The 10-month-old nonprofit Historic Cross Roads Community Association is taking its fight for a higher quality of life in Sandy Springs to a new level.
“A few neighbors came together to fight the proposed cell tower on the city of Atlanta property at the corner of Old Powers Ferry Road and Dupree Drive,” fundraising and membership chair Suzy Smith said about a 2010 victory over a Verizon Wireless rezoning application, “and then went on to achieve some really nice improvements, tapping into public sources for money.”
The city of Sandy Springs contributed plants, including magnolia and dogwood trees, and a public corporation anonymously bought maple trees to transform an “ugly corner with just dirt and some weeds” into an amenity.
“Now that all of these sources have been depleted, the association was formed with the mission of ongoing improvements and maintenance of the beautiful improvements they have made,” Smith said. “We are now looking for funding from neighbors to finish up the task and to make sure everything is maintained on an ongoing basis.”
Needs are low, compared to other local nonprofits’ operating budgets.
“We need funds for planting additional shrubs and putting down pine straw,” said secretary and treasurer Tim Waller. “Maybe $4,000 total.”
In addition to financial supporters, hands-on helpers are encouraged to give the gift of time.
“The more people you have, the less you have to do,” volunteer Donna Orton said.
Gardening chores will help maintain the momentum a-chieved from Volunteer Sandy Springs Day on April 16, 2011, when the neighborhood’s Eagle Park gained new shrubs, trees and rose bushes.
“It’s great to see it look so good. I don’t want to see all that hard work go to waste,” Orton said.
Eagle Park dates back to 2003 when Eagle Scout John Anderson installed landscaping and a drinking fountain, but more distant history also makes the neighborhood unique, Waller said.
“It was called Cross Roads on the old deeds and maps,” he said. “There was a school house here which we haven’t found.”
A descendant of a Civil War veteran, Barbara Strength, will help neighbors trace their roots, starting with former worshippers at the nearby Crossroads Atlanta Primitive Baptist Church.
“She has finished mapping almost everyone in the cemetery back to the original settlers in 1820,” Waller said. “It’s a family tree and family relationships, focusing on the stories that are interesting to tell.”
On the web:www.historiccrossroads.org
Post a Comment