This very diverse neighborhood is working hard to create a place where people are involved, feel safe, and foster community. What a great effort to support!

The Community Center supports tens of thousands of people annually in DeKalb County! Let's help them keep our community assets safe. Help our community continue to grow and expand; please fix the fence!

The CCC desperately needs the County to fix the fence around the library catchment ditch before it can fix its own fence. The CCC spent over 800 dollars fixing their fence and it was destroyed the next day when vandals simply went through the County fence then pulled down the CCC fence.

The CCC has done everything it can to curb the vandalism, but until they can actually control access to the field, all of their community building efforts around the field are being compromised. As a long time gardener at the CCC I can attest that the field, which used to be pleasantly multi-use, is becoming a place that feels unpleasant and dangerous because of the groups coming in through the broken county fence to steal and vandalize..

This area needs protected from people who have nothing better to do with their time than to vandalize property. We pay enough taxes to have this fence repaired, gate secured, and the area patrolled!

please fix out community center's fence. the CCC is a valuable part of our community. help us make a safe and friendly environment for our kids and citizens :-)

This area is trying to sustain a "green" economy which DeKalb County supposedly wants, so it would seem that they would be ready and willing to repair fences so that vandals could not enter the area. Vandalism needs to be sopped NOW
Linda (guest)

Not sure if Linda or system closed this system, but either way....it is still open...Susan

This area really needs to be fixed by the county and help all the hard work going on around the CCC field to be protected from people who want to tear it down. Please help! Thank you.

The efforts of people to enrich the community should not be torn up by the criminal element. Please help us protect our community and continue our attempts to make everyone feel that they are a part of Clarkston and its facilities. Please repair the fence and secure the gate so that break-ins can be stopped or at least slowed.

The vandals obviously do not have a personal commitment to the area, and we need to make it as difficult as possible for them to cripple our community-building activities.

Posted on behalf of Neva Corbin.

This green space is a real asset to the community. Among other things, it supports youth recreation, community gardening and social activities. In addition, there are many groups who feel strongly about protecting the space in order for it to continue in its current capacity. Let's not allow a small group of people to destroy such a valuable community asset.

The field and community garden are places of hope and joy for our community. I hope we can create and safe and welcoming place for people to continue there various activities by repairing the fence.

Please protect the garden. The CCC is doing great things and needs support to continue.

Hey Guys,
We have a community fund raising feature we can turn on for you here if you want help raising money for the fence. Would you email me ben@seeclickfix.com if you're interested.

B

The CCC is doing a great job for the community and is important that the authorities get more involved so we can have a nice environment in Clarkston.

I am new to the CCC this year, and while I've loved gardening here, I am shocked by the destructiveness displayed towards a center that serves our whole community. These aren't just thefts by hungry people. Food is ripped from the ground and left to rot. Destruction for the sake of destruction. If the county can't help secure this relatively small property, the people who help the CCC and the CCC gardens thrive will eventually lose all hope and leave. What a waste! Please put my DeKalb County tax dollars to work on something truly useful and help us secure this vital place from vandals (as well as thieves)!

THE CCC does such great work in the community and needs to be supported by the county.

This fence has been a major issue for quite some time. I believe CCC has done its part to fix their fence, have conversation with community members and keep this topic on everyone's radar. Now it's time for the county to do their part.

We are not asking for much, just fix a fence.

I am a grateful citizen that uses the garden, help, and give back to the Clarkston Community Center. I have been in Clarkston for 3yrs and enjoy the community. I have experience neighbors calling me to let me know of the damage that has been done to the garden. I have seen mostly kids age 5-16 jumping the fence to just destroy the crop. As a gardener I feel something need to be done is a sense of educating by showing them what all the good things that come from a garden. When the act has happened it been reported to local police department. I have witness the explanation to the kids and adults in wrong manner. Stating the community doesn't want them to use the soccer field and basketball court is is not true. We want people to use the facilities. Just leave the gardens alone. Its hard work and physically/mentally helpful to us as well as the courts and soccer ball court. Thank U

The CCC provides a space for people to come together and make Clarkston a vibrant community. It's important to support this so that Clarkston can live into its motto of being the little city with a big heart.

I run a summer program at the CCC; the kids need a clean, safe environment to learn, grow and have fun.

It is very disturbing that the County can't provide a stable reliable barrier to protect the Community Gardens of children from vandals.

