By Donna Williams Lewis

Right now in south DeKalb County, 61,000 square feet of new and expanded library spaces – completed at a cost of $16.6 million – are sitting empty for want of money to open them.

The brand-new $7.7 million Stonecrest branch at Klondike Road and Hayden Quarry Road, completed and furnished since last September; the $4.5 million expanded Salem-Panola branch on Panola Road in Lithonia; and the $4.4 million expanded Hairston Crossing branch on Redan Road in Stone Mountain sit idly waiting for staff and patrons, even as taxpayers are paying on the bonds that built them.

Funding for the three library branches comes from a $230 million bond referendum approved by county residents in 2005 for improvements in transportation, parks and greenspace, and libraries.

The library’s $54.5 million portion is paying for the construction of three new

libraries for underserved populations, expansions of four existing libraries, and the replacement of five library facilities.

But while the bond funds pay to build the libraries, the County Commission must fund the staffing for them.

So far, it has not allocated funds for staffing and the branches are gathering dust – hulking, tangible testaments to DeKalb’s budget woes.

The well-stocked Stonecrest branch is the white elephant in plain sight of everyone who drives by and a point of frustration for resi-dents who lobbied for it and participated in public information meetings to get it built.

“I get mad every time I go by there,” said community activist Rosemarie Pickett of the Klondike Area Civic Association. “We’ve got an elementary school and a high school on the other end of Klondike and yet we can’t use the library. We just need the library fin-

ished.”DeKalb CEO Bur-

rell Ellis referred to the quagmire in his Jan. 6 State of the County ad-dress about county belt-tightening.

“Many of these cuts have been quite painful, such as when we have

been unable to pay county employees for a Memorial Day or Fourth of July holiday, or when we have not been able to open a new, fully stocked, state-of-the-art library because

www.crossroadsnews.comJanuary 22, 2011Copyright © 2010 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.

COVER PAGEEAST METRO’S BEST

Residents who were riled by the chain-link fence around the former Wachovia Bank building on Wes-ley Chapel Road can rest easy. It’s gone. A2

Fenced no moreCOMMUNITY

Thousands are expected for the sixth annual CrossRoadsNews Health & Wellness Expo at the Mall at Stonecrest on Jan. 29. We take a look at the expo. Section B

Spotlight on Health & WellnessEXPO 2011

Volume 16, Number 39

Rosemarie Pickett

New libraries collect dust, waiting for fundingNo money to hire staff for stocked Stonecrest branch

Photos by Carla Parker / CrossroadsNews

The Stonecrest Library, built and furnished at a cost of $7.7 million, has been ready since September 2010. It is still closed to the public because the DeKalb Library System has no funding for the 14 full-time equivalent positions needed to operate it seven days a week.

n Total budget: $4.5 millionn Construction completed: November 2010n Needs 11.5 full-time equivalent positions to openn Projected opening: February 2011

This branch on Redan Road has grown from 4,000 square feet to 18,000 square feet. It has a 100-seat meeting room and a 12-seat conference room. Patrons will have access to 38 computers, up from the 13 computers of the past.

n Total budget: $4.4 millionn Construction completed: November 2010n Needs 11.5 full-time equivalent positions to openn Projected opening: March 2011

This branch on Panola Road in Lithonia has grown from 4,000 square feet to 18,000 square feet. It has a 100-seat meeting room, a 12-seat conference room and plans for 38 computers for public use.

Hairston Crossing Library Salem-Panola Library

we are understaffed,” he said.Alison Weissinger, the library system’s

acting director, said finishing touches were halted on the Stonecrest branch when funding for staff failed to materialize last September.

“We’ve been very disappointed,” Weissing-er said. “The coffers at the county are just so

tight right now.”The library system says it needs 25.5 full-

time positions to open the three branches seven days a week. The Stonecrest branch needs 14 of those positions to operate it 58 hours weekly.

The system currently has 238 employees, but library spokeswoman Janet Florence says

full funding would be 289 positions. “We have to hold 40 positions vacant because of the budget shortfall,” she said.

If the library gets the $627,000 for staff-ing in Ellis’ proposed $563.3 million budget, Weissinger said the Stonecrest branch could

Note: The construction budget amounts listed do not include the cost of building fixtures, furnishings, equipment and books.

Please see LIBRARIES, page A4

Alison Weissinger

Time’s running outThere’s

still time to nominate your favorites in the 2011 Best of East Metro People’s Choice Awards. You’ll find the nomination form at www.crossroadsnews .com. But hurry – nominations close on Jan. 31.

A2 Community

Fence on Wesley Chapel comes down

The chain link fence (below) around the old Wachovia Building on Wesley Chapel Road was gone this week.

Parents of High School Seniors - DeKalb County School System

Don’t Miss This Opportunity!The Office of School Improvement and

the DCBlazers Youth Organization PresentCollege Financial Aid Workshop - Session II

The FAFSA FormImportant Information

Your FAFSA form (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) will be completed by the end of this worksession. Parents and their HS senior students will be able to participate only if they have gone to the website www.pin.ed.gov to apply for a Pin number so that the application can be electronically signed. It is absolutely necessary that this Pin number be obtained, at minimum, one week prior to the date of the work session. Parents (and students if applicable) must also bring their 2010 tax return and 2010 W2 form or their 2009 tax return and their 2010 W2 form.

Saturday, February 12, 201110:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

DeKalb County School SystemThe Administrative & Instructional Complex – Room 201

1701 Mountain Industrial BlvdStone Mountain GA 30083

RSVP toAnderia Russell at the

Office of School Improvement 678-676-0312or The DC Blazers at 770-322-5273

Check this website for a sneak peek at the FAFSA Formhttp://www.fafsa.ed.gov/fotw1112/pdf/fafsaws12c.pdf

The 6-foot chain-link fence that has marred the appearance of Wesley Chapel Road for more than four months is down.

Property owner Creed Pannell Jr. re-moved the fence this week from around the former Wachovia Bank building at the cor-ner of Wesley Chapel Road and Snapfinger Woods Drive.

Pannell erected the fence in September shortly after hosting an Aug. 5 ribbon cutting for the opening of his nonprofit Business Development Initiative.

At the time, he said that he erected the fence to protect the property from abuse and that he planned to build a wrought-iron

fence later.But residents have bombarded the county

with complaints about the fence that is in violation of the Wesley Chapel Overlay Dis-trict ordinance that prohibits fences along the business corridor.

Wachovia, which is now owned by Wells Fargo, donated the building to Pannell, who lives in Stockbridge. He created the non-profit to receive the building but has not started any programs there.

When he announced the gift last sum-mer, he said it would expose middle and high school students to the world of entre-preneurship.

Carla Parker / CrossroadsNews

JeNNfier ffreNCh Parker / CrossroadsNews

CrossRoadsNews January 22, 2011A2

A3

Hicks White began her new assignment on Jan. 18.

“I am very excited to have this opportunity to work at EPA and to help the regional office implement its critical mis-sion of protecting public health and the environ-

ment,” Hicks White said. Marchand, who replaced James when

he resigned as solicitor-general to seek the district attorney’s office last year, will become James’ chief assistant district attorney.

She was James’ chief assistant when he was solicitor-general and he tapped her to replace him while awaiting Gov. Sonny Per-due’s appointment to the office.

Perdue appointed lawyer and Municipal Court Judge Sherry Boston to fill the seat.

it work now? EPA needs to take over direct supervision of the necessary upgrades.”

Gil Turman, South DeKalb Neighborhoods Coalition president, said citizens want greater ac-countability and transpar-ency in the process.

“Citizens need to know how their government is managing the expenditure of the $1.4 billion we will pay via increased water and sewer rates over the next five years,” he said.

The groups’ comments are part of the public comments on the consent decree required by law before final approval.

DeKalb District At-torney Chief Assistant Javoyne Hicks White is headed to the U.S. En-vironmental Protection Agency to join her former boss and friend Gwen Keyes Fleming, and for-mer acting Solicitor-Gen-eral Nicole Marchand will reunite with her former boss Robert James, who is now district attorney.

Hicks White, who was Keyes Fleming’s chief assistant for five and a half years, will become her new chief of staff and help her manage the EPA Region 4’s priorities and day-to-day operations.

Keyes Fleming left the district attorney’s office in September, when she was picked by President Barack Obama to become Region 4 administrator.

Community “EPA gives the state and the county too much control over the task of protecting the community from further spills. That approach hasn’t worked for decades.”

Chief assistants reunite with old bosses

Groups urge stronger consent decree between EPA, DeKalb

Nicole MarchandJ. Hicks White

Gil Turman

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Six community organizations are urg-ing a stronger consent decree between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and DeKalb County.

