Newspaper Page Text
TUESDAY
November 2, 2004
Vol. 112, No. 53 | Athens, Georgia
Mostly cloudy.
High 78 | Low 63 | Wednesday 76
ONLINE: www.redandblack.com
An independent student newspaper’ serving the University of Georgia community
ESTABLISHED 1893, INDEPENDENT 1980
SOCCER LOSS
V University’s soccer
coach resigns from post.
SPORTS, PAGE 6
Latino votes key today
Both parties
push for votes
By EMILY KIRBY
ekirby@randb.com
Latino voters could be a
major factor in this year’s
close presidential election,
many experts said.
“Both political parties are
making strong efforts to
attract Hispanic voters —
especially in mobilization,”
said Audrey Haynes,
assistant professor of politi
cal science at the University.
“Hispanics have no strong
identity with one party, and
parties see it as a potential,”
she said. “I think Hispanics
make their decisions on
the same issues as everyone
else.
“We won’t know which
way they will go until we see
the exit polls,” she said.
According to the U.S.
State Department, 38.8 mil
lion Hispanics reside in the
United States — making
Latinos the fastest growing
minority in the country
Georgia’s Hispanic popu
lation has the highest
growth rate of any state in
the country — 16.8 percent
from 2000 to 2002.
Georgia voter registration
databases reveal a 90 per
cent increase in Latino voter
registration from January
2003 to May 2004, according
to the Georgia Association
of Latino Elected Officials,
an Atlanta-based organiza
tion working to promote
Latino voters.
>- See LATINO, Page 2
KATIE FOLEY | The Red & Black
a Falconer Mitchell Dickey, a sophomore from Statesboro, calls in his red-tailed
hawk, Peg, after an afternoon of hunting in Winterville where he killed one
squirrel. Dickey says that he hunts with Peg, who is five or six months old and
was trapped from the wild, almost every day. There are only about 100 other
falconers in the state of Georgia.
Mconers hunt with wild grace
By JOEY PIERGROSSI
piergross@randb.com
It’s a normal day for
Mitchell Dickey as he crouches
in the woods outside of
Winterville, trying to negotiate
a trade of two rabbit legs for a
whole squirrel.
His trading partner, Peg, is
hesitant to go for the deal.
“Come on, you know you
want this,” Dickey tells her,
waving the legs before her
beak, but he only gets a stem
look. He tries again, and Peg
calls back in small peeps.
“She’s telling me to get the
hell away,” he said.
And Peg, a red-tailed hawk,
has the talons to back up her
warning.
Finally, she accepts the two
legs — freshly cut open and
ready for her to eat — giving
up the tough-skinned squirrel.
Dickey sits back, hides the
squirrel in his knapsack and
breathes a sigh of relief.
“There we go,” he said, with
the satisfaction of another
successful hunt.
Dickey a sophomore from
Statesboro, is part of a small
group of specialized hunters
who participate in falconry, a
Medieval-age sport in which
hunters use raptors to capture
small prey
Chris Kennedy, a freshman
from Marietta who sometimes
hunts with Dickey, keeps his
own red-tailed hawk in the
cage next to Peg.
“It’s more spectating —
training the bird to let you
watch them do what they do,”
he said.
At a small house in
Winterville, Dickey keeps Peg
in a chain-link pen.
“I come here everyday,” he
said — and every day he hunts
in a wooded lot near the
house, helping his bird remain
active.
“There are only about 100
falconers in Georgia,” said
Dickey, who learned the sport
from his uncle.
Peg is a juvenile bird
already at full size, he
said, with brown and cream-
colored feathers and massive
feet capped with lengthy
talons.
Tied around one of her
ankles is a tiny brass bell
Dickey uses to track the bird
during the hunt.
“It’s pretty tough,” he said
about training the birds. “You
really have to learn to read her
behavior.”
Dickey and other falconers
need to know as much as pos
sible about avian biology to
meet state regulations,
according to the Georgia
Falconry Association Web site
(www.georgiafalconryassocia-
tion.com).
“Their knowledge of the
birds really helps me out,” said
Stephen Hernandez-Divers, an
assistant professor of small
animal medicine who com
monly treats raptors used by
falconers.
While Divers doesn’t hunt,
he and falconers from across
the state meet every January
in Statesboro for an annual
field meet where he brings
senior veterinary students to
study the birds, he said.
When he’s out in the field,
Dickey said he helps with
injured birds when he can.
“Just a few days ago, a fel
low falconer called me — he’d
found a hurt peregrine (fal
con),” he said, referring to the
endangered raptor native to
Georgia.
He also said he’s not stop
ping soon, despite his school
workload.
