Recently elected Dekalb County commissioner for Super District 6, Edward “Ted” Terry joined the residents of Midway Woods via Zoom for a “getting to know you” session at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 12. Here’s an overview of how that conversation went.
OVERVIEW OF HOW TO GET IN TOUCH WITH TED TERRY
Via phone:
404-371-4909
Via email:
Via Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/commissionertedterry
Sign up for his email newsletter:
https://actionnetwork.org/forms/super-district-6-newsletter
You can also email Super District Coordinator Kelly Cato: kecato@dekalbcountyga.gov
Kelly can help with questions, concerns, ideas for scheduling a meeting with Commissioner Terry.
GETTING INVOLVED
Commissioner Terry is wanting to work with neighbors interested in being involved in the Unified Development Plan (more information on that plan below) and is hoping to set up a planning call with those neighbors interested in working on that plan with his office. If you are interested in being involved in this effort, email us at midwaywoodscommunications@gmail.com and we’ll make sure all the interested parties have the opportunity to be involved in that effort. Commissioner Terry says of this effort, “Of special note is the neighborhood center designation of the Belvedere Plaza area and the transportation plans for Memorial and Columbia Drive. These next several months will be crucial to make sure the future land use plans are what the neighbors want to see.”
RECAP OF THE MIDWAY WOODS MAY 12 NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING WITH TED TERRY
(This recap comes from notes taken during the Zoom call with commissioner Terry, supplemented by information from his email newsletter and found on the web.)
Commissioner Terry mentioned that the Dekalb County Board of Commissioners has an important role to play in policy-making, particularly when it comes to zoning policy and zoning issues in the county.
For more information on the Board of Commissioners and how it functions, check out this link.
The board of commissioners does not have direct authority over many of the county entities that impact the neighborhood, but they do have the ear of some of those entities, and his office knows the right people to talk to in many instances to try and get particular goals accomplished.
Sometimes it can be hard to know who is in charge or what county department has authority over a given issue. “If you have an issue or concern, though, always let my office know,” Commissioner Terry said. “Kelly Kato is the community liaison I work with, and we will try and track down answers for you. Though I cannot, for example, tell the watershed what to do, I can be the squeaky wheel. Think of me as your squeaky wheel,” commissioner Terry said.
As an example, Commissioner Terry pointed to ideas for how to “address some of hyper-development pushing its way into our neighborhoods. Dekalb is quickly losing its last large lots/open spaces.”
UNIFIED DEVELOPMENT PLAN
One way the neighborhood can get involved is via the Unified Development Plan, which Commissioner Terry mentioned as the first time that transportation and land use are being planned concurrently. “We need as much participation as possible from the community in that plan. Survey responses ARE taken into account, so it’s important for county residents to respond to those surveys.” (Check out the https://dekalb2050unifiedplan.com/index.html website for more information.)
Commissioner Terry serves on a number of county committees and during our meeting, he provided an overview of the work of a number of those committees.
DEKALB COUNTY ELECTIONS COMMITTEE
Coming off the 2020 election and the 2021 runoff election, a committee was organized to gather key learnings from departments and staff from across DeKalb County Government. An after-action report has been commissioned as part of this committee’s work to capture the lessons learned from the last election, and to set a foundation for how we improve moving forward. That after-action report is due back on June 28th.
The committee includes municipal leaders, Republican and Democratic representatives, as well as direct input from the Board of Voter Registration Election staff.
This committee is tasked to work from now until the end of 2021 to ensure that the country responds appropriately and in a unified manner to Georgia’s new SB 202, the state’s recently enacted voting law.
Commissioner Terry said, “That law is going to hurt large metro counties like ours. It amounts to an unfunded mandate, with lawyers suggesting that even small errors on the part of election officials will trigger takeover attempts of county election boards.”
GREEN POLICIES COMMITTEE
Commissioner Terry mentioned that one of the reasons he ran for the county commissioner’s board seat was to bring a sense of urgency to this issue. “Clean energy investments should have happened 20 years ago, but we haven’t done it,” he said.
“We need to get government as sound and ecologically sustainable as possible. We need to get solar panels on as many rooftops as possible.”
“We have 40-plus county government buildings and power costs tens of millions of dollars per month for the county. There are 60 different rate structures in place from Georgia Power — we want to make sure we get the best rates in place for power for those buildings.”
