zone traffic. The overall speed reduction is on the order of 8%-14%. It amounts to 3 or 4 MPH when averaged. During that same period, we have experienced an in-crease in neighborhood density, and with that, increased traffic volumes. As a result, the de-mand for augmenting the school installation now necessitates consideration for purchasing additional units.

Similar to any technology-related components, new features and capabilities are now available without much of an increase in cost. For the ra-dar and speed signs, these improvements are mostly tied to onboard communications and da-ta acquisition. Where years ago we had to pay extra for a few more megabytes of memory, to-day’s units have SD slots for off-the-shelf memory cards that are able to store magnitudes

more data. Bluetooth-enabled units provide the ability to download data remotely and unteth-ered instead of hooking up a 1970s era RS-232 serial data cable. Reduced power requirements allow for longer battery times, and now portable units have solar panel options. The most exciting innovations are in the net-working implementations. The units we are looking to evaluate will have the ability to set notification triggers on events; some can even record reckless violations and send the captured images to a mobile device. Another feature we are going to look at is bi-directional radar sens-ing that can record cars both approaching and passing, thus doubling our coverage. As we proceed with efforts to acquire units, we are mindful of the costs which will have an im-pact on what features we can afford, with a tradeoff on how many units we can afford within our budget. Signs that are purely for warning and have no data recording are the least expen-sive. Those with the latest connectivity are the most expensive. Both kinds are effective but in different roles.


Pay NBCA Dues Online To pay dues and/or make other donations, go to www.nbca.org/dues.htm. You will receive an email confirmation of your payment from NBCA. We have added the capability for you to select a one or two year renewal period. These actions can be repeated to get membership periods longer than two years.

Facebook: Willie & Snakes

by Sue Certain Associate Editor

Lots has been going on in and around North Buckhead and your neighbors have been posting about it on Facebook, talking about park clean-ups, new restaurants, Willie Nelson at Chastain Park, and more. There is much to learn. The North Buckhead Civic Association page now has 526 “likes”. One thread that is especially interesting and in-formative is on copperheads recently spotted in North Buckhead and information about them. In the photo below, taken by Andy Sumlin on McClatchey Circle, we can see what a copper-head looks like. Copperheads are dangerous snakes! To learn more, follow us on Facebook.

By Walda Lavroff Chair, NBCA Land Use and Zoning Committee

Moderate building activity has continued in North Buckhead. The Land Use and Zoning Committee received no applications for review in February or in May of 2016.

In March, we reviewed application V-16-030, Loridans Drive (zoned R-3). According to the referral certificate, architect Anthony Rueden sought to reduce the required front yard setback from 50 to 32 feet and the required half-depth front yard setback from 25 to 10 feet to con-struct a new two-story single-family residence.

For the reader’s orientation: This is the current-ly vacant corner on Loridans Drive and Chateau-gay. From a site visit with the applicant and presentation at the committee meeting, we found that the application calls this a non-conforming lot. Even with the requested set-back reductions, the buildable area would only be approximately 644 square feet. Yet City Planning has an R-3 classification for it. (R-3 lots are required to have a minimum lot area of 18,000 square feet.) In the applicant’s own words: “The building area is too small to put even the smallest of homes…”.

Our committee recommended denial with regard to the variance; and we urged the City to re-move the R-3 designation from this very small corner lot.

We learned later that, after an appeal from the young family who has this lot under contract, the application was approved by the NPU and by the City. It will be interesting to see what type of building may be erected there.

In April, we reviewed application Z-16-021, 4362 Wieuca Road (zoned R-3). Buckhead Property Development, LLC, seeks to rezone 4362 Wieuca Road from R-3 to PD-H (Planned Development Housing). This 2.88 acre property is located on the west side of Wieuca Road. The proposal calls for five single-family homes on a 24-foot-wide private road.

The committee found that the application was professionally prepared. Questions had ready answers. The application meets the require-ments for rezoning. The entrance road is to be private, however, it needs to accommodate emergency vehicles; that had not yet been ap-proved.

Because of the proximity of Nancy Creek and the sensitivity to flooding, we suggested that

Land Use and Zoning the applicant should consider pervious pave-ment for the road and driveways in lieu of con-crete or asphalt. The applicant was agreeable to our suggestions for “neighborhood friendly” design.

We recommended approval.

Copperhead Snake


Realtor/Associate Broker

404-844-4977 (office)

404-966-9220 (cell) [email protected]

www.JackieGoodman.com

Jackie Goodman

“Let my energy, enthusiasm, and

love of North Buckhead work for you!”

