Alpharetta Fixing Canton-Mayfield Intersection

by Bob Pepalis / Appen Newspapers

ALPHARETTA -- Traffic near the Windward Parkway-Ga. 9 intersection might be moving just a bit smoother this week, as an intersection improvement project added a second left turn lane from Windward south to the state highway.

A second project at the Mayfield-Canton intersection is more complex, adding turn lanes in all directions, and will take more time to complete.

On Monday, a second left turn lane opened for motorists wanting to turn left (south) onto Ga. 9 from Windward Parkway. Milling and resurfacing was followed by re striping to mark the new lanes of travel, according to John Moskaluk, the city's director of Engineering & Public Works.

Motorists in the right most left turn lane have found they need to merge left soon after the turn. Otherwise, they will be forced to turn right just after the Lowes plaza traffic light.

The additional lane was added to reduce the amount of traffic backed up on Windward Parkway.

By having contractors work during the day, the city saved up to 50 percent of the cost it would have taken to have the contractor work on the intersection at night. However, Moskaluk said the real reason was for safety. All corners of the intersection have businesses that are open late at night, with three of the four open 24 hours a day. "From a safety point of view with all the activity, I think daytime is the way to go. And that is not even a money issue -- just pure safety," he said. The project cost $148,000.

The current traffic headache may be the Canton-Mayfield intersection, but motorists will be glad to hear all four directions will have left turn lanes installed, with directional traffic lights. However, a tight fit has been designed to help slow down traffic and save as many specimen trees as possible. Each lane will be only 11 feet wide, about 1 foot narrower than normal.

"We're working closely with the contractor to have the geometry of the intersection accomplished," said Pete Sewczwicz, deputy director of Engineering & Public Works. "Georgia Power has to relocate their poles. That's the critical path."

He said the city and its contractor are working closely with Georgia Power, ATT and Comcast on utility relocations.

That intersection near the Alpharetta Library branch will cost $491,000 by the time it is completed.

Several townhome developments south on Canton cannot receive certificates of occupancy until this intersection is improved, though at least one developer has delayed his project.

State DOT Board Gets New Member From Alpharetta

By ARIEL HART www.ajc.com

Seeking to resolve another episode of turmoil at the Georgia Department of Transportation, a group of legislators Thursday unanimously elected Brandon Beach to the state Transportation Board.

Beach, of Alpharetta, is president of the Greater North Fulton chamber of commerce and a member of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority Board.
Recent headlines:

He will resign from the GRTA board to take the DOT board seat.

Beach, 47, has been a restaurant owner and an Alpharetta city council member and was national sales manager for Quaker State Oil Co., which he left seven years ago.

He fills the seat of Garland Pinholster, who was the heir apparent to the board chairmanship until he resigned his vice chairmanship, and later his board seat, amid accusations of workplace sexual harassment. The department last week settled with the two accusers for a total of nearly $150,000.

Beach will serve parts of Cherokee, Cobb and Fulton counties. He represents the 6th Congressional district and was elected by state senators and representatives whose state districts fall within all or part of that district.

Beach said it is too early to say what his position on expanding passenger rail will be.
"There's a movement toward transit," in light of $4 gas, he said, but he added that "rail is expensive."
He spoke in favor of mixed-use developments where people don't have to travel so far between work, home and play."We can't continue to sprawl," he said.

Pinholster's departure followed the April resignation of DOT board chairman Mike Evans after Evans disclosed that he and DOT Commissioner Gena Abraham had become romantically involved.

Suspect In Dozens Of Car Break-Ins Arrested In Alpharetta

by Jason Wright / Appen Newspapers

July 10, 2008 ALPHARETTA -- Alpharetta police are in the process of charging a 38-year-old disbarred lawyer from Johns Creek with dozens of felonies for allegedly breaking into cars following his arrest July 8.George Gordon, a spokesman with the Alpharetta Department of Public Safety, said Phillip A. Strickland's car and Sandy Lane Drive home held literally hundreds of allegedly stolen items, including dozens of lap tops, at least 40 drivers' licenses and social security cards and more from at least five counties."This is an unbelievable bust," he said. "These crimes were committed over a long period of time."

