Clairmont Heights Civic Association

I hope each of you had a safe 4th of July holiday and spent time with family and friends. I also hope you are staying cool as we continue to experience record-breaking temperatures across our state.

I, along with the Department of Recreation Parks & Cultural Affairs, the DeKalb County Public Library, the DeKalb Board of Health, and the DeKalb Emergency Management Agency, encourage citizens to take steps to protect against the dangers of excessive heat this summer. To help you stay cool, our recreation centers and libraries are open and great places to seek shelter.

Exchange, Lynwood, Midway and Redan recreation centers are open Monday - Friday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. for residents seeking shelter from the heat.  

Chamblee,Tucker-Reid H. Cofer, Hairston Crossing and Salem-Panola libraries are open Monday and Tuesday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Wednesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. to help you beat the heat.

Speaking of recreation centers, I invite you to be the first to tour the Wade Walker Park Family YMCA, an innovative partnership between DeKalb County and the YMCA. Construction on the state-of-art recreational facility is complete and we are giving the community a sneak peek before the center officially opens in the fall. I hope to see you there.

   - CEO Burrell Ellis

Hundreds Attend Summit on Youth Violence

DeKalb County convened the metro-wide Summit on Youth Violence June 20.  More than 700 youth, community, civic, social, elected, educational, and inter-faith leaders joined together to discuss and address the issue of youth violence.   The summit and inter-faith vigil was held at Victory for the World Church where two fatal shootings occurred last month after a funeral. 

With youth violence reaching epidemic proportions across our nation, we brought together a panel of civic and community leaders to offer suggestions for solutions, including DeKalb County Public Safety Director William Miller; Rev. Ken Samuel, Victory for the World Church;  Rev. Gerald Durley, Providence Missionary Baptist Church of Atlanta; Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock, Ebenezer Baptist Church; Curly Dossman, 100 Black Men of America, Inc. National Chair-Elect; Robert James, DeKalb County District Attorney; Trenny Stovall, DeKalb County Child Advocacy Director; Rev. Joe Williams, Salem Bible Church; Dr. Jeffrey Hall, CDC; Terence McPhaul, Executive Director of YouthPride; Rev. Dr. Robert Franklin, President of Morehouse College; Imam Plemon El Amin, Community Leader; Mary Pat Hector, Community Leader; Marcus Coleman, National Action Network Atlanta Chapter President; John Evans, NAACP DeKalb Branch President; Greg Street, V103; Dr. Lorraine Jacques-White, WAOK; Beyonce, The Rickey Smiley Show; Shed Jackson, WCLK; and Dr. Roy Reese, Poems Instead of Pistols Initiative.

The summit concluded with a candlelight vigil held in memory of the two young men who were killed outside the church last month. The summit and inter-faith vigil served as a call to action and process for all of us to begin anew to address the causes and not just treat the symptoms of youth violence. We must continue working together in teaching our youth that violence is not the answer.

DeKalb County to Hold a Community "First Look" Event for Wade Walker Park Family YMCA

Join us for a sneak peek of DeKalb County's newest recreational facility at the community "First Look" on Saturday, July 7, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Wade Walker Park Family YMCA, 5585 Rockbridge Road, Stone Mountain, GA 30088 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The "First Look" event will be a festive experience for the entire family to enjoy.

This event will provide the county a chance to present the 60,000-square-foot facility to the citizens of DeKalb and for elected officials to thank the public for their support. Citizens will also have the opportunity to tour the facility, view departmental displays and enjoy games, entertainment and food.

For more information, call Jackie Swain, Parks Program Coordinator, at (404) 687-2751.

DeKalb Receives NACo Achievement Awards

Landfill Gas to Transportation Fuels Conversion Facility, Toilet Retrofit Program recognized

DeKalb County has been honored by the National Association of Counties (NACo) for implementing innovative county government programs to better serve citizens. The county's new Landfill Gas to Transportation Fuels Conversion Facility and Toilet Retrofit Program were each recognized with a 2012 NACo Achievement Award. The conversion facility was also named Best in Category in the Environmental Protection and Energy category, and as such, is the most outstanding county model program submitted to the category. This year, only 16 of the Best of Category awards were conferred out of the hundreds of projects submitted.

