LOCAL: Reading event touchdown with Decatur youth| LOCAL:

Page 3 Mayor says ‘We are strong’ in state of city address | Page 8

the DeKalb FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2019 • VOL. 24, NO 1 • FREE

Serving East Atlanta, Avondale Estates, Brookhaven, Chamblee, Clarkston, Decatur, Doraville, Dunwoody, Lithonia, Pine Lake, Stone Mountain, Stonecrest and Tucker • A PUBLICATION OF ACE III COMMUNICATIONS

A McNair High School student with a donated shoe.

A travel club member sits with donated shoes from a recent shoe drive.

Students help
people in Guatemala McNairHighSchoolstudentsshowshoescollectedduringa

step with style

recent shoe drive.

BY TAYLOR ROBINS
taylor@dekalbchamp.com
The students of McNair High
School’s travel club do more than
see new places, they give to those
in need.
In partnership with The
Funds2Orgs Group, as of Feb. 2,
the group had collected 1,800 pairs
of shoes with two weeks remaining
in the drive. The collected shoes
will be shipped to Guatemala.
“My experience so far with the
drive has been positive because
I have family back home and
I see the struggle that they go
through,” said Jamesley Hyttolite,
McNair High School senior and
travel club member. “All the
shoes we’re collecting will have a
positive impact because people in
Guatemala walk a lot. There’s not a
lot of transportation there.”
Hyttolie is originally from
Haiti.
The travel club conducted a
previous shoe drive that resulted
in 2,600 pairs of shoes shipped
to Honduras, Bolivia, Ghana and
Haiti.
Awareness about the shoe drive
comes from students spreading the
word to friends, family, community
members and local businesses,
according to the group.
Shoes donated are not limited to
one type; the group accepted tennis
shoes for men and women, baby
shoes and high heels. An owner of
a local restaurant gave away a “car
full of high heels,” according to a
group spokesperson.
The idea to start shoe drives
was formulated when the club took
a trip to Guatemala in 2016 to help
build schools.
“We saw that people from
around the world were sending
shoes to Guatemala so we came
back to Atlanta and did our
research,” said Maronda Hastie,
McNair High School teacher and
travel club leader.
Travel Club started at the school
in 2000, when students asked about
McNairHighSchoolstudentsorganizedonatedshoes.Photos
SEE SHOES ON PAGE 6 provided by McNair High School

Visit www.TheChampionNewspaper.com for local, real DeKalb County news.

OPINION
Servingthoseinneedwithoutfanfare
On a foggy, chilly, misty-turned-
to-rainy Saturday morning a slew of
individuals showed up in downtown
Lithonia to volunteer for a mobile
food pantry that served more than 100
individuals. Those on the receiving
end were eager and grateful for the
fresh carrots, broccoli, sweet potatoes,
squash, rice and canned goods that
were distributed. Many thanked the
volunteers who arrived long before the
lines of the needy formed and were still
there after they hauled bags and boxes
of vegetables and fruit to their cars and
homes.
I took part in the event as a
volunteer and originally thought it was
a one-time Martin Luther King Jr. Day
of Service effort. However, from a
Foreclosures
Tax Sales/Ads for Bids
Trade Name Registrations
Public Notices/Public meetings
Sheriff Sales/Local Legislation
Notices of Incorporation
To subscribe, visit DeKalbLegalNotices.com
or call 404-373-7779, X 0
#ItsInTheChampion
Gale Horton Gay
fastgale@hotmail.com
conversation with one of the organizers
I learned that this isn’t anything new
for First African Presbyterian Church
of Lithonia, which held the mobile
food pantry in partnership with the city
of Lithonia, Atlanta Community Food
Bank as well as other churches and
service organizations.
First African opens its food pantry
two to three times a month and
DEKALB FREE PRESS • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2019 • Page 4
dispenses what it can to those who, for
a range of reasons, need it. It’s just one
of many local organizations and groups
that have made supplying the needy
with food an ongoing priority. They do
it as a routine part of their commitment
to their communities and without
publicity.
Lately there’s been a great deal of
focus on food pantries as the federal
government shutdown stretches into its
second month.
People with well-paying federal
jobs who previously shopped wherever
they chose are finding themselves in
precarious situations now that their
paychecks have stopped coming.
In addition to not knowing when
their next checks will arrive and
how they will continue to make rent
and mortgage payments, they also
worry about buying food, paying for
medication and funding the various
expenses that come with everyday life.
There’s been a flurry of efforts to set
up feeding stations and food pantries
across the country to help those caught
in this most recent homeland crisis.
That’s a good thing and these efforts
and more will need to continue until
our political leaders come to their
senses, compromise on the issues and
reopen the government.
However, when it does,
organizations such as First African and
the others who work quietly will still
be there doing what they do with little
fanfare, serving those who need it.
OPINION DEKALB FREE PRESS • FEBRUARY 8, 2019 • Page 5

Thumbingyearbooksandstrollingdownmemorylane
“It doesn’t matter whether he was
in the photo, or not in the photo at this
point. We have to close that chapter,”
said former Democratic Virginia Gov.
Terry McAuliffe, who aided, supported
and assisted in the election of current
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam on
CNN’s ‘State of the Union’.
 