Strickland was arrested after an Alpharetta police officer spotted his 1998 Ford Contour driving suspiciously on Lake Shore Landing, which is in the Windward development of Windward Parkway, said Gordon. The officer ran Strickland's tag, which didn't come up for any address in Windward.Given eight car break-ins had recently occurred in the neighborhood, the officer pulled over Strickland to ask a few questions. According to a report of the incident, he was "shaking and sweating profusely" during questioning.Gordon said the officer noticed several black bags used to hold GPS devices scattered throughout the car, along with some screwdrivers and other tools commonly used to break into cars. He arrested Strickland after finding some pills later identified as phenobarbital, a barbiturate, in an unmarked pill bottle. Strickland allegedly admitted he had no prescription for the pills.Strickland was taken to Alpharetta jail that day and charged with possession of the pills and not keeping them in their original container.

While inventorying his car, the arresting officer found five GPS devices, a laptop, a Nintendo DS 19 methadone pills, three iPods and dozens of pieces of identification. Those allegedly stolen items were used to gain a search warrant for his home the next day, and that's where Alpharetta police hit the mother load."We're trying now to get in touch with the victims," said Gordon.He said detectives have been matching the items with cases from Johns Creek, Alpharetta and Forsyth, Cherokee and Gwinnett Counties. Gordon stressed that police will contact victims and not to call Alpharetta police.Police are also looking at Strickland for charges of check fraud.According to the State Bar Association of Georgia, Strickland was disbarred by the Georgia Supreme Court in early October, 2006 after being suspended in 2004 and 2005 for allegations of taking clients' money, then never delivering any services. He also reportedly never gave back sensitive case files and failed to respond to the Bar's inquiries.

Five Charged In Atlanta Prostitue Trafficing Ring

July 07, 2008 ATLANTA --

Five men were charged in Federal Court July 7 with more than 30 counts of human trafficking and related offenses for a scheme in which women were allegedly smuggled from Mexico to become prostitutes in Atlanta.According to information revealed in court, the women did business with men from all over North Fulton, Gwinnett and Forsyth counties.

The office of U.S. Attorney David E. Nahmias said Mexican immigrants and Norcross residents the Cortes-Meza family -- Amador "Javier" Cortes-Meza, 34, Juan Cortes-Meza, 31, Francisco "Paco" Cortes-Meza, 25, and Raul "Oscar" Cortes-Meza, 21 -- and Edison "Caruso" W. Rosa Tort, 69, originally of Guatemala but living in Cartersville, were the suspects charged. All five face federal charges of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking, importing women for the purpose of prostitution, and harboring and shielding aliens for commercial advantage or private financial gain.

"Human trafficking violates basic human rights and will not be tolerated," said Nahmias. "Compelling women by force, fraud or coercion to engage in commercial sex acts is a serious violation of federal law."According to Nahmias and the information presented in court, the object of the conspiracy was to bring young women in from Mexico to engage in prostitution in the metropolitan Atlanta area while housed in Norcross and Cartersville. The 10 victims named in the case include three young women who allegedly were forced into commercial sex acts against their will by through force, fraud and coercion, and four victims who were under the age of 18.

"The victimization of the young women in this case was unfortunately made easier by their illegal status, unfamiliarity with U.S. laws, and fear of law enforcement instilled in them by the traffickers," said Nahmias.According to the indictment, Juan, Amador and Franciso Cortes-Meza would become the young woman's boyfriend or promise her work cleaning houses in the United States or in a restaurant in order to obtain her agreement to be smuggled into the country. They then allegedly helped smuggle her into the US.

But the honeymoon was short lived. Those three, along with Tort, allegedly physically abused the young women.Court documents show some of the victims were beaten, threatened, or faced threats to their Mexican families in order to force them to work as prostitutes against their will. It is alleged that at least one of the codefendants was always present in the home where the victims lived in order to monitor them and direct the prostitution work.Some of the victims were not allowed to leave the house unaccompanied, Nahmias said.

They frequently serviced between 20 and 30 men a night, charging $25, some of which went to the drivers who transported the young women to the "johns." The majority of the money earned was kept by the alleged traffickers.

