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SECTION A: VOL 29* NO. 5 The Official Legal Organ ofDeKalb County, GA. Serving East Atlanta, Avondale Estates, Brookhaven, Chamblee, Clarkston, Decatur, Doraville, Dunwoody, Lithonia, Pine Lake, Tucker, Stonecrest and Stone Mountain. THURSDAY, AUG. 1-7,2019 www.THECHAMPIUNNEWSPAPER.com 50C An aerial view of Austin Elementary School that is 80 percent complete. Photo provided by the city of Dunwoody. DCSD gives school construction update BY TAYLOR ROBINS Taylor@dekalbchamp.com During Dunwoody’s July 22 city council meeting, DeKalb County School District (DCSD) representatives gave an update on multiple projects that will impact the Dunwoody community. According to DCSD Interim Chief Operations Officer Dan Drake and DCSD Design and Construction Director Richard Boyd, the district currently has seven construction plans in Dunwoody. Construction of the new Austin Elementary School is now 80 percent complete, according to the DCSD representatives. The building will seat 900 students and will replace the current Austin Elementary School. With a project budget of $23 million, the school is set to open January 2020. The new school, originally scheduled for completion in June 2019 with an August 2019 opening, is now scheduled to be complete in November 2019, due to weather related complications. Dunwoody High School will get a 41-classroom addition and an expansion to core spaces such as the cafeteria, kitchen and parking lot. DCSD is in the preliminary design stages of the Dunwoody High School additions, with plans to complete in November 2022; however, the proposed budget is $27 million-up from an original budget of $ 18 million. DCSD also has portable classroom project plans for Dunwoody high and elementary Organization plans to sue DeKalb over sewer system BY HORACE HOLLOMAN horace@dekalbchamp.com In 2010, after years of sanitary sewer overflow issues, DeKalb County was told by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) to clean up its act. DeKalb signed a consent decree almost a decade ago that requires the county to clean, repair, enlarge and maintain its sanitary sewer pipes so sewer overflows are reduced. The deadline to implement changes under the guidelines of the consent decree is mid-2020. Officials with the South River Watershed Alliance (SRWA) said DeKalb will not implement the changes by 2020 and plans to sue the county. On July 15, SRWA sent DeKalb County a 60-day notice of intent to sue over the county’s “failure to meet critical deadlines in the EPA and EPD Consent Decree.” South river officials said in the last decade DeKalb has had multiple violations of the Clean Water Act for discharging raw sewage into community waterways. “After a decade of stalling and a much longer period of inaction, SRWA does not anticipate any change in the next 60 days and is committed to taking necessary legal action against DeKalb County,” said Jacqueline Echols, SRWA board president. “DeKalb County must stop using the South River and neighborhood streams as sewage dumps. The fact that it rains in Georgia is not an acceptable excuse.” Echols said when it rains, stormwater overwhelms DeKalb’s sewer system and causes pipes to overflow. She also said the problem worsens as the county adds more developments to the “overwhelmed” system. From 2014 to 2019 DeKalb reported almost 900 sanitary sewage spills that eventually flowed into county creeks and rivers, according to Echols. SEE DCSD ON PAGE 6 SEE SEWER ON PAGE 6 QUICK FINDER Opinion 5 Week in Pictures 9 Education 10 Sports 14-15 DEKALB POLICE ATTEMPT TO ADDRESS BREAK-IN SPIKE PAGE 3 POSITIVE GROWTH BOYS HOME r SYMPOSIUM TACKLES COMPLEXITY OF MENTAL HEALTH AND MINORITIES PAGE 7 o DEKALBCHAMPNEWS O DEKALBCHAMPNEWS 0DEKALBCHAMPNEWS
