Newspaper Page Text
Page 6A
The Champion, Thursday, December 17 - 23,2015
LOCAL
Greenhaven cityhood ad
vocate Sandy Johnson said
volunteering is a product of
her upbringing.
“My mother was always
actively engaged in the com
munity,” Johnson said. “I’ve
never really thought about it;
you just do it.”
Johnson, a DeKalb
resident since 1997, is the
secretary for Concerned Citi
zens for Cityhood of South
DeKalb Inc., an organization
pushing for the incorpora
tion of south DeKalb into the
proposed city of Greenhaven.
“It’s important to be ac
tively engaged in whatever
community you live in so
that you understand what
goes on, understanding...
government, governance and
who your neighbors are,”
Johnson said.
Johnson also is a mem
ber of the DeKalb NAACP
and the neighborhood watch
coordinator for Kings Row
Community Association. She
is the director of Dress for
Success Atlanta, a nonprofit
organization that promotes
the “economic independence
of disadvantaged women by
providing professional attire,
a network of support and ca
reer development tools,” ac
cording to the organization’s
website.
“My volunteer work is
a part of what I consider to
be not only my duty and
responsibility as a respon
sible voting neighbor, but
also my duty as a Christian,”
said Johnson, a native of Bir
mingham, Ala.
Johnson said volun
teering gives her “a sense
of peace and understand
ing [about] what’s going on
around” her.
“There’s something about
having knowledge of your
surroundings that takes away
some of the fear of living in
an urban area,” she said.
“Knowing and under
standing who to call, what to
do and what’s going on and
what’s out of place, [and] the
changes that need to occur
are all part of the balance of
work and life for me,” John
son said.
“People who don’t volun
teer have their own reasons
for not volunteering, but
for those who just haven’t
thought about it, it’s a won
derful extension of who
you are, both in identifying
friends, people with common
interests, as well as under
standing the issues in your
community,” Johnson said.
“When I go to the polls
to vote, I know something
about the people that I’m
voting for,” she added. “I
know something about the
issues that I’m voting on and
if I have questions, I know
who to call.
“You can’t really do that
from watching the news or
reading the newspaper,” she
added.
Community involvement
“helps to keep us healthy,”
Johnson said. “The more
people who are engaged in
the community, the [healthi
er] the community.”
If you would like to nominate someone to be considered as a future Champion of the Week, please contact Andrew Cauthen
at andrew@dekalbchamp.com or at (404) 373-7779, ext. 117.
CITIES
Continued From Page 2A
were about proposed city
hood movements.
Ed Williams, chair
man of Citizens Against
Cityhood in DeKalb, said,
“I do not believe that a
city of 300,000 people in
south DeKalb should be cre
ated...overnight. That’s never
happened in the history
of Georgia. It took Atlan
ta 150 years to reach 450,000
people.”
Williams said city
hood referendums should
not be “legitimized by 5 per
cent of the vote.”
“One of my recommen
dations to the state house
and senate committees was
that if less than 50 percent of
registered voters participate
in the election, the referen
dum should not be legitimate
for cityhood votes,” Williams
said. “You should not have
12 to 15 percent or under 25
percent determining...city
hood is for 100 percent of the
residents.”
“Then come and
vote,” said Jason Lary, chair
man of Stonecrest City Al
liance, a group seeking city
hood in southeast DeKalb.
“You’re stupid if you let
somebody else do the thing
for you. You can’t sit back
and complain about what is
not happening...if you don’t
get involved.”
Lary said the proposed
Stonecrest cityhood referen
dum is about “opportunity to
have our say.”
There are “two sides
of the fence that folks are
struggling with right now:
who’s against cityhood, who’s
for cityhood,” Lary said.
“What it’s about is our abil
ity to have a choice to say
if we want to have a city or
not. I can live with the results
of having my say, but what
I cannot live with is the result
of not having my say.”
Sandy Johnson, an ad
vocate for the proposed city
of Greenhaven, said she isn’t
afraid of the possible historic
creation of Greenhaven.
“Making history is not
always a bad thing,” John
son said. “When folks talk
about ‘it has not been done
before’ that’s as lame an ex
cuse as I have heard in my
adult life.
“We have an opportunity
to work together to deter
mine and define how to now
go forward,” she said.
Addressing the sugges
tion to mandate 50 percent
participation in cityhood
referendums, Johnson said,
“We are not getting folks out
to vote today, so changing...
that process of voting so that
it’s no longer just a simple
majority for one particular
issue is not going to fix the
problem.”
John Blanchard of
Gresham Park said he is
“deeply opposed to the [pro
posed] Greenhaven city.”
“It’s going to increase
our taxes, he said. “It’s go
ing to decrease our property
values which the Greenhaven
proponents will even admit.
They hope [the values] will
come back. Hope. I don’t
want hope. I want my prop
erty values to stay where they
are and go up.”
The DeKalb County
house delegation will hold
another town hall meeting at
7 p.m. Jan. 7 at the Manual
Maloof Auditorium, 1300
Commerce Drive, Decatur.
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