Since the low-bar was set during
the U.S. Senate confirmation hearings
of Supreme Court Justice Brett
Kavanaugh, the weaponizing of high
school and other yearbooks as part of
opposition research and background
checks is now fully underway.
With an expected field of more
than 20 Democrats lining up to seek
the White House in 2020, you can rest
assured that dozens of interns working
for the nation’s top political consulting
firms are fanning out across the nation
into high school and college libraries
to locate and identify poor decision
making in youth of our potential future
leaders.  for posterity. Should one black mark or
Virginia Gov. (as of this writing)
Ralph Northam, is someone I’ve
never met and will not spend time
defending. Though I will draw a
distinction between an expectation
of maturity and adult reasoning in
a medical school student, versus an
adolescent in high school. It is more
than likely that Democratic Northam,
who used race as an issue against his
GOP opponent, Ed Gillespie, will be
driven from office in a matter of days
or weeks, largely over a photograph
on his medical school yearbook page,
along with a later admission of donning
shoe polish on his face in a staged
tribute to Michael Jackson in 1994.  public official today by their youth and
 Northam, previously Virginia’s
lieutenant governor, won the office
narrowly, largely on the back of
voters in metro Washington, D.C. The
Virginia Commonwealth out-state is
a largely conservative and Red State,
but like Georgia and metro Atlanta,
the politics of its largest MSA, in this
case Washington, D.C., often tip the
ballot scales in a different direction.
But again, if Northam is to be run out
on a rail following this trolling stroll
down memory lane, it should be for
his current, or at least more recent,
poor choices in public life, as well as
bad actions or intentions to implement
truly in our heart, minds and expressed has walls which contain stories of bad
in our faith matters for something. choices and memories. Thankfully
‘One Man’s  While I wish Northam and his though, those walls can’t talk.
family well; I suspect they are in for a  
Opinion’ challenging set of years. I would urge Bill Crane also serves as a political
my friends and the citizens of the great analyst and commentator for Channel 2’s
Bill Crane Commonwealth of Virginia to not rush Action News, WSB-AM News/Talk 750
bill.csicrane@gmail.com to judgement and to fully comprehend and now 95.5 FM, as well as a columnist
the reasons for the decision which for The Champion, DeKalb Free Press
they are considering, as well as noting and Georgia Trend. Crane is a DeKalb
poor public policy, and not simply for the sound of yearbooks rustling and native and business owner, living in
a stupid costume decision-making in memory sticks moving into vaults, even Scottdale. You can reach him or comment
youth. the Jefferson dorm on the UVA campus on a column at bill.csicrane@gmail.com.
 Christ was not perfect. My main
challenge with the Catholic church
of my birth and christening is the
insistence that our Pope is a practical
deity. He is a man with all the good
and bad that comes with that, selected
by other men, again to lead.
 I know many people including
myself, with lives well- and
charitably-lived, who have had bad
nights, made poor decisions and on
occasion had those moments captured
bad costume decision erase decades of
good choices? Whatever happened to
second chances, or acknowledging the
onset of maturity, personal growth or
even simply becoming a better human
being, generally considered one of the
true benefits of aging?
 Accountability courts now give
non-violent criminal offenders a
second chance. Florida and other states
are having ongoing discussions about
restoring the voting rights of felons. 
If we are such a forgiving people,
and so willing to give second chances,
shouldn’t we start by acknowledging
the folly of judging the mindset of a
costume choices of decades ago? And
given the proliferation of electronic
photography, are we ready for the
likely slutty Mrs. Santa and naughty
nurse photos yet to come in a post
Me-Too era of the hundreds of women
entering elected life? 
Having weathered a healthy
number of youthful indiscretions, as
well as more recent bad decisions of
my own; I remain glad that we are able
to build our cumulative life’s work
and reputation on the back of a series
of good choices and decisions as well
as knowing that when we are finally
judged by a higher authority, what is

