Friday, February 27, 2015

Dunwoody Update from Councilman Denny Shortal


 My fellow citizens of our fine city of Dunwoody … the following are some items of interest…

1. City Council's Meeting Format Change … In an effort to make our City Council meetings more efficient we have changed the format somewhat. First just to verify, the dates have NOT changed … the meetings will be still held on the second and fourth Mondays of each month. The basic change in the format is that instead of having a work session at 6 PM followed by a council meeting at 7 PM we will only have a City Council meeting and it will start at 6 PM. The old Work Session has been Incorporated into the City Council meeting itself. The effort is to make the meetings flow smoother and thus get everyone home at a more reasonable hour. In summary, starting with our City Council meeting on March 9 all City Council meetings will start at 6 PM and there will no longer be a meeting entitled “Work Session.”

2. Mt Vernon Rd Water Pipe Replacement and Paving Project … as you already know, we set up an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with DeKalb County to combine the water pipe replacement Into one bid to move this project along. We have been unable to pave Mount Vernon Rd and Chamblee Dunwoody Rd the last two years as the water pipe replacement that needs to be done by DeKalb County must be done prior to paving. Your city council approve this IGA contract in December, 2014 and send it to DeKalb County. With the help of our DeKalb County Board of Commissioners representative, Nancy Jester, this was approved by DeKalb County at their meeting last Tuesday. Construction to replace the water pipes should commence within 1 to 2 weeks. During this time there will be some temporary lane closures. All of us will have to exercise patience during the construction period. This waterpipe replacement will take from 6 to 8 months and extends from Ashford Dunnwoody Road to Vernon Oaks Dr. Our push is to get the waterpipe replacement completed and still have optimum weather conditions in 2014 to do the repaving on Mount Vernon Rd. During this entire project there will also be sidewalks installed along this area on Mount Vernon Rd.

3. Other 2015 Paving Projects … Other than the paving on Mt Vernon Rd and Chamblee Dunwoody Rd the Request For Proposal (RFP) for paving all other streets on our 2015 Paving Plan will be released in March and the City Council should vote on the selected paving contract at our April meeting. Paving of all these streets is scheduled to start in conjunction with schools closing for the summer to cut down on traffic congestion. As above, during the paving process patience will by required be all of us. 

4. Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) Rewrite … All cities are required by law to have a CLUP and it must be updated every 5 years. This is a legal document that projects the vision of what we want our city to be over the next 20 years. The Dunwoody CLUP  is up for rewrite this year. We are seeking input from all our citizens in the rewrite of our CLUP. Last night we had our first "Shape Dunwoody” citizen meeting concerning the CLUP rewrite and approx. 100 citizens showed up to have their views heard. My thanks to all those that participated. The second such meeting will be this Monday, March 2nd at the Dunwoody Library starting at 6:30 PM … make plans to attend and let us hear your future vision of our city. There will also be an on-line survey on our city website in the late May or early June time frame. 

5. Follow Up …. In NOV, 2013 I sent out the below update concerning the Dunwoody E-news Blast. To date, over 11,000 citizens have signed up. I encourage everyone to sign up. The Dunwoody Email Blast is informative and concise. Just this last week it was use for information on street conditions, weather conditions and closure of City Hall due to inclement weather. Instructions on how the sign up are below ... 
 Dunwoody E-news Blast List ... To keep everyone better informed of what is going on in our city we now send out a "city weekly e-news blast." This goes out to all our citizens who are on the city email list. The following is the official information on why the e-news blast and how to sign up… "The City of Dunwoody is committed to encouraging and facilitating active citizen engagement. To keep up with everything going on in Dunwoody, you can sign up for weekly email updates at https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/DUNWOODYGA/subscriber/new
or check our website at http://www.dunwoodyga.gov

6. Upcoming Events:
Zoning Board of Appeals Meeting …     March 3 at 7pm …     City Hall
City Council Meeting ...                          March 9 at 6 PM …    City Hall
Planning Commission Meeting …          March 10 at 7 PM …  City Hall
Sustainability Committee Meeting …    March 12 at 7:45 AM …    City Hall
Perimeter Center Zoning Project Meeting … March 19 at 6 PM … City Hall

7.  That is all for today so I best end this update. Please pass this on to all your friends, neighbors, members of your HOA or anyone else you think maybe interested. If anyone would like to be added to my email list please let me know and I will make that happen. Thanks for your continued support and remember, that each have stake in our City and we are all neighbors so lets treat each other with respect and kindness.
 
Let Us Continue To Build Our City Together

Denny Shortal
Dunwoody City Council, District One, Post-1
Mayor Pro Tem
PH (O) 678-382-6700 (C) 678-246-9006

No comments: