Place:Sandy Springs, Fulton, Georgia, United States

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source: Family History Library Catalog

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Sandy Springs is a city in northern Fulton County, Georgia and an inner ring suburb of Atlanta. The city's population was 108,080 at the 2020 census, making it Georgia's seventh-largest city. It is the site of several corporate headquarters, including UPS, Newell Brands, Inspire Brands, Focus Brands, Cox Enterprises, and Mercedes-Benz USA's corporate offices.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Human settlement in the area can be traced back to approximately 400 CE, when Native Americans forged three trails to better access the area's freshwater springs.^[1] In the 16th century, the Creek Muskogee tribe settled the area, where they remained until the early 1800s, when they were forced out of the area due to the discovery of gold.^[1]

In 1821, the federal government held a number of land lotteries in the area, resulting in the purchase of land in present-day Sandy Springs and its subsequent settlement.^[1] The Austin-Johnson House, the oldest existing unaltered house, was built in 1842 on what is now Johnson Ferry Road. In 1851, Wilson Spruill donated of land for the founding of Sandy Springs United Methodist Church, near the natural spring for which the city is named. In 1905, the Hammond School was built at Johnson Ferry Road and Mt. Vernon Highway, across the street from the church.

20th century

Annexation attempts

In 1950, the state legislature blocked Atlanta from annexing the community, which remained rural until the Interstate Highway System was authorized by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. In 1959, after a fire at Hammond Elementary School, William Hartsfield, the mayor of Atlanta, urged residents to support annexation so that the area would have better firefighting protection. Community opposition killed the proposal. In the early 1960s, Georgia 400 and Interstate 285 were constructed, connecting Sandy Springs to metro Atlanta and initiating a housing boom that brought new residents and major land development as part of the white flight from Atlanta after the Civil Rights Movement won greater racial integration within Atlanta. In 1965, Hartsfield once again proposed the annexation of the Sandy Springs area.^[2] Spokesmen for Sandy Springs promised residents to "build up a city separate from Atlanta and your Negroes and forbid any Negroes to buy, or own, or live within our limits" should they reject annexation.^[2] In 1966, annexation by Atlanta was defeated in a referendum, with two-thirds voting against.

Early incorporation efforts

Efforts to incorporate Sandy Springs began in 1966 in response to attempts by the city of Atlanta to annex this unincorporated area of north Fulton County. In the early 1970s, the city of Atlanta attempted to use a state law to force annexation of Sandy Springs, which failed after the Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that the law was unconstitutional.^[1] In response, a group of residents formed the Committee for Sandy Springs 1975 to lobby for the incorporation of Sandy Springs.^[1] During this time, proponents for an incorporated Sandy Springs argued that their taxes were disproportionately going to other, largely non-white, communities in Fulton County. In every legislative session, state legislators representing the area introduced a bill in the Georgia General Assembly to authorize a referendum on incorporation.^[1] Legislators representing Atlanta and southwestern Fulton County, who feared that tax revenue would be lost from incorporation, blocked the bills,^[1] using the procedural requirement that all local legislation be approved first by a delegation of representatives from the affected area.

In 1989, a push was made for Sandy Springs to join neighboring Chattahoochee Plantation in Cobb County. This move was blocked by Speaker Tom Murphy.

1990s

In 1991, the Georgia state government determined that Sandy Springs, along with other wealthier, and predominantly white, communities in Fulton County was being taxed below statewide minimums, resulting in an increase in taxes for the area.^[3] Some Sandy Springs residents, including Mitch Skandalakis, launched a number of campaigns against the taxes, and launched an unsuccessful lawsuit against the state.^[3]

On January 16, 1997, Eric Rudolph bombed an abortion clinic in Sandy Springs.

21st century

Incorporation

When the Republican Party gained a majority in both houses of the Georgia General Assembly in 2005, the procedural rules previously used to prevent a vote by the full chamber were changed so that the bill was handled as a state bill and not as a local bill. The assembly also repealed the requirement that new cities must be at least from existing cities that had stymied previous attempts to incorporate due to Sandy Springs directly bordering both Roswell and Atlanta. The bill allowing for a referendum on incorporation was introduced and passed as HB 37. The referendum initiative was approved by the Assembly and signed by Governor Sonny Perdue.

The referendum was held on June 21, 2005, and residents voted 94% in favor of incorporation.^[1] In November 2005, voters returned to the polls to elect a mayor and six city council members. Eva Galambos, who had initiated and led the charge for incorporation, was elected mayor. Formal incorporation occurred on December 1, making Sandy Springs the third-largest city ever to incorporate in the U.S.^[4] The city's police force and fire department began service in 2006.

Upon incorporation, Sandy Springs initiated a nontraditional approach by operating as a public-private partnership (PPP), with all but six full-time employees being contracted.

Post-incorporation

In 2010, the city undertook a procurement process to rebid all general city services, which was won by CH2M Hill.^[5] The timing of this contract, during the Great Recession, allowed the city to leverage a cheaper contract due to the economic downturn.^[5]

In 2010, the city became the first jurisdiction in Georgia to successfully "bail out" from the preclearance requirements of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

In 2019, the Sandy Springs City Council moved to scale back the PPP model, directly hiring 183 contract employees, leaving only 15 outsourced full-time workers by the end of 2019.^[6] The city will still outsource a number of services, including the city attorney's office, as well as security, street sweeping and ambulance services.^[6] The move is expected to save $2.7 million in the next year and more than $14 million over 5 years.^[5]

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