Fall 2006 Volume 3
At a little less than a mile long, the Whetstone Creek Trail may not seem very impressive. However, when you consider the trail’s features—as well as the role it will play in future trail-building in the City—this little trail looks a lot bigger.
Originally known as the R.M.Clayton Trail, the path winds along an old railroad right-of-way. The renamed Whetstone Creek Trail incorporates part of an older trail built by the City of Atlanta several years ago but rarely used. The trail’s bat habitat, established by the City of Atlanta in conjunction with the neighborhood several years ago, is now open to the public.
“The City of Atlanta graciously moved all its fences and gates away from the trail, and we went in and cleaned the vegetation away from it,” says Ed McBrayer, Executive Director for the PATH Foundation, which maintains the new trail. The finished trail is part elevated boardwalk—between Marietta Boulevard and Bolton Road—and part traditional trail from Bolton to Marietta Road.
“We call it the treehouse trail because 1,700 feet of it is an elevated boardwalk eight to 14 feet above the forest floor,” McBrayer says. The boardwalk was necessary, since much of the trail crosses a floodplain. The trail’s namesake, “Whetstone Creek, goes underground and forms a little swamp called Whetstone Marsh — the only official marsh inside the City of Atlanta,” McBrayer says.
The trail’s location near Bolton Academy on Adams Drive means the elementary school students there can access the trail for nature hikes. The trail’s designers constructed an outdoor classroom near the school.
Area residents are delighted with the new trail. “In an urban neighborhood with no public parks or other publicly accessible green space, the Whetstone Creek Trail is a godsend,” says Dan Treadaway, who lives on Adams Drive and walks the trail daily. “With the dense tree cover, you almost forget that you’re in a busy city neighborhood.”
The Whetstone Creek Trail officially opened on August 5. The $680,000 project received funding from the City of Atlanta’s Quality of Life Bond Fund, an Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation Grant and a neighborhood fundraising event.
WRCs
win Gold AwardsAtlanta’s three eligible water reclamation centers won gold awards for compliance with National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits last year from the National Association of Clean Water Agencies. The three—R.M. Clayton, Utoy and South River—have won gold awards in each of the last six years, with three exceptions (South River won a silver in 2002; and R.M. Clayton won a silver and Utoy won a platinum in 2003).
The awards recognize compliance with federal pollution control regulations, with gold awards given to plants with no violations. Plants that win golds for five consecutive years are awarded platinum awards.
City
extends Care & Conserve The Atlanta City Council recently passed a resolution authorizing Mayor Shirley Franklin to extend the Department’s contract with Southeast Energy Assistance (SEA) to administer the Care & Conserve program for another five years. SEA, a non-profit organization that assists low-income families via energy conservation programs, operates Care & Conserve, which provides qualifying customers with bill payment assistance and plumbing repairs. The program is funded through tax-deductible donations, money from cell tower leases, Community Development Block Grants and other grants.
Last year, the fund provided cash assistance for 991 families and plumbing repairs for 242 customers. It has served more than 20,000 since its establishment in 1978. For more information, contact SEA at 404-885-1877.
“Care & Conserve is a wonderful way for the Department to give back to the community, which has been so supportive of our Clean Water Atlanta program,” said Deputy Commissioner Sheila Pierce, whose bureau oversees Care & Conserve.
Department
hosts vendor partnering sessionCommissioner Rob Hunter and Mayor Shirley Franklin welcomed more than 150 current and potential vendors and contractors to the Department’s second annual Partnering for Progress Vendor Session. Held at the Boisfeullet Jones Civic Center, the session was designed to encourage competition for work, goods and services under the City’s $3.9 billion Clean Water Atlanta program, thereby lowering program costs and promoting an inclusive atmosphere.
“We are grateful for the participation in this session,” Hunter said. “The more vendors and contractors we can attract, the more competitive the process will be, and competition will lower the costs to our customers of this massive undertaking.”
The session also included a detailed session on upcoming capital projects and upcoming procurements for goods and services. Mayor Franklin spoke to the group, stressing the need for quality in performing city contracts—in project management, customer service and ethics. During a break-out session, vendors spoke directly with DWM buyers and contracting officers.
For more information on vendor opportunities with DWM, please visit our website www.atlantawatershed.org/vendor , or email Sue Ross at vendordev@atlantaga.gov.
New
look for water/sewer billThe Department of Watershed Management has switched its billing system and introduced a new water/sewer bill format.
The new bills show customers’ water consumption in graph form, allowing them to visualize their water consumption on a month-to-month basis. The graphs will include information for the past year.
In addition, the new bills are 8½ x 11 or letter-size, and are printed and mailed in Atlanta rather than in Troy, Mich., where the previous bills originated.
All customers – including wholesale water users – will receive the new bill.
Nancy Creek Tunnel wins engineering
awardThe Georgia Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers named the City’s Nancy Creek Tunnel and Pump Station its Project of the Year in the Large Projects category. The award was presented at the group’s September 8 awards banquet. Deputy Commissioner George Barnes and representatives of design engineers Jordan, Jones & Goulding accepted the plaque on behalf of the City and its contractors.
