Posted in Community, emergency management on March 4, 2014 | Leave a Comment »
Tomorrow is the first Wednesday of March so we’ll be testing the tornado outdoor warning sirens at 5:00 p.m. The test should last approximately one minute. Should the weather become inclement, the test will be postponed until Thursday, 6 March 2014.
If you have questions or want more information about the siren system, check out the Siren page on the City’s website or contact Police Lt. Barry Woodward at 404-373-6551.
Posted in Community on March 3, 2014 | Leave a Comment »
Heather Tell purchased a Lunch With the Mayor at Oakhurst Elementary’s Auction for her daughters Greta & Liza. Greta, Liza & Heather met up with the Mayor at City Hall for a tour of City Hall. They learned about what they City Commission does here with the Mayor in the City Commission meeting room.
They ran into State Legislator Mary Margaret Oliver on the way to lunch.
Thanks for the awesome thank you note Greta & Liza – we had a great time!
Posted in Community, tagged Decatur blogs on February 27, 2014 | Leave a Comment »
Welcome to our refreshed Decatur Minute!
We launched The Decatur Minute blog back in 2008 to provide information about events, shops, restaurants, businesses, volunteer opportunities, and more to keep the community informed. We started with a small team of bloggers who focused on different content areas.
Our scope evolved and broadened over the years to include city initiatives and services such as emergency notifications, changes in solid waste & recycling collections, announcements about upcoming meetings and much more. Our small team of bloggers steadily increased and diversified.
So now six years later, it is time to refresh and renew by changing our masthead banner and posting short bios (and photos coming soon) of our bloggers and their areas of interest. Click here to read all about them and put faces with their names.
Our blog team will continue to provide a variety of city-related information to keep you “in the know in one quick minute.” If there are other areas of city information you would like to see posted here, let Casie Yoder (casie.yoder@decaturga.com) know. Casie is our Public Information Officer and oversees The Decatur Minute blog details.
Remember also that we have three other official city blogs – Be Active Decatur, Decatur Tax Blog, and VisitDecaturGA – so check them out as well.
Thanks for reading The Decatur Minute and thanks for helping us keep the community informed.
Posted in Community, emergency management, Sustainability on February 27, 2014 | Leave a Comment »
Every few weeks, I receive a notice in my inbox about a coyote sighting in a Decatur neighborhood. As annoying as this might sound, coyotes have adapted to an urban lifestyle and are here to stay, so co-existence is encouraged. The City of Decatur does not have a policy to remove coyotes. Here is a summary of information from the Stanley Park Ecology Society about co-existing with coyotes in an urban setting –
It is not normal for coyotes to attack or pursue humans, especially adults; it is a learned response to human behavior (e.g., feeding). You can discourage coyotes from hanging around your home by scaring them off your property and by removing coyote attractants, such as:
While coyotes will prey on outdoor cats and small dogs, here are some things you can do to reduce the risk to your pets.
If you own a cat – The only way to guarantee your cat’s safety is to keep it indoors. Outdoor cats face potential death from cars, diseases, parasites, raccoons and dogs, in addition to coyotes.
If you own a small dog –
If you own a large dog – Coyotes pose less risk to medium- to large-sized dogs. Keep large dogs on leash, except in designated areas, and discourage your dog from feeling comfortable with coyotes by preventing it from “playing” or interacting with a coyote.
For more tips on how to deal with coyotes and to report Decatur coyote sightings, please visit the City of Decatur Coyote Information Page, www.decaturga.com/coyotes.
Posted in Community, Events, tagged Decatur City Commission, Decatur Georgia, Decatur MLK Jr Service Project, Decatur plumber, M. Cary & Daughters, M. Cary & Daughters Plumbing, M. Cary and Daughters, Mayor Baskett, Mayor Jim Baskett, MLK Day of Service, MLK MVP, MLK Service project, MVP award, Paul Mitchell, plumber, plumbing on February 26, 2014 | Leave a Comment »
This year, the Decatur MLK Jr. Service Project decided to create an award to recognize participants that go above and beyond to support the project. The MVP Award (Most Valuable Participant) will be given out each year to a person or organization that has been identified for their exemplary contributions.
M. Cary & Daughters Plumbing was selected as the first recipient for the 2014 event. The business has worked with the program for four years, and donated thousands of dollars worth of time and resources.
