Newspaper Page Text
OPEN LETTER
To Commissioner States McCarter, re: April
Newsletter. States, thanks for another fine
newsletter. I appreciate that you are always on
top of important issues and that you keep your
neighbors informed. As you requested, I offer
comments.
I guess I am pleased, as you suggest I should
be, about the entry road the ACC will build
through the property behind the Georgetown
Shopping Center. This new road will help reduce
traffic on the north-south Barnett Shoals Road
because the thousands of new residents along the
East-West Barnett Shoals Road will be able to
enter the Kroger-Kmart-Publix shopping center
without having to drive on the north-south sec
tion of Barnett Shoals between Green Acres
Shopping Center and the Kroger-Publix shopping
center. I regret that two fine stores—Kroger and
Publix—will be competing within yards of each
other. But the new entry road should reduce the
growth of traffic on a section of Baniett Shoals
Road ill-equipped to handle the traffic now
flowing there.
I hope ACC will provide shoppers and Eastside
neighborhoods with more than a minimal entry
road as part of this late phase of the Barnett
Shoals Road Improvement Project. The improve
ment project has widened and resurfaced Barnett
Shoals Road and provided much-needed rainwater
management and a new sidewalk along the east
side of Barnett Shoals. But the improvements
have also created a Snellville effect, with loss of
trees, no bike lanes, no median, little improve
ment in pedestrian safety and too many curb cuts.
We got a road that will attract more traffic to a
shopping center too small to accommodate two
major food stores and a big-box discount retailer.
CONTACT US AT P.0. BOX 1027, ATHENS, GA 30603, EDITOR@FLAGPOLE.COM
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Soon the Georgetown Shopping Center will be
razed for yet more asphalt I hope that you and
your fellow commissioners will insist that the new
entry road and the Kmart-Publix parking areas
provide trees, bike lanes and sidewalks.
Developers might follow the example of the reno
vated parking lot in front of Kroger at tta Alps
Road shopping center, a lot which includes attrac
tive raised sidewalks and several trees. I applaud
ACC as it tries to balance the needs of disabled
pedestrians and small businesses on downtown
sidewalks. I ask the commission to exert similar
efforts to establish and maintain usable, safe
sidewalks and other amenities on the Eastside.
Constructing a new entrance to the Kmart-Publix
shopping center provides an opportune time for
ACC to insist that pedestrians, shoppers and
neighborhoods be served in the Barnett Shoals
Road Improvement Project.
Too often Eastside neighborhoods and pedes
trians are shortchanged, even as the city-county
government makes improvements. A new road was
recently built into the Kmart shopping center
across from Green Acres Shopping Center, but no
sidewalk was installed. There is no sidewalk along
the entranceway to Kroger across from Green Acres
Baptist Church. When the intersection of Barnett
Shoals Road and College Station was repaved
recently, the sidewalks were summarily closed for
months. I have never again seen the citizen in the
electric wheelchair who used to cross there.
Sidewalks were also closed for months along
Gaines School Road, in front of Food Lion, during
construction, forcing pedestrians into the street
and effectively blocking younger children from
walking to Hilsman Middle School and Gaines
School Elementary. An older sidewalk in front of
Food Lion spills children, the disabled and the
able-bodied into a right-turn traffic lane. A tele
phone pole—carrying wires that should have been
buried—is planted in the middle of the freshly
resurfaced sidewalk on Barnett Shoals Road in
front of Eckerd Drug. A fire hydrant was removed
from the same location only at the request of a
bewildered citizen. High school students in wheel
chairs are unable to access the buttons activating
a new pedestrian crossing signal across from Cedar
Shoals High SchooL Signs reminding drivers to
yield to pedestrians are too few and ineffective
along Barnett Shoals Road.
I am pleased that ACC will construct a new
entry road to the Kmart-Publix shopping center.
With that expenditure, I hope the ACC will also
buy or negotiate the sidewalks, bikeways and
trees that the commission installs and maintains
elsewhere. The Eastside has benefited from SPLOST
road widening. But the improvements unneces
sarily lack simple, functioning, amenities that
would help to preserve a neighborhood scale. I
don't need to tell you that vibrant neighborhoods
on the Eastside deserve attractive, tree-lined side
walks and safe, functioning crosswalks. It's a
matter of proportion as the area develops. Thanks
for all you do to preserve the Eastside neighbor
hoods as the population and commerce increase.
Kent Middleton
Athens
ALL HAIL!
I know I will probably get slammed by the
local loyalists, but here I go. Why does it seem
like everybody at the Flagpole and a few locals
worship R.E.M. so much? Is it something expected
if you come to Athens? Okay, they help put Athens
on the map as a musical place along with many
others. And they made the Big Time. But to still
grace them in the Flagpole all the time, that's kind
of funny to me. Are they paying you to do it?
They are in Rolling Stone, so why still the
Flagpole 7 . And if you don't like them, you are
given funny looks. To me, there have been a lot of
other bands better or just as good as R.E.M. and
they get overlooked. Plus when you see R.E.M.
around town they give off a rockstar stance. Like,
'look at me but don't talk to me,' which I
wouldn't You may like and/ or love them. More
power to you. Is it because you are supposed to
or do you really like them? Like a lot of other
famous bands. Some stuff is okay, and some
stuffs not B'jt some people think R.E.M. is rock
royalty because they live here. Think about it
Thanks for listening to me.
Jamie Benko
Athens
BARROW’S VOTE
I thought it should be mentioned in the local
paper that Rep. John Barrow voted in support of
the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act a
decision that forces the government into private
family matters, and endangers the lives of young
women who may need the help of another respon
sible adult because of the threat of violence at
home, or cases of rape or incest
The House bill would impose fines, jail time or
both on adult confidants who accompany minors
across state lines to circumvent parental notifica
tion or consent laws. It would penalize doctors
who perform the procedure under such conditions.
And in states without parental notification laws,
the bill would require abortion providers to notify
a parent Major medical associations including the
American Medical Association, the American
College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the
American College of Physicians, and the American
Acupuncture Center of Athens
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4 FLAGP0LE.COM MAY 11, 2005