CLAYTON COUNTY: School board dips into reserves

The Clayton County school board will withdraw $8.3 million from its reserves to help cover expenses.

The board voted 6-1 earlier this week to use $5 million of reserve funds to cover state budget cuts and $2.9 million for special education services. Another $245,000 will cover legal expenses.

The board also agreed to spend $200,000 to hire an internal auditor and director to oversee use of employee purchasing cards —- two positions needed to help regain accreditation, school officials said. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools revoked Clayton County’s accreditation effective Sept. 1.

—- Megan Matteucci

GWINNETT COUNTY

Ga. 316 traffic plan focus of meeting

Years of frustration for Gwinnett County commuters and Georgia sports fans may be coming to an end.

Construction on new interchanges along Ga. 316 at Collins Hill Road and at Ga. 20 are proposed to begin in 2010. It would eliminate traffic signals at both intersections, which now create backups. The proposed $57 million project calls for exit and entrance ramps at Collins Hill Road and would allow for access to Ga. 20 farther east.

An open house on the project will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Nov. 20 in the Building B Atrium at Georgia Gwinnett College, 100 University Lane in Lawrenceville.

—- Patrick Fox

FULTON COUNTY

City’s inmates may go to Cobb County

People arrested in Sandy Springs may wind up in Smyrna’s jail. That City Council agreed this week to house Sandy Springs’ non-felony offenders.

Sandy Springs, a city without a jail, may consider the proposal at its Nov. 18 City Council meeting.

With room for 64 inmates, Smyrna’s jail is usually less than half full with a daily average of 27 inmates. Smyrna Mayor Max Bacon said that before 2008, the city received about $200,000 a year from housing inmates from other jurisdictions. He said the amount dropped to $20,000 this year after two counties Smyrna had contracts with built new jails.

Sandy Springs police transport 10 to 15 people a day to the Doraville jail, officials said, and the city is looking at other options.

—- Tucker McQueen

VENT OF THE DAY

The “Housewives of Atlanta” are not housewives. Come to my house. I’m a mother of five teenagers, and it would be more entertaining.