Save Tucker!

There is a lesson in here!  Please read about these residents and businesses who are saying cityhood is not exactly what they expected.   Property owners seek cityhood reversal   January 28, 2015 |  by  Mark Niesse Don't let this happen to you!  Pay attention to what's going on and stop the insanity before it costs you! Business owners and residents who say they were forced into the city of Doraville now want out — a rare exception to the movement toward making more areas into cities across metro Atlanta. The DeKalb Board of Commissioners voted 4-1 on Tuesday to approve a resolution calling for the area along Buford Highway to be de-annexed after it was incorporated into Doraville on Dec. 31. The board’s action is the first step in the process to return the area to unincorporated DeKalb, and now a similar resolution may be considered by Doraville’s government. Concerned citizens told commissioners they didn’t get any benefi...

Former Decatur mayor pessimistic about annexation chances this year   Posted by Dan Whisenhunt     January 26, 2015 The Georgia Assembly is in session and there are currently no bills regarding annexation or cityhood under consideration. Bill Floyd, former Decatur Mayor Bill Floyd, Decatur’s former mayor, who is now Executive Director of the DeKalb Municipal Association, told Decaturish that he doesn't think any annexation plans will move forward in 2015. “I think the chances of it happening are probably not very good,” Floyd said. “The county’s obviously going to oppose it. I don’t think the DeKalb delegation is going to be very much in favor of it because of that. So it’s going to be hard.” However, he’s much more optimistic about proposals for creating new cities. Floyd attended DeKalb County CEO Lee May’s State of the County Address last week and answered several questions about the move to incorporate all of DeKalb County. Floyd resigned in 2013 to...

Just remember:  Just because Dunwoody can afford to do something, doesn't mean that everyone else can, too.  Voting to live in a new city does not guarantee you will also be able to have your own city school system.  If either issue comes to a vote, keep in mind that what we decide will impact a lot of children all across our county, many of whom have never been asked their opinion about either of these issues. The following is a reprint From Hennegan's Dunwoody Blog Saturday, January 10, 2015 Dunwoody City Council offers resolution in support of HR 4 to authorize any municipality in the State of Georgia to establish by local law, an independent school system. HR 4 presented by Rep. Tom Taylor  - A RESOLUTION proposing an amendment to the Constitution so as to authorize any municipality in the State of Georgia to establish by local law an independent school system; to provide definitions; to provide for related matters; to provide for the submissio...

For the full results of this AJC poll, click here .

Tired of hearing people in DeKalb County misrepresent how you, as a Tucker resident, feel about the DeKalb County police and the job they are doing?   When Tucker residents told the city advocacy group at their onset that they did not want to start a city police force, opponents thought this concept would be one they could latch on to and use against them. "Why doesn't Tucker want a police force?" they would say.  Well, the answer is pretty simple:  we already have one.  The DeKalb County police department does an outstanding job protecting Tucker and the rest of the county. But, there actually was a time, about 100 years ago, to be exact, that Tucker residents were not so happy with their police protection.  That's because they didn't have any!   According to an  article in the Champion this week about the 100th commemorative year of DeKalb's finest, residents of the Tucker community wanted police protection, so they pressured the DeKalb Count...

From the first meeting until today, the Lakeside Alliance and its various named groups along with the Tucker 2015 and its various named groups have refused to talk about their plans for the school system.  In fact, they both repeatedly have stated that their fight for a city "has nothing to do with the schools."  Well, now it does.  Funny, now they aren't saying anything.  From WABE Atlanta: Druid Hills Annexation: Do Schools Stay or Go? By   ELLY YU Parents raised concerns at the Druid Hills High School PTSA meeting about a proposal to annex the school from DeKalb County into Atlanta Public Schools. Credit Elly Yu / WABE If a neighborhood gets annexed into another city, do schools go with it?  That was the question on many minds at the Druid Hills High PTSA meeting Thursday night. A crowd of about 300 hundred people met about a proposal to move the school out of DeKalb County Schools into the Atlanta Public Schools syste...

Here are Emails to Make it Easy for You to Ask that Question Yourself! Thanks to MANA, the Medlock Area Neighborhood Association, here are the email addresses in an easy cut/paste format for anyone choosing to contact the legislators who might be able to stop the nightmare of city and annexation proposals that are consuming all our time and chipping away at our once-peacefully co-existing communities.   Remind these legislators about the very words that were spoken by Mark Elgart, and detailed in the SACS report on our schools:   "(This is) a system that is divided along lines of race, socioeconomic levels and geography."   "Such divisions are continuing to paralyze this system's ability to address the needs of all students."   -- Dr. Mark Elgart, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) Let them know that you will be voting "no" on any new cities and any annexations if those items are placed on your ballot this year! House G...

Rep. Howard Mosby The following are questions that Save Tucker! recently posed to Rep. Howard Mosby (D - Atlanta) who is a member of the House Governmental Affairs Committee.  Mosby was appointed to the Tucker/LaVista Hills (Lakeside) Boundary subcommittee that recently defined borders between the two city advocacy groups. Q:  What is the requirement for feasibility reports with these new borders? A:   Great question.  It is my understanding that the feasibility reports will take at least 3 months to complete and therefore may not be available for the committee to consider before voting on them.  Therefore, those requirements may be (more likely probably) suspended in order to vote on those boundaries. Q:  What is the rule for the two year mandatory process?  Has an exception been made for these groups only, or has the rule been changed for future groups as well?  Where can the public view the actual rules if they have question...

This could be the change that residents will see if Tucker 2015 is successful in getting its referendum nto a ballot and voters approve it.  The driving force behind the city of Tucker has been the leadership within the community known as "Smoke Rise, GA."  Smoke Rise residents currently have addresses that say "Stone Mountain, GA" and many of them worked hard in order to create a separate identity for themselves, petitioning the U.S. Post Office to change their official name to "Smoke Rise."  While the Post Office did not agree to change the official name, they did agree to allow "Smoke Rise" as a recognized alternative to "Stone Mountain" that could be used interchangeably as long as it accompanied their 30087 zip code. It is important to note that these residents did not ask the Post Office to recognize their use of "Tucker" as an acceptable alternative.  They asked to be called "Smoke Rise." It appears t...