“I’m looking forward to
training falcons for duck
hunts,” he said.
High voter turnout
expected in Athens
By BRIAN McDEARMON
mcdearmon@randb.com
Although thousands in Athens-Clarke
County opted to vote early this year, the ACC
Board of Elections still expects a turnout
today of more than 25,000 voters, which could
spell long lines at the polls.
Over the past few weeks, 10,437 voters in
ACC’s 24 precincts cast absentee ballots.
Last week, 7,415 people went to the voting
booths early in hopes of avoiding massive
election day lines.
Early voters encountered long lines
between Monday and Friday last week, but
many said then they expected today’s lines to
be longer.
ACC Board of Elections director Gail
Schrader said although she expects some
lines, with 23 percent of registered voters hav
ing voted already, she doesn’t think they will
be as long as those in past elections.
2004 ELECTION
When: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Where: Your assigned precinct
More information: Call the ACC Board of
Elections at 613-3150
“I feel like we voted the whole town last
week,” Schrader said.
Schrader said she had predicted a 70 per
cent turnout this year, but she said she now
thinks that number likely will be surpassed.
If her prediction is right, this year could see
the highest turnout in Athens since the 1992
general election.
But Athens-Clarke is not the only county
with increased voter participation.
Secretary of State spokesperson Cara
Hodgeson said Monday state officials expect
72 percent of the 4,248,802 registered voters in
Georgia to vote today
>- See VOTING, Page 2
FINAL MEETS AND GREETS
LAUREN CARROLL | The Red & Black
a Many local Athens residents turned out at the Athens Ben Epps Airport
Monday afternoon to show their support for Congressman Max Burns, who is
running for re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives. Burns repre
sents the 12th district of Georgia, which includes the city of Athens and
Clarke County. Burns spoke to a predominantly Republican crowd numbering
approximately 50 people shortly before two planes landed at Ben Epps for
the Democratic Fly-Around. Lieutenant Governor Mark Taylor, U.S. Senate
candidate Denise Majette and Secretary of State Cathy Cox addressed
Democratic supporters and also traveled to Columbus, Milledgeville and
Atlanta.
Steeple fares uncertainty
By DAVID ROGERS
For The Red & Black
In the spring of 1980, R.E.M. played its
first show in a small Gothic-style brick build
ing on Oconee Street that was once a church.
Today, the future of the over 120 year-old
steeple, all that remains from the 1990 demo
lition of the building, is uncertain.
Having little structural support, the
steeple is in danger of falling, making it a lia
bility to the property around it, said Linda
Phillips, founder of Nuci’s Space.
Both Nuci’s Space and the Athens-Clarke
Heritage Foundation would like to see the
steeple preserved.
However, estimates to renovate the
steeple range from $4,000 to $20,000, Phillips
said.
“We’re a nonprofit organization,” she said.
“We don’t have the money to repair it and
make it safe or maintain it.”
Parker & Associates, which manages the
land the steeple is on, has offered the steeple
to Nugi’s Space with the condition that they
preserve it, Phillips said.
She said while they would love to have the
tower for its historical value, right now Nugi’s
cannot justify using the money they raise to
maintain a structure that its contractor said
could only be used as “a big yard ornament.”
The Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation’s
executive director Amy Kissane said the
group would love to see the steeple
maintained but hadn’t yet found anyone to
do so.
Ken Parker of Parker and Associates said
he is going to send roofers to the steeple for
basic repairs but has no other plans for it at
the moment.
The building was built in the 1870s as St.
Mary’s Episcopal Church, a part of what was
then the center of Athens.
In 1945, the church’s bishop gave permis
sion for the building to be used as the Athens
chapter of the American Red Cross.
The building sat abandoned until the
Society for the Preservation of Old Athens
purchased the structure in 1968 and estab
lished a restriction preventing alteration to
the outside.
By the time of R.E.M.’s first gig, the build
ing had been converted to an apartment-
style residence with four or five bedrooms.
KATIE FOLEY | The Red & Black
a The unstable bell tower and steeple
are all that remain standing from St.
Mary’s Episcopal Church in a parking
lot behind Nu9i’s Space. The site was
that of R.E.M.’s first concert in the
spring of 1980.
Members of the group lived in one of the
bedrooms. In the back was a stage and
crowd space where local bands would occa
sionally play
R.E.M. has worked in the past to preserve
historic Athens sites, such as the trestle that
appeared on the “Murmur” album cover.
While the band has not contributed to the
steeple’s preservation, it still holds a personal
regard for the location.
“R.E.M. is supportive of the efforts to pre
serve the steeple, but we miss the church,”
R.E.M manager Bertis Downs said.
INSIDE TODAY
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