In comments filed Jan. 19 by GreenLaw attorneys on their behalf, the groups – the South DeKalb Neighborhoods Coalition, South River Watershed Alliance, Miners Creek Circle Civic Association, DeKalb Soil and Water Conservation District, Metropoli-tan Atlanta Urban Watershed Institute, and Newly Organized Citizens Requesting Aqui-fer Protection – called the decree “duplicative of existing requirements” and said it “fails to require specific performance goals for completion of remedial actions” and “relies heavily on contentions from the county and

does not require adequate supervision.” DeKalb operates more than 2,600 miles

of sewer pipes, and more than 50 percent of them are 25 to 50 years old. In 2006, it reported 256 sanitary spills.

DeKalb signed the consent decree with EPA and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Environmental Protection Divi-sion on Dec. 13.

Among other things, it mandates $700 million of repairs to the county’s sewer system to reduce spills and overflows and requires the county to pay a civil penalty of $453,000 and $600,000 to clean up segments of the South River, South Fork Peachtree Creek, and Snapfinger Creek. The improve-ments, fines and penalty were levied for

fouling the state’s waters in violation of the Federal Clean Water Act and the Georgia Water Quality Control Act.

In their comments, the groups point out a number of serious omissions in the decree, which they say weaken its effective-ness as a tool to enforce compliance with environmental protections that DeKalb has neglected over many years.

GreenLaw’s attorney David Deganian said the consent decree does not go far enough to ensure that the goal of eliminating sewer spills is met in a reasonable time frame.

“EPA gives the state and the county too much control over the task of protecting the community from further spills. That ap-proach hasn’t worked for decades, why would

CrossRoadsNewsJanuary 22, 2011 A3

A4

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During a September library card sign-up campaign, the system issued 7,700, including 4,400 to new card holders.

CrossRoadsNews is pub-lished every Thursday by CrossRoads News, Inc.

We welcome articles on neighborhood issues and news of local happenings. The opinions expressed by writers and contributors are not necessarily those of the publisher, nor those of any advertisers.

The concept, design and content of CrossRoads News are copyrighted and may not be copied or reproduced in whole or in part in any man-ner without the written per-mission of the publisher.

Advertisements are pub-lished upon the representa-tion that the advertiser is authorized to publish the submitted material. The advertiser agrees to in-demnify and hold harm-less from and against any loss or expenses resulting from any disputes or legal claims based upon the contents or subject mat-ter of such advertisments, including claims of suits for libel, violation of privacy, plagiarism and copyright infringement.

We reserve the right to refuse any advertisement.

2346 Candler Rd.Decatur, GA 30032

404-284-1888 Fax: 404-284-5007www.crossroadsnews.com

editor@crossroadsnews.com

Editor / Publisher Jennifer Parker

General Manager Curtis Parker

Staff WriterCarla Parker

Advertising Sales Patricia Walthour

Marked growth of patrons during money crunch

Budget meetings offer resident chance to comment

S. Barnes Sutton

open by this summer.The proposed 2011 budget,

which is loaded with cuts and a property tax hike of 2.32 mills, slashes nearly $20 million from the 2010 budget of $582.7 million.

Library officials have requested 13 full-time positions, including four professional librarians, for Stonecrest. The final budget must be approved by the Board of Com-missioners at its Feb. 22 meeting.

Because of the reallocation of staff from the closure of the Briar-cliff branch and the delayed opening of the Stonecrest branch, Florence said the system has enough employ-ees to open the Hairston Crossing and Salem-Panola branches.

Commissioner Lee May, whose District 5 is home to all three branches, blames the economy for the opening delays. He said this week that it is now time to move the libraries forward.

“They were kind of sacrificed in the [current] budget to provide relief in other areas,” he said. “I’m looking forward to the Stonecrest Library being open this year.”

The money crunch comes at a time of marked growth among library users. During a September library card sign-up campaign, the system issued 7,700, including 4,400 to new card holders, a 21 percent increase over the number of new cards issued in September 2009.

n Construction budget: $5.3 millionn Groundbreaking: Dec. 17, 2010n Projected opening: Spring 2012

This planned 12,000-square-foot branch is going up at 1917 Candler Road, near Northview Avenue. It is replacing the branch that has been at Candler/McAfee roads for 47 years. It will be part of a mixed-use development that will include a new senior center and senior housing.

n Total budget: $7.7 millionn Completed September 2010n Needs 14 full-time equivalent positions to openn Projected opening: Spring or summer 2011

The 25,000-square-foot facility at the intersection of Klondike Road and Hayden Quarry Road contains a 175-seat auditorium, a 65-seat meeting room, connections for 42 public access computers and a “library café” with snack vending machines.

n Projected groundbreaking: March or April 2011n Projected opening: Sometime in 2012

This new 12,000-square-foot library will be located at the corner of River Road and Linecrest Road.

Stonecrest Library

Scott Candler Library ellenwood Library

Note: The construction budget amounts listed do not include the cost of building fixtures, furnishings, equipment and books.

in north DeKalb …Replacement or expanded branches have already opened in the Toco Hills, Northlake, Embry Hills

and Tucker areas. Two other libraries, a replacement for Brookhaven and the new Northeast Plaza branch, are in early planning stages. The Northeast Plaza facility will be a storefront library.

The bond referendum also funds the replacement of the Library Processing Center and an access upgrade at the Redan-Trotti branch.

LIBRARIES, fRom A1

Homeowners, property owners and other residents can comment on DeKalb’s proposed $563.3 million budget at meet-ings on Jan. 27 and Feb. 3 and 10.

The meetings are being hosted by District 4 Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton to offer residents the opportunity to voice their opinion on the budget that is $86 million lower than the 2009 budget

and includes a 2.32 mill tax increase. The county is anticipating tax revenue

falling another $12.8 million. In his Jan. 6 State of the County address, CEO Burrell Ellis said that while revenues are falling, operating costs have increased more than $39 million to meet legally mandated expenses.

The Jan. 27 meeting is at the Art Sta-

tion Theater, 5384 Manor Drive in Stone Mountain; the Feb. 3 meeting takes place at Maloof Auditorium, 1300 Commerce Drive in Decatur; and the Feb. 10 meeting is at Southland Community Clubhouse, 5728 Southland Drive in Stone Mountain. All start at 7 p.m.

For more information, call 404-371-4907.

Photos by Carla Parker / CrossroadsNews

CrossRoadsNews January 22, 2011A4

A5Starting Feb. 1, seniors and low-income

taxpayers can get free help filing their taxes before the April 15 deadline from AARP Tax-Aide.

Helen Lowenthal , AARP’s district coordi-nator in DeKalb County, said tax help will be avail-able through April 18 and that tax filers do not have to be a member of AARP or a retiree to use the service.

“Tax law can often be confusing. AARP Tax-Aide volunteers can make the process of filling out tax returns a whole lot easier.”

AARP Tax-Aide volunteers are trained in cooperation with the Internal Revenue Service, and they offer help with personal income tax returns at various metro sites.

Helen Lowenthal

Mark Butler

Finance “Sustained improvement will come only when employers begin adding jobs and increase hiring.”

Butler is new labor commissioner

Jobless rate rises to 10.2 percent

AARP Tax-Aide offers free help with returns

Job fair set for Lithonia

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Funeral

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Tara Garden Chapel

Dwayne Green has over 20 years experience in the

funeral industry and is a licensed funeral director

associated with Tara Garden Chapel, a member of

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South community. He frequently offers funeral-

related advice and counseling to area families. For

information or to ask a question, contact Dwayne at

770-471-7171.

Q. I have discussed my funeral wishes with my spouse. Is there anything else I need to do?

A. Though it is important to discuss

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ily members, you should enlist the

help of a funeral director so you can

!"#$% &'()*"+% ",,"-.$!$-/01% 2$% &,%she will know the myriad of ques-

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with your plan.

You also may not be aware of

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discuss and register your plan. Our

funeral home also offers a Personal

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Once you have all of this informa-

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Your grieving family will not need

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may have wanted.

Copies of the proposed bus service modifications will alsobe available at MARTA’s Office of External Affairs, 2424Piedmont Road, N.E. Atlanta, Georgia 30324 during regularbusiness hours, Mon-Fri 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

For formats (FREE of charge) in accordance with the ADAand Limited English Proficiency regulations contact (404) 848-4037. For those patrons requiring further accommodations,information can be obtained by calling the Telephone Device forthe Deaf (TDD) at 404 848-5665.

In addition, a sign language interpreter will be available atall hearings. If you cannot attend the hearings and want to pro-

vide comments you may: (1) leave a message at (404) 848-5299; (2) write to MARTA’s Office of External Affairs, 2424Piedmont Road, N.E. Atlanta, GA 30324-3330; (3) completean online Comment Card at www.itsmarta.com; (4) or fax yourcomments no later than January 31, 2011 to (404) 848-4179.

All citizens of the City of Atlanta and the counties ofFulton, DeKalb, Clayton and Gwinnett whose interests are affect-ed by the subjects to be considered at these hearings are here-by notified and invited to appear at said times and places andpresent such evidence, comment or objection as their interestsrequire.

