Mayor Andre Dickens has named Odie Donald II as his chief of staff. Born and raised in Atlanta, Donald most recently served as the administrator for the consolidated government of Augusta-Richmond County. Before his stint in Augusta, he served as the first city manager for the City of South Fulton. He is credited with eliminating a $25 million deficit while doubling revenues and establishing the first positive fund balance in the city’s history. Donald played Division I basketball at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in History. He earned his Master’s of Business Administration from Georgia State University.
Atlanta Police have arrested one Peeping Tom and are on the search for another who have been prowling Midtown. On Jan. 7, a woman on Penn Avenue reported a male exposed himself while look through a window of her home. The suspect was caught on surveillance cameras and he was identified by officers as Anthony Burgess, 43. Officers arrested Burgess on Feb. 3 after spotting him walking on Ponce de Leon Avenue. APD is searching for another male suspect involved in similar activity in Midtown and encouraged residents to call 911 if they see suspicious activity.
Atlanta City Councilmembers Marci Collier Overstreet, Antonio Lewis, and Andrea L. Boone will host a town hall meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 8 at 5 p.m. in response to MARTA’s announcement that it plans to build a bus rapid transit (BRT) line instead of light rail along the Campbellton Road corridor. The meeting will be held at Mount Carmel Baptist Church, 2755 Campbellton Road SW. “This project to construct the Campbellton line comes from the $2.7 billion in Atlanta transit expansion that voters approved in 2016, and according to the presentation recently shared publicly by MARTA, $200 million of promised investment is missing from the More MARTA Campbellton Road transit project,” Overstreet said. “This is alarming to me, Southwest Atlanta residents, and all taxpayers in Atlanta. We need to be very efficient and deliberate in this process to make sure that the voices of our constituents are heard.” The BRT would run in the middle of a 6-mile stretch of Campbellton Road between the Oakland City MARTA station and the Barge Road park-and-ride lot.
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