You are invited to a public meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 9, at 7 p.m. to discuss the future use of the Decatur Recreation Center. After mid-2009, the Recreation Center will no longer be used for high school athletics. This offers an opportunity to consider its future use, especially the 10,000 square foot gym. The City of Decatur has employed LP3 Architects to prepare a master plan, schematic design and cost estimates for the “Rec.” Decatur’s Active Living Department needs your help in planning how the building can be modernized to serve future community needs. The meeting will be held in the social room at the Decatur Recreation Center, 231 Sycamore St., in downtown Decatur.
Posted in Meetings | Tagged Rec Center | Leave a Comment »
I know a lot of you have been looking forward to this moment ever since you saw “Variable message board” itemized on the city’s 2008-2009 Budget. Well, the wait is over because the City of Decatur’s very own electronic alert sign arrived yesterday!
O.k., that first sentence might not apply to anyone, but there’s no doubt that this new piece of equipment will be very useful.
The InstALERT comes with a number of pre-programmed messages and has the ability to upload customized alerts.
Public Works director, David Junger, brought it over to the City Hall parking lot to show us how it works.
All the messaging is controlled by a PDA:
For those of you who are really dedicated and want to learn more about the InstALERT Rapid Messenger visit the All Traffic Solutions website.
Posted in Transportation | Tagged Public Works | Leave a Comment »
Valet parking has arrived in downtown Decatur. Shane at Saba has organized a valet service to operate out of N. McDonough Street by the bandstand on the square. The cost of valet parking is $5. Right now the service is available Friday and Saturday evenings from 5-11 p.m., but the company plans to expand to week nights in the upcoming months.
Posted in Retail & Restaurants, Transportation | Tagged parking, Saba, valet | Leave a Comment »
Decatur’s shop owners are some of the most creative people I know. Here are just a few of the great signs around the square right now:
That Pottery Place’s colorful, handmade sign is inviting and eye-catching.
Worthmore Jewelers’ Dylan-inspired sign always makes me smile.
Squash Blossom’s chalkboard has the answer to our economic woes. The store gets bonus points for promoting local shops and restaurants.
Saba’s clever use of an old framed print, chalkboard paint and string.
Have you seen a sign downtown that’s caught your eye? Take a picture of it, send it to me (Catherine.Lee@decaturga.com) and I’ll post it on the blog. Shop owners, feel free to send in your own signs that you’re particularly proud of. We’d love to show them off!
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The Oakhurst Arts & Music Festival has the word music in the title for a reason- the music is awesome! The bands donate their time and talents for the community. As promised, here are some photos from the musical line up. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to take any photos before noon, so I missed a couple of them. Our friend and event photographer Bill Mahan shared some of his with me as well. I would like to mention that The Stephen Wood Ensemble, Sue Witty and Olde Dog also performed. When I get some photos of them, I will be sure to add them.
- Liz Brown of Liz and the Tomcats, courtesy of Bill Mahan
Zachary Kale with Joe Gransden
Posted in Events | Tagged 30030, Decatur, Heaven Davis, Liz Brown, Matthew Kahler, Oakhurst, Sehwe, Zachary Kale | Leave a Comment »
I spent last Saturday at Harmony Park in Oakhurst for the 11th annual Oakhurst Arts & Music Festival and it was a wondrful day! The weather was great and the people, as always, were friendly. The day started with the Arts 5k Run, organized by Charles Cope at One Step At a Time.
Here are some of my photos from the parade:
Line Dancers from the Decatur Rec Center
The Youth Group from Thankful Baptist Church
The Asian Cajuns in the Zip Car with Carl Black
The “BobMobile”
Lyn Menne with Senior Olympians
Jody Foster of Navo Church did dance demonstrations in the Children’s Area and the Boys & Girls Club had a pumpkin painting booth.
I will have some more photos tomorrow of the great bands that donated their time and talents to this great community festival. Have a great week!
Cheryl
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 30030, Boys & Girls Club, Decatur, Navo, Oakhurst Arts Festival, ZipCar | Leave a Comment »
First off, my grandsons rock! Who knew being a grandparent would be so rewarding (besides other grandparents)? My 2 year old grandson and I spent an afternoon out and about in Decatur.