Beverly A. Scott, Ph.D. General Manager/CEO

METROPOLITAN ATLANTA RAPID TRANSIT AUTHORITY

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARINGS JANUARY 24, 2011Notice is hereby given that the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority

(MARTA) will hold public hearings for the purpose of considering

Proposed Bus Service Modifications for April 23, 2011

Monday, January 24 at either location:

Route 42 – Pryor Road/McDaniel Street:Alternate weekday trips until 7:00 pm to restore servicealong Amal Drive, Bond Drive and Ashwood Avenue.

Route 56 – Adamsville/Collier Heights: Alternatetrips to restore weekday peak hour service to WaitsDrive, Alex Drive, Alex Way and Tarragon Way.

Route 120 – East Ponce de Leon Avenue/Tucker:Modify route to operate from Avondale Station via E.Ponce de Leon Avenue to Tucker.

Route 121 – Stone Mountain/ Memorial Drive:Modify service to reflect all trips operating via NorthHairston Road, E. Ponce de Leon Avenue, Main Street, W.Mountain Street and Memorial Drive terminating atGoldsmith Park & Ride Lot. Service along Memorial

Drive between North Hairston Road and Goldsmith Park& Ride Lot will continue to be provided by the Route 119.

Route 125 – Clarkston/Northlake: Reroute fromKensington Station to Avondale Station along NorthDecatur Road and Winn Way to relieve congestion andimprove bus movement in and around KensingtonStation. Service would no longer be provided alongNorthern Avenue between North Decatur Road andRockbridge Road.

Route 126 – Northlake/Chamblee: Provide moreservice along the Chamblee Tucker Road to HendersonMill Road segment and reduce the frequency of servicealong the Flowers Road South and Mercer University seg-ments from alternating trips to selective trips only toreflect current service demand on weekdays only.

Proposed routing and or adjustments for the following bus routes:

2424 Piedmont Road NE, Atlanta, 30324

MARTA HEADQUARTERS7:00 P.M.

Community Exchange from 6-7 pmRiding MARTA: Across street from Lindbergh Center Station.

215 Sycamore Street, Decatur, 30030

DECATUR LIBRARY6:00 P.M.

Community Exchange from 5-6 pmRiding MARTA: 1 block east of Decatur Station.

Georgia’s new labor commis-sioner is now on the job.

Mark Butler, who was elected to office in November, was sworn in on Jan. 10. He succeeds Michael Thurmond, who served three terms and left the position last year to run for U.S. Senate.

Butler, 40, is the state’s ninth labor commissioner, overseeing a department with an annual budget of $450 million. He represented Georgia House Dis-trict 18, which comprises Carroll and Haral-

son counties, for eight years.A Republican, Butler received

55.2 percent of the vote, defeating Democrat Darryl Hicks, who got 41.1 percent, and Libertarian Will Costa, who received 3.7 percent of the 2,535,162 votes cast.

An Auburn University graduate with a degree in public administra-tion, Butler has worked with his

family’s small business in Carrollton as a real estate appraiser. He is the father of two children – daughter Sydney and son Blake.

Georgia’s jobless rate crept up to 10.2 percent in December from 10 percent in November, topping the national rate for the 39th consecutive month.

Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said the increase in unemployment and job loss in December is continued evidence that Georgia’s job market is fragile.

“Sustained improvement will come only when employers begin adding jobs and increase hiring,” he said. “In the coming months, we will work closely with Georgia’s employers, private and public sector eco-nomic developers, and the General Assembly to spur existing business expansion and to attract new industry to our state.”

Butler said the seasonally adjusted rate rose to 10.2 percent, up two-tenths of a percentage point from a revised 10 percent in November. In December 2009, the unem-ployment rate was 10.3 percent.

The national rate is 9.4 percent.In December, the number of payroll jobs

decreased 21,800, or six-tenths of a percent-age point, to 3,827,200 from 3,849,000 in No-vember. Most came in construction, leisure

and hospitality, public schools, professional and business services, and wholesale trade.

The number of jobs remains 7,800, or two-tenths of a percentage point, fewer than in December 2009, when there were 3,835,000 payroll jobs.

There were 259,200 long-term unem-ployed Georgians, those out of work for 27 weeks or longer. This represents an increase of 7,000, or 2.8 percent, from 252,200 in November and an increase of 91,000, or 54.1 percent, from 168,200 in December 2009.

They account for 54.1 percent of Geor-gia’s 478,833 jobless workers.

In DeKalb County, 4,221 people filed initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits, an increase of 473, or 12.6 percent, from 3,748 in November. There was an over-the-year decrease of 1,169 claims, or 21.7 percent, from 5,390 in December 2009.

Across the state, 75,635 laid-off workers filed initial claims for UI benefits, an in-crease of 7,921, or 11.7 percent, from 67,714 in November. There was an over-the-year decrease of 25,261 claims from 100,896 in December 2009.

Job seekers can get help with their resumes and meet up to 30 potential em-ployers at a Feb. 3 job fair at the Lucious Sanders Recreation Center in Lithonia.

The event, which is hosted by DeKalb County and the Greater Lithonia Chamber of Commerce, takes place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Job hunters should come dressed for success and bring lots of resumes.

The Lucious Sanders Recreation Cen-ter is at 2484 Bruce St.

For more information, contact Mar-quita Coleman Mack at mscoleman5 @gmail.com or 678-905-3464.

Last year, 2,500 people were helped in DeKalb. They were among more than 41,000 helped by 860 volunteers in Georgia.

Filers should bring the current year’s tax forms and preparation booklet, a copy of last year’s income tax return(s), W-2 forms from each employer, and unemployment compen-sation statements. They also should bring SSA-1099 forms if they were paid Social Security benefits, all 1099 forms, dependent care provider information, and all forms indicating federal income tax paid.

Receipts and canceled checks are needed if itemizing deductions. Also required are So-cial Security cards or other official documen-tation for the taxpayer and all dependents.

AARP Tax-Aide sites include:n Bethesda Cathedral/Austin Drive Senior Campus, 1989 Austin Drive, Decatur; 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday; 404-534-3322.

n Fairfield Baptist Church, 6133 Redan Road, Lithonia; 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday; 770-482-7660.n Stone Mountain-Sue Kellogg Library, 952 Leon St., Stone Mountain; 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday; 770-413-2020.n Clarkston Library, 951 N. Indian Creek Drive, Clarkston; noon to 4 p.m. Monday-Tuesday; 404-508-7175.n Decatur Library, 215 Sycamore St., Deca-tur; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday; 404-370-3070.n Toco Hill-Avis G. Williams Library, 1282 McConnell Drive, Decatur; 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday and Friday; 404-679-4404.n Northlake-Barbara Loar Library, 3772 LaVista Road, Tucker; 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday and Thursday; 404-679-4408.

For more information or to locate an AARP Tax-Aide site near you, call 1-888-227-7669 or visit www.aarp.org/taxaide.

CrossRoadsNewsJanuary 22, 2011 A5

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doubts about any ads on these pages, we advise that before responding or sending money ahead of time, you check with the Attorney General’s

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Tuskegee Alumni ClubThe DeKalb County

Tuskegee Alumni Club (DCTA) will meet Saturday Jan. 22, 2011 at 1 p.m. in Suite 25A at the Everest Institute, 2460 Wesley Chapel Road, Decatur, Georgia 30035.

All Tuskegee graduates and friends are asked to attend.

Call Nathan at 404-735-6176 for all the details.

CrossRoadsNews January 22, 2011A6

A7

* *

* Local Deals on Zip2Save

MArKetplAce rAtesPlace your MarketPlace line ad here – up to 20 words for $25. Additional words are $3 per block of five words (maximum 45 words). Boxed Ads (with up to 3 lines bold headline): $35 plus cost of the classified ad. Send ad copy with check or credit card information and contact phone number (if different from ad) to Market-Place, CrossRoadsNews, 2346 Candler Road, Decatur, GA 30032, or e-mail to marketplace@crossroadsnews.com. Our deadlines are at noon on the Friday one week prior to publication, unless otherwise noted.

