A heartbreaking report about the crop devastation Hurricane Michael inflicted on one Georgia county came out a few days after Gov. Nathan Deal announced his plans to call a special legislative session for the state to respond to catastrophic crop loss.
Category: David Pendered
Articles by David Pendered
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MARTA’s Kensington Station up for development, if zoning can be resolved
MARTA is seeking a developer to build a mixed use project, complete with affordable housing, at its Kensington Station, which is located in eastern DeKalb County between Avondale Estates and I-285. One potential stumbling block is the existing zoning of the property.
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Gulf Coast oyster festival, resilience remain amid Hurricane Michael, water litigation
APALACHICOLA, FL. – The 55th Annual Florida Seafood Festival is still on for Friday and Saturday. Damage from deadly Hurricane Michael surrounding the town, and the never-ending litigation with Georgia over water flow to the bay, aren’t enough to stop a party that’s a way of life.
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Gov. Deal brings under-powered Fort McPherson board up to full strength
Gov. Nathan Deal has appointed nine members to the under-represented board that oversees the redevelopment of Fort McPherson, including seven new members and two current members whom Deal reappointed. The seven new members include the spouse of an influential state senator, a Fulton County commissioner, a veteran housing executive and the Atlanta mayor’s chief of staff.
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Plans for bat house, bat-friendly plants wins award for third-grade teacher
For the second time in three years, a teacher from the same school in Monroe County, near Macon, has won statewide recognition as Conservation Teacher of the Year. Kimberlie Harris was honored this week for her proposal to build a habitat for bats with her third grade pupils.
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Emory University’s water award highlights region’s collegiate green programs
Emory University’s water reclamation program has won another national award for its WaterHub, a system that recovers water used to heat and cool buildings, and to flush toilets. The award is the latest recognition of efforts by Atlanta’s institutes of higher education to reduce their environmental footprint.
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FedEx opens super-sized distribution center in once-rural Jackson County
FedEx is to cut the ribbon today on a distribution center in Jackson County that is large even by the latest standards of super-sized warehouses. Its location underscores Jackson’s emerging role as a major transit hub in metro Atlanta and its current effort to update its long-range transit and transportation plan.
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Deal appoints replacement for retired judge embroiled in prior sentencing of alleged killer
Gov. Nathan Deal has appointed an Atlanta lawyer with a record of practice in family law to fill the unexpired term of a Fulton County Superior Court judge who retired after a teen she had ordered into a mentoring program was later charged in the fatal shooting death of a wedding guest in Brookhaven.
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Proposal sputters for state takeover of Atlanta’s airport
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to eliminate a reference to the number of committee meetings held, correct the name of the Democratic challenger in the 7th Congressional District, and add information about airport debt.//
One apparent casualty of the campaign for Georgia governor is the proposed state takeover of Atlanta’s airport. The deadline for recommendations is Dec. 1, when the relevant Senate study committee is to be abolished, leaving the committee less than a month after the Nov. 6 general election to produce its recommendations.
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Spaceport Camden: FAA fails to reveal potential hazards, environmental group SELC contends
The Federal Aviation Authority has ignored a request for information about potential hazards related to rocket launches from a proposed spaceport in Camden County, along Georgia’s coast, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta by the Southern Environmental Law Center.
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New reports: Metro Atlanta’s housing prices rise, further pressuring lower cost homes
A report released Tuesday suggests there’s no reason to suspect prices will decline anytime soon in the rental apartment sector. This would seem to increase pressure on advocates of affordable housing as they seek to entice developers to build units and price them at below-market rates
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Georgia’s cotton crop impacted by D.C. politics, China trade war, odd weather all summer long
The storm couldn’t have been worse for Georgia’s cotton harvest, coming as it did and prompting this headline from newsweek.com — “Hurricane Michael destroys crop of ‘a lifetime’…’” More than the hurricane impacted Georgia’s cotton crop this year. Cotton’s story is replete with Washington politics, trade war with China, and freakish weather from spring through autumn.
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Battle over Plant Vogtle costs Jacksonville a downgrade in credit ratings, outlook
The battle among the owners of Plant Vogtle over its continued construction has led to a lowering of the credit ratings of about $2.1 billion in bonds sold by Jacksonville, Fl. The concern is the city’s reliability to repay its debts, according to a rating action issued by Moody’s Investors Service.
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Clifton Corridor’s light rail service an ‘overnight success’ that took six decades
Overnight success takes about 20 years, or so goes the maxim. Sometimes it can take nearly 60 years, as in the case of the Clifton Corridor – where the newly approved plan to connect rail service dates to a map unveiled in 1961, when President Kennedy was in office.
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MARTA’s surplus property: Managing excess a challenge in its own right
Even the graffiti artists haven’t made much of a mark on the latest piece of surplus property MARTA intends to sell. A YouTube video of the site has scored just 131 views in six months. But the sale of this property does speak to the ongoing management of a transit system that’s just approved a $2.7 billion expansion plan.
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A slice of Americana, the black powder longrifle, to make annual appearance
The otherworldly smoke and sound of black powder weapons will move from the fields of historic reenactments to the hunting tracts of Georgia next weekend, as thousands of hunters armed with muzzleleaders are expected to head out in search of deer.
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Southern Co. on Vogtle: ‘ultimate outcome of these matters cannot be determined’
The following sentence concludes a federal filing that sets out terms of the agreement among Plant Vogtle’s partners that enables construction to continue: “The ultimate outcome of these matters cannot be determined at this time.”
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To enable redevelopment in SW Atlanta, sculptures to be moved to Pittman Park
Four cement sculptures that are part of Atlanta artist Fred Ajanogha’s series, “Strong Roots, Wide Branches,” are to be installed at Pittman Park as part of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s efforts to promote economic development in Southwest Atlanta.
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Affordable housing goals meet market realities in proposed Atlanta developments
For starters, the monthly rent is to jump by nearly 50 percent at one proposed apartment complex that’s to replace a planned teardown of duplexes located north of Atlanta’s Oakland Cemetery. This is just one of several developments that may give members of the Atlanta City Council an opportunity to ponder aloud the city’s state of affordable housing.
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Fulton County to shake up lobbying team in ongoing effort that dates to 2013
Fulton County appears to be calling for another shakeup in the county’s lobbying team at the state Capitol and before Congress. The county is seeking a single firm to advocate the county’s position at both levels of government.