-- Representing Buyers and Sellers since 1994 --

Resident of Loridans Drive since 1980 Office address: 1801 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta 30309

Native Atlantan, 4th Generation

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Blue Heron Nature Preserve Summer Events The summer is a great time to visit the Preserve and enjoy wading in the creek and walking on our shaded Woodland Loop Trail. We also have two great events coming up this summer to en-courage you to get out into nature.

The first event is Doggie Daze on July 16 from 9am-11am. Bring your dog and start your Sat-urday morning with us; we will have hot biscuits and jam provided by Buttermilk Kitchen. We are excited to add to this year's activities a photo booth for you and your dog, an art making ex-perience and a creek walk!

Our Second Annual Firefly Hike is in August. Come join us on Saturday, August 13 at 7:45 pm and bring the whole family for ice cream, a craft for the children and then our early evening hike! Plus, we offer a nature camp for children with art and theater options all summer through the month of July. Check our website for more information and sign up for our e-newsletter to be in the know these events and more at: www.bhnp.org.


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Camp Wieuca Gives Back to Little Nancy Creek Park By Anne Wilkie

President, Friends of Little Nancy Creek Park Twenty-four campers and counsellors from Camp Wieuca, the summer camp at nearby Wieuca Road Baptist Church, started off June by giving back to the community. These volunteers showed up at Little Nancy Creek Park early Wednesday morning, June 1, to help with some much needed grounds repair. Working together, they spread pine straw, weeded and mulched, planted day lilies around the playground,

cleaned park signs, repaired the playground fence and picked up trash. Taking turns with a few wheelbarrows, they even tackled a large pile of gravel and distributed it along the paths. Next time you are enjoying the park, be sure to look around and appreciate all the great work that these selfless campers accomplished!

In other park news, we will be closing out our personalized brick sales for the front en-trance of the park shortly. We are down to the remaining few spaces and are running out fast. If you, or someone you know, would like to have one, please let us know. It is a fun and easy way to support the park. I’ve noticed chil-dren love pointing out personalized bricks to friends, and I enjoy thinking these bricks will be there for those same children to point out to their children. You can purchase bricks at LittleNancyCreekPark.org for $100 each.

Finally, the Friends of Little Nancy Creek Park group has been busy developing a new land-scape plan for the grand pavilion and putting the finishing touches on plans for the final de-velopment phase of the park. Stay tuned for more news on that as we get closer to fall. In the meantime, have a wonderful summer and enjoy the park!


Perfect Pebble —Continued

tle, and unthreatened by eager homebuilders and hungry homebuyers. You probably drive by it quite frequently without even noticing that it’s there. Perhaps you think of it as that place where they had food trucks last summer.

Mountain Way Common is more than meets the eye and promises to play a rather remarkable role in North Buckhead. Born of a first-of-its-kind use agreement between the City of Atlanta and the Georgia DOT, Mountain Way Common is one of Atlanta's newest parks. In a community where green space and trails are at a premium, MWC offers unprecedented access to na-ture. Located in one of Atlanta's steepest natu-ral valleys, Little Nancy Creek gracefully mean-ders through the park. The hundreds of man hours spent cleaning and restoring the area around the creek bed have helped in preserving a part of an important waterway system.

Mountain Way Common will be an essential con-nectivity piece that has been sorely missing in our neighborhood. In the near future, MWC will be an access point for the PATH400 trail that will link us to the Beltline and beyond. A visit to Buckhead shops and restaurants will be possible without a painful drive through traffic. A bicycle

(Continued from page 1) ride to Piedmont Park without navigating busy streets would suddenly be practical.

An ancillary benefit of all of this includes a sig-nificant increase in home values as the park continues to grow. It is a well-researched fact that trails and green space can significantly in-crease home values, often by as much as 10%.

If you are like me and value nature and connec-tivity, Mountain Way Common is a vital piece of our community that we should all have a vested interest in. Friends of Mountain Way Common is a group of your neighbors who share a commit-ment to preserving, enhancing, and protecting MWC. Visit www.mountainwaycommon.org to learn what we are doing and how you can help. To contribute your financial support, see Moun-tain Way Common box on page 11.