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October 9, 2010

COVER PAGEFight the bite

WELLNESS

With bedbug infestations on the increase, the Environmental Protection Agency has released a database of ap-proved pesticides to battle the blood-sucking pests. 7

The chain-link fence around the former Wachovia Bank on Wesley Chapel, which violates overlay district ordinanc-es, is temporary, the building’s owner says. 3

Fence under fire

COMMUNITY

Fresh fruits and vegetables will find a home at the Mall at Stonecrest Plaza this fall when a Farmer’s Market opens there for six weeks. 5

Freshness at Stonecrest

FINANCE

Great DeKalb Cleanup unDer Way

County launches cleanup of ugly, neglected areas

Ramp closures to cripple commute on I-20 east this weekend

Get ready South DeKalb. It’s cleanup

time.After years of litter and neglect of public

spaces, DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis and the

Board of Commissioners have launched the

Great DeKalb Cleanup.The effort kicks off Oct. 9 at 7a.m. at the

DeKalb Community Achievement Center, on

Flat Shoals Parkway in Decatur.The county says the cleanups will be held

every weekend through Oct. 31. “As part of a committed effort to stabilize

property values throughout the county, the

Great DeKalb Cleanup will address areas of

unincorporated DeKalb County that have

not been maintained,” the CEO’s office said

in a statement. “The cleanup is designed to

have the maximum level of impact on the

worst affected areas by encouraging the in-

volvement and investment of the community

in policing and maintaining these areas in

the future.” The Great DeKalb Cleanup comes on the

heels of a Sept. 25 CrossRoadsNews front

page article that documented longstanding

neglect of sidewalks and medians across

south DeKalb County, including its commer-

cial corridors and most travelled arteries.

In its Aug. 28 issue, the newspaper also

spotlighted an overgrown media on Turner

Hill Road leading to the entrance to the Mall

at Stonecrest. It was cut days later. The county’s Sanitation Department

began the cleanup on Oct. 2.Crews cleared the kudzu-covered side-

walk on Flat Shoals Parkway pictured on the

newspaper’s Sept. 25 front page, and picked

up trash along portions of Flat Shoals and

Wesley Chapel Road. Crews also mulched

portions of the median on Wesley Chapel

Road.South DeKalb Neighborhoods Coalition

president Gil Turman was on his way to a

football game Saturday morning when he

was pleasantly surprised to see people fanned

out along Wesley Chapel Road and Coving-

ton Highway picking up trash. “I saw trucks,” he said. “I saw people,

some looked like prisoners working off their

fines, trying to do something to beautify this

ugly situation. I saw people picking up trash

on these streets.”He said it was a beautiful thing to be-

hold.Turman said that he is working with an

organization of residents to put in place a

plan to ensure that going forward, the county

is better maintained.CEO spokesman Burke Brennan said

that cleanup effor was part of the Sanitation

Department’s scheduled cleanup.

On Oct. 9, county employees and com-

munity service workers will document and

remove illegally posted signs on the right-

of-ways, cut back overgrown weeds and

shrubs, pick up litter and place debris near

the roadway for sanitation pickup the fol-

lowing day. The Quality of Life Improvement (QOL)/

Great DeKalb Cleanup (GDC) Team will

Interstate and local motorists will find their I-20 east

commute through south DeKalb County nightmarish

this weekend.Starting at 9 p.m. on Friday, weather permitting,

Georgia Department of Transportation said that the

ongoing I-20 resurfacing project will close ramps at

Columbia Drive, and Evans Mill and Turner Hill roads.

It will also cut off access from I-20 eastbound lanes to

I-285 north and south.Thomas Parker, DOT’s area engineer, said that there

will be significant delays throughout this corridor.

“We would ask the public to avoid the area if pos-

sible,” he said. “And if they must drive through it, allow

themselves extra time and be extremely careful.”

The $28.6 million resurfacing project has been

under way since June 18. It is resurfacing 9.8 miles of

I-20 between Columbia Drive and Turner Hill Road.

The project has snarled traffic and made the weekend

commute difficult for residents and interstate travelers.

Weekend work wraps up at 5 a.m. on Monday.

Motorists traveling eastbound on I-20 who wish

to access either north or southbound I-285 should

continue east on I-20; exit at Wesley Chapel Road

(Exit 68), and return westbound on I-20 to I-285.

The resurfacing will continue for two miles between

Evans Mill and Turner Hill roads.

The eastbound entrance ramp from Evans Mill to

I-20 and the eastbound exit ramp from I-20 to Turner

Hill will be closed throughout the weekend, as will the

outside lane of I-20 between the two interchanges.

The resurfacing project will continue on weeknights

and weekends until temperatures get too cool to pave.

It will be completed in the spring. Work hours are

weeknights from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. and on weekends

continuously from Friday night at 9 p.m. until 5 a.m.

on Monday.For more information, call 511 or visit www.511ga.

org.

care of the existing

problem,” she said.

“Here we are still sit-

ting with thousands

of foreclosures that

nothing can be done

about.”Gil Turman, pres-

ident of the South

DeKalb Neighbor-

hoods Coalition, said he too thought

the ordinance was to help deal with the

sociation, said that

fact was kept from

residents.

“That was not

how it was presented

to us,” said Pace, who

attended a number

of public hearings

about the ordinance

and was eagerly

awaiting its implementation to help

her neighborhood deal with more than

50 vacant foreclosed homes.

“We thought this was going to take

A plan to erect a 154-foot-high T-Mobile

cell phone tower on the Lincoln Funeral

Home property on Candler Road is facing

major opposition from residents who say it

would be located too close to their homes in

violation of existing county codes.

Three J Holdings LLC, which owns the

5.1-acre Lincoln Funeral Home property at

2321 Candler Road, wants DeKalb County

to reduce the distance for the telecommu-

nications tower from a residentially zoned

property to 70 and 85 feet from the required

200 feet. It also wants to waive the 10-foot

landscape buffer to allow

it to build the tower.

Judy Jackson, who will

see the tower from her

kitchen window and back-

yard on Ousley Court,

said there is a reason why

the county set the buffer

at 200 feet.

“It is to protect resi-

dents,” she said.

If the variance is approved, both the

property owner and T-Mobile say they will

lease space to more cell phone operators.

In a Sept. 1 letter accompanying the ap-

plication for the variance, Lannie Greene of

T-Mobile South LLC said T-Mobile plans to

locate two other providers on its tower for

a total of three users and that the property

owner intends to lease ground outside the

T-Mobile proposed fenced-in area to other

wireless providers.

Greene told the county that the purpose

of this facility is to provide safe, reliable,

uninterrupted in-building and in-car cover-

age in the area bounded by Second Avenue,

Candler Road, McAfee Road and I-20.

But residents of Ousley Manor and Toney

October 30, 2010

COVER PAGERice on RiceSCENE

Former

Secretary of

State Condo-

leezza Rice

will talk about

her and sign

memoir at

the Mall at

Stonecrest on

Nov. 3. 8MARTA

has dusted off

its proposal to

extend service

from the Mall

at Stonecrest

to downtown

Atlanta and is

gathering resi-

dents’ input. 3

Transit plan revisitedCOMMUNITY “Pride and

Passion: The

African-Amer-

ican Baseball

Experience”

will be on

exhibit at the

Decatur Library

from Nov. 6 to

Dec. 2. 8

The making of sports historySCENE

Residents oppose plan for new cell tower

Variance sought

for a T-Mobile

facility on Candler

Registry won’t affect 15,500 homes

Valley subdivisions say that reducing the

distance will literally put the tower in their

backyards and be a detriment to them.

“We strongly oppose the construction

of such a tower in our backyard,” they said

in an Oct. 5 letter to the county’s Planning/

Development Department and to the Zon-

ing Board of Appeals. Through Thursday, 73

residents had signed a petition opposing the

construction of the tower.

“We believe that this project will ad-

versely affect the health of already physically

challenged residents, endanger the health of

our children and grandchildren, negatively

impact our property values, and encour-

age the flight of younger families from the

Community groups and individuals

eagerly awaiting the implementation

of DeKalb’s new Foreclosure Registry

found out this week that it does not ap-

ply to the more than 15,500 properties

foreclosed before Oct. 27 – its effective

date.The law only requires owners of

properties foreclosed after Oct. 27 to

register them with the county.

Brenda Pace, president of the

East Lake Terrace Neighborhood As-

2130 Candler Road • Decatur, GA 30032(In the Piggly Wiggly shopping center)

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CrossRoadsNewsJanuary 22, 2011 A7

A8CrossRoadsNews January 22, 2011A8

B1www.crossroadsnews.comJanuary 22, 2011 Section B

Health & Wellness Expo - Jan. 29, 2011

Fitness training takes center in the Fitness FaceOff competition during

the 2011 Health & Wellness Expo

n Free Health Screenings n Fitness Demonstrations n Musical Performances

n Dancers

n Elected Officials

n Door Prizes

Noon to 5 p.m. on the lower level of the Mall at Stonecrest

n Information Presentations by Doctors

Putting the Fun in Fit

B2

2011 Health & Wellness Expo Exhibitors and Grand Prize Entry Form

Name ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Address _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

City _____________________________________________ E-mail_______________________________________________________________________

Home phone _________________________________________________ Cell ___________________________________________________________

* Eligible entries must have the numbers of at least 15 exhibitors, your complete name, address, e-mail address and telephone number. Employees and immediate family members of CrossRoadsNews, the Mall at Stonecrest and US Virgin Islands Tourist Board are excluded from winning. Prize is for hotel stay only. You must be at least 18 years old to enter. You MUST be present to win.

