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THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2021
Opinions
“Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost
omnipotent. Henry Ward Beecher
Mike Buffington, editor • Email: Mike@mainstreetnews.com
Jefferson needs investment in its downtown
As the Municipal World Turns: Last week saw two ma
jor moves in upcoming local elections with the withdraw
al of two high-profile candidates from races.
In Jefferson, Mike Martin withdrew from the District
2 city council race fol
lowing ongoing con
troversy between him
and the council over
his downtown tap-
room.
In Commerce, Stacy
Rucker withdrew from
the Ward 1 city council
race after facing a blis
tering attacked from an
opponent who argued
that she didn’t live in
the city and so couldn’t
run for any council po
sition.
• ••
Of the two withdrawals, the issue in Jefferson has
broader ramifications for the long term while the Com
merce situation seems to have been more limited in scope.
That's because Rucker apparently didn’t live in Com
merce. She used a city address on her candidate qualifica
tion form, but that was for a house owned by the family of
incumbent councilman Archie Chaney.
Candidate Andre Rollins challenged Rucker on her can
didacy and a healing was slated last week to air the issue.
Rucker withdrew before that hearing happened.
Rollins appeared to have evidence that Rucker had vot
ed in Banks County as recently as last January. Others also
indicted that Rucker really wasn’t a Commerce resident.
Rollins, who currently sits on the city planning com
mission, wasn’t just upset with Rucker, he was also upset
with city officials whom he said should have never let her
become a candidate in the first place.
Still, that situation will likely fade in the coming weeks,
but I’m not sure the situation in Jefferson will go away
quickly.
• ••
That’s because Martin’s withdrawal from the District 2
race really doesn’t address the underlying issues.
City officials believe they have been accommodating to
Martin’s business, a taproom on the South Square. The
city changed its alcohol ordinances to allow his business
to proceed when it became clear that it wouldn’t meet the
food requirements and it gave him special use permits for
events he hosted.
But after several area businesses complained about the
impact of those events on the town’s limited parking, the
city began to pull back.
The matter then became a heated back-and-forth with
what officials said was a lot of misinformation on social
media.
For his part, Martin said city officials were “liars” and
had misrepresented him.
The situation quickly became a heated mess.
Last week, Martin pulled out of the race, saying he
wanted to spend more time focusing on his family.
• ••
One irony of this is that Martin gave the city what it had
long wanted — an anchor business downtown that would
draw crowds of people.
It was that kind of business the city sought to develop
when it re-did the town squares and added wider side
walks for outside dining. At one point, the city even ran
off a small church from meeting in a building at the South
Square, fearing it would prevent a restaurant that might
want to serve alcohol from locating in the area.
But while city officials have long wanted a big draw
for downtown, they were unprepared for the demands
Martin’s business made on the city, from allowing food
trucks to using more of the area for outside events. The
city scrambled to create new codes to deal with all of that,
something that obviously began to wear thin with officials
who have other issues in the town to deal with, too.
• ••
Still, the overall issue points out two big weaknesses in
Jefferson.
First, is a lack of parking. That’s been an issue for the
last two decades.
The city could do like Braselton has done and barrow
money to build a parking deck, but so far that idea hasn’t
gotten much energy. Unlike Braselton, Jefferson leaders
don’t like risk-taking, or spending money today for a fu
ture return on investment.
But the truth is, surface parking isn’t going to solve Jef
ferson’s problem, now or ever. Without a parking deck,
downtown will suffer in the long run.
The second problem is the lack of a city greenspace
to hold events. The only thing downtown are streets and
parking lots, all of which have to be shutdown for July 4th
and other special events in the city.
There are some areas where it might be possible to cre
ate a town green, but so far that doesn't appear to be a
priority in the town.
The situation calls for Jefferson to undertake some large
capital improvement projects if it wants to keep down
town viable. The town will never attract the kind of bou
tique restaurants or businesses it desires without parking
and without a place to hold events.
• ••
So why doesn't the city do that?
I’m not sure. Jefferson has long done large projects in
spurts and stops, never consistently and often with little
forethought.
Jefferson has been very successful in a lot of ways: It
has built a strong industrial base of businesses and indus
try: it has a strong school system that lures people to the
community; and it has a relatively low crime rate, some
thing that’s important to those looking to move into the
town.
