Author: On Common Ground News

The DeKalb County Board of Health said today that West Nile virus-positive mosquitoes have been trapped at 11 locations throughout the county. The Board of Health is educating the public on how to eliminate mosquito breeding sites and protect against bites. Door-to-door visits are being made in the identified area. To date this year, there have been no human cases of West Nile virus infection confirmed in DeKalb County. To reduce the spread of West Nile virus and other mosquito-borne diseases, the Board of Health conducts a comprehensive mosquito control program. Throughout the county, technicians routinely trap…

The city of Stonecrest is urging the community to support its Red Cross’ blood drive, which will be held on Tuesday, July 30, 1 to 6 p.m., at City Hall. The Red Cross has issued an urgent plea for donors nationwide and the city of Stonecrest responded by partnering to host a blood drive. This morning, the agency announced that Amazon has made a $1 million donation to help with the emergency. The Red Cross is giving a $5 Amazon.com gift card to all who give blood or platelets to the agency July 29 through Aug. 29. Currently, the Red…

MARTA has received a $2.6 million grant by the U.S. Department of Transportation for the purchase of six zero-emission battery electric buses to replace six diesel models. Removing the 2005 diesel versions from the fleet will reduce MARTA’s emissions by 935 short tons of greenhouse gases and reduce energy consumption by 14.3 terajoules. The energy saved by the deployment of the zero-emissions buses is equivalent to nearly 250 years of gas for the average American car driver. Zero-emissions vehicles also prevent the release of fine particulate matter – atmospheric pollutants suspended in the air in the form of minute…

More than 30 rising sixth graders attended the Chairman’s Youth Summer Enrichment Program. The weeklong end-of-summer camp, sponsored by Rockdale County Chairman Oz Nesbitt, Sr., was held at the JP Carr Community Center July 22 -26 in Conyers. The half-day program included 5 days of hands-on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) activities where students were introduced to animation and video game creation. Students also got a chance to test out their summer survival skills by learning how to make ice cream, a solar cooking oven and a giant bridge built from toothpicks and marshmallows. Program officials said the curriculum…

A fatal hit-and-run car accident has left one man dead and a former student of DeKalb Count’s Stephenson High School  behind bars. Brittany Ashley, 32, of Stone Mountain turned herself in on July 23 after  fatally hitting Kevin Brown, 38, of Norcross on July 20 and leaving the scene. The incident happened just before midnight in the 1300 block of Beaver Ruin Road in Norcross. Ashley was charged with one count of hit-and-run and one count of homicide by vehicle. She remains in custody at Gwinnett County Jail without bond. According to social media, the 32-year-old was a millennial fashion…

Photos by David Ferebee Voices of Faith Ministries, under the leadership of Bishop Gary Hawkins, Sr., presented five of its high school seniors with scholarships on July 21. The scholarship winners were honored at worship services at Voices of Faith’s Stone Mountain and Conyers campuses. The VOF Men’s Ministry, led by Bishop Hawkins, along with Deacon Robert Scales, chair of the VOF Golf Committee and the 50 Plus Ministry, led by Deaconess Kishia Mitchell, partnered together for the first time to raise money for the scholarships. Through the partnership, four students each received a $750 scholarship this year. The…

The Orchids, a service organization in East Metro Atlanta, recently saw the fruits of its labor when 100 girls at Spearman Primary School in Durban, South Africa received a special gift to help them stay in school. As a part of its philanthropic efforts last year, The Orchids donated $1,123 to the Keeping Girls in School project, which provides alternative sanitary products to school-aged girls. And this year, Shamila Ramjawan, CEO of Famram Solutions, which manufactures the PrincessD Cups, presented them to the students. “Many girls in third world countries and even here in the United States…

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Hank Johnson (GA0-04) had a chance to question Special Counsel Robert Mueller III during Muller’s nearly seven-hour testimony on July 24 before a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. Johnson, who lives in DeKalb County and represents Georgia’s Fourth District, focused his questions on whether President Trump tried to obstruct Mueller’s investigation into his administration. Johnson, chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet, established that Trump tried to get his White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller, another obstruction of justice by…

Stonecrest Mayor Jason Lary conducts an interview at the Turner Hill Road paving project. The Stonecrest City Council voted on July 24 to move into the city’s second phase of road paving, which will cover large portions of Salem, Rockland, and Thompson Mill roads.  The paving will begin in August and will be completed by Nov. 22. The city’s first paving phase finalized this week with the completion of a full-depth reclamation project on the south end of Turner Hill Road. The roads were selected from a Pavement Condition Index(PCI) score provided by Stantec Inc., the company hired…

DeKalb County Recreation, Parks and Cultural Affairs Department will host the final feature of its 2019 Movies in the Park series on July 30 at Browns MillAquatic Facility, 5101 Browns Mill Road, in the city of Stonecrest. Paramount Pictures “Bumblebee,” rated PG-13, will be shown at dusk (between 8:30 and 8:45 p.m.). Admission to the park is free after 8 p.m. The movie is about Bumblebee the Autobot, which finds refuge in a junkyard in a small California beach town. When a teen girl named Charlie revives him, she quickly learns that this is no ordinary yellow Volkswagen. Those who…