Visit at least 15 of these exhibitors* at the Mall at Stonecrest and enter to win a Grand Prize at the 2011 Health & Wellness Expo. Drawing takes place on Jan. 29, 2011, at 4:45 p.m. at the Main Stage in front of Macy’s on the lower level of the Mall at Stonecrest.

© 2011 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.

All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reprinted without written permission of the publisher.

2346 Candler RoadDecatur, GA 30032

404-284-1888 Fax: 404-284-5007

www.crossroadsnews.comeditor@crossroadsnews.com

The Health and Wellness Expo Special Section is a publication of CrossRoadsNews Inc., East Metro

Atlanta’s award-winning weekly newspaper.

Editor / Publisher Jennifer Parker

Graphics Editor Curtis Parker

Reporters Carla Parker

Jennifer Ffrench Parker

Expo offers new twist – a fitness trainer challenge

HealtH & Wellness expo

5 100 Black Women Decatur-DeKalb Chapter, Inc

5 American Red Cross

5 Atlanta Gastroenterology Associates

5 Be Fitness For Women

5 Chick-fil-A (Inside the Mall of Stonecrest)

5 Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta

5 CrossRoadsNews

5 Dr. Craig B. Williams, DDS

5 Congressman Hank Johnson’s Office

The 2011 CrossRoadsNews Health & Wellness Expo will be kicking off Jan. 29 at the Mall at Stonecrest with a lot of excite-ment around getting fit and healthy for the new year.

Title sponsors for the expo, which is in its sixth year, are Children’s Health Care of At-lanta at Hughes Spalding, Kaiser Permanente and 100 Black Women of DeKalb-Decatur.

New this year is the Fitness FaceOff Con-test featuring fitness instructors and personal trainers showing the moves and music they use to motivate their clients to get fit and stay that way.

Seven contestants will vie for the Fitness FaceOff Trophy and a grand prize of a table at the April 23 Best of East Metro/Small Busi-

ness Expo at the Mall at Stonecrest.A panel of celebrity judges will select a

winner. For a look at this year’s competitors, see pages B6-B7.

More than two dozen exhibitors, includ-ing hospitals, health centers, physicians, dentists and other health care professionals, health insurers, training institutes and gov-ernment agencies, will discuss health issues and offer resources on some of the health issues that plague our community.

Expo goers will have their pick of free screenings for diabetes, hypertension, sco-liosis, and HIV/AIDS. There also will be performances and demonstrations from the Main Stage in front of Macy’s.

Jennifer Parker, editor and publisher of

CrossRoadsNews, says the Health & Wellness Expo is one of four community expos that the newspaper sponsors annually at the 1.3 million-square-foot Lithonia mall. The oth-ers are the Summer Camp Expo in March, the Small Business Expo in April, and the Family & Adoption Expo in August.

Parker says the Health & Wellness Expo is East Metro Atlanta’s largest gathering in celebration of health and wellness.

Since its launch in 2006, the Health & Wellness Expo has attracted up to 10,000 people to the mall every January.

“It is a great place for people to educate themselves about health issues and become motivated to take better care of themselves,” Parker said.

Curtis Parker / CrossroadsNews

Fitness motivator Rae Rae Clark (left) will moderate the 2011 Fitness FaceOff. The winner will be determined by a panel of celebrity judges.

5 DeKalb Community Service Board

5 DeKalb District Attorney’s Office

5 Full Body Loving Care Chiropractic

5 Georgia Medical Care Foundation

5 Injury 2 Wellness Center

5 Kaiser Permanente

5 Life Chef Asata Reed

5 Metro Foot & Ankle Center

5 Nappy Hair Shop

5 Oakhurst Medical Centers, Inc.

5 Omni Tech Institute

5 Optimal Health Chiropractic Wellness Center

5 Premier Women’s Healthcare & Aesthetics

5 Rae Rae Clark, Fitness Motivator

5 Rotary of South DeKalb

5 STAND Inc

5 Wellcare

5 Wonderland Garden WOW Factor

Circulation Audited By

CrossRoadsNews January 22, 2011B2

B3

HealtH & Wellness expo2011 Health & Wellness Expo Program HighlightsJan. 29, 2011 • Noon to 5 p.m. • The Main Stage in front of Macy’s

Lower Level, The Mall at Stonecrest

11 a.m. Musical Interlude with Simply*Kool

Noon Expo Kick-off/Warmup Exercises with Rae Rae & The Eagle Essences Dance Troupe

12:30 p.m. Greetings:

Congressman Hank Johnson, 4th District

Pamela Holmes, Emcee

Healing our community one home at a time

w w w . o a k h u r s t m e d i c a l . o r g

Stone Mountain Location:

770 Village Square DriveStone Mountain, GA 30083

404-298-8998

Decatur Location:

1760 Candler RoadDecatur, GA 30032

404-286-2215

Call us to schedule an appointment today. Walk-in visits are wel-

come.

1 p.m. Fitness FaceOff Competition

2:20 p.m. Top Notch Dance Krew

3: p.m. Diabetic Food Demo with Life Chef Asata Reid

4. p.m. Beulah Boys

5 p.m. Grand Prize Drawing

CrossRoadsNewsJanuary 22, 2011 B3

B4 Life chef will offer food demonstration, tips for diabeticsHealtH & Wellness expo

By Jennifer Ffrench Parker

When Life Chef Asata Reid meets newly diagnosed diabetics, she says: “Congratula-tions.”

Not the reaction most people expect.“They usually look a little shocked,” Reid

admits. But she is not just saying that to be flip-

pant.“When you first get the diagnosis, you

are bummed out,” she said. “But the diabetic diet is the ideal diet. It’s eating good food. Complex carbs, whole grain, legumes and lots of fresh vegetables. What could be wrong with that?”

Reid, who teaches people to eat to fit their lifestyle, will be doing a food demonstra-tion for diabetics at 3 p.m. at the Jan. 29, 2011, Health & Wellness Expo at the Mall at Stonecrest.

Nationally, 23.6 million children and adults, or 7.8 percent of the population, have diabetes. Of that number, 3.7 million or 14.7 percent of African-Americans 20 years or older have diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes.

Reid’s food demonstration will be at the Main Stage in front of Macy’s on the mall’s lower level.

She will discuss how diabetics can take control of their foods by experimenting with new flavors, new ingredients, and new herbs and spices.

For diabetics, Reid said the key is eating in moderation and watching food combina-tions.

“It is just correcting poor diet,” she said. “Your doctor didn’t say you can’t eat pie. He just said you can’t eat a whole pie. You have to pay attention to how you eat.”

Reid said it becomes very important for

people with diabetes to read labels.“There is a lot of hidden sugar in food,”

she said. “It is a preservative. So now you have to cook for yourself. When you cook for yourself you can control your numbers.”

She said you also have to embrace new cooking techniques.

“Steaming, sauteing, roasting, baking and grilling are all low-fat or fat-free cooking methods,” she said.

To help everyone with healthier cooking habits, Reid has developed a line of four bold herbs and spices that will be available at Sevananda and Irwin Street Market in February.

Her Flamenco Spice blend captures the flavors of Spain with smoked paprika, lemon, garlic and onions, and a touch of cayenne for heat.

Her Desert Rose Spice Blend brings the

savory essence of North Africa with Zaatar, sesame, thyme and sumac; her Humming-bird Spice Blend elevates vegetables and beans to new flavor heights with toasted Szechuan peppercorns, onion and parsley; and her Carnelian Spice Blend offers the complex nuances of a homemade curry with ingredients that are individually toasted and ground.

“These all-natural blends can be used as a salt substitute, seasoning, spice rub or marinade for your vegetables, beans, meats, soups and sauces,” she said. “They contain no salt, sugar or preservatives and will add big flavor to your healthy lifestyle.”

While there isn’t a one-size-fits-all ap-proach to diabetes, Reid said new diabetics shouldn’t panic.

“Your life is about to improve,” she said. “You are about to embark on a diet that we all should be eating.”

For diabetics, the key is eating in moderation and watching food combinations, Asata Reid says. “You have to pay attention to how you eat.”

Chef Asata Reid offers this salsa to accompany grilled salmon or chicken:

Grilled Pineapple Mango Salsa1 pineapple, peeled and sliced2 mangoes, peeled and sliced2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar2 large vine-ripened tomatoes, diced1 jalapeno, seeded and diced1 bunch scallions, chopped1 bunch cilantro, choppedjuice from 2 limessalt and pepper

Toss pineapple and mango slices with balsamic vinegar and cook on grill or griddle 3 minutes on each side. Set aside to cool, then cut into medium dice.

Combine the tomatoes, jalapeno, scallions and cilantro with the lime juice and season with salt and pepper. Toss in the grilled fruit, chill and stir prior to serving with grilled meats, fish or tortilla chips.

