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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3, 1993 « ATHENS, GEORGIA « VOLUME 100, ISSUE 88
A-CC Commission bans
nude dancing downtown
By DAVID TWIDDY
Staff Writer
The Athens-Clarke County
Commission approved 9-1 an ordinance
Tuesday night that will effectively
remove nude dancing from the down
town area.
The ordinance will essentially legal
ize nude dancing, but will also place
severe restrictions on the location of
such establishments and the manner in
which they feature the activity.
One part of the proposal, based part
ly on the old city alcohol license require
ments, prohibits establishments featur
ing nude dancing from operating within
500 yards of several public facilities, one
of them being a college campus.
Toppers, which replaced Mardi Gras
on North Jackson Street, is located less
than 75 yards from the University’s
North Campus.
Sandra and Donnie Gardner, the
owners of Toppers, said they would not
comment on the issue before the com
mission met.
Many commissioners were concerned
with the public’s perception that the
government was simply legalizing nude
dancing, but City Attorney Denny
Gallis explained that the ordinance
would be easier to defend in court than
the old law which outright banned nude
dancing.
Hugh Logan, 5th district commis
sioner, said in an interview Monday
that the commission would vote for pro
posals that limit nude dancing.
“I think the commission has gone on
record as being against nude dancing in
Athens from a philosophical stand
point," Logan said.
The local government tried to shut
Toppers down in November the night
after it opened by voting unanimously to
pass an amendment banning nude
dancing in any local establishment.
However, Gardner said the club had
yet to be closed down because the local
government was not enforcing the ordi
nance pending a lawsuit.
In the past, the state Supreme Court
has defended nude dancing as free
speech, striking down as unconstitu
tional a Carrollton ordinance that pro
hibited nude dancing where alcohol was
served.
John Barrow
John Barrow, 4th district commis
sioner, said earlier that the new ordi
nance was stronger than past attempts.
“The restrictions and prohibitions
found in the ordinance have been tested
in other places and held to be constitu
tional,” Barrow said.
Barrow said that even though the
measure restricts where certain busi
nesses may operate, the ordinance is not
being considered a zoning ordinance.
Five die in U.S. 29 wreck
By KELLY DANIEL
Staff Writer
Five senior citizens were killed and 11 oth
ers injured when a southbound dump truck
broadsided and rolled a northbound church
van on U.S. Highway 29, just north of Athens
around 10:45 a.m. Tuesday, police said.
One Georgia State Patrol trooper called the
accident one of the worst he has seen in 17
years of law enforcement.
Several members of the Meadow Baptist
Church in Comer were thrown from the van
when it hit a ditch and rolled once after the
dump truck crossed the center line and hit it.
The group was returning from a breakfast at
a Shoney’s Restaurant in Athens, police said.
Charges are pending against Randall Saye,
24, the driver of the truck who police said ran
off the side of the road, jerked the vehicle back
onto the highway and collided with the van,
Trooper Michael Brown said. Police expect to
release more information on the charges and
cause of the wreck today.
All 16 people involved were taken to
Athens Regional Medical Center around 11:30
a.m. Four victims were pronounced dead on
arrival, and one, Retha Lord, 79, died later
from extensive injuries, hospital spokeswom
an Mickey Montevideo said.
The dead included: Donzie Scarborough, no
age available; Audie Porterfield, 80; Elizabeth
Lord, 70; Cornelia Poss, no age available; and
Retha Lord.
Nine victims remain hospitalized and
seven of those are listed in serious condition.
The seriously injured include: Sarah
Sorrow, 72 ; Lilly Roden, no age available;
Gene Canthers, 73; Nell Carithers, 85; Mary
Lou Parham, 64; Jamie Wall, 78; Sybill Kidd,
72. Talmadge Sorrow, 70; and Virginia F^pps,
67, also remain hospi tali zed, but are listed in
fair to g»x>d condition.
Two others, Thomas Robinson, 45, and
Saye were treated and released, Montevideo
said.
The wreck happened in front of the
Alewine Auto Salvage yard, where William
Alewine, one of the owners, said he missed the
collision but saw “all those people lying all
over the ground.”
Alewine said wrecks are a common occur
rence on the stretch of U.S. Highway 29 in
front of his business because of the high-speed
traffic.
“It's a dangerous road,” Alewine said. “It’s
a race track just south of that hill (to the
north) until you get to that comer (U.S. 29 and
U.S. 106). You’ve got people who leave five
minutes before they’re supposed to be at work
in Athens, and it gets pretty speedy in there."
Most of the victims lived near many
University employees, University spokesman
Tom Jackson said.
“I don’t know if anyone at the University
was related to anyone in the accident,"
Jackson said. “But I know people in our office
who knew them. They live in their neighbor
hood. We certainly have a lot of University
employees who live in the Comer area.”
Customers want to keep Toppers
Cindy dances for an eager patron around 5 p.m.
By LORI WIECHMAN
Staff Wnter
By 5 p.m., the nude-dancing
club Toppers has about 20 cus
tomers: 9ome of them business
men, most of them drinking
beer and all of them intently
watching girls perform on the
black-and-white checkered
stage.
But soon the neon lights that
illuminate the writhing enter
tainment may be dimmed by an
ordinance adopted by the
Athens-Clarke County
Commission, which will effec
tively force the club to shut
down.
Customers said they plan to
keep coming, and the women
want to keep dancing until
Toppers is forced to close its
doors.
