New Track on Schedule at Peachtree Middle School

A new track at Peachtree Middle School is on course to be completed in August, despite the DeKalb school district anticipating a problem with environmental permitting through Dunwoody, say city officials.

The school district is the lead on the $100,000 project. The track has needed to be refurbished since Peachtree Charter Middle School was rebuilt and damaged the track to the point it needed to be rebuilt.

Complicating matters, the project was facing elimination when the district's last SPLOST, which expired this summer, suddenly had less revenue than was originally projected.

The project avoided the budget axe, but Councilman Terry Nall noticed in recent weeks that the district was anticipating a problem in an agreement with Dunwoody on stormwater maintenance for the project.

A SPLOST update report to school officialssaid that Dunwoody could cause a potential delay.

"This issue has the potential to affect the construction start date for the project," the report said. "The (project manager) is monitoring the situation to mitigate the potential for a project delay."

The district was erroneous in pointing the finger at Dunwoody, Nall said. Dunwoody wasn't requiring that the agreement go to the DeKalb schools board, which could have slowed down the project as the board worked the project onto its agenda.

"That ... suggested that the city of Dunwoody was causing a delay and I was furious because I knew that wasn’t the case,” he said. "All we wanted was a letter."

The city issued a press release this week to let the community know that the project should proceed as planned.

Nall said the city's official response to clear up the confusion will start a trend for Dunwoody being vocal on problem areas, he said.