DWM Staffers make APWA presentationMarilyn Johnson, Watershed Management’s Director of Communications & Public Outreach, and Marla Rawls Hill, Public Involvement Manager for the Clean Water Atlanta Program Management Team, delivered a presentation to attendees at APWA’s international conference and exposition in Kansas City, Mo in September. The presentation, about how to encourage public support for rate increases, was received enthusiastically by public works managers facing the same difficult decisions that Atlanta has faced over the last five years.
“We knew that our topic was timely,” Johnson said. “Municipalities across the country are where we were a few years ago: trying to figure out how to get the political and public support for necessary rate increases to pay for major capital improvement programs. We showed them that, with a little creativity, you can educate your public on the necessity of doing these capital improvement programs and the need for funding them. The key to success is to assure ratepayers that you will be responsible stewards of their money.” Hill and Johnson, along with multimedia consultant Karen Gill, had delivered the presentation to a regional APWA conference in 2005.
“Each time we’ve given this presentation, several attendees have come up and thanked us for showing them that there can be light at the end of the tunnel,” Hill said.
Mississippi
newspaper focuses on DWM employeeTroy Norris, senior adviser to Commissioner Rob Hunter, recently got his 15 minutes of fame when the Daily Corinthian in Corinth, Miss., ran a three-part series highlighting his work on urban renewal projects in the town during the 1960s. The skills he learned in Corinth have been put to use by the City of Atlanta in the Department’s Buried Asset Management Institute, which is working with Penn State University and the National Conference of Black Mayors, along with other groups, to create standards for identifying and quantifying the nation’s underground infrastructure.
Norris, who was quoted extensively in the articles, was chairman of the Corinth Urban Renewal Agency during the early to mid-1960s, when the town made a concerted effort to attract federal funding – a move opposed by the Mississippi legislature – in an effort to improve the local standard of living through a massive program that became a model for the nation.
With officials determined to radically change Corinth’s human landscape, the town became a testing ground for urban renewal in the South, attracting roughly $10 million in federal money over a four-year period, money that was used to tear down slums and relocate their inhabitants to better neighborhoods. Some of the money also was used to fund an early childhood education program that became known as Head Start.
The program drew criticism from a number of the state’s racist organizations, but Norris says, “You couldn’t take it personally when you were criticized because you had to remember that the people you were helping were more important than the criticism.”
Norris served as executive assistant for housing and community development to Mississippi Gov. David Waller and as chair of the Tennessee Valley Regional Housing Authority prior to joining the Department.
DWM In the Community
DWM
makes two-year-old’s birthday party specialParker Pape loves construction trucks. The two-year-old has been fascinated by the equipment and the goings-on in front of his house as part of the Virginia-Highland Water Main Replacement project. So it made sense for his parents to use a construction theme for the boy’s birthday party, and the Department and its contractor made sure the day was special.
To help set the tone for the Sept. 23 party, Garney Construction, the City’s contractor on the project, placed construction vehicles and equipment in front of Parker’s home, and Department of Watershed Management mascot Captain Clean Stream made a surprise appearance to share his clean water message. The Department’s Communications and Public Outreach division supplied yellow kids’ hard hats, coloring books and crayons.
Pierce Pape, Parker’s dad, was pleased with his son’s special treat and with the water main project, and thanked Watershed Management and Garney for going the distance to make a bunch of kids happy.
“The construction team is very accommodating, and we are glad that the City is doing this important work,” Pape added. “My wife and I are looking forward to a rust-free bath for Parker when the work is finished.”
The project will rid the area of brown water caused by aged, deteriorating pipes, many of which were installed in the early 1900s. Since construction began in February, more than 78,000 feet of new 8- and 12-inch water mains have been installed on numerous streets in the neighborhood. The new larger pipes will also provide additional capacity to ensure adequate water pressure and flow to this developing area. Work is scheduled to be complete by July 2007.
Community
gets a barbecue thank youThe City’s Department of Watershed Management likes to say that “clean water is dirty work.” Nowhere is that clearer than in the Ormewood Park community around Trestletree Village Apartments, ground zero for the City’s Stockade sewer separation project. But Tawanda Moore, who manages the complex, has worked closely with the City and its contractor to keep problems to a minimum.
The City and the project’s joint venture contractor, Ruby Collins/Reynolds/EPR, showed gratitude for residents’ patience by hosting a cookout in the complex’s parking lot. About 120 apartment residents dropped by to eat hamburgers, hot dogs and chips at the cookout, which was co-hosted by District 1 Councilmember Carla Smith.
The project, which involves the separation of the combined sewer that runs through the area, will help eliminate combined sewer overflows in the Stockade sub-basin. It is part of the City’s $3.9 billion Clean Water Atlanta program.
Thousands
enjoy Youthfest
The
many youths attending the 16th Annual Youthfest viewed the event as
a day of music, food, fun and gifts …and that’s exactly
what Patricia Floyd, Youthfest Chair, had in mind. “Our purpose
is to introduce kids to public service – and to public servants – and
we do it through a fun format. Everything is free,” she explains.
To
learn more about the Department of Watershed Management, please visit
www.Atlantawatershed.org
and www.CleanwaterAtlanta.org
and www.CleanwaterAtlanta.org