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COMMUNITY
Amnesty period for those with alarm fines
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“The most common reason given if they’re not registered
is they didn’t know about the ordinance,” DeSimone said.
DeSimone said the department has offered to waive the
$100 registration fee if the owner complied within 14 days.
He said some people simply paid the fine, about 60 peo
ple total.
“The goal is compliance with the ordinance,” DeSimone
said. “It’s not about fining people. It’s about reducing the
false alarm calls.”
City Council told the police department to refund the
money to people who paid the fine without taking advan
tage of the 14-day amnesty period, provided they have reg
istered their alarms.
DeSimone told City Council the amnesty period will be
available until Feb. 1, 2014.
City Council was on board with that idea, saying there’s
been adequate notification by the city and the media.
“I don’t care if they know or not after Feb. 1,” City
Councilwoman Dianne Fries said.
City Attorney Wendell Willard said the city notified ev
ery alarm company doing business in the city about the
new regulations. He said there were many that the city
wasn’t previously aware of.
Some of the City Council members said they’ve already
received calls about the fines.
“I had a constituent call me,” City Councilman John
Paulson said. “The alarm company set up the alarm so there
wasn’t a delay before it called police. This thing kept trig
gering.”
To learn how to register your alarm, visit https://www.
crywolf.us/oss / sandyspringsga/.
Other council actions
• The council agreed to accept a response to a request for
qualifications that was submitted three minutes late.
City Council had issued a request for qualifications from
companies interested in being the city’s “master developer”
to help the city with its downtown revitalization project.
Responses were due Oct. 25 at 2 p.m., but one of the inter
ested companies was running behind schedule.
An employee with Carter and Associates arrived three
minutes after 2 p.m., late because of an accident on Ga.
400. The company did call ahead of time and the employ
ee later filed an affidavit confirming the reason for missing
the deadline. City staff would not accept the company’s re
sponse, citing the 2 p.m. deadline.
City Council voted on Nov. 12 to accept the proposal,
reasoning that an RFQis a request for responses from com
panies qualified to bid on a project, not a request for bids.
“This protects the public because we’re adding another
qualified bidder to the process,” City Councilwoman Kar
en Meinzen McEnerny said.
City Council members were sympathetic to the employ
ee’s plight.
“Traffic is one of the things we’ve learned to live with
here in the metro area,” City Councilman Tibby Dejulio
said.
• The council postponed accepting a donation of 4.1
acres of land along Abernathy Road from Georgia Veteri
nary Specialists.
The land, if accepted, will be used as a public park. The
park is adjacent to the veterinary clinic. City Council want
ed to ensure that people will be allowed to park their cars at
the clinic so they can access the park.
Businesses plan
tribute for outgoing
mayor
Mayor Eva Galam-
bos is doing her fare
well tour after serv
ing two terms as Sandy
Springs mayor.
Galambos is also the
city’s first mayor, and
worked for years to cre
ate the city, which of-
incorporated in
2005.
The Sandy Springs/
Perimeter Chamber,
the Perimeter Community Improvement Dis
tricts and the Perimeter Business Alliance will
honor Galambos at a breakfast on Nov. 18,
according to a press release.
“We want to show our appreciation for
Mayor Galambos and her outstanding ser
vice to our community,” said Sandy Springs/
Perimeter Chamber President/CEO Tom Ma-
haffey in the press release. “Without her ef
forts for more than 30 years, Sandy Springs
would not be the economic engine it is today.”
“It is our privilege to participate in this
toast to Mayor Galambos, who has shown
what an individual can do when they have a
vision and can bring partners to the table,”
said PCIDs President/CEO Yvonne Williams
in the press release.
-Dan Whisenhunt
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26 | NOV. 15 — NOV.28,2013 | www.ReporterNewspapers.net