By Gordon Certain NBCA President

You’d think, as a major city, Atlanta would have lots of parks. But in a survey I saw several years ago ranking twenty-five major US cities, Atlanta came in near the bottom, with a parks ranking of twenty-three, or so. Worse, our own Atlanta City Council District has the least amount of park space in the entire city. Our city’s budget includes money for park maintenance, and there is a park improvement budget which does not meet the full needs of a city our size. That park improvement budget does not currently include any improvement funding for North Buckhead parks. Real estate developers must chip in “impact fees” when they build things like new towers, and part of those fees are earmarked to fund new park land, which the city buys from time to time. In North Buckhead, our choice is to let the new park land we get stay unimproved or work with an energetic volunteer team who is organizing neighbors to secure funding to create usable parks. At Mountain Way Common (MWC) that team is “Friends of Mountain Way Common”. North Buckhead is “underserved” when it comes to parks, but we are not economically chal-lenged. Yet, we do have good-hearted angels willing to help us. One of our angels goes by the name Park Pride, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping parks in the City of Atlanta and DeKalb County. Recently, Park Pride awarded a second $100,000 matching grant for MWC. This grant will help pave paths so we can easily use the new pedestrian bridge and other parts of the park, and make other improve-ments. Every dollar you give to MWC will be matched by Park Pride, up to $100,000. Raising the full amount will significantly move MWC along the way to becoming more of a real park, one where a mom can push a baby carriage to the pedes-trian bridge without having to negotiate the ero-sion gullies that now lace the dirt pathways. Now let’s talk arithmetic. There are about 500 homes within reasonable walking distance of MWC. If we were very successful and each household contributed $20, we’d have … $10K. That’s not close to paying for the job we need to accomplish. How about 100 families giving $1,000? That would work as would 20 families giving $5,000. (Yes, it happens. We’ve already received one $5K donation for this particular grant.) Our $100K will likely end up a mix of a few hefty donations and many middle-sized ones, with each gift doubled by Park Pride hopefully to reach a total of $200,000 or more.

Freedom Isn’t Free; Neither Are Neighborhood Parks Okay. Why donate money to MWC? It’s a charitable contribution you can claim

as a deduction on your income tax return. Families living in the vicinity of parks have

more recreational opportunities, better quali-ty of life, and better health.

Neighborhood parks help create a sense of community. Many of us don’t know the peo-ple who live just a few houses away. Parks create a social venue for nearby neighbors.

Homes with nice parks within walking dis-tance are more marketable and sell for high-er prices. They will almost surely appreciate much more than their owners ever donate.

By now, I may have sold you on the idea that supporting MWC is a good investment. Our Park Pride matching grant provides about a year for us to raise money, hire planners, get permits, and complete construction. While future contri-butions will be welcome, we need contributions now to meet our grant’s fundraising expecta-tions. Otherwise “our” grant money may be reallocated to other neighborhood’s parks. I have worked hard to support every one of our neighborhood’s parks. MWC should now be in its most intense growing phase, so my focus is currently on keeping it moving. Every resident’s perspective on our parks is different, colored by their own life histories and where they now live. For two interesting views, read Ammar Divan’s “Perfect Pebble”, page 1, and Marianna Lee’s “A Better Atlanta, A Better Park”, page 5.

Support Other North Buckhead Parks

For those of you in other parts of the neighborhood, other parks near you also need your support and will benefit you for all the reasons listed above. These include:

Little Nancy Creek Park

Online: littlenancycreekpark.org By Mail: Pay to order of: Park Pride / Little Nancy Creek Park Mail to: Meg Carter, Treasurer

4035 N. Stratford Rd., Atlanta, GA 30342 Blue Heron Nature Preserve

Online: www.bhnp.org By Mail: Pay to order of: Blue Heron Nature Preserve Mail to: Blue Heron Nature Preserve

4055 Roswell Rd., Atlanta, GA 30342

Support Mountain Way Common

Online: www.mountainwaycommon.org Click “Donate” and follow the instructions.

By Mail: Pay to order of: Livable Buckhead, Inc. Add to “for” line: Mountain Way Common Mail to: Livable Buckhead, Inc. 3340 Peachtree Road, Suite 1640 Atlanta GA 30326


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PATH400 — cont.

While you were looking north, construction crews got started on yet another PATH400 seg-ment on the southern end of the greenway at Lindbergh. Crews have completed all the initial site preparation and clearing activities, and we

expect construction to proceed quickly as we take advantage of a previous road bed that is a nice surface for us to build on. Plans for this

(Continued from page 1)

segment of PATH400 include features such as a boardwalk and community gardens.

On the fundraising front, Livable Buckhead would like to say thank you to all of the North Buckhead neighbors who helped us secure the generous matching gift from the Loudermilk Family Foundation. In case you haven’t heard, we sailed past our goal and secured a total of $605,000 for PATH400.