Salsa adds pizazz to chicken or fish

Take control of your diabetes now!

Paid for by GMCF under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Call 888-313-9355 to register.

FREE diabetes self-management education classes for eligible African-American and Hispanic Medicare bene�ciaries

Living Well with Diabetes...

CrossRoadsNews January 22, 2011B4

B5Rae Rae Clark, Atlanta’s “Fitness Motivator,” will debut “Rae Rae’s Sassy Classy Hustle” at the expo on Jan. 29 at the Mall at Stonecrest.

HealtH expo

Fitness guru to debut workout

Premier Women's Healthcare LLC5404 Hillandale Park Court

Lithonia, Georgia 30058678-418-6990 office

678-418-6986 faxwww.premierwomens.com

Principal: Dominique J. Smith, MD FACOG

After 24 years of motivating people to fitness, Rae Rae Clark is committing one of her energetic fitness routines to video.

But before she does that, Atlanta’s “Fit-ness Motivator” will unveil “Rae Rae’s Sassy Classy Hustle” at the Jan. 29, 2011, Health & Wellness Expo at the Mall at Stonecrest.

Clark says she will premiere the “Hustle” to warm up crowds for the expo’s kickoff at noon at the Main Stage in front of Macy’s on the mall’s lower level. She will be joined by the Eagle Essence Dance Troupe from Atlanta’s Whitefoord Elementary School.

Clark said the five-minute upbeat cardio workout focuses on the tummy, waist, thighs and the buns.

“I created the ‘Hustle’ because women always want their midriff area worked on.

People like to dance. You can always put on some good music and get people moving.”

Clark said her “Hustle” supports first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign and her cardio commitment campaign that kicked off in 2004 to reach churches, schools, health fairs and warm-up walks.

Clark, who has worked at Bally’s Total Fit-ness, the YMCA and various senior centers, said her “Hustle” video will help her goal to reach a billion people with her fitness mes-sage over the next decade.

“When I celebrated my 23rd year in February last year, I had reached a million people,” she said. “The purpose of the ‘Hustle’ is to take me to the next 10 years. When I started 23 years ago, I said I would do it for 32 years. This will help me get there.”

CrossRoadsNewsJanuary 22, 2011 B5

B6

Elfreda Cherry Smith, 57, teaches 15 classes a week at various fitness venues. “I am an advocate of everything to prevent breast cancer. I am an advocate of eating right and exercising.”

Carla Fields plays up the fun in fitness. “Push yourself. Feel good about it,” she says.

HealtH & Wellness expo

Athlete spins way into new calling

‘Everybody deserves to be in shape’

Personal success evolves into studio to help others

Trainers bringing their best moves to Fitness FaceOff

Exercise, nutrition help change course of family history

“People are becoming more aware and more conscious of what they eat and how they move.”

By Jennifer Ffrench Parker

Here’s the word from the people in the know.

Getting and staying fit can be fun and defi-nitely more healthy for you.

If there is any doubt about the truth of this statement, you must come to the Jan. 29, 2011, Health & Wellness Expo from noon to 5 p.m. at the Mall at Stonecrest for the 2011 Fitness FaceOff Competition.

During the contest, which starts at 1 p.m., seven of metro Atlanta’s leading fitness instruc-tors and personal trainers and their crews will

demonstrate just how much fun working out can be.

Stepping up to the stage will be Wesley Franklin of Bally’s Total Fitness; Tiffany Maddox, owner of Body Goddess Fitness; Carla Fields of Carla Fields Fitness Buffs; El-freda Cherry Smith, owner of Door-to-Door Fitness; Elgin Key, owner of Elgin Fitness; Marshah St. Louis of Samson’s Health & Fit-ness Center; and Melvin Cruver of the Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center Tunnel Crew Line Dancers.

They will step, strut, dance and stretch to music.

Eleven years ago Wesley Franklin was big man. And that is putting it kindly.

Then 19 years old, he was packing 350 pounds on his 5-foot-11-inch frame.

“Yes,” he said, “I had a big muffin top over my pants waist.”

Franklin was lucky. With youth on his side, he didn’t yet have any health issues but because he had been overweight all his life, he didn’t know what it felt like not to be fat.

“My doctor kept telling me that I would be better off if I was smaller,” he said.

In the summer of 1999, he finally listened and headed to Bally’s gym.

He hasn’t looked back.Over the years, Franklin lost 135 pounds,

the equivalent weight of another person.“I saw my body shape change,” he said.He went from a size 52 and shopping at

the big and tall store to a size 32 and can now buy his clothes at department stores.

“That was one of the pluses of losing weight,” he said. “I can now go to the mall and buy off the rack. I can shop at the Gap.”

Franklin, who now tips the scale at 215 pounds, made Bally’s Total Fitness his home. The change in him was so dramatic, his fit-ness instructor talked him into becoming a trainer. He started teaching class there when he hit 280 pounds.

He is now a fitness trainer and personal trainer, and he also warms up big groups like the Kaiser Permanente annual 10K Walk/Run at Turner Field.

Franklin says that fitness is a growing market. “People are definitely more inter-ested in being fit.”

While he is not a nutritionist, Franklin says that he encourages his clients to drink lots of water and eat smaller portions six times a day.

“I tell them to be smart [about] what they put in their bodies,” he said. “Eating properly is important.”

When he is teaching class, Franklin said that he often uses himself as an example that success is possible,

“Everybody wasn’t meant to be skinny, but everybody deserves to be in shape.”

Wesley Franklin, who became a fitness trainer after a dramatic weight loss, often uses himself as an example to motivate clients. Over the years, he has lost 135 pounds.

Marshah St. Louis says spin cycling is so popular because it’s music-based and doesn’t put strain on your knees. “I use music to create the mood and the workout.”

In Elfreda Cherry Smith’s family, she is the first in three generations of women to live to see her grandchildren.

Her mother, who died at age 45, never saw Cherry Smith’s family, and her grandmother never knew her.

Cherry Smith said the women on her mother’s side of the family died from breast cancer.

“I am an advocate of everything to prevent breast cancer,” she said. “I am an advocate of eating right and exercising.”

On her mother’s death, Cherry Smith made a lifestyle change that led to her becoming a fitness instructor in 1997.

She teaches 15 classes a week at the YMCA, Just Wellness and at a number of corporate fitness centers.

She also goes door to door to do personal training, from which the name of her company – Door-to-Door Fitness LLC – comes.

“In most of my classes, I am usually the old-est person in the room,” said Cherry Smith.

The only exception was when she worked at the Lou Walker Center where she had clients as old as 93 taking her chair exercise class.

Cherry Smith, who hasn’t eaten meat since 1975 and chicken and turkey since Sept. 11, 2001, says she is seeing new interest in fit-ness from baby boomers in search of heathier lifestyles.

“They are realizing that their parents may have eaten differently than they did and moved more,” she said. “People are becoming more aware and more conscious of what they eat and how they move.”

Cherry Smith said that eating cake is fine, but not three or four pieces a day.

“Make it a treat, not a meal,” she said.Cherry Smith said that people also need

to work out three to four times a week.“Just do something,” she said. “Move, even

if it’s just to go for a walk.”Each week, she interacts with 100 people

in her fitness classes. She says she always makes sure her clients know that their fitness

“I do what I do because I like it,” she said. “It’s fun to exercise. That’s what I am going for – fun.”

In high school, Marshah St. Louis was very athletic and competed in long jump and hurdles. And after high school, she competed on the amateur circuit.

After college, she moved to New York City and taught step. Then she took a spin class and loved it.

“It has no impact on my knee and it was fun,” she said.

Spin is done on a weighted flywheel bike, created by professional cyclist Johnny G to keep him off the roads and fit in winter.

She got certified and became a spin instructor in 2003. She has been lead spin instructor at New Birth’s Samson’s Health & Fitness Center since June 2008.

St. Louis said the cycling is done to music and simulates bumps, hills and straightaways. “We have bikes with 24 gears. We can climb really huge hills or go over small bumps.”

As the trainer, who also is riding with groups that range in age from 18 to 70 years, St. Louis varies the music to fit the terrain. She slows it down going over the hills and speeds it up going downhill.

“I use music to create the mood and the workout.”

Over the course of a week, spin classes focus on strength training and endurance so that riders get to use different parts of their bodies.

“You can burn 500 to 600 calories per hour,” she said.

“I had a woman drop 88 pounds over eight months of training four to five times a week.”

St. Louis said spin cycling is so popular because it’s music-based and because it doesn’t put strain on your knees.

“It’s used by triathletes and athletes re-covering from knee surgery and by regular people who just want to get fit.”

St. Louis said she is finding more interest in fitness because of the obesity epidemic.

“This is the first generation where 10-year-olds are not expected to outlive their parents.”

