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May 1990 • UGA:An Independent l-ook • Page 27
Progress marches on in the Classic City
By Clark Hubbard
As Athens continues to grow, a major concern among both residents and students is whether the
Classic City can remain a classic. Can this often-sleepy little college town maintain its small-town flavor?
According to Athens Area Chamber of Commerce figures, the population of Clarke County is 84,521,
an increase of about 10,000 since 1980. The growth is expected to continue: The projected population for the
year 2000 is 90,522. At least one long-time Athenian has mixed feelings about this expansion.
I know growth is important, but I don't want Athens to become another Gwinnett County, or another
Atlanta,' says City Clerk Jean Spratlin, who has lived in Athens all her life. "If 1 wanted to live in Atlanta,
I would move there."
Spratlin, who has worked at city hall since 1974, has seen countless businesses start and fail,
thousands of University students come and go and one now-familiar construction project have a major
impact on the Athens area during the past decade. That project, Georgia Square Mall, was completed in
February 1981. Aside from shaking up many local merchants, the mall has been successful in attracting
hundreds of thousands of out-of-town visitors to Athens. It also has been successful in creating a congested
area on the Atlanta Highway.
"Traffic is one thing I can't stand," Spratlin says. "I don't want to have to leave an hour early to get to
work."
Spratlin is not alone in her concern about traffic. In fact, Clarke County Traffic Engineer Jim Corley
makes it his job to prevent people like Spratlin from sweating it out in a bumper-to-bumper gridlock on the
way to work.
"We have seen steady increases in traffic all over and huge increases in areas that have had a lot of
development," Corley says. 'The mall area has had a drastic change.
“It was running about 10,000 or 15,000 cars a day in 1980; now it’s running about 50,000,” he says.
That particular stretch of the Atlanta Highway can be frustrating for motorists, as anyone who has
tried to drive from downtown to the mall on a Friday afternoon can attest. Because of the constant
construction in the region, including the addition of a new Wal-Mart department store across from the
mall, Corley expects the traffic to become even more bothersome. His
crews are already working on changing traffic signal patterns to ease the
flow.
"With Wal-Mart coming in, it's going to be a killer," Corley says. 'The
'90s are going to be even more fun than the '80s."
Additional retail stores are not the only indicators of economic
growth in the Athens area, however. Many other jobs have been created
by industrial development as well.
"It's been a good decade for new industries and expansion," says Paul
Miller, director of economic development at the Athens Area Chamber of
^ Commerce. "Economic growth has been consistently upward."
Industries introduced or expanded in the Athens area during the
'80s include Noramco pharmaceuticals. Creation Windows of Georgia,
Dygert Seating of Georgia, Eaton Corporation automotive superchargers,
Conwed plastic netting, Seaboard Farms of Athens tray packs and
numerous other additions, which created about 1,500 jobs.
Miller also stresses the importance of Georgia Square Mall as an
economic boon to the region. The mall created quite a stir amongst
downtown merchants when it first opened in 1981, but things have
long since settled down.
"That mall is now successful and downtown is also successful,
even though some people thought downtown was going to have some
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