Despite that success, the city has often floated with little
clear direction.
Some years ago, I wrote a column that likened the town
to a ship without a rudder. Although improved, that still
seems to be the case.
For one thing, the city has never really found its footing
with its city manager form of government. While it has
greatly improved its financial performance and account
ability over the last decade, it hasn’t gotten the kind of
strong leadership it needs on a day-to-day basis.
Coasting. That’s about the best word I can find that de
scribes the city right now.
Some like that status quo approach. A lot of citizens
probably don’t want the town to undertake large capital
projects and the debt they create, fearing it will impact
their taxes. A previous mayor said as much during his ten
ure, a position that was mostly supported by the council.
Still, Jefferson’s downtown is at a critical juncture. Un
less there is some new investment, some new energy, the
downtown will eventually fade.
If Jefferson aspires to be like Swanee, or Lawrenceville,
or Braselton, or Clarksville, places with vibrant down
towns, pedestrian spaces, and restaurants, it will have to
make some hefty investments.
If not, it can watch as suburban growth of strip malls
and new shopping districts surround the community and
the downtown becomes a place of empty storefronts.
Mike Buffington is co-publisher of Mainstreet Newspa
pers. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.
The Jackson Herald
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Let’s stop arguing about vaccine
Dear Editor:
We recently acknowledged the 20th
anniversary of the deadly attacks by ter
rorists on 9/11. Almost 3000 brave and
innocent Americans were killed. As of
September 14, 2021, almost 664,000
Americans have been killed by Covid.
That means that less than 1/2 of 1%
represents the number of people killed
on 9/11 compared to America’s Covid
deaths.
Banks County has less than 26% fully
vaccinated citizens. Georgia is at 54%.
Now one in every 440 Georgians has
died from Covid. Over 22,000 have been
killed in our state.
What would our response be as Ameri
cans, if some foreign enemy caused death
to 664,000 of our citizens? Would half of
us be arguing about whether to respond to
such an attack? Wouldn’t we all be driven
by a sense of patriotism and loyalty to de
feat that enemy?
What will it take for us as Americans
to come to the understanding that unless
we do something , this virus will continue
to kill thousands more Americans? When
will it ever end? Denial, mistrust of sci
ence and failure to get safe vaccines will
lead us to the path of destruction.
Lastly, given the situation at our hospi
tals, I hope none of us have family mem
bers or friends who need
elective or emergency surgery but can
not have it because almost all of the ICU
beds are full of unvaccinated citizens. We
owe it to our children to give them a fu
ture free from this deadly virus and new
viruses/diseases yet to come.
Sincerely,
Cliff Jolliff
Maysville
I just want us well
By Zach Mitcham
I’m excruciatingly tired of two things
right now: covid and our political divide.
We are a nation with both literal and fig
urative sickness — an actual vims that has
claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and
a partisan cultural breakdown that is crip
pling us.
I just had covid. Maybe I’ll see some ef
fects over time — I wouldn’t put anything
past covid; it’s a biological wildcard — but
thankfully, it was mild. I had the Pfizer vac
cine in the spring, and I had a low-grade
fever and some pretty bad sinus pain for
a couple of days recently with the virus.
Then it passed. I was so glad to have had
the shots, given the numerous sad stories
and straggles I’ve heard about many who
avoided them.
There is no “expert” on my resume on
any subject. And I certainly don’t know
the mechanics of the vaccine. I don’t know
the science of planes either, but I still get
on them when needed. If I need medicine,
I take it. I try to know what I can about the
possibilities, but I don’t know everything —
and never will.
We live in a world of collective knowl
edge stacked on top of other collective
knowledge. None of us have the full picture
of all the innovation that has had to happen
for us to enjoy our modern life, with its cars,
bridges, computers, dentistry, etc. Science
and human innovation surround us at every
turn. The clothes you wear right now have
a multi-layered story behind them, a fabric
of agriculture, manufacturing and distribu
tion, each with their own development over
time. Just think of how awesome ice cream
is in terms of human history. A large Dairy
Queen hot fudge sundae is $3.39 and a tasty
treat, though nothing we think much about,
but put that in Biblical times and it would
have seemed Biblical to the taste buds, like
an impossible cold gift from heaven.
