Newspaper Page Text
Page 12A
LOCAL
The Champion, Thursday, May 14 - 20, 2015
From left, Kathleen McAllister of Horsley Witten Group Inc. and Kim Shorter of Sustainable
Water Planning and Engineering go over notes from the Nancy Creek-Murphy Candler Lake
stream walk. The two looked for good and bad conditions of the creek. Photos by Carla
Parker
From left, DeKalb Board of Education Chairman Melvin Johnson announces, accompa
nied by board member Michael Erwin, termination of ProAct contract.
$16,000 paid to
fired search firm
Consulting company walks
Brookhaven streams for water study
by Carla Parker
carla@dekalbchamp.com
Brookhaven has begun the pro
cess of improving Murphy Candler
Lake.
The city is doing a watershed
study on the lake and retained the
services of Sustainable Water Plan
ning and Engineering consulting
firm to assist with the study. The
firm started doing stream walks
along Nancy Creek May 7.
Kim Shorter, founder of Sustain
able Water Planning and Engineer
ing, said the firm is doing an overall
watershed improvement plan.
“What the city hopes to accom
plish from this is to find out where
streams are in really good condition,
where [they are] not in really good
condition in the Nancy Creek water
shed and develop a list of capital im
provement plan projects that can be
implemented over a period of time
that will address bank instability, wa
ter quality issues and just the overall
health and well-being of the streams
environment,” Shorter said.
While doing the stream walks,
Shorter and representatives from
Horsley Witten Group Sustainable
Environmental Solutions were doing
habitat assessments in specific points
along the stream.
“Were photo documenting
what we see,” Shorter said. “If we
see drainage coming in, we take a
picture of that, if we see areas where
the banks are unstable were taking
pictures of that. After that is done,
we’ll compile that habitat informa
tion, along with information about
the land-use area, and were going to
run a simplified computer model to
help us identify where the best bang
for the buck will be.”
In January, Brookhaven Mayor J.
Max Davis and City Manager Marie
Garrett met with some of Georgias
U.S. congressmen to seek federal
Environmental Protection Agency
funds to assist with improvements to
the 21 acre lake.
Because the lake has no capacity
to hold additional rainwater, it causes
storm water to run off into Nancy
Creek and other bodies of water in
the city. The city is seeking funds to
dredge and deepen the lake, as well
as restore the banks.
“This impacts the entire basin
area, which includes Brookhaven,
Chamblee, Dunwoody and parts of
DeKalb County,” Davis said. “It’s es
sential that we make these improve
ments soon to prevent any further
See Streams on page 13A
by Ashley Oglesby
ashley@dekalb champ, com
Chicago-based ProAct Search
Inc., which had led the charge to
hire DeKalb’s next school super
intendent, has been fired by the
DeKalb School Board.
According to the boards con
tract with the firm, the district
spent more than $16,000 on the
search firm to find a replacement
for outgoing school Superinten
dent Michael Thurmond.
The district entered the con
tract with the firm on Jan. 12 to
assist in drawing candidates.
Three payments of $8,333 were
required for a total fee of $25,000
for the execution of the agreement,
delivery and hiring of candidates.
Due to allegations of miscon
duct against SUPES Academy, a
related company of ProAct, the
board announced on May 5, that
they had ended their contract with
ProAct.
According to the contract the
district is not obligated to com
pensate ProAct for any fees or ex
penses after the termination.
In Chicago, the firm is dealing
with allegations involving no-bid
contracts with a firm where the
current superintendent once was
employed. Before the principal
training company came under fed
eral criminal scrutiny for its deal
with Chicago Public Schools, Gary
Solomon, one of ProAct Search
owners, previously faced allega
tions he used racial slurs in emails
sent when he was a north subur
ban high school dean.
Board member Joyce Morley
said, “Were not going to allow the
district to be affected by [ProAct].
We can’t let anything taint what
we’ve already accomplished in the
last two and a half years. Either
you’re a asset or a liability and he
was a liability and his firm was a
liability.”
Morley added,“My vision is to
see that we start over. When you
look at the process and the people
that were involved you can’t sepa
rate all of that out. I think it’s in
the best interest of the community,
our children and the district as a
whole that we start over and get a
new batch coming in and moving
forward.”
Morley said that process may
not happen right away. “Looking
at what we can do with the super
intendent we have to continue to
move forward with a succession
plan and a plan to be able to tran
sition into a new superintendent.
Sometimes you have to make sure
that it’s the right time and now is
not the right time,” Morley said.
The board faces a tight dead
line to find a successor to Thur
mond, whose contract ends in
June. Thurmond has told the
school board that he will stay on
until it finds the best superinten
dent.
Police seeking
CVS robber
The Chamblee Police
Department is asking for help from
the public to identify a man who
reportedly robbed a CVS Pharmacy
on May 11.
The man hit the CVS store
located at 5764 Peachtree Boulevard
at approximately 1 a.m.
According to CVS employees,
a Black male entered the pharmacy
wearing dark pants, light-colored
shirt and a black baseball-style hat.
While inside the CVS, the man
partially covered his face with a
mask or bandana, jumped over the
pharmacy counter and ordered the
pharmacist to open a safe containing
drugs, according to employees. The
pharmacist opened the safe and the
robber took approximately $9,435
worth of controlled narcotics, they
reported.
Anyone with information
regarding his identity or who can
provide any information regarding
this crime is asked to call (770) 986-
5002 and reference case number
15-03848.