Dear petitioners,

We want to update you on the current situation of this petition.

Last Friday we had another meeting with Commissioner Bradshaw, Caleb Wittenmyer of Dekalb County Parks and Recreation (Greenspace Manager), Alesia Brooks, Robin Flieg, Marvin Billups - Deputy Director, Kathryn Kolb (Ecologist), and Roberta Moore (The Conservation Fund).

Commissioner Bradshaw made us aware that Dekalb County, under his directive, has begun to move forward with purchase of the 40 acres of forested land at 4994 Rockbridge Rd for the preservation of and creation of a public greenspace. The Commissioner outlined their current status and steps moving forward, including:

1. They have a willing seller (Gus Abalo, the developer who purchased the land from the Bioust family appx. 1 year ago. He is working with the county to negotiate a deal). 
2. An appraisal was completed by the County.
3. An Environmental study has been completed by the County.
4. A boundary survey will be completed within 5-6 weeks.
5. Then the project would move to the executive committee of Dekalb for a vote of approval.
6. At this point, the Commissioner said Dekalb will meet again with our community for an update.

Caleb Wittenmyer, greenspace manager of Dekalb County, reported that he recently walked the 40 acres with the Georgia Forestry Commission and reports it is "beautiful and very desirable to the county for preservation efforts". He's applied for a $600k grant through the US Forest Service and will hear whether it is approved in May, 2024. 

This is all great news, and not a done deal, yet. But we can celebrate a little :) There are good intentions and there is interest. Although the mills of government are grinding slowly...they have started to grind!

So many people have done so much, including all of you. Thank you!!! We will continue to update the community as new information is available.

Hope you have a wonderful week, 
Julia Wallace, Alex Freund