We visited the newly opened Greene’s Fine Foods where he tasted his first soft peppermint candy (don’t tell his parents!). He took a “ride” in the childsize firetruck at Salon Red Kids. He was mesmerized by Nemo on the small, individual screen and didn’t even squirm 
while getting his hair cut. We checked out Hoopla where I had to buy the toy tractor pulling a wagon of animals with the farmer singing an extra short version of Old McDonald Had A Farm…
We finished our day at Little Shop of Stories where we picked up a copy of Pete
the Cat and His White Shoes. I love James Dean (you can find his originals and prints at The Seen Gallery), the artist who did the illustrations.
On the way home we played the CD that comes with the book featuring Eric Litwin, or Mr. Eric as he is known on the Decatur Kids Sing CD’s. We sang “I love my white shoes” over and over and over and over and over and over. I gladly left the CD with my daughter, kissed my grandson good-bye, and took the tractor with me.
As I drove home, I began to plan our next Decatur Day. If you have any ideas for fun things to do with a 2-year old in Decatur, please let me know – in the meantime, I’m checking out the Decatur Mom blog regularly for special listings for grandparents…
Posted in Sidewalk Talk | Tagged Decatur Mom Blog, Eric Litwin, Greenes Fine Foods, Hoopla, James Dean, Little Shop of Stories, Pete the Cat, Salon Red Kids | 2 Comments »
We are busy getting ready for the Oakhurst Arts & Music Festival tomorrow and thought you might like to see some of the preparations. We were over there this morning marking off the artist spaces and caught some of our contractors in action. Classic Tents and Events is one of our “friends” who we rent staging, tables and chairs from. Ed is our self-titled “Favorite Tent Guy” – we love working with him and he is indeed our favorite. Here are some of the workers putting up the music stage.
PitStop supplies our portolets and we love working with them as well. Portolets may not bring up the best images in people’s minds, but PitStop does a great job with customer service as well as delivering clean unists. The owners, Terri and Jeff Wigley, are former IBM employees and have applied what they learned at IBM to running a very professional company. I caught one of their employees checking the units after he delivered them. 
Now you have a little peek into behind the scenes at one of our events! See you tomorrow at Harmony Park.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Decatur, Oakhurst Arts Festival, PitStop. Classic Tents and Events | 1 Comment »
Kelvin Davis and Eddie Scoffield operating the Knuckle Boom Loader.
I spent the morning with the Decatur Public Works staff and the kindergartners of Clairemont Elementary for Community Helpers Day. I’m not sure who was more excited to be there, the Public Works crew or the kids! Everyone had a great time learning about what Public Works does in & around the City. The best part of the morning happened when Sanitation Services Supervisor Kelvin Davis smashed up a washing machine with the help of the knuckle boom loader. It’s a shame you can’t hear the kids chanting “Drop it! Drop it!” in the background. The day isn’t nearly over and I’m already looking forward to next year’s Community Helpers Day.
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
We usually consider May the big arts month in Decatur with the Decatur Arts Festival and events, gallery openings and outdoor concerts, but October is turning out to be a pretty artsy month this year. Just check out all the great activities going on around town this weekend:
Chuck Jones by Greg Preston at the Art Institute of Atlanta-Decatur.
· Friday ∙ 6-10 p.m. Last Call at Vinson Gallery. See the final show at Vinson Gallery before it closes up its bricks and mortar space on the square. I’m so sad to see the gallery move out, but am comforted by the fact that the owners will continue to work and sell art in Decatur.
· Friday ∙ 5-9 p.m. The Artist Within at the Art Institute of Atlanta-Decatur. The Gallery at the Art Institute (located on the ground floor of the glass building on West Court Square) invites everyone to the opening reception featuring photographs of famous cartoonists by Greg Preston.
· Saturday ∙ 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Oakhurst Arts & Music Festival (see the previous post by Cheryl).
· There are a number of Decatur businesses taking part in the month-long Atlanta Celebrates Photography festival. Visit Dalton Gallery at Agnes Scott, the Decatur Library, Junor Gallery, Mocha Match, The Seen Gallery and Worthmore Jewelers to see their photography exhibits (and get a cup of coffee, check out a book, buy some art or some jewelry if you wish).
The best part about all these events is that they’re free. So regardless of what the Dow does in the next few days you can still have some fun this weekend.
Posted in Events, Retail & Restaurants | Leave a Comment »
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