I tutor the children whose garden was one of the most recent victims of the vandals... I went down with them and watched them plant those gardens and saw the joy they expressed when they saw how beautiful their lettuce had come up. They were amazed with the fact that they planted something and actual food came from all of their hard work. They also planted some carrots and now, because the vandalism, they will not get to enjoy them. Please, we need something to be done so things like this will no longer happen.

Susan: We hear you all the way in Bremerton Washington. Thanks for your community involvement. It's nice to see others caring for their community. We are just starting to use the SeeClickFix system here and it's doing great things.

Thank you Charleston District. This is a great website for communities to make changes & voice their support. Interesting...over the holidays I was down the road from you in Shelton sharing this website with my sister. :)

Sadly this time I haven't heard a peep from anyone at our county government. Hopefully they are working on the problem.

Susan: You are welcome. SeeClick is one of our tools we use to speak with the city proactively. We then move on to speaking publicly at the city coucil meetings and ask for the resources to be allocated for changes. You would be surprised how effective and how much can be done with about a dozen people. Bremerton last year was covered over with graffiti and is now almost graffiti free. Drug related houses that used to plague our town are being shut down faster than they can appear. Blighted properties are now getting attention from code enforcement and more. We now have citizens on the planning commission, parks commission, and other key committees in the city to further assist in bringing Bremerton back to it's former glory. We are now active in the city budget proces and discuss funding allocations and resources. Don't get discouraged, you can make a tremendous impact. Try getting a few friends and go directly to a city council meeting (if that is your governing board) and speak to them. Ours are televised so you message goes to the entire city. When the city claims budget, simply move towards "maybe we have the funds but they aren't being managed properly or effectively".

Don't be discouraged, we started a year ago and our city looks completely different today with only about a dozen vocal people. Today our streets are cleaner, our police more responsive, crosswalks are being renewed, parkrs have greatly improved and more. I encourage you to stick with it as you'll make a huge difference and SeeClickFix can be one of the tools to help.

If you get back in our area, give me a yell. I'd enjoy meeting with you and showing you around our area. We'll show you how we started and how much of a difference it makes.

SeeClickFix rocks!

Susan: Sent your County CEO and Commissioner Presiding Officer a letter of support requesting they assist. You should get a copy in your email. Good luck. :)

Has there been any news/response on this? What other avenues would be most effective to advocate for this project? Give me names and numbers of the correct people to contact, and I"ll gladly make one call a week until it's taken care of if that would help.

Mary, Ted Terry is working with Commissioner Gannon who is pushing the County forward. Yesterday they finally got around to looking at their maps to determine who owns the space....the county or the Dept. of Education....and couldn't make a determination. So, now the next step is to have the area surveyed which will be done this coming week.

Ted Rhinehart, DeKalb Deputy Chief Operating Officer, is heading up the project. Will try keep everyone posted as we move along.

Thanks to you and everyone for your support. It really has helped to get everyone's attention to showcase your passion for our community center!

Susan: Glad to see your fence problem may be moving forward.

Wonderful news & update! After surveying the retention pond area behind the library, DeKalb County has determined that the fence is their responsibility. They are now in the process of getting a contractor to do the repair.

Once the fence is repaired I will send everyone an update and close this report.

Thanks to you all!!

Hooray!!!! That is wonderful news. The garden suffered another completely senseless but majorly damaging vandal hit recently, so this good news is especially helpful to hear. Thank you to everyone who is working on getting the fence fixed.

Holly smokes it takes a lot to get something done in Georgia. Here in Bremerton Washington our Public Works is much more responsive. Things get completed and closed off in a couple days.

Hi Susan: I am just now seeing the update. This is wonderful news!

This morning when I went to park behind the library, I was furious that 3 spaces were taken up by DeKalb County trucks. Then I realized they were working on The Fence! Needless to say, I was delighted to move to the front parking lot.

The icing on the cake is that the County was replacing the fence on the CCC side which had been repair recently with a lot of CCC money & subsequently destroyed. As I speak, that fence is secure and tomorrow the library side will be repaired.

They are replacing a higher fence (8'?) where the old 4' fence was previously on the library side and we will get some "threatening" signs.

Thanks to all of you for your support of our Clarkston Community Center!!

Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen!

Yippee!!! That is wonderful news, and, on behalf of the gardeners, a huge thank you to all who helped make it happen.

Thanks so much to all who helped accomplish this!

It looks great and is such an improvement! thank you everyone and thank you county!

Got a photo for your supporters from a far?

here is the crew working on it last week... will get a finished photo later this week :-)

Awesome!!! Congrats again guys.