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LOCAL .A__4 CHAMPION! July 28 - Aug. 3, 2016 • Page 2A Developers revise plans for Dresden Village proposal by Carla Parker carla@dekalbchamp.com Two developers have made changes to a proposed Brookhaven development after meetings with the public. Connolly and Fairfield Residential released revised plans for the Dresden Village proposal—a mixed-use development on Dresden Drive, between Caldwell Road and Parkside Drive. Brian Fratesi of Connolly said July 7 that the amended proposal was submitted to the city. “The slide show details the evolution of the project, which resulted from collective efforts of our team and a group of dedicated neighborhood advocates that met on numerous occasions to help shape this project, which is designed to be consistent with the Brookhaven- Peachtree Overlay District and the surrounding uses and to be in keeping with the character of the neighborhood,” Fratesi said. The original plan included 20,000 Developers have made changes to the proposed Dresden Village square feet of boutique shops and local restaurants with outside patios managed by local operators, pedestrian friendly streetscapes with wide sidewalks and interesting storefronts, 206 luxury multi-family apartment homes and approximately 200 parking spaces for retail customers and the general public. The revised plan features: • Four stories on Dresden and three stories facing Caldwell Road; Reduced the number of balconies; Reduced total number of units from 206 to 194, which reduces density from 60 units per acre to 56.6; Access on Caldwell was changed from full retail/residential access to be residential; Developer will contribute $20,000 to the city of Brookhaven to facilitate traffic improvements; Relocated trash, deliveries and loading/unloading; Added more than a half-acre of public green open space; • Designated two parallel parking spaces on Dresden for Uber/taxi (or other transportation drop-off and pick-up); • Developer will contribute $5,000 to the Ashford Park Community for improvements at Parkside Park; •And development will have more than 140 publicly accessible paid parking spaces. The changes come shortly after some residents along Dresden Road started a petition for Brookhaven to do smart development in response to the redevelopment along Dresden. Developers said Dresden Village will complete the pedestrian-friendly retail and restaurant experience along Dresden, connecting Brookhaven Village to the proposed Brookhaven MARTA redevelopment project. They also said the proposed development will adhere to the city’s tree ordinance regulations by saving canopy and specimen trees. DeKalb schools reluctantly partner with Dunbar Higher standards requested from armored car service company by R. Scott Belzer sbelzer@dekalbchamp.com On July 11, DeKalb County School District (DCSD) awarded a $290,000 contract to Dunbar, an armored car service characterized as having “challenges,” involving inaccurate money counts and forgotten pickups. The $290,000 will be taken from DCSD’s general fund account ($170,000) and school nutrition account ($120,000). Michael Bell, chief financial officer for DCSD, said the contract was awarded due to a lack of parity in Atlanta regarding the armored car business. “In our area, there are maybe three companies who provide these services,” Bell said. “We had one vendor respond to our solicitation, the same one we have now: Dunbar.” Dunbar was established in England in 1923 and is self-described as the country’s leading armored car service provider. Other companies in Atlanta include Loomis and Brink’s. Bell said Dunbar’s ability to handle large scale projects allows the company to work with most metro Atlanta school districts. Specific duties in DeKalb County include daily cash pickups at 20 middle schools and 22 high schools, bi-weekly pickups at 78 elementary schools and 11 weekly pickups at “special entity locations,” according to the contract. “Each DCSD school location maintains a depository account for local school activity funds and a depository account for the school nutrition Dunbar is one of three armored car companies in the metro Atlanta region. program funds,” the contract states. In addition, armored car services are expected to make pickups during football season—12 weeks—at five DeKalb County stadiums immediately after each Friday and Saturday night game. Bell said there have been issues with Dunbar in the past involving accuracy of money counts, not showing up for scheduled pickups and not assigning counting duties to employees. Because of these issues, the awarded contract—lasting one year—contains detailed expectations to “hold the company to a higher standard.” “In [Dunbar’s] defense, they had some issues they asserted about being notified as to when certain pickups were supposed to take place,” Bell said. “Missed pickups cause funds to be put in a safe for a period of time, which is not the safest thing.” Bell said numerous meetings have taken place between school officials and representatives from Dunbar, eventually leading to a “cure letter” or “cure notice.” Cure letters notify DCSD’s chief financial officer, Michael Bell, presented a new contract with Dunbar on July 11 despite acknowledging “issues” and “challenges” with the company. companies—typically employed by a government agency—that their performance is endangering the terms of a contract. “[Dunbar] sent down a higher management representative from the northeast,” Bell said. “This individual spent some time with people here. We’ve detected some improvement in service and we don’t want them to fall back in their performance.” Bell said the new contract will assure benchmarks and standards are being met. If such standards are not met, according to Bell, the district will have the option of canceling the contract. “But we have a responsibility to the school district to ensure this type of service is in place,” Bell said. “We’ve gone through one cure letter process and management did pay attention.” Board member Joyce Morley advocated rebidding the contract in one year. “To me, mediocrity just has no place,” Morley said. “We’re talking about money and missed pickups and no calculating why—something is wrong with that.”