I guess what I’m getting at is this: we
are focused on the vaccine right now be
cause of our politics, not our science, which
achieved something truly worth celebrating
in response to this global challenge. We
tend to be selective in what science we ap
preciate and what science we hate, depend
ing on our own feelings about the world.
That’s me, too. I have all kinds of worries
about where technology is leading us.
But this vaccine fight, it’s not about the
science at this point. I say this because the
science is holding up in the hospitals. The
people who have had the vaccine aren’t
getting as sick as those who haven’t gotten
the shots. That’s just an indisputable fact.
A new variant could make the vaccines less
effective. That’s true, too, but the vaccine
has hugely reduced the risk of hospitaliza
tion and death from covid. And these vac
cines already have saved many lives. That’s
a point that doesn’t get made enough. We
focus on many negatives, but there’s a huge
positive: many people haven’t gotten des
perately sick who might have otherwise
without the shots. I include myself in that,
and thankfully, I didn’t have to live through
that alternate reality three weeks ago where
I’m covid-positive and not vaccinated. It
might have been the same, or it might have
been much worse. I’m thankful not to know.
Think about it: the chicken pox vaccine is
not political, neither is the polio or tetanus
shot. Small pox was a recurring scourge of
human history. No more, though. The poli
tics surrounding those vaccines didn’t tank
the efforts. I wonder, if a vaccine was devel
oped that eliminated or took the teeth out of
cancer, would we tear ourselves apart polit
ically to deny it, or would we line up to get
it? Would even a cure for cancer collapse
now in our political angst and fractured re
alities?
We are certainly a nation in a collective
crisis regarding power. And in this climate
of vicious politics, my body/my choice is
a kind of battle cry on both left and right
regarding bodily autonomy. Abortion is a
war about life itself, and what value will
take precedence in our society. It’s fierce
and emotional, no matter your position.
Vaccines have now fallen into the same
kind of political realm: Can the government
dictate what happens with my body? That’s
treacherous territory politically on both is
sues. And just as it’s true that an abortion
is not just a medical procedure, but also a
decision of yes or no on another life, that
same argument goes in the vaccine debate:
remaining unvaccinated is not just decision
about your own body; your decision affects
others. If you doubt the science on this, then
consider how many non-covid medical is
sues are getting pushed aside for all the un
vaccinated filling up the hospitals. It’s never
a good time to have a heart attack, but man,
it’s particularly bad now.
I can’t help but wonder, what if covid
was a country, not a disease? Say China at
tacked us and killed more than 660,000 of
us. That would be a war of epic proportions.
If the U.S. government said, we need you
to take X action to help us defeat China,
would you? Basically, if China attacks us,
is the U.S. a “we” or a “me” nation? I sup
pose covid is different than this. It certainly
is visually, but I don’t see much difference
morally. Do you? If so, I’d like to hear that
explained.
I also think of the phrase, “we’re all in the
same boat,” which is pretty true figuratively.
But then I think about an actual boat and
rough water. What if we’re in a real boat in
troubled water? We need to get to the other
side. You’re rowing in the direction of safe
ty, trying to push us through the danger. Is it
my right to row the opposite direction, leav
ing us stranded in the middle of the raging
water? Hey, it’s my body, my paddle.
If you’re unvaccinated, I might have
ticked you off. But that wasn’t my aim.
During all this craziness, and all this in
formational chaos. I can understand all
kinds of emotional reactions to our weird,
bad days. I also understand being fiercely
against being told what to do. No one en
joys that. I don’t either.
But unless covid declares itself a Repub
lican or Democrat, we need to treat covid
as a completely apolitical problem. Because
that’s actually what it is. And we have vac
cines that help humans, not just Democrats,
not just Republicans.
And maybe you can dismiss this as me
being political. Or maybe, you can recog
nize that I don’t like being sick, I don’t like
seeing people sick, and I don’t like seeing
my country so sick. When we have reme
dies, I just want us to take them. I just want
us well. Do you?
Zach Mitcham is editor of The Madi
son County Journal. He can be reached at
zach @ mainstreetnews. com.