Author: On Common Ground News

By Mackenzie N. Morgan Staff Writer The city of Stonecrest is now home to one of Georgia’s newest semi-pro basketball teams, the Georgia Kangaroos. The team, which has been seeking a home since early last year, will play its inaugural basketball game against the Augusta Eagles on Sunday, Jan. 19, 3 p.m., in the gymnasium at the newly renovated Browns Mill Recreation Center in Stonecrest. Founder, head coach and former Parkview High School basketball player, Brian Caswell, said he is ecstatic about bringing semi-pro sports to Stonecrest. Caswell thanked city officials and Stonecrest Parks and Recreation for assisting in…

Stonecrest City Councilwoman Tammy Grimes will host her first community forum as the newest member of the City Council. Grimes, who represents the city’s District 5, announced at the Jan. 13 council meeting that she plans to host “Talking With Tammy” on Jan. 28, 6 to 7:30 p.m., at the Stonecrest Library, 3123 Klondike Road. Grimes said she would provide more details about the meeting later. For more on the meeting, visit www.ocgnews.com.

Stonecrest City Councilman Jimmy Clanton, District 1, will host his monthly community meeting on Saturday, Feb. 1, 10 a.m., at the AEI Startup Factory, 7310 Stonecrest Concourse, Stonecrest.

The DeKalb History Center is offering a series of research classes this winter that will be open to the public. The first class in the series, “Researching Your Historic House/Property in the Metro Atlanta Area,” will be held on Saturday, Jan. 25, 10 to 11 a.m., at the DeKalb History Center located inside the Historic DeKalb Courthouse, 101 E. Court Square, Decatur. In the historic preservation training class, attendees will helpful tips and expert advice from Kenneth H. Thomas, Jr., who spent 33 years as the historian for the National Register of Historic Places within the Historic Preservation Division of…

The DeKalb NAACP’s 18th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. parade will be held on Jan. 20. The kick off ceremony will begin at 11:30 a.m. at Green Pastures Christian Ministries Church, 5455 Flat Shoals Parkway, Decatur at 11:30 a.m. The parade will start promptly at noon. The annual parade is held on the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday and commemorates the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who would have been 91years old this year. “We continue to honor Dr. King so that he is always remembered for his sacrifice for all people,”said DeKalb NAACP…

An exhibition memorializing the victims of the “Atlanta Child Murders” was unveiled during an opening reception on Jan. 16 at Atlanta City Hall, 55 Trinity Ave. S.W. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ Office of Cultural Affairs and the Atlanta Children’s Memorial Taskforce are hosting the  “Atlanta Children’s Memorial Portraits” exhibition through Feb. 6 at City Hall, officials said. In addition to selected artwork from more than 100 submissions by Atlanta visual artists who memorialized the victims of the child murders, portraits by Dwayne Mitchell, the winning artist, will be displayed in atriums at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport May 28 -…

Bishop Quincy Lavelle Carswell, overseer of The Covenant Church in Decatur, is being remembered as one of Atlanta’s most beloved and influential faith leaders. The prominent pastor passed away on Jan. 11, two days after suffering a stroke. He was 66 years old. Public viewing will be on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 12 to 8 p.m. at The Covenant Church, 1700 Corey Blvd, Decatur. The celebration of life will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 22. Bishop Carswell will lie in state at The Covenant Church from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. and the funeral will begin at 11  a.m.…

L-R: Lithonia Mayor Shemeeka Reynolds and  Stonecrest Mayor Jason Lary Today (Jan. 15), the Greater Lithonia Chamber of Commerce kicked off its first meeting of the year with a packed house of business executives and community leaders. Chamber President Kendra Price said she was pleased with the turnout and invited those attending to get ready to roll up their sleeves to work together and build communities. The luncheon meeting featured keynote speakers, Lithonia Mayor Shemeeka Reynolds, who was recently elected to lead the city of about 3,000 residents after serving eight years on the City Council, and Stonecrest Mayor…

The Stonecrest Library Friends group is seeking volunteers to donate time and energy at its bookstore and book sales drives. Volunteers are needed on Fridays, 3 to 5 p.m., and Saturdays, 4 to 5 p.m., to help with organizing and putting out used books and other materials that are sold to raise money to support library programs funded by the Friends group. Volunteers also are needed to sell books at the bookstore during library hours. “We especially need males who can help lift boxes of books that have been donated,” said Louise Ellen Alexander, who serves as vice president of…

An exhibition memorializing the victims of the “Atlanta Child Murders” will be unveiled during a reception on Thursday, Jan. 16, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., Atlanta City Hall, 55 Trinity Ave. S.W. At least 28 children, adolescents and adults were slain during theseries of murders that took place in Atlanta from July 1979 to May 1981.Wayne Williams, who was 23 at the time of the last murder, was arrested, tried, and convicted of two of the adult murders and sentenced to two consecutive life terms. Police subsequently have attributed a number of the child murders to Williams, although he has not…