Newspaper Page Text
LOCAL
THURSDAY, AUGUST 24 - 30, 2017 • Page 4
COUNTYWIDE
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COUNTYWIDE
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DCSD renews $2.4 million
landscaping contract
BY R. SCOTT BELZER
sbelzer@dekalbchamp.com
DeKalb County School
District (DCSD) renewed
a $2.4 million contract
for outsourced lawn and
landscaping services on Aug.
7.
Yellowstone Landscape—
based in Bunnell, Fla.,
with offices in Lilburn—will
continue to provide lawn
care and landscape services
to DCSD’s 138 facilities
following a year’s worth of
“excellent service,” according
to DCSD’s extension officer
and school personnel.
“We are very honored
to see the services from
Yellowstone Landscaping,
where our yards are now
professionally manicured,”
said Kyia Clark, principal at
Stone Mill Elementary. “From
the front doors to the curb
appeal, it is very evident that
we love DeKalb. Our parents
and constituents can see
that we care.”
Yellowstone Landscape’s
services were originally
approved in August 2016.
The company’s contract is
scheduled to be considered
for extension on an annual
basis until 2020.
DCSD Director of
Planning Dan Drake
presented the item to the
board of education on Aug.
7 on behalf of DCSD chief
operations officer Joshua
Williams.
Drake said the contract
will allow DCSD custodial
staff to continue focusing on
interior school maintenance.
“As a reminder, no
district employees lost
a job as a result of this
new landscaping and
lawn maintenance service
initiative,” Drake said. “Over
the course of this past year,
this lawn maintenance
initiative has transformed
the curb appeal at our local
DeKalb County School District board
of education member Joyce Morley
said she has heard from constituents
and is in possession of photographs
proving Yellowstone Landscape’s
services may be inadequate. Photo
submitted.
schools and has positively
impacted community
perception of our schools.”
Drake said Yellowstone
Landscape provides turf
maintenance, weeding,
shrub and bedding, tree
trimming, retention pond
maintenance, leaf removal,
fertilization, pest removal,
over seeding, playground
maintenance and pesticide.
During the growing
season—April to
November—Yellowstone
Landscape visits DCSD
facilities every two weeks.
On the off season—
December to March—
workers visit schools once
per month.
Since March 2017, DCSD
custodial, transportation,
technicians, carpenters and
landscapers—classified as
“auxiliary” by the district—
have voiced opposition
to DCSD’s choice to hire
outside laborers.
One worker, Robert
Hampton, said the money
being spent on outside
co n tracto rs—Ye 11 o wsto n e
Landscaping included—
should be spent on rehiring
workers who have steadily
been laid off. Since 2008,
DeKalb County School District Director
of Planning Dan Drake said services
supplied by Yellowstone Landscape
have positively changed public
perceptions of district facilities. Photo
submitted.
DCSD’s number of auxiliary
workers has gone from 328
to 85.
Hampton also said the
money could be used to
provide adequate salaries
districtwide.
Board of education
member Joyce Morley said
the district may not hear
such positive reinforcement
about Yellowstone
Landscape’s contract
when consulting officials
at Stoneview Elementary,
Panola Way Elementary or
Bethune Middle schools.
“[There are] dead trees
and limbs falling in there or
paper all over the place,”
Morley said. “Based on what
I saw, and I have pictures to
prove it, they have not done
a great job. Unless they are
picking and choosing where
they want to make it look
good, I’m not buying into it.”
Board member Vicki
Turner said she also heard
from constituents about
facilities not looking well
kept.
DCSD unanimously
approved renewing
Yellowstone Landscape’s
contract, which went into
effect Aug. 19.
DeKalb rep speaks
on Charlottesville
Calls for reopening of Extremism &
Radicalization Branch of Homeland Security
BY R. SCOTT BELZER
sbelzer@dekalbchamp.com
United States Rep.
Hank Johnson—who
represents Georgia’s 4th
congressional district,
made up of parts of
DeKalb, Gwinnett, Newton
and Rockdale counties—
called for action against
homegrown extremism
Aug. 15 via social media in
response to recent events
in Charlottesville, Va.
Violence erupted in
Charlottesville during a
“Unite the Right” protest
held Aug. 11 and 12, which
sought to oppose the
removal of a Confederate
monument in the city. The
event—led by various
White supremacists,
White nationalists, neo-
Confederates and neo-
Nazis—caused bouts of
violence throughout the
two-day period, eventually
resulting in the deaths of
Heather Heyer as well
as Virginia State Police
officers Jay Cullen and
Berke Bates.
“The hate and
violence perpetrated by
white supremacists in
Charlottesville [Aug. 11
and Aug. 12] is in part a
product of political rhetoric
that appealed to it, and
its emergence is a step
backward,” Johnson said.
“President [Donald Trump]
must use the power of
his office to confront and
defeat the forces of racist,
right-wing extremism that
threaten that domestic
tranquility, and order
Attorney General Jeff
Sessions to immediately
commence a Justice
Department criminal
Georgia 4th Congressional District
Rep. Hank Johnson called for
a reopening of a branch at the
Department of Homeland Security
following a weekend filled with
violence in Charlottesville, Va. Photo
submitted.
investigation of the groups
and individuals responsible
for causing the violence in
Charlottesville.”
Johnson called upon
Trump to reopen the
Extremism & Radicalization
Branch of the Department
of Homeland Security.
The branch—founded
in 2004 and shut down
in 2009—issued a 2009
report detailing potential
extremism associated with
right-wing politics shortly
before it was disbanded,
according to reports from
The Washington Post at
the time.
Johson called for the
branch’s reopening as
well as an “order [for]
that agency to issue an
updated report detailing
what must be done to
deter, prevent, preempt
and respond to the rise
of domestic right-wing
extremism in America.”
To read Johnson’s
statement in its entirety,
visit www.facebook.com/
RepHankJohnson.
DeKalbLegalNotices.com
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