Community News

ATLANTA

Downtown’s progress to be focus of forum

City officials, business leaders and others will discuss recent developments and initiatives in downtown Atlanta today as part of a daylong session sponsored by Central Atlanta Progress.

Downtown Development Day will be held at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, 265 Peachtree Center Ave.

Speakers include Doug Shipman, executive director of the Center for Civil and Human Rights; Central Atlanta Progress President A.J. Robinson; and Cousins Properties Senior Vice President of Development Tad Leithead.

—- Eric Stirgus

Lane closures today for grading work

Atlanta officials are warning of lane closures on two streets today to allow contractors to perform grading work. The work will be done from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Collier Road between DeFerry Avenue and Seaford Place and on Howell Mill Road between Trabert and Berkeley avenues.

—- Eric Stirgus

Also …

> Green project: The Home Depot Foundation and the Arbor Day Foundation will plant 40 trees at Lenora P. Miles Elementary School in southwest Atlanta this morning as part of the Trees for Success program. Miles Elementary was one of 16 schools chosen nationwide for the plantings, which will be done by about 85 students, community volunteers and Home Depot employees. The school was selected based on its need for trees, civic and local support and its plan to maintain the new greenery. Some trees will be planted close to entryways and windows to lower energy costs.

—- Stacy Shelton

COBB COUNTY

Reward offered to help find teenager’s killers

Marietta police are hoping an increased reward will bring new information about the killers of a 16-year-old aspiring rapper.

Samuel “Dra” Steward was shot in the head on July 22 at Allgood Road and Avery Street. He died the next day. Police said two suspects were seen leaving the area in a dark SUV.

Marietta City Councilman Anthony Coleman and Mount Paran Church of God have added $1,000 to the reward fund, now $6,000, for the arrest and conviction of the killers.

A student at Osborne High School, Steward was a member of a group called Small Change. He performed at an Atlanta fund-raiser for Hurricane Katrina victims shortly after the disaster.

Anyone with information about the crime should call police at 770-794-6990.

—- Derrick Mahone

DEKALB COUNTY

Lithonia mayoral candidates forum set

Election season isn’t over in Lithonia, where a record six candidates are vying to become mayor of the tiny south DeKalb County city.

To help voters learn more about the candidates, the Greater Lithonia Chamber of Commerce and League of Women Voters will hold a candidate forum next Monday night. All candidates —- Jackie Harbin, Deborah Jackson, former mayor Joyce McKibben, Larry Miller, Rhonda Peek and Tonya Peterson —- have been invited. The forum runs from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Union Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia.

City residents vote on Nov. 18 for mayor in a special election.

—- April Hunt

Dunwoody goes online with official Web site

Dunwoody has launched its city Web site, its main resource for keeping residents of the state’s newest city up to date on municipal activities.

Resident Jay Kopp donated his time to design the site, at www.dunwoodyga.gov, which went live this week. Kopp will help city leaders put up documents such as meeting agendas and copies of ordinances. However, the city is soliciting bids to hire an IT department that will include a webmaster to keep the site up to date. The city begins operations on Dec. 1.

—- April Hunt

FULTON COUNTY

Fanplex fate unclear after tied vote on plan

Fulton commissioners failed Wednesday to decide the fate of Fanplex, the one-time entertainment complex across from Turner Field.

The building’s been empty for five years as the Atlanta-Fulton County Recreation Authority has struggled to find a buyer. District Attorney Paul Howard has proposed leasing the 11,000-square-foot building to house a number of agencies that deal with children who are abused and neglected. However, he’s run into opposition from some neighborhood folks who want the building sold for redevelopment and from a nonprofit agency that complains Howard’s plan duplicates what they already do. To tied votes at 3-3 failed to get the project moving in either direction. So, Howard’s plan would come back before the board in two weeks.

—-D.L. Bennett

Chef cooks up fun to help less fortunate

Chef Jon Schwenk of Clark & Schwenk’s Seafood & Oyster Bar in Atlanta will be the host of a cooking demonstration in Alpharetta, to benefit the Atlanta Community Food Bank.

The “Oyster Pearls” cooking class will be from 7 to 9 p.m. Monday at the Kroger School of Cooking, 12460 Crabapple Road.

Schwenk is expected to prepare a variety of East Coast and West Coast oysters with sauces, Maine crab salad with green apple and grapefruit vinaigrette, seared salmon over corn and blue crab risotto and other dishes.

The cost is $40. All proceeds will benefit the food bank. To register, visit www.acfb.org, and click on simple abundance tab, or call 404-892-FEED, Ext. 1444.

—- Mary MacDonald

GWINNETT COUNTY

Football showdown will aid fragile children

High school football coaches Cecil Flowe of Parkview and Mark Crews of Brookwood have been teammates and rivals over years. But when their teams meet Friday, the guaranteed winner will be a charity for medically fragile children.

During the annual rivalry game at Chuck Mize Memorial Stadium in Lilburn donations will be collected for Dream House for Medically Fragile Children, Inc., a local nonprofit based in Snellville. Dream House helps children transition from hospitals, nursing homes and rehabilitation centers back to their homes or to new homes with foster or adoptive parents.

Flowe and Crews are former teammates from Columbia High School in Decatur. Fans will be treated to special video messages from two Dream House supporters and hometown sports heroes —- Parkview graduate and Atlanta Braves right fielder Jeff Francoeur and Brookwood graduate and Atlanta Falcons kicker Jason Elam. For more information about Dream House, visit www.dreamhouseforkids.org.

—- Gracie Bonds Staples

Shooting leaves wife dead, husband injured

A Norcross man is still recovering Wednesday from a domestic shooting that left him wounded and his wife dead.

David Wie Chin, 30, is in critical but stable condition at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. His deceased wife has been identified as 26-year-old Hoi Lie Chan, according to the Gwinnett County Medical Examiner’s Office.

It was still not clear which one of them pulled the trigger following a confrontation at the couple’s townhouse in Norcross. Norcross Police Chief Dallas Stidd said no one has been charged and “we’re really not ready to release what we’ve learned about the case.”

The husband called 911 about 11:40 p.m. Thursday. As officers were arriving in the 3200 block of Greenwood Oak Drive, they heard a gunshot inside the couple’s townhouse, Harr said. The officers forced open the front door and found both of the wounded victims. A firearm was also recovered at the scene.

—- Andria Simmons