There’s still a long way to go to reach our $9 million goal: please consider contributing so that we can keeping construction moving forward at full steam. Visit livablebuckhead.org and click on the “Donate” button to help today!

PATH400’s route goes through sound wall north of Old Ivy Road.

Hikers and bikers can look down at GA400 traffic.

Massive concrete walls now border parts of PATH400.


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Sarah Smith Now a Charter—continued

I have been asked, and have accepted, to be on the Go Team (Local School Governance Team) for Sarah Smith. Nine voting positions were es-tablished for each school, consisting of three parents/guardians, two community members, three Instructional Staff, and one Swing Seat. The Go Team also includes the Principal and for high school only, a student representative (non-voting). I will be serving as one of the commu-nity representatives. The Go Team roles are to:

1) Set and monitor long term visioning and planning

2) Represent the community’s diverse prior-ities in setting the school’s direction and goals

3) Provide input to streamline the decision process

4) Act as a critical connector to families, staff, and the community.

The NBCA regards the Sarah Smith campuses as being among the most prominent jewels of

(Continued from page 1) North Buckhead. With my role on the NBCA Board and the Sarah Smith Go Team, I am look-ing forward to strengthening the bond between our neighborhood school and the community. I’ll ensure that our neighborhood association and its members are aligned with needs of K-5 stu-dents.

—APS Web Site: http://www.atlantapublicschools.us/cms/lib/GA01000924/Centricity/Domain/1483/APS%20GoTeam-Fact%20Sheet.pdf

Watch APS’ video about its new charter system at https://youtu.be/iqtsGNDkFFM?t=346


NBCA’s Email List Provides Timely Info & Helps Lost Pets This newsletter is published only four times a year, but neighborhood news happens more of-ten, sometimes so fast we can’t cover it here. Each NBCA email’s subject line lists the contents so recipients can (and we hope, do) skip emails about topics they don’t care about. NBCA has 2,000+ addresses on its email list. Our typical 55% “open rate” means that NBCA emails do get read and are not mostly ignored. (Why not more than 55%? Many residents have two addresses on our list.) Join our list at www.tinyurl.com/NBCAEmail or send an email to [email protected]. Neither NBCA membership nor North Buckhead residency is required. It’s free to everyone. Still not sure? Check out a sampling of emails so you can see the kind of information you may have missed. See www.nbca.org/update.

If you lose a pet or find one, send an email to [email protected]. Please include your contact information and a description of the pet. Include a photo if possible. Please do not use [email protected] for lost/found pet reports (or anything else) — that email account was deactivated years ago.

NBCA Officers, Board, Staff

Beautification Liaison Rita Christopher Kevin McCauley Kim McCauley

Christmas Tree Sale

Liaison Robert Sarkissian

Code Enforcement

Liaison Michelle Carver

Crime Reporting

Liaison Peter Rogers

Land Use and Zoning

Chair Walda Lavroff Vice Chair Andrea Bennett

Membership

Liaison Gordon Certain Carolyn Brown

New Neighbor Greeting Liaison Rita Christopher Lauren Panetta

NBCA Officers President Gordon Certain Vice Pres. Robert Sarkissian Secretary Open Treasurer Dieter Franz

NBCA Board Andrea Bennett andrea0599 @gmail.com 404-231-4130 Carolyn Brown carolyn.brown @harrynorman.com 404/405-7603 Michelle Carver michelle.carver @comcast.net 404-579-7127 Gordon Certain NorthBuckhead @yahoo.com 404-231-1192 Rita Christopher ritachristopher @bellsouth.net 404-237-5878 Dieter Franz cdfranz @comcast.net 404-261-8697 Waldtraut Lavroff waldalavroff @gmail.com 678-686-4575 Adam Pollock castlehaven @bellsouth.net 404-233-1706 Pete Rogers petali @comcast.net 404-239-9004 Robert Sarkissian oversark @bellsouth.net 404-504-9444 Bob Young [email protected] 404-255-1315

Newsletter Editor Gordon Certain Assoc. Ed. Sue Certain Proofing Jackie Goodman

NPU-B Representative NPU-B Chair Andrea Bennett

Pedestrian (Sidewalk) Liaison Peter Rogers

Social/Special Events Liaison Adam Pollock Traffic Liaison Robert Sarkissian

Volunteer Coordinator Liaison Open

Online Services

NBCA Gordon Certain Zoning Andrea Bennett Facebook Sue Certain Jackie Goodman Tessa Turner

NBCA is a 501(c)(4) Georgia Non-profit Corporation.