Michelle Cary (center) accepts the 2014 MVP award from Mayor Jim Baskett (right) and Paul Mitchell.
“We simply could not do what we do without their skills to stop leaks, fix broken pipes and fixtures, replace toilets… you name it and they’ve done it,” says Paul Mitchell, chair of the executive committee.
Michelle Cary accepted the award at the City Commission meeting on February 18 and was overwhelmed by the recognition.
“This isn’t why we participate,” Michelle said quietly after receiving the award. Her humble nature reiterates why this award is so valuable. Contractors and individuals donate their time every year to this project with only one goal in mind; support Decatur’s low-income seniors.
Thank you to M. Cary & Daughters Plumbing and all the other donors to the project.
Posted in Community on February 10, 2014 | Leave a Comment »
Every other year for the past 8 years, the City of Decatur has surveyed its residents through the National Research Center (NRC.) The NRC sent out the 2014 survey to a random sample of Decatur residents on Wednesday, February 5th with a postcard notification. If you didn’t receive a postcard that means you weren’t one of the random households chosen this time.
The actual survey will be sent out twice on Feb. 12 and Feb. 19 to the random sample. If you are one of the lucky ones to receive the survey, please make sure to fill it out and send it back via mail or online. We’ve had a 40% response rate for the past 4 surveys, which is great, but we want more! The survey is completely anonymous and we only get the final tabulations from NRC.
If you’d like a better idea of what the final tabulations look like, click here for our webpage where you can download the 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012 survey results. The data from the survey is used by the City in its budgeting, strategic and annual planning processes.
If you have any questions regarding the survey, contact Budget & Performance Measurement Manager Meredith Roark at meredith.roark@decaturga.com or call 404-370-4102.
Posted in Community, emergency management on February 4, 2014 | Leave a Comment »
Tomorrow is the first Wednesday of February so we’ll be testing the tornado outdoor warning sirens at 5:00 p.m. The test should last approximately one minute. Should the weather become inclement, the test will be postponed until Thursday, 6 February 2014.
If you have questions or want more information about the siren system, check out the Siren page on the City’s website or contact Police Lt. Barry Woodward at 404-373-6551.
Posted in Community on January 16, 2014 | Leave a Comment »
Posted in Community, emergency management on January 15, 2014 | Leave a Comment »
Forty five percent of us usually make New Year’s Resolutions, but typically only 8% are successful in achieving their resolutions. What if in addition to or instead of weight loss or a new hobby, you resolved to keep you and your family safe in 2014? Here are five simple resolutions that you’ll have no trouble keeping.
Although 8% of Americans do not keep their New Year’s resolutions, we hope you are able to commit to safety and keep these five resolutions throughout 2014. Be sure to check out the Emergency Management Services page on the City’s website for additional information and tips.
Posted in Community, emergency management, Technology on January 13, 2014 | Leave a Comment »
Today is Amber Alert Awareness Day, marking the 18 year anniversary of the day Amber Hagerman was abducted while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas, and later found murdered. In April of 2003, in her honor, President Bush signed into law the PROTECT Act, which statutorily established the national AMBER Alert coordinator role. Since, the AMBER Alert™ program has been credited with more than 675 successful recoveries of missing or abducted children. The AMBER Alert Program is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies, broadcasters, transportation agencies and the wireless industry to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases.
In honor of this day, the City of Decatur is encouraging parents to create a Safety Profile for their household at www.smart911.com which can include current photos and physical descriptions of their children. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the first three hours are the most critical when trying to locate a missing child. When a child is reported missing it can take up to an hour or more to have a current photo distributed to law enforcement officers in the field. If the family has a Smart911 Safety Profile and dials 9-1-1, their child’s photo and description will be immediately available to call-takers and can be passed on to law enforcement officials in the field, launching a search in seconds or minutes as opposed to hours.
Smart911 allows citizens to create a free Safety Profile for their household with information they want 9-1-1 and emergency responders to have during an emergency. When a citizen makes an emergency call, their Safety Profile is automatically displayed to the 9-1-1 call-taker, allowing them to send the right response teams to the right location with the right information.
For more information about Smart911, contact Fire Chief Toni Washington at toni.washington@decaturga.com or 404-373-5092.