In Atlanta, where everyone drives every-where, St. Louis said that people have to work harder at staying fit.

“It’s not natural here,” she said. “When I lived in New York, people walked. Here you don’t as much. Here you have to make a point of doing things.”

When it came to fitness training, Carla Fields took to it like ducks to water.

She began taking classes in 1990 while do-ing research for her husband, David, who was opening a mega hair styling and fitness center in Lithonia.

As her body got toned and fit, she fell in love with training.

“I like to sweat,” she said. “I like feeling sore. I love the workout.”

She also loved what it did to her then 30-year-old body.

Three months after her first fitness class, Fields, who was an accountant working in corporate America, was competing in body-building contests and winning trophies.

When women wanted to look like her, she referred them to her trainer until her husband suggested that she become certified, which she did in October 1991.

Today, Fields runs her own training studio, Carla Fields Fitness Inc. in Decatur. There, she offers one-on-one and group personal training, nutrition and fat loss.

She also travels to do fitness seminars for corporations like Coca-Cola and Essence Music Festival and has done health expos for TD Jakes and Ray of Hope.

Now that she is 50 years old, Fields says she no longer competes in body-building contests but that she stays fit year-round.

CrossRoadsNews January 22, 2011B6

B7

The SNAFC Tunnel Crew Line Dancers will perform at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church’s Super Bowl Party. The Environmental Protection Agency workers dance in a downtown tunnel at lunch.

Elfreda Cherry Smith, 57, teaches 15 classes a week at various fitness venues. “I am an advocate of everything to prevent breast cancer. I am an advocate of eating right and exercising.”

Tiffany Maddox got moving after seeing a photo of herself in 2004, when she weighed 240 pounds.

Elgin Key is sometimes therapist as well as personal trainer. He says clients feel comfortable sharing personal issues.

HealtH & Wellness expo “We have people who have lost over 60 pounds. We do it for our health. We do it for fun.”

Key: ‘Everybody can do something’

Personal success evolves into studio to help others

Trainers bringing their best moves to Fitness FaceOff

Exercise, nutrition help change course of family history

Photo shocked trainer into getting in shape

EPA’s line dancers shedding pounds in a fun way

Tiffany Maddox knows that people come into the gym for different reasons.

“Girls in their 20s are preparing for dates,” she said. “People in the their 30s are maintaining. Those in their 40s want to look 30 and those in their 60s want to not take so much medication and be able to move around.”

In her 21 years as a fitness instructor and per-sonal trainer, Maddox, owner of Body Goddess Fitness, has seen it all, and through it all she has been a champion and supporter of adults and children who want to live a healthier lifestyle.

Maddox, who lives in Decatur, has spent the past three years teaching kickboxing, water aero-bics and step yoga at Beulah Baptist Community Center.

Each week, 200 people, 18 to 70 years old, come through her classes at the center. She also teaches at the Lady’s Only Total Fitness Gym and is a volunteer aerobics instructor at Narvie J. Har-ris Theme School in Decatur, where her daughter, Morgan, is in the fourth grade and son Jaylyn is in the fifth grade.

Maddox is passionate about regular exercise and proper eating habits because a mere seven years ago, she was size 18.

“Everyone in my family – my parents, grandparents, siblings, uncles, aunts – are overweight,” she said. “Everyone has diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer and hypertension.”

Even though she was a fitness instructor, Mad-dox said she was headed down the same road.

“I was the kind of instructor who showed the exercise and walked around the class,” she said. “I was giving out the medicine but I wasn’t taking it.”

Then she saw a photograph of herself.“I looked at this picture and I was appalled,”

she said. “I had no idea that I was that big be-cause when I looked in the mirror, I saw what I wanted.”

Maddox, who is 5 feet 10 inches tall, said she weighed 240 pounds at the time.

She said she stopped cold turkey that Father’s Day in 2004.

“I stopped frying foods,” she said. “I worked out twice a day. I did kickboxing, steps aerobics. I stopped using plates and used saucers. It was hard but I was adamant that I was going to lose the weight.”

It took a year but Maddox dumped 72 pounds. Today she weighs 168 pounds and is a size 8.

“I felt incredible,” she said. “I could walk with ease. My breathing wasn’t labored. I got new

clothes. That was the best part.”Maddox teaches people of all ages, including a woman in her 70s

who had two hip and a knee replacement.“She is doing step aerobics,” Maddox said. “She doesn’t feel she

is too old to exercise.”

And you will move right along with them.These contestants are no strangers to the

weight issues that plague most of us and a ma-jority of Americans. Some have battled obesity and found new figures and new lives. Now they have made it their mission to help others find fitness religion.

At the end of the competition, a panel of celebrity judges will pick the 2011 Fitness Fa-ceOff Champion, who also will win the grand prize – a complimentary table at the April 19 Best of East Metro/Small Business Expo at the Mall at Stonecrest.

Here are their stories.

goals are attainable.“I always tell them that they can do it,” she

said. “Yes, you can.”For her family, Cherry Smith has made

enormous strides.Now 57 years old, she has already outlived

her mother. Best of all, she has lived to see her grandchildren.

“I have four,” she said. “They are 10, 7, 2, and 1 year old.”

Elgin Key is only 32 years old, but he has spent nearly half of his life teaching fitness to others.

“Everybody can do something,” he said. “No matter who you are, you can start somewhere and benefit from working out.”

Key, owner of Elgin Fitness, teaches classes and seminars all over metro Atlanta. In the course of a week, he teaches more than 200 people, ages 14 to 63 years, at places like the East Lake YMCA, Emory University, Urban Body Fitness, and Before and After Fitness in Lithonia.

When he was in the third grade, he was hit by a car and almost died. The scar on the left side of his forehead is a constant reminder of that close call.

“I know that my life was spared for a reason,” he said. “I view life as the precious gift it is.”

Key, who graduated from Southwest DeKalb

Every week day at lunchtime, up to 40 employees of the U.S. Environmental Protec-tion Agency can be found in a tunnel leading to the old Rich’s store in downtown Atlanta, line-dancing to country and western, hip-hop or other music they find on YouTube.

As they step in unison to the beat, the men and women are confident of two things – it’s fun and they are burning calories.

Melvin Cruver, a 25-year EPA analyst who helps train the group, said the line-dancing class, aptly named the SNAFC – Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center – Tunnel Crew Line Dancers, is changing lives at the EPA.

“We have people who have lost over 60 pounds,” he said. “We do it for our health. We do it for fun.”

The lunchtime dance class, which began in October 2009, was started by employees and supported by Cruver’s boss, Lou Ann Gross. He called her the real motivator behind the class that is regularly attended by 100 of the agency’s employees, ages 25 to 70.

Cruver said the EPA has a fitness center but that employees just wanted a place with-out restrictions where they could dance.

They got so good, they have performed at the Georgia Department of Labor and at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Jonesboro, where Cruver’s daughter, Shelley Williams, is choir director.

She teaches her clients to sculpt and tone all of their muscle groups.

“I put together a routine that is so much fun, you don’t even know you are hitting those muscle groups,” she said.

She also creates a meal plan for her clients because muscles need protein.

“I don’t do diets,” she said. “I teach people to read labels and to know what body fat is.”

In addition to personal training, Fields teaches aerobics, weight lifting, kickboxing and fitness boot camp.

When people decide to embrace fitness, Fields said it is important to identify their goals.

“And have fun,” she said, “Go with the flow. Push yourself. Feel good about it.”

Fields said the growing emphasis on health and wellness is here to stay.

“People want to feel good and they are turn-ing to health,” she said.

Still, Fields said she is not seeing much action.

“We are seeing more advertisement and more talk about health and wellness, but I am not seeing people take action,” she said.

To encourage action, Fields said community and church expos are important.

“We have to take screenings to people,” she said. “We have to make it a lot easier for people to get access.”

After the group’s performance, Cruver was asked to start a group at the church. The SNAFC Tunnel Crew Line Dancers also will be dancing at Mount Pleasant’s Super Bowl Party on Feb. 6.

Cruver, who is one of the group’s instruc-tors, said that before the class started, he did very little exercising and had high blood pres-sure. “My doctor kept telling me I needed to get my numbers down,” he said.

After a year, he is 20 pounds lighter and

his blood pressure is down. He also has had to alter his pants waist to make them fit.

“I still have a little potbelly but I think I am the most sexy individual you ever laid eyes on,” he said with a chuckle, “and I am confident too.”

Cruver said the line-dancing class is popular because people like to dance and it’s a fun way to stay fit.

“I love to dance,” he said. “It’s the best thing that happened to me.”

High School in 1996, went on to Morehouse College, where he studied child development, but fitness kept calling him. In 1996, he helped choreograph the Olympics’ Opening Ceremony in Atlanta.

These days he teaches kickboxing, step, boot camp, body shop, chisel and step survival at various gyms and Y’s.

