Divide and Conquer? Not Just Yet.

Just a quick note about the "Save Tucker" group.  By liking us on Facebook, you are only saying that you wish to remain in the loop, learning about the various issues that are being presented to our community and how your input might be needed.  

Our public Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ 
SaveTuckerFromLakesideCity) lists Events related to the city movement in our area, as soon as we learn about them.  We also post links to various news articles and information sources so you do not have to spend your time scouring the various news vehicles yourself.  

We want to help make it easy for you to stay informed on this subject as the process moves forward, regardless of what direction it takes and regardless of what position you ultimately decide to take on the proposed City of Tucker.

We were the very first pro-Tucker page to surface after the Lakeside City map was announced.  The page was created because we saw the need for a place where Tucker residents could go online to discuss this topic without being insulted or intimidated.  

We have approximately 250 followers of the Save Tucker From Lakeside City page, but we hope to gain more as we move closer to a potential vote in May 2014.  It is not just enough to show up to vote these days.  Voters need to be informed and this city issue is a tough one.  We hope you will like us and tell your friends and neighbors to do the same. 

Save Tucker!  (The Group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/savetucker/
Secondary to the public page, our group determined that we needed a way to  hold conversations that were more "private," amid people whom we felt shared the same concerns.  So, we started "Save Tucker! (the Group)," a Facebook page is an "invitation only" or "by request" closed group on Facebook.  Our group is under 100 members by design.  The name of the group and the members are visible on Facebook, but the conversations taking place can only be viewed by the members themselves.  

There is no pressure in this group to follow any particular train of thought or political party.  It is purely a neighbor-to-neighbor discussion group that we hope will generate a lot of positive ideas to help Tucker remain true to its residents as we move forward.  Being in the closed group discussion does not mean you favor or oppose anything. It isn't about getting a headcount ... it is about putting our heads together.

Thank you Tucker!
We appreciate everyone who has been willing to speak up and explain what they know or what they have experienced, even when there are others who try very desperately to silence our voices.  It is only by talking candidly with each other that we will ever be able to put all the pieces together.

When the time comes, we hope all of Tucker will be unified on the city issue so we can vote and send a strong message. But, there is no reason to start picking sides now as we do not even know if there will be a question on a ballot any time soon. And we should not decide to support something that we haven't seen in writing. 


Save Tucker! (the Group) has helped voice community concerns over a variety of issues including:  

• The use of Carl Vinson by all the competing cities (Tucker 2014 did end up using the Andrew Young School instead), 
• The borders of the map and why they were drawn, 
• The expectations for the Tucker Middle School meeting and ensuring that Tucker received equal time to present to the community,
• The filing of a placeholder bill for a city of Tucker, to ensure our community was considered at the same time as a  potential city of Lakeside.
• Removing police as an initial service to be offered by Tucker 2014 as it was not stated in meetings that the residents wanted to separate from DeKalb's public safety oversight.
• The presenting of a city charter for the residents to inspect.
• The potential of an alternative map for the legislature to consider, using the Tucker CDP.
• Questions about the validity of the city tax assessments being used for the feasibility studies.
• A moratorium for cities until a better city formation process is created.
• The city school / charter cluster issue - how does it relate to the new cities and should we be asked to vote on cities and city schools on the same ballot?
  
• The SACS issue - how can we support the county school system and follow the SACS recommendations for unity while being divided into smaller city groups by the same state legislators who supported the Governor's appointed board?