Newspaper Page Text
Page 12A
LOCAL
The Champion, Thursday, June 25 - July 1, 2015
Executive Director of Partners in Action for Healthy Living Maria Rossoto, Emory student Julianna
Joss, Director of Community Building and Social Change Kate Grace, Towers resident Joe Ferris
and Emory student Sarah Perlin stand in the plaza off of Glenwood Road to support the Towers
Action Group’s sidewalk campaign.
Emory fellows interview and record a resident about her issues with the lack of side
walks on Glenwood Road.
Emory students support local sidewalk mission
by Ashley Oglesby
ashley@dekalb champ, com
Many in the Towers High School
community are concerned about an
increase in pedestrian deaths. Resi
dents want sidewalks, and Emory
University students are supporting
their mission.
On June 16, from 10 a.m. to
noon, Towers Action Group (TAG)
along with Emory students enrolled
in a community building and social
change fellows program, hosted an
event in the parking lot of the Pres
tigious Early Learning Academy on
Glenwood Road.
Towers residents and students
used the event to gather signatures
and testimonials, as well as take
photographs of pedestrians to ad
vocate for the construction of side
walks in the surrounding neighbor
hoods.
TAG member Beverly Hall said,
“People have to walk so close to
the street in tall grass. Mothers are
pushing strollers with babies into
the street. Some people are in wheel
chairs and actually have to get into
the streets. Cars are not stopping or
slowing down; it’s dangerous.”
She added, “It’s imperative to
have sidewalks in this community.”
Emory students assisted the resi
dents in promoting the campaign
by creating signs, interviewing resi
dents and writing press releases to
get the support of local newspapers.
Emory’s Director of community
building social change fellows Kate
Grace said many of the students in
the yearlong program are getting a
minor in community building and
social change.
She said, “This opportunity
provides real-world experience for
our students while at the same time
helping to improve the community.”
Grace said each student has
completed nine course credits and
been assigned to a project that will
be completed in teams but directed
by the community.
“We have been working with
the DeKalb Sustainable Neighbor
hoods Initiative for four years and
the Towers Action Group is one of
our partners. It’s important because
we can bring an infusion of energy
and skills around particular issues to
help move, in this instance, the Tow
ers community agenda forward,”
Grace said.
Continued From Page 9A
insufficient evidence to convict him.
Johnson refused.
On June 19 Ellis’ defense team
called character witnesses, including
his wife Philippa, and Congressman
Hank Johnson before putting Ellis
on the stand.
Ellis testified that he did not
pressure contractor Power and En
ergy to contribute to his political
campaign. He was, however, con
cerned that a representative hung up
on him.
“When I saw how much busi
ness they were doing with the coun
ty, that, even more so, made me mad
that she would hang up the phone,”
Ellis said. “If you don’t respect the
office of the CEO, you don’t respect
the county.”
Ellis’ testimony about conversa
tions with Joann Wise, of CIBER
Inc., a technology consulting firm,
differed from hers. Ellis had asked
the company for a contribution to
his campaign.
“[Wise] was calling me, she was
returning my call [to say] that they
had had an open procurement and
she was waiting to see whether they
were going to get a contract before
she decided whether she was going
to give to my campaign,” Ellis testi
fied.
Wise said “that they were not
being selected so... they had made a
decision at CIBER [that they] were
not going to give to my campaign,”
Ellis said.
In early testimony, Wise said El
lis was irritated and annoyed with
her, threatened her job and charac
terized her as a bad mother after she
ignored several of his phone calls.
Before the prosecution rested,
it tried to prove that Ellis perjured
himself when he testified before
a grand jury that he never got in
volved with the contract selection
process.
James’ team played a recording
of Ellis questioning former county
fire chief Edward O’Brien about a
contract awarded to an ambulance
company. In the conversation, El
lis asked O’Brien to “delve into that
with each of these vendors.”
O’Brien testified that “there was
some direction given to make sure
we look into certain things in the
next step of the process.”
The prosecution also played a
recording of Ellis before a special
purpose grand jury.
“I don’t make the call to give
people work,” Ellis said in the re
cording. “I don’t make the call to
not give people work. I just rely on
my department heads to make those
decisions.”
Ellis’ trial had not concluded at
press time June 23.