"These victims were lured from their homes with a promise of a better life; instead, they were forced or coerced into prostitution," said Kenneth A. Smith, Special Agent in Charge of ICE's Office of Investigations in Atlanta.All five defendants face substantive charges of sex trafficking, with Juan, Amador and Raul Cortes-Meza charged specifically with sex trafficking of minors and smuggling aliens into the United States.Rosa Tort and Raul Cortes-Meza are charged with driving the women to various places where men or "johns" were willing to pay for sex with them.

Nahmias said the victims' immigration status has no bearing on the case, and urges any other victims to come forward."Federal laws protect all victims of such heinous crimes, whether or not they are United States citizens," said Nahmias. "No victim should fear coming forward to report illegal activity and criminal abuse."

Property Deal Stalls, Cutting Alpharetta's Project Scope

by Bob Pepalis / Appen Newspapers

Alpharetta -- A deal couldn't be worked out with a downtown Alpharetta property owner, cutting the size of the proposed City Center project by a few acres.Solomon Holdings was unable to reach a deal with Old Milton Square Partnership, which owns almost 62,000 square feet of property at 40 South Main Street. In February, the partnership wanted $2.44 million for the property, which includes two small strip center buildings.Diana Wheeler, Alpharetta's Community Development director and spokesperson for the project, said this property will not be part of the City Center project. The proposed site design was U-shaped, with buildings surrounding a town square open to Main Street.

Any new site design will be roughly U-shaped around Old Milton Square.Wheeler said she heard the development team and Old Milton Square's owners couldn't agree on a price or other details in the negotiations.Wheeler said Solomon Holdings apparently has a tentative agreement with Robert J. Miller Jr., owner of the 39,000 square feet of property at 50 South Main Street, a house used as an office between Old Milton Square and Publix to the south."We're meeting with the architects to see what our design options are," Wheeler said.

Downtown business owner Kathi An Kessler said she thinks it is great that the project is moving ahead despite the failure to make one land deal. The project might be smaller initially, she said, but Old Milton Square's owners might want to develop after City Center develop.Kessler, owner of The Galérie at the corner of South Main and Milton Avenue, said business owners have been asking all along "what can we as downtown merchants do to help this along."Hearing that City Council will hear the new site proposal at a workship in August or September, Kessler responded "that's not soon enough for me."

What happens to a new city hall also will be determined by the new site configuration being prepared by the architects."It all comes back down to the design. City hall will be designed into the whole project," Wheeler said.

The new configuration will include multi-story buildings three and four stories high."We'll have to accommodate parking in some kind of structured facility," she said.Wheeler said several different options have to be explored to determine costs and practicality.Kessler said she has nurtured her customers for 20 years"Thank God I have a loyal following," she said.She has been doing her part to boost downtown business, holding promotions every other month to attract patrons not only to her boutique, but also to other downtown businesses. But she said she can't keep doing this, as it is too costly in time and money."That's what you do in a community, you help each other out. I'd like to see the city doing things that are focusing on downtown, not necessarily the outskirts. Downtown is the nucleus."

The difference between Barry Real Estate, the first developer in charge of the City Center project, and Solomon Holdings, the current team leader, is that they live in the community and care about it, Kessler said.

Market Growing For Alpharetta Firm's "chicken litter" Fertilizer

By DOUG NURSE http://www.ajc.com/

It's a fertile world for Organic Growing Systems in Alpharetta.
The newly formed company is cashing in on the rising price of synthetic fertilizer by specializing in reconstituted "chicken litter," as it's delicately put.

As the price of traditional, petroleum-based fertilizer skyrocketed 200 percent to 300 percent since 2005, more and more farmers and sod-growers are turning to natural alternatives, said Chris Nichols, the company CEO. "Everyone is looking at us like we're the hot chick at the prom," said Marc Nichols, Chris' nephew and national sales manager. "Today we sold a third of what we did last year." And the future looks even better.

In September, the company had 11 steady customers; now it has close to 200, including turf companies, farmers, cities and golf courses, as well as Piedmont Park. "We placed an order with them last year, and we're placing a second order this year," said Chris Nelson, chief operating officer for Piedmont Park Conservancy. "That should send a message that we're happy with the product."

Chris Nichols said that in January 2007, diammonium phosphate cost $252 a ton. Now it's $1,050 a ton. He can sell chicken manure fertilizer for $350 to $450 a ton.

