Nixle

Found this on the Carrollton county website.  Nixle is a website where police departments can post police blotter news, events, traffic and storm advisories, etc.  This would be a great asset for the DCSO.  You can receive notifications by email or you can put in your cellphone number and it will be sent by text message.  The best part is–it’s free.  It wouldn’t even cost the DCSO or the county a cent to register.  I’m hoping they read this and perhaps consider using this website–I think it would be a great idea.  Imagine if a prisoner had escaped or if the police were looking for a suspect in an armed robbery.  They could post a message with a picture of the suspect and it would immediately go out to people who had registered with the website–and perhaps help the police in locating the prisoner or suspect.  The Carroll County Police, the city of Tyrone, and the Hiram Police have registered.

Fox 5 Investigation of Bernard

Video can be found here: http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/dpp/news/i-team:_douglas_county_attorney_112409

And there will be a second part to the story tomorrow at 6pm.  I think the story was really good, except at the end Travis says the jail bond is $120 million when it is actually $150 million.  What do you think?

AHS Is Victim of Gang Tagging

I’m not sure how long it’s been there, but surely it wasn’t there last week or there would be a post in the Topix message board about it.  I have informed the DCSO and hopefully it will be removed soon.  I can’t read the first word, I can tell the last one is “Mafia” but can only tell that the first word says BAN, then possibly an apostrophe–it’s hard to tell.  Can anyone tell what the first word is?

Anyone Noticed…

The news page of the DCSO hasn’t been updated since last Thursday…and the last actual blotter they had on there was…quite awhile ago?

Fight At Quick Trip on Thornton Road

If it was uploaded the same day, it happened on November 14.  Possibly gang related, though it obviously can’t be confimed.  Alleged damage to a car’s windows was the result.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNKmc_eQrBE

DC Jail: Is The Price Right?

According to this article published yesterday, Hall County built a 1,026 bed jail in 2005 for $53 million. That’s about $52,000 per bed.  If I calculated the price for our jail using these numbers, that would only add about $30 million more to the price…which means our jail, in 2005, would have cost $83 million.  I’m not sure how to figure in inflation costs, though, since this was four years ago.  Can anyone help with that?

Let’s use more current prices.  Clarke County is building a 632 bed jail for $51 million.  That’s about $81,000 a bed.  If I calculated the price of the Douglas County Jail using these numbers, that would add about $70 million more to the price…making the price of the jail $121,308,000.  Hmm…that’s $28,692,000 cheaper than the price of our jail.

Child Dropped At Wrong Bus Stop In Douglasville

This isn’t on WSB’s website, but their local news just had a story about it.  The child looked to be either in kindergarten or first grade.  A substitute driver let her off at her great-grandmother’s house, which was the wrong location, mainly because there was no one home at the time.  The parents realized she had been let out at the wrong stop and set out to the house to look for her, then saw a lot of cars stopped on Hwy 5 and people running toward a ditch.  The child was found safe in the ditch, covered in mud.  The story did not explain why she was found in the ditch, but I assume the child started walking home.  A statement by Karen Stroud said the substitute bus driver was “absolutely wrong” to let the child out at the bus stop.  Well, duh.  The statement did not include any possible punishment for the bus driver.  The story also said the child is now scared to ride the bus if there is a substitute bus driver.

BOC “Retreat”

James Bell graciously provided me with the agenda of the BOC Retreat, which you can see below.  Must have been nice.

DOUGLAS COUNTY BUDGET RETREAT

CALLAWAY GARDENS

Sourwood-5 Conference Room

November 18 – 19, 2009

Wednesday, November 18

11:30 a.m.                     Lunch / Three Lil Pigs BBQ

1:00 – 1:30 p.m.             Financial Overview                     

1:30 – 2:15 p.m.             Goal Overview

2:15 – 2:30 p.m.             Break

2:30 – 3:45 p.m.             Budget Books

3:45 – 4:00 p.m.             Break

4:00 – 4:30 p.m.             Storm/Flood Update

4:30 – 5:30 p.m.             Ronnie Wood

6:30 p.m.                      Dinner @ Crickett’s

 

Thursday, November 19

7:30 – 8:45 a.m.             Breakfast (Piedmont Dining Room)

9:00 – 12:00 p.m.           Budget Books (continued)

12:00 – 1:15 p.m.           Lunch (Piedmont Dining Room)

1:15 – 1:45 p.m.             Legal Review (Ken Bernard)

1:45  p.m.                     BOC Discussion

Forum

I’ve changed the forum to where if you want to see it, read posts, etc you have to be a registered member (it’s free).  I’ve had some problems with people spamming it.

Douglas County’s Stimulus $$: Where Did It Go?

The below links give you some answers.

• http://www.recovery.gov/transparency/pages/RecipientProjectSummary.aspx?AwardIDSUR=10248&PopId=66271 (no jobs created, Grant for $106,871 for DCSO)

• http://www.recovery.gov/transparency/pages/RecipientProjectSummary.aspx?AwardIDSUR=23445&PopId=44359 (Grant to Dept of Housing and Urban Development for Douglas Village Apartments, $619,520–no jobs created or saved)

• http://www.recovery.gov/transparency/pages/RecipientProjectSummary.aspx?AwardIDSUR=35837&PopId=48498 ($340,000 to Department of Transportation to replace and purchase vanpool vehicles– .25 jobs created)

• http://www.recovery.gov/transparency/pages/RecipientProjectSummary.aspx?AwardIDSUR=47781&PopId=70969 ($60,909 to SHARE House, no jobs created or saved)

• http://www.recovery.gov/transparency/pages/RecipientProjectSummary.aspx?AwardIDSUR=35819&PopId=61106 $423,504 to Douglas County Housing Authority, no new jobs created or saved

• $17,129,935 to DC BOE(no jobs created or saved):
  • $3,600,092 to “Title I, Part A, is a formula grant program that provides financial assistance to LEAs and schools with high numbers or high percentages of poor children to help ensure that all children meet challenging state academic standards.”
  • $8,634,934 to “Education Fund- for the support of public elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education, as, applicable, early childhood education program and services.”
• $101,746 to Inner Harbour
• $5,347,149 to DC DOT:
  • $2,564,205 for Hwy infastructure investment grant to (improve, I guess) Hwy 5 at Rose Ave (.29 jobs created/saved)
  • $1,976,366 for Anneewakee Road @ Anneewakee Creek (no jobs created/saved)
  • $806,577 for Kings Hwy/Central Church Rd (no jobs created/saved)

In total, .54 jobs were created/saved.