FREEPRESS
the DeKalb Publisher: Staff Reporters:
John Hewitt Carla Parker STATEMENTFROMTHE
Horace Holloman PUBLISHER
Chief Financial Officer: Taylor Robins We sincerely appreciate the
Dr. Earl D. Glenn discussion surrounding this and any
Let Us Know What You Think! Social Media Manager: issue of interest to DeKalb County.
Production Manager: Donna Seay The Champion was founded in 1991
THE DEKALB FREE PRESS encourages opinions from SEND LETTERS TO EDITOR, expressly to provide a forum for
The DeKalb Free Press, Kemesha Wadley discourse for all community residents
its readers. Please write to us and express your views. P. O. Box 1347, Decatur, GA 30031-1347; on all sides of an issue. We have no
Letters should be brief, typewritten and contain the Send email to Johnh@dekalbchamp.com desire to make the news only to
FAXTo: (404) 370-3903; Phone: (404) 373-7779. The DeKalb Free Press is published each Friday report news and opinions to effect
writer’sname,addressandtelephonenumberforverifi- Deadline for news releases and advertising: by ACE III Communications, Inc., a more educated citizenry that will
cation. All letters will be considered for publication. Thursday, one week prior to publication date. 114 New Street, Suite E, Decatur, GA. 30030 ultimately move our community
forward. We are happy to present
Phone (404) 373-7779. ideas for discussion; however,
EDITOR’SNOTE:Theopinionswrittenbycolumnistsandcontributingeditorsdonotnecessarilyreflecttheopinions www.championnewspaper.com we make every effort to avoid
printing information submitted to
oftheeditororpublishers.ThePublisherreservestherighttorejectorcancelanyadvertisementatanytime.The us that is known to be false and/or
Publisher is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts. DISPLAY ADVERTISING (404) 373-7779 x 110 assumptions penned as fact.
 LOCAL DEKALB FREE PRESS • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2019 • Page 6

SHOES Continued From Page 1

places where Hastie has visited. Hastie
wanted to share her experiences with
the students.
“I realized that the kids needed more
exposure,” Hastie said.
The travel club started with field
trips around the Atlanta area, then
expanded to other parts of Georgia and
later included college tours in other
states such as Florida and Tennessee.
“I wanted them to go a little
further,” Hastie said. “So then we
started doing international traveling.
We went to Costa Rica, Egypt, New
Zealand, Fiji, Barcelona, Paris and
Japan.”
To raise money for the trips,
the group does concession stand
fundraising with Georgia Tech, local
restaurants and other sporting events.
“The students are definitely
responding positively because they
feel like they’re making a difference,”
Hastie said.
McNairHighSchool’stravelclubcollectedmorethan1,000pairsofshoestosendtoGuatemala.PhotoprovidedbyMcNairHighSchool

COUNTYWIDE

Cityhoodtalksheatup,somewanttodouseflames
BY HORACE HOLLOMAN
horace@dekalbchamp.com
Cityhood movements
for Greenhaven and Vista
Grove were among the hot
topics during pre-legislative
sessions for the DeKalb County
Legislative Delegation.
In January state legislators
and residents met regarding
cityhood movements at a
special called meeting at the
Georgia Piedmont Technical
College Conference Center.
While some residents
supported creating two new
cities in DeKalb, others say
splitting DeKalb into more
boundaries would have negative
consequences.
Marjorie Snook, creator
of DeKalb Strong—a grassroot
group of residents promoting
transparency in county
government—said creating
more cities is not the solution
to strengthening the county.
Snook said groups opposing
Greenhaven and Vista Grove
are planning a town hall
meeting in late February.
“We do not think that
dividing up the county into
chunks is an effective way
to improve our government
or deliver high-quality
services,” Snook said. “It
encourages areas to try to grab
disproportionate amounts of
tax base so they have more
money that they can direct
into just their area, then there’s
less funds for everybody else.
There’s always a loser when
you play that game.”
DeKalb cities such as
Tucker, Stonecrest and
Brookhaven have incorporated
in the previous eight years.
Snook said she fears
creating more cities will hinder
public safety and transit.
Currently, nine of DeKalb’s 12
cities offer police services to
their residents. DeKalb County
police serve cities that do not
have city police departments.
“Our biggest problems
are regional as it relates to
transportation and public safety.
How can we work on solutions
if everybody is just looking at
what’s going on in their own
neighborhood?” Snook said.
Proponents of Vista Grove’s
cityhood said the city would
take control of services such
as police, parks and recreation, A map outlining the proposed area of Greenhaven, which would have approximately 300,000 residents.
planning and zoning and
road repaving. In 2015, a
similar initiative within the
same proposed boundaries the Carl Vinson Institute of voters to make informed operation and enterprise budget
of Vista Grove failed when a Government, Greenhaven decisions. is more than $2 billion.”
referendum to form LaVista would have an annual revenue “The data in the [feasibility] A bill that would have
Hills fell short by 139 votes. of approximately $45.6 million study is outdated and based created Greenhaven failed to
Greenhaven’s proposed and cost $18.4 million to on 2013 data,” Leak said. pass last year.
boundaries would include a operate. The study is based “Our economic climate is “It has been five years of
large portion of unincorporated on revenues collected for the dynamic and there’s outdated failure for Greenhaven,” Leak
south DeKalb. The area would unincorporated area by DeKalb information in [the study]. said. “If you go up to a random
have an estimated 300,000 County in 2013. Greenhaven would have $45 person, they don’t know what
residents, making it the second Claudette Leak, a DeKalb million in revenue and $27 Greenhaven is. We have a
most populated city in Georgia resident for more than four million left over after expenses. charge to educate the people. If
behind Atlanta. decades, said she works with When you look at the size of it comes down to a referendum,
According to a feasibility groups that oppose Greenhaven Greenhaven and compare it to we want an educated voter.”
study published in 2015 by and helps educate potential a city like Atlanta, Atlanta’s