Organic Growing Systems, a subsidiary of Advance Growing Systems, has one plant, a 30,000-square-foot facility in Monticello, Miss., that produces up to 30 tons of nitrogen-rich chicken fertilizer a day. But Chris Nichols is expanding the Mississippi plant to generate up to 200 tons of chicken litter fertilizer a day by this fall. He also is planning to build another, larger facility near Gainesville within two years and others in Texas and California within five years.
"We're trying to be first at the top," Marc Nichols said. "We're trying to be the national brand."

It was a curious trail that brought Chris Nichols, a financier, to the chicken manure industry. His brother (and Marc's father), Mark Nichols, a landscape and sod expert, was brought in to look at the dead lawn of an expansive home in west Cobb County in 2003. He consulted with another expert from Texas, who brought a load of fertilizer, told them to spread it before and after the replacement sod was laid, and water it like a regular lawn. Mark Nichols was skeptical. Usually, that much fertilizer and that little water will burn sod to a crisp. Mark Nichols came back in a month and found a thriving lawn. He promptly called his finance guru brother and told him they had to get in on this. Chris Nichols did research and decided it was doable. In 2007, they secured financing and bought a plant in Mississippi from an 81-year-old man who knew the product but not the financing and marketing.

After about a year, Organic Growing Systems overhauled its sales force and business took off.
The beauty of chicken manure as a fertilizer is that it becomes soil, feeding beneficial microbes in the dirt, which continues to nourish the plant, said Chris Nichols. Over time, farmers need less and less of the fertilizer. Synthetic fertilizer feeds the plant but doesn't add anything to the soil, he said.

Virtually all of the chicken fertilizer is consumed by plants or rebuilding soil, said John Chapman, general manager of a 2,500-acre turf farm in Foley, Ala., and an Organic Growing Systems customer. "There's nothing negative about the product," Chapman said. "This stuff flat works."

For poultry farmers, manure is a massive headache, something to get rid of, and they're happy to sell it for the cost of shipping. It's hauled in dump trucks to the plant, where it's semi-dried, sterilized, mixed with other stuff like ground feathers for protein, a little yucca for the odor, shells from shrimp and whatnot for binder, and then made into pellets by squeezing it like Play-doh through little holes.

The fact the product is environmentally friendly is a plus, but for most customers, cost and effectiveness are the driving factors, Marc Nichols said. "It's not that they're green," he said. "They want it to be good for the plant, but it has to be good for the pocketbook."

Chapman said that using natural fertilizer pays for itself over the long haul. "Used to, it wasn't cost effective for the first few years, but since synthetic fertilizer is going up, it's now an easier decision to make," Chapman said. "The more you do it, the less you use. That's not the case with most product. It's a long-term thing. Once you look at the big picture, it becomes even more cost-effective."

Bus Crash Injures More Than 20 From Lexington

By Ashlee Clark
aclark@herald-leader.com

More than 20 children and adults from Centenary United Methodist Church on Tates Creek Road in Lexington were sent to the hospital Sunday after a pick-up crashed into their bus in Dothan, Ala.

The truck apparently had been speeding and was cutting in and out of traffic in the northbound lane of Ross Clark Circle, said Sgt. Tim Ward of the Dothan Police Department's traffic safety division.

The truck driver lost control, possibly from hydroplaning, Ward said. The truck crossed the median and hit one of the three buses taking the 83-member church group to a youth camp in Panama City, Fla., said Gina Evans, senior administrator at Centenary.

There was nothing the bus driver could have done to avoid the truck, Ward said.
Roughly 24 youths and counselors were taken to two Dothan-area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries that were mostly bumps and bruises, Ward said.

“We're just very grateful that all the kids and adults are OK and that God took care of them,” Evans said.

Two people in the truck were in critical condition, Ward said. Two or three adults from the church group were to stay in the hospital overnight for injuries that included a concussion and a fractured hip.

Twelve adults and 71 children were headed to BigStuf Camps, part of a non-denominational, non-profit ministry based in Alpharetta, Ga. The group was about 45 minutes away from the camp when the accident happened.

Centenary officials will decide soon whether the youth group will go forward with the trip.