Letter: Wittenstein Will Run for Reelection; Talks Repaving, Parks and City Contracts

Dear Dunwoody Friends and Neighbors,

Last week Mayor Ken Wright announced that he would not seek a second term as mayor. Ken has been the perfect first mayor for Dunwoody. Ken has been a voice of reason and a force for consensus. We will all miss his calm and understated leadership.

Over the last week a number of people have asked me if I plan to run for mayor. I do not. I will, however, go ahead and announce that I plan to run for reelection for my current city council post in November. It has been a privilege to represent the residents of Dunwoody and I would be honored to be able to continue to do so. It is too early to start the campaign season but I thought I would go ahead and put the speculation to rest. 

We are engaged in three major activities at the moment. 

The first is repaving. We have approved the repaving plan for 2011 and are in the bidding process. We have budgeted $2 million for repaving this year and plan to address the following city streets in 2011:

(See the photos & PDFs section  for a map that shows the streets to be paved this year and the ones paved last year)

Second, when the city started up two and a half years ago we entered into a series of three-year contracts with private companies to provide city services. We are now in a selection process for a new series of contracts. The deadline for submissions was Monday and we got a strong response with multiple bidders for each of the seven service areas. That response promises a competitive process. All three of our current contractors have submitted proposals.  We will be scoring all the proposals and meeting with the finalists over the summer.

Finally, we continue to work on a long range Parks Master Plan. This has been tough. We have had a very open process with a lot of community input. The hard part is that while everyone loves parks, there are a lot of different views on how the parks we have should be developed. We have been seeking common ground but we may have trouble finding it. The main sticking points revolve around the Dunwoody Nature Center/Ball Fields at Dunwoody Park on Roberts Drive and Brook Run. Everyone will find things to love in the plan and I’m sure everyone will be disappointed in some other elements as well.  We will wrap-up work on the Parks Master Plan in June.

In June I will attend the annual Georgia Municipal Association conference in Savannah and take a one-day course in Municipal Law taught by UGA. With this course I will complete 42 hours of training and qualify for a Certificate of Recognition from the Georgia Municipal Association.

Regards,

Robert