The Landfill Gas to Transportation Fuels Conversion Facility is the first in the U.S. to convert methane gas to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) for vehicles and Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) for high-BTU gas for pipeline injection. The operation has the environmental equivalent of taking 30,000 cars off the road every year and will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 17,000 tons, or what goes into the atmosphere from 17 million gallons of gasoline.

The Toilet Retrofit Program provides owners of single-family, individually-metered homes built prior to 1993 rebates for the replacement of up to three inefficient toilets with low flow toilets. Citizens are incentivized to replace inefficient toilets with more efficient models, thus saving one of our most valuable resources - water. As a result of the program, nearly 19 million gallons of water are conserved each month, enough to fill 380,000 average bath tubs.

The NACo Achievement Award program is a non-competitive program that recognizes counties for improving the management of and services provided by county government. Since the program's inception in 1970, the NACo Achievement Award program has honored thousands of county government initiatives that have improved service delivery, achieved greater cost efficiency, provided finer customer service, and helped to develop a better-trained work force.

The 2012 NACo Achievement Awards winners will be honored during NACo's 78th Annual Conference and Exposition in Allegheny County/Pittsburgh, Pa., July 13-17. 

DeKalb County Celebrates 100th Homebuyer

Foreclosure program reaches milestone

Last month, we joined Vaughn Irons, Chief Executive Officer of APD Solutions, to formally recognized the 100th customer approved to purchase a home through the ONE DeKalb Lives Get Home NOW! Program. The program combines new mortgage capital and home renovation products with flexible credit requirements to stimulate affordable vacant home buying, rehabilitation of distressed homes, and home sales in a county-wide outreach effort.

In February, Ms. Elonda Dixon, who first discovered the homebuyer programs on DeKalb County Television, DCTV Comcast Channel 23, purchased a home in Ellenwood. Ms. Dixon was able to purchase her home utilizing homebuyer assistance programs through DeKalb County Government and APD Solutions.

While Ms. Dixon was celebrated as the 100th customer served under ONE DeKalb Lives Get Home NOW! program, there have been a total of 128 houses sold under this program since the inception of the program in June 2011. There are 202 more sales pending in DeKalb County. The Get Home NOW! program also features flexible credit with scores as low as 580 and has special features for police, firefighters and the military.

During the celebration, we also updated the other programs under the ONE DeKalb Lives umbrella, including:

Neighborhood Stabilization Program

• 108 Single-Family foreclosed homes impacted since program inception (81 acquisitions; 27 second mortgages)
• 60 homes were sold, nine are currently under contract, and 12 are available for sale
• 88 rental units rehabbed and made available to low-income families

First-Time Homebuyer Down Payment Assistance Program

• 76 homebuyers received Down Payment Assistance in 2011, and 28 homebuyers received Down Payment Assistance in 2012
• A total of 120 homebuyers have received Down Payment Assistance since 2010

Good Neighbor Next Door

• Eight participants have closed since program launch; another closing scheduled for this month
• More than 130 inquiries from police officers, firefighters and teachers have been made on this program. 

DeKalb County Youth Go to Work

Approximately 200 youth enrolled in the Youth Summer

Employment Training Program, hosted annually by DeKalb Workforce Development (DWD), have been successful in securing jobs this summer. The program works to increase opportunities for youth to develop a strong work ethic and acquire the skills needed to become competitive job seekers in a global economy.

The eight-week Youth Summer Employment Training Program builds upon career goals identified by each youth and gives them the opportunity to explore careers in various fields in the non-profit, public and private business sectors of DeKalb County, such as DeKalb County Recreation, Parks & Cultural Affairs, Sunrise Assisted Living Center and Greater Piney Grove Baptist Church. Youth are able to use this work experience to strengthen their resume and network with professionals in their desired field as they prepare to enter the workforce.

DWD has budgeted $400,000 from federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA) funds for this annual initiative that pays the youth participants $8 an hour, which is above the state's minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, for a maximum of 25 hours per week. The youth participants are getting this extra boost due to the current economic conditions that have, in certain cases, impacted their households and left them as the only source of income.

The Youth Summer Employment Training Program began June 4, 2012 and will conclude on July 27, 2012 with a celebratory event at the Porter Sanford III Performing Arts & Community Center.

For more information on the youth year-round program, contact DWD at (404) 687-3822 or visit www.dekalbworkforce.org.