“Athens wants a metropolis,
but then it wants to keep it a
small town,” said Don Gardner,
who co-owns Toppers with his
mother Sandra. “If they want to
attract business, they need a
wider variety of entertainment.”
“We are trying to keep a good
business and a clean business,”
Sandra said. “We didn’t want
the publicity.”
One dancer, whose stage
name is Sky, recently began
working at Toppers because her
dad was laid off and she needed
money for college.
“I can only make good grades
and go to school if I work here,”
said Sky, who is on the
University’s dean’s list. “It piss
es me off because they want to
close it down. There’s no other
way for me to make it.”
As Sky is sitting in the pool-
table area, a man smelling of
beer and wearing ripped, dirty
blue jeans and a worn flannel
shirt comes up to her, offering
her $10 if shell come and do a
table dance.
“I’ll be over there, but I just
need to talk to this girl,” Sky
said.
After he left, she said she’s
been asked to do a table dance
occasionally, but not often.
“Toppers is very relaxing,
very calm, well-behaved and
classy,” she said. “The men that
come in don’t touch us.”
But Sky saifl the most impor
tant thing is that she doesn’t
have to be completely nude.
“You don’t have to take off all
your clothes, and it makes good
money, better than minimum
wage,” she said.
At Toppers, the women
dance and strip for three songs
and then can take a break of 30
to 45 minutes, either doing table
dances, or resting.
And most of the customers
said they are furious that the
business may be forced to close.
“The commission should put
it on a citywide ballot and let
people vote for it,” said Samuel
Griffith, who is a regular cus
tomer. “They’ll find out that
people don’t mind this happen
ing.”
Griffith said he believes the
ordinance is a way for the city to
interfere with business.
“Why are they penalizing a
business if they want the econo
my to grow?” he said. “They
should spend more time busting
drug dealers and protecting cit
izens. The city council has to
understand that if you want the
economy to grow, you need clubs
like Toppers.”
Miller’s plan lets agencies
keep some of money saved
By MELANIE THOMAS
Staff Writer
Governor Zell Miller is attempting to
revamp the entire budgeting process and
make state expenditures more answerable
to taxpayers.
Miller introduced his Budget
Accountability and Planning Act to the
House of Representatives last week. The
act encourages state agencies to save
money and requires them to justify fund
ing.
“Georgia’s budgeting process is not
exactly perfect,” Miller said in his propos
al.
The act would offer incentives to state
agencies that saved money by guarantee
ing half of the excess money would be
returned to the agency. Now any money an
agency saves automatically returns to the
treasury.
JefT Humphreys, public service assis
tant at the Selig Center for Economic
Forecasting and Growth, said it is a good
intention to offer motivations to save
money.
“Anything that offers a reward for effi
ciency can only be positive,” he said. “You
have to look at the alternative, which could
be losing all of it. It’s half or nothing.”
Many local economic forecasters agree
the incentives are a good idea, but they
question the success of returning only 50
percent of the savings when so little is usu
ally saved.
Robert Bugbee. associate vice president
of the budget division, said the University-
saves “an inconsequential amount of
money” at the end of the year.
The University only had $10,920 left
over from its fiscal year 1992 budget of
about $500 million.
Please see MIIXER, page 3
TIMOTHY MOODY/ THc Red and 8;ac«.
New health center will be built by
1995. See page 2.
Tired Of Georgia
Go to Idaho and make a friend
through the University’s
exchange program. (You don’t
really have to go to Idaho.)
Dogs Like The Cold
Goff says Dogs like frolicking
in the snow better than being
in the heat. The pups get
injured less.
You may not have to separate recyclables
County trying new way to reduce landfill waste
Meet the Athens-Clarke County Landfill Metal Depository.
By DAVID TWIDDY
Start Writer
The Athens-Clarke County govern
ment plans to shrink the flow of recy
clable material going into the county
landfill through a partnership between
government and private enterprise.
The unified government’s existing
recycling and educational programs
will be upgraded under the plan, and
the more expensive processing of mate
rial will be contracted out to private
com panies.
Private companies have the money
to deliver recycled materials to inter
ested wholesalers, said Sharyn
Dickerson, recycling coordinator of the
Solid Waste Department. Such ship
ping costs are too high for the govern
ment, she said.
Additionally, private companies
have the means to build the Materials
Recovery Facility (MRFs) proposed in
the plan.
This facility would be able to sepa
rate recyclables out of waste before
going to the landfill and could separate
the recyclables into the specific cate
gories required by the recycling
markets.
“There is no way we could build one,"
Dickerson said. “Many companies
would be interested to build an MRF in
this area.”
The MRF’s ability to separate recy
clables would help make such projects
as the curbside program more accessi
ble by taking the responsibility for sep
arating the material out of the hands
of the residents. Instead, the material
could be sorted out at the center.
“There would be a lot of efficiency-
gained by commingling products,"
Dickerson said.
Although • private company would
handle the recycling, the government
would keep control over the operations
by specifying the companies’ responsi
bilities fn the contracts.
Dickerson cautioned that the pro
gram will take some time to get up and
running, and the government isn’t sure
how much it all will cost.
She said she guessed the MRF’
would take two years to build and
become operational.
Resources Recycling Systems Inc.,
the Michigan-based consulting firm
working with the government, will pro
pose cost estimates at the Athens-
Clarke County Commission’s April 6
meeting.
Please see RECYCLE,page 3