Connect Atlanta

You are invited to a series of open, multi-day workshops for the Connect Atlanta Plan. The Connect Atlanta Plan is a yearlong planning process to develop the City's first citywide transportation plan. These interactive sessions are designed for you to drop by at your convenience and work with us on specific transportation challenges in your area. While the public can come anytime during the day, each multi-day workshop will have an introductory and final meeting in order to introduce you to the plan and workshop and then present the work accomplished during the week. Your input is critical to this effort; please join us in your neighborhood!

Northside & Northwest-February 11-14
Location: Georgia-Pacific Center, 133 Peachtree Street, NE
Kickoff: Monday, February 11th at 6:30 pm (Georgia-Pacific Center Auditorium)
Recap: Thursday, February 14th at 6:30 pm (Georgia-Pacific Center Auditorium)
Workshops: Open Monday through Thursday from 10:30 am to 8:00 pm (Suite 3100, Floor 31)
Directions: Building adjacent to Peachtree Center MARTA Station, exit at Ellis Street
Parking: Check http://www.connectatlantaplan.com/ or call 404-330-6800 for directions.

Southwest-February 25-28
Location: Adamsville Recreation Center, 3201 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, SW

Intown South & Southside-March 10-13
Location: Atlanta Metropolitan College-Academic Building #500, 1630 Metropolitan Parkway, SW

Northeast & Eastside-March 24-27
Location: City Hall East, 675 Ponce de Leon Avenue, NE

Low Flow Toilet Rebates and Radar Speed Signs near Schools

The Atlanta City Council has moved a step closer to offering rebates for single family residential customers in the city’s drinking water service area that install low flow toilets. City Councilmembers on Tuesday authorized the Mayor to enter into a memorandum of agreement with the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District for the establishment of the Toilet Rebate Program for customers of the City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management – one of the largest drinking water providers in the region. “By providing rebates, we will encourage accelerated installation of water-saving, low flow devices,” said City Council President Lisa M. Borders. “We are taking this measure to incent our fellow citizens to adopt conservation practices that will protect our resources and sustain our city for future generations.”

Atlanta has set aside $1 million for the program. The funds, which were set aside from Water and Wastewater Budget reserve funds in December, will go toward a region-wide program to encourage water conservation – a measure that the City Council also endorsed. The Council expressed its support through a resolution (Legislative Reference # 07-R-2431), sponsored by Councilmembers Clair Muller, Mary Norwood , Ivory Lee Young, Jr., Joyce Sheperd, H. Lamar Willis, Carla Smith, Jim Maddox, Ceasar C. Mitchell, Cleta Winslow and Kwanza Hall. In response to the drought in northern Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency in 85 counties. Municipal water systems in the affected area, including City of Atlanta, have been required to reduce water use by 10 percent.

The rebate program starts on February 5, 2008, according to officials with the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District – a planning entity dedicated to developing comprehensive watershed, wastewater and water supply and conservation plans to be implemented by local governments in the 16-county metro Atlanta region. The rebate program will be administered by Water Planning District. The amount of each rebate will depend on the volume of the fixture purchased.

To receive a rebate, Atlanta water/sewer customers must:

Live in or rent a single family residence that was built prior to 1993 and have fixtures not currently in compliance with current water efficiency plumbing code standards; Have a water account in good standing with one of the participating utilities; Purchase and install a toilet from an approved list of 1.6- or 1.28-gallon-per-flush (gpf) toilets ; Provide the District with their most recent water/sewer bill; and Provide the District with proof of purchase (showing make, model, flow rate and installation.)

Customers who replace their old toilets with 1.6-gpf toilets can receive a $50 rebate, and those who install 1.28-gpf toilets can receive a $100 rebate. There is a limit of two rebates per household. Only toilets purchased after September 28, 2007, are eligible.

Toilets purchased prior to 1993 use between 3.5 and seven gpf. There are an estimated 46,000 structures within Atlanta’s service area with pre-1993 toilets. Replacing a 3.5-gpf toilet with a 1.6-gpf model saves about two gallons a flush or 54 percent of an average household’s water use. Replacing a 7-gpf toilet with a 1.6-gpf model saves 5.4 gallons a flush or 77 percent of an average household’s use. “Changing our older, inefficient toilets is one of the most important things we can do to conserve water in North Georgia,” said Kit Dunlap, chairman of the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District. “I applaud the City of Atlanta for appropriating these funds to give homeowners the incentive to replace older fixtures with new, low-flow ones. These funds will go a long to helping us meet out conservation goals.”

For more information, including guidelines and how to apply call 404-463-3256 or reference the “toilet rebate program” at http://www.northgeorgiawater.org/ or visit http://www.atlantawatershed.org/

In other news, the Atlanta City Council:

Approved a resolution by Councilmembers Clair Muller, Joyce Sheperd and Anne Fauver encouraging the installation of Radar Speed Signs in all School Zones in the City of Atlanta (Legislative Reference # 07-R-2603).

The above legislation and a complete list of other items on the council’s agenda can be viewed in their entirety on the Web at: http://apps.atlantaga.gov/citycouncil/2008/fca0122.htm

Video of the Atlanta City Council meetings can be viewed at:
http://apps.atlantaga.gov/citycouncil/video.htm

Welcome!

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the new District 8 blog! I am the elected representative for City Council District 8, and I have served my constituency and the city of Atlanta since January 1990. I have served on all committees of the City Council at various times over the years, but currently serve as Chair of the Transportation Committee and as a member of the Finance/Executive Committee and the City Utilities Committee. I am currently the City Council-elected member of the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Board, and as a board member I am on the Environmental and Land Use Committee and the Legislative Agenda Committee. Also, I serve on the Chattahoochee Basin Advisory Committee through the Georgia Water Council and on the Atlanta/Fulton County Water Resources Commission—all of which involve dealing with various issues on a regional level.

In addition to my work on City Council, I have previously served as Chair of the Atlanta/Fulton County Water Resources Commission, Chair of the Georgia Municipal Association’s Environment and Natural Resources Policy Committee, on the Advisory Board of the Georgia Water Campaign, and on the National League of Cities’ Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Steering Committee.

I hope you will find my blog to be helpful and informative. I will be updating it periodically with information that I believe is important to my constituency and the citizens of Atlanta. Again, thank you for visiting my blog. I look forward to hearing from you in the future, should you have a problem, concern, or any ideas you would like to share with me.

Best Regards,

Clair M. Muller