In 2008, Key put music to movement and created a cardio, core and strength-training DVD, “Everybody Can Do Something.” It’s sold on elginkeyfitness.com and buyers have come from as far away as the West Coast.

In his classes, he is sometimes therapist as well as personal trainer.

“My clients feel comfortable sharing with me all the stresses and personal issues they have going on in their lives,” he said. “Being in good physical shape is about both your body and your mind being healthy.”

CrossRoadsNewsJanuary 22, 2011 B7

B8Larry JohnsonAndrea Riggs Pamela Holmes

FaceOff judges are health nuts

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HealtH expo

Personal trainer and national health spokeswoman Andrea Riggs, DeKalb County Commissioner Larry Johnson, and fitness buff and Nappy Hair Kitchen creator Pamela Holmes will pick the Fit-ness FaceOff Champions during CrossRoadsNews’ Jan. 29, 2011, Health & Wellness Expo at the Mall at Stonecrest.

Riggs, a personal trainer for 15 years, is founder of Body Beautiful, a wellness com-pany that helps women achieve better health through lifestyle, nutrition and fitness.

In 2009, Riggs launched the “Get Body Beautiful” campaign, the state’s largest African-American women’s fitness program with more than 15,000 participants.

Johnson, who is on his third term repre-senting District 3, is the presiding officer of the Board of Commissioners. A big health advocate and health care employee in Ful-ton County, he hosts the annual four-mile

Walk for the Health of It event at Arabia Mountain to encourage county workers to be more active.

Holmes, an avid exerciser, is founder of the Nappy Hair Kitchen, a line of shampoo, conditioners and hair cream for natural African-American hair.

The Fitness FaceOff competition starts at 1 p.m. at the Main Stage in front of Macy’s on the mall’s lower level.

The champion will win a trophy and an Exhibitor table at the April 23 Best of East Metro/Small Business Expo at Stonecrest.

CrossRoadsNews January 22, 2011B8

B9

HIV/AIDS The test for HIV/AIDS can be taken with

blood or with the non-invasive OraQuick Advance Rapid HIV Test, done from a swab of the mucous membrane in the mouth.

Results are available in 12 minutes. From a private physician, the cost of an HIV test is $100.

ScoliosisScoliosis is a medical condition in which

a person’s spine is curved from side to side. The test includes the forward-bending test, a simple test in which a person bends for-ward at the waist, arms hanging loosely and palms touching, and the examiner looks for unevenness in the back or ribs.

ministry PG

The diabetes test is taken from blood drawn from a finger prick and assesses your blood sugar to determine if you have pre-diabetes or diabetes.

HealtH & Wellness expoLots of free health screenings will be available at Expo

Visit the new...

Dr. Garcia, DC

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Assistants – DQ & Cindy

Early diagnosis of most health problems can usually lead to a good outcome, but many African-Americans don’t find out about their illnesses until the disease is in its late stages and more difficult to treat.

At the CrossRoadsNews Health & Well-ness Expo on Jan. 29, a number of health organizations will offer free screenings for diabetes, diabetic foot infections or athlete’s foot, hypertension or high blood pressure, HIV/AIDS, and scoliosis.

Visit these exhibitors for free screen-ings:

DiabetesThe diabetes test is taken from blood

drawn from a finger prick. It assesses your blood sugar to determine if you have pre-diabetes or diabetes.

If the results register a glucose level high-er than 200 mg/dL and are accompanied by classic symptoms of unexplained weight loss, fatigue, and increased thirst and urination, then the doctor will suspect diabetes mellitus and will request a fasting blood glucose level test to confirm the results.

Diabetic foot infectionsDuring a diabetic foot infections or ath-

lete’s foot test, the foot is checked for severe swelling and/or deformity. Doctors also will check for long, thick or ingrown toenails or foot or ankle muscle weakness.

High blood pressure

Hypertension or high blood pressure is called the “silent killer” because about a third of the people with it do not know they have it. High blood pressure is easy to diagnose.

You have hypertension if your blood pressure is more than 140/90.

Because high blood pressure has no symptoms, it’s important to have blood pressure measured by a nurse, physician or another knowledgeable person (including yourself).

Diabetic Hyper-Exhibitor Diabetes FootInfections tension HIV/AIDSScoliosisRotary Club of South DeKalb xOakhurst Medical Centers x xSTAND Inc. xFull Body Chiropractic x Metro Foot and Ankle Center x

Free screenings at the Health & Wellness Expo

To screen for it, you must be in a relaxed state, preferably in a sitting position.

Allow half an hour to have passed since your last cup of tea, exercise or stressful situation.

Curtis Parker / CrossRoadsNews

CrossRoadsNewsJanuary 22, 2011 B9

B10

“The DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office strives to offer citizens prevention, protection and peace of mind to

support your health and wellness goals in 2011.”

Robert D. James, District Attorney

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Visit the Rotary Club’s table for Free Diabetes Screening*

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abnormal glucose levels will receive a complimentary Glucometer* to take home.

The Rotary Diabetes Awareness and Prevention Program is co-sponsored by Southeastern

Primary Care Consortium, Inc./Atlanta AHEC, and Liberty Medical.

* Diabetes Screenings & Glucometers Available While Supplies Last.

CrossRoadsNews January 22, 2011B10

B11Red Cross touts disaster preparedness

HealtH & Wellness expo

“Specialty Care For The Foot & Ankle In Atlanta And Surrounding Areas”

Diabetic EvaluationIngrown NailArthritisNeuromaHeel Pain

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Dr. Javan S. BassMetro Foot & Ankle Centers, PC

8225 Mall Parkway Ste. 230Lithonia, Ga 30038

By Carla Parker

March marks the beginning of active tornado season in Georgia, and residents should have a plan in case a tornado hits close to home.

At the Jan. 29 Health & Wellness Expo at the Mall at Stonecrest, the American Red Cross will provide materi-als and answer questions on how to prepare for disasters ranging from a house fire to natural disasters.

Karl Hoerz, the Red Cross community outreach di-rector, said they are preparing people to cope when hur-ricanes, tornados or flooding hits the area.

“It is important that people have some type of plan in place in case of a natural disaster,” he said.

Hoerz said families should have an emergency kit with things they will need.

“Food and water are the main things you would need,” he said. “But you should also have copies of identifica-tion and copies of prescriptions if you’re on medication, because those items are hard to find when a house is destroyed.”

In case of a tornado, Hoerz said family members should know where to go.

“Identify a safe place to go,” he said. “Everyone in a family must know what to do.”

During a storm, families often lose electricity and that

is why Hoerz says it is important to have a weather radio to stay updated on weather changes.

At the expo, which takes place from noon to 5 p.m. on the mall’s lower level, the Red Cross also will give out information on house fire prevention. In metro Atlanta, firefighters respond to house fires at least once a day. Ho-erz said it is important that people educate themselves on ways to prevent house fires.

“Most house fires are caused from bad wiring in the house, cooking with grease or burning candles,” he said. “People can prevent fires by just being cautious in what they’re doing.”

The cold weather and winter conditions often bring an increase in home fires as many people use alternate heating sources such as space heaters, fireplaces, or coal or wood stoves to stay warm. Hoerz said people must be very careful when using space heaters during winter.

“Leaving a space heater unattended can cause a fire,” Hoerz said. “Always turn them off when you leave a room.”

One message that Hoerz wants to leave with expo goers is that people can always count on the Red Cross to take care of them during emergencies.

“You don’t have to worry about having a roof over your head or food in your bellies,” he said. “We’ll take care of that.”

What do Thomas Brown, Larry Johnson and Gwen Keyes Fleming all have in common?

How about St. Philip AME, Covenant Christian Center & Berean Christian Academy?

They’ve all been nominated for2010 Best of East Metro Reader’s Choice Awards.

Have You Nominated Your Favorites?

Hurry. The Nomination Period Closes on January 31.

Visit www.crossroadsnews.comand follow the links for

Best of East Metro.

Readers Choice Awards

Time is Running Out!

Voting Begins Feb. 1

CrossRoadsNewsJanuary 22, 2011 B11

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Children’s at Hughes Spalding is located at 35 Jesse Hill Jr. Drive SE.

– Emergency Department

• Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week to treat children and young adults from birth to age 18.

– Primary Care and After-Hours Care for checkups, immunizations, sports physicals and sick visits

• Open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays. Also from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Thursday.

We also offer the following specialty services:*

– Asthma

– Endocrinology, including diabetes services

– Sickle cell disease and other blood disorders

– Autism and behavioral disorders

Parking next to hospital.

www.choa.org/hughesspalding

Call 404-785-9850 for appointments.

*Requires pediatrician referral

We have a new hospital close to you.Experienced doctors specially trained

to care for children and teens.

© 2011 Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Inc. All rights reserved. HS 941543.mw.1/11

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta

CrossRoadsNews January 22, 2011B12