NBCA’s recent emails included these lost/found pets.

NBCA’s email readers learn about local events.

Email readers knew when the goats returned to MWC.


Area Businesses Support NBCA These businesses support your neighborhood association with their

NBCA business memberships. Please support them.

Can you think of another way to get visibility for your area business for so little cash? Businesses, join NBCA and get listed here. Send $100 (non-profits, $50) with the coupon below or join online.

Atlanta Audubon Society ww.atlantaaudubon.org Blue Heron Nature Preserve www.bhnp.org Buckhead Coalition 3340 Peachtree Road#560 Buckhead-Midtown Vacuum 2000 Cheshire Bridge Rd Buckhead Realty-Jim Cosgrove, Broker 404-841-9000 Café Vendôme www.CafeVendome.com DL Crawford, Assoc., Inc. 3596 N Stratford Rd Diazo Specialty Printing 3872 Roswell Road #A8 Laura Dew, Realtor-Atl. Fine Homes 404-974-4372 DWH Interiors DWHInteriors.com Rand Fisher, Realtor [email protected] Eclipse Fitness Studio 295 W Wieuca Road Goodyear of Buckhead 3830 Roswell Road Jones & Kolb, CPAs 404-262-7920 Kazoo Toys 3718 Roswell Road Nan T Moore Interiors [email protected]

Park Avenue Condo Association 750 Park Ave Park Regency Condo Assn. 700 Park Regency Pl Peachtree Mosquito Control 404-447-6607 Piccadilly Puppets 404-636-0022 Pope and Land www.popeandland.com Private Bank of Buckhead 3565 Piedmont Rd#210 Realtors, *The Hinsons * 404-231-1113 Regent Partners www.regentpartners.com Remarkable Real Estate Services 404-233-MARC Scotland Wright Associates www.scotlandwright.com Selig Enterprises, Inc. seligenterprises.com Jennifer Sherrouse, Realtor www.jennifersherrouse.com St. James United Methodist Church www.stjamesatlanta.org Stellar Bodies 3872 Roswell Road # A1 Suzy Smith, Realtor 404-307-0347 Tuxedo Pharmacy 164 W Wieuca Road William Word Antiques 707-709 Miami Circle

Comments, skills, interests, questions: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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NBCA is a 501(C)(4) Georgia Non-profit Corporation.

Able to Help North Buckhead?

Christmas Tree Sale Parks / Playgrounds

Code Enforcement (Eyesore Resolution) Security

Landscaping / Streetscape Sidewalks / Crosswalks

Legal/Professional Services (for NBCA) Social Events (Fall Fling & etc.)

Membership Houses Condos Business Stuff Envelopes

Neighborhood Cleanup Projects Traffic

Neighborhood History and Art Web site / Facebook

New Neighbor Greeting Zoning/Land Use

One-time, quick volunteer jobs Other ________________

Pay By Mail

NORTH BUCKHEAD CIVIC ASSOCIATION MEMBERSHIP Join Renew

Pay Online at www.nbca.org/dues.htm Or Mail to: NBCA, PO Box 420391, Atlanta, GA 30342

Name(s) _______________________________________________________________ Date ____________________ Please print carefully

Address ____________________________________________________ Year you came to North Buckhead _________

Email #1 ______________________________________ Email #2 _______________________________________ Join our email list. Please print very carefully so you will received NBCA’s Emails Updates.

Phone (Home) _______________________ Cell #1 ______________________ Cell #2 ______________________

Dues: $50/year—Business $100 One year Two years $100/ Bus $200 $______

Optional donations:

Park Landscaping $______

Legal Fund $______

Greenspace $______

Master Plan / General Fund $______

Total Check Amount $______

Make check payable to NBCA


North Buckhead Civic Association PO Box 420391 Atlanta, GA 30342

Please Deliver By June 29

PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID

MARIETTA GA PERMIT NO. 774

North Buckhead Newsletter July 2016

In This Newsletter...

APS Converts to Charter System NBCA’s 44th Annual Meeting Read about how Sarah Smith will be Sheffield Hale, Atlanta History Center’s CEO, locally managed — See page 1. was the keynote speaker — See page 5.

NORTH BUCKHEAD Newsletter · A Better Atlanta, A Better Park By Marianna Lee Friends of Mountain Way Common Board North Buckhead Drive As a young woman from a small Mississippi town,

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