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Decatur City Commission considering adding Avery Street speed tables; masks not on agenda

Decatur

Decatur City Commission considering adding Avery Street speed tables; masks not on agenda

Commissioners, pictured left to right, are: Mayor Pro Tem Tony Powers, Lesa Mayer, Kelly Walsh, Mayor Patti Garrett, and George Dusenbury. Photo obtained via the city of Decatur
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Decatur, GA — The Decatur City Commission meets today at 6:45 p.m. for a work session and at 7:30 p.m. for the regular meeting.

The meeting will be held in person and has virtual options as well.

To join the meeting virtually, follow these instructions:

To register in advance, click here. After registering, participants will receive a confirmation email that will have the link to join the meeting.

The meeting will additionally be livestreamed on the city’s website. To access the live broadcast, click here.

The agenda doesn’t currently include any discussion about reinstating the city’s mask mandate. The city of Decatur recently allowed its mask mandate to lapse because COVID cases were falling. So far, the city has not announced plans to bring it back.

Mayor Patti Garrett told Decaturish that she expects the topic to come up during the meeting, however.

“I’m sure there will be a discussion,” she said.

Last week, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms issued an executive order requiring all persons in a public place, including private businesses and establishments, to wear a mask or a cloth face covering over their nose and mouth when indoors. The mayor says her executive order is in response to recent CDC guidance prompted by a surge in COVID-19 cases among unvaccinated people.

On the agenda for the regular meeting is the potential approval of speed table locations and construction on Avery Street.

Residents on the street submitted a petition requesting installation of traffic calming measures in the 100 and 200 blocks of Avery Street. Residents near the proposed locations were notified of the improvements on July 27, according to the agenda packet.

Residents are seeking to slow traffic through the residential neighborhood, improve safety for pedestrians and ensure routes to school are safe.

The city’s engineering staff evaluated the area and found that speed tables are feasible measures to install. Speed tables are also on nearby blocks of Avery Street.

The City Commission will additionally consider the project budget of $55,000 and award of a contract to Swagit Productions, that is not to exceed $50,000, for streaming video technology upgrades in the City Commission meeting room at City Hall.

The current system was installed in 2012 by Swagit and has received minor hardware upgrades since that time. It is recommended that the system be upgraded to a high-definition camera and hardware system.

Swagit’s offerings are proprietary and grant hands-free recording, uploading and archiving of meeting videos, as well as indexing, time-stamping and cross linking recordings to agendas, according to the agenda packet.

If approved, work would begin in about 45 to 60 days, depending on the availability of the components, and would be finished in one week. The proposed upgrades will complete the technology work needed for the city to continue providing virtual attendance and viewing options for meetings.

During the work session, the City Commission will discuss a tourism bureau report.

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