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The Sierra Club has named the Atlanta BeltLine as one of the best transportation projects in the country.

The BeltLine was included in the latest report of the national organization’s campaign titled, “Beyond Oil.” The campaign’s goal is to move the United States off oil in 20 years.

The Sierra Club of Georgia was among the earliest supporters of the BeltLine. During the recent campaign for a regional sales tax for transportation, the group opposed the tax – in part – because members thought the tax promoted sprawl and did not provide more money for the types of transportation options represented by the BeltLine.

MARTA intends to add more security cameras to monitor passengers in stations, as well as its own employees when they’re at various work locations.

MARTA has budgeted from $8.3 million to $10.4 million for the project, according to the advance notice to bidders. The transit system already has beefed up its camera network on vans, trains and buses.

Closed circuit TV cameras have become quite popular tools to combat crime. A growing number of public agencies have adopted them. For example, the Atlanta City Council recently voted to spend up to $2.25 million to buy and install 112 cameras, bringing the total number of Atlanta Police Department cameras to more than 760 cameras.

DeKalb County is a close-to-home example of communities across the country that are in the vice grip of hard times – DeKalb’s tax digest has plummeted and the school district is on probation.

Despite the times, DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis is pushing ahead with an ambitious infrastructure agenda – just a month after his uncontested reelection bid in November and five months after voters rejected a proposed regional transportation sales tax.

To DeKalb’s current $1.345 billion water and sewer program, Ellis would add roads and sidewalks; an animal shelter; and police facilities. The state Legislature will be asked to approve methods of paying for the some of the projects.

DeKalb County voters may get another shot at a transportation sales tax.

DeKalb intends to ask the General Assembly in 2013 to approve a local option sales tax for a rainbow of purposes including congestion relief, according to the budget proposal released Friday by DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis.

The proposed regional sales tax that was on the July 31 ballot was rejected by a narrow margin in DeKalb – 2 percent, or 3,279 votes out of 126,221 ballots cast. The measure may have been approved if more MARTA service had been offered in south DeKalb.

With the clock ticking on funding for Atlanta’s only region-wide bus service, GRTA is making its case with Gov. Nathan Deal and state budget writers for enough money to keep the buses on the road.

“We’re doing all we can to get assurances,” Jannine Miller, GRTA’s executive director, said Wednesday at the monthly board meeting of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority.

The strength of Georgia’s economic recovery will be a key determinant of whether the state funds Xpress after June 2013. The bad news is that Georgia’s latest revenue figures, released Dec. 7, don’t send a clear signal about the hoped-for recovery.