As another green initiative, commissioner Terry noted that Dekalb County will follow the no net loss of trees policy.
As an example of the kind of program he’s looking to help institute, Commissioner Terry pointed to an opportunity to capture and reuse natural gas that is released by the county landfills. “We could be delivering revenue through the sanitation department. The county’s Seminole Road landfill has a 40-year lifespan capacity. But we’re looking at creating a CHARM (Center for Hard to Recycle Materials)-like facility for Dekalb County. Measures like that could extend that life of the landfall for another 40 years, commissioner Terry said.
Energy equity is another issue on commissioner Terry’s to-do list. “The county has received
$147 million through the American Rescue Plan, which favors sustainable investments.”
Commissioner Terry mentioned the Fruitful Communities Initiative, a program aimed at addressing food insecurity, food deserts and developing policies that combat climate change at the local level. “We are trying to get all county landscapes off ‘mow and blow,’ and move us towards maintaining ecologically sound ‘productive urban landscapes.’ That’s a program that has started at six different libraries. We’re engaged in edible landscaping practices, based on building soil ecology.”
“We want to have so much fruit that we start producing bounties. We want to give additional training to six to ten groundskeepers, so we are training them as growers, with a “Grow don’t mow” mentality, and then we can do something with the crops produced there.”
“We’re piloting pollinator meadows, which require less maintenance than typical meadows — with 2 mows a year, seeded with annuals and perennials.”
“These are demonstration projects in the works. We are currently in discussion with the Georgia Department of Transportation about a roadside beautification program. We want to see a low-maintenance pollinator-friendly process.”
“More purchases of wildflower tag license plates will add dollars to wildflower projects forDekalb County,” the commissioner mentioned.
For more information on Green Policies Committee initiatives, see https://www.dekalbcountyga.gov/dekalbs-green-focus
WATERSHED ISSUES, PUBLIC WORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE
The PWI committee is chaired by Commissioner Lorraine Cochran-Johnson, joined by Ted Terry and Commissioner Robert Patrick, to oversee some very key departments in DeKalb, including the Watershed Department.
Development projects in the county have been held up because sewage capacity is limited.
But the county has reached a consent decree agreement with the EPA, which provides six years for issues to be remediated. The first step in that process was the approval of the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) that will direct replacement of trunk lines, sewer upgrades, waterline replacement projects, and wastewater treatment plant upgrades. Those projects will cost $1.4 billion over the course of the next 10 years. “The county will continue to seek grants and low-interest loans to help offset that cost, but rate-payers will pay for the bulk of that money,” the commissioner said.
All contracts over $3 million with the county are now automatically reviewed by the county, and commissioner Terry pointed out that, so far in 2021 over $1 million in savings and cost reductions were identified in contracts reviewed by PWI members working with the Office of Independent Internal Audit. The total amount of tax dollars saved since 2019, across all committees working with OIIA, has surpassed $48 million.
The next big task for implementing the CIP is a rate and revenue analysis, which commissioner Terry warned, would include rate increases.
“Good development, done in the right way, can enhance our tax base,” Commissioner Terry said, pointing to his recent visit to the Snapfinger waste water treatment plant. “It’s on its way,” he said. “It’s almost done — should be operational within a year or so.” The new system means that drinking water-quality water will be pumped back into the South River. It’s a system that is being built to accommodate 1 million people in Dekalb County — capacity that can be brought online at a future date. Check out https://youtu.be/W8FgqnjnEFg for more information on Snapfinger.
Other topics that came up during the discussion with Commissioner Terry were drag-racing on Memorial Drive and the eventual status of North DeKalb Mall and the Galleria at South Dekalb.
VOLUNTEERS WANTED!
Commissioner Terry is wanting to work with neighbors interested in being involved in the Unified Development Plan and is hoping to set up a planning call with those neighbors interested in working on that plan with his office. If you are interested in being involved in this effort, email us at midwaywoodscommunications@gmail.com and we’ll make sure all the interested parties have the opportunity to be involved in that effort. Commissioner Terry says of this effort, “Of special note is the neighborhood center designation of the Belvedere Plaza area and the transportation plans for Memorial and Columbia Drive. These next several months will be crucial to make sure the future land use plans are what the neighbors want to see.”