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SHIPS AND BICYCLES
ANCHORS AWEIGH?
"Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth.'
The Bible is referring to giving alms, but the saying could apply
to our community's approach to our Navy School right now. Mayor
Davison has appointed an authority composed of local citizens who
are to get on with figuring out what to do next with the facility.
Meanwhile, our local committee to save the school is readying a
last-ditch effort to convince the base-dosing commission to take
the school off the hit list
Apparently, we more or less have to do both at once at this
stage of the game. Mayor Davison says Gen. Browning, the head of
the state committee to hold onto bases, told all communities with
bases that they had to appoint a 'local redevelopment authority,'
and the mayor did that at the end of March, though it wasn't
announced until last week, so as not to look like we were giving up
too soon. •
Jim bo LaBoon and our two former commandants of the Navy
School, Len Sapera and George Huban, certainly are not giving up.
They have headed the local effort to save the base, and although
they're shipping serious water, they're stockpiling their powder for a
broadside at the Base Realignment And Closure Commission on June
30 in Atlanta.
We thought we were going to get a chance over here to demon
strate to B RAC representatives how much Athens loves the Navy
School but we won't Instead, a member of the BRAC commission
eased into town Wednesday and had a quick look at the school
LaBoon had to grit his teeth and attend to banking business, but
Sapera and Huban, along with Mayor Davison and a representative
from Rep. John Barrow's office (not the congressman) accompanied
retired Admiral Harold Gehman on his quick tour.
Sapera says he was very favorably impressed with the questions
Adm. Gehman asked. 'He's very straightforward, professional and
credible,' Sapera says. 'He chaired the commission looking into the
crash of the space shuttle Columbia... He was Vice-Chief of Naval
Operations. I like this guy: he's tough." Sapera says that if the
whole base-closing commission is composed of people like Adm.
Gehman, he's confident Athens will at least get a fair hearing.
Sapera says his committee has finally received the voluminous
file of data used by the Department of Defense to recommend
closing the Navy SchooL Assisted by consultants in Washington
(who include some of the staff of former Sen. Sam Nunn), the local
committee is preparing its case, which Sapera says will examine two
points: the military value of the base in Athens and the cost or sav
ings to the taxpayers if it is kept open here.
The base-closing commission can decide to keep the Navy School
here, but Sapera admits the odds are '90-10 against" right now.
Meanwhile, t»Se mayor's committee, composed of the usual sus
pects and a token neighborhood resident—heavy UGA representa
tion, no students, apparently no Hispanics, no downtown business
people, nobody from the music community—all capable community
leaders, will begin looking into where we go from here if LaBoon &
Co. go down with all guns blazing and the Navy School closes.
TOE IN THE SPOKES
Seems like I remember States McCarter saying he isn't going to
run for commissioner any more after this term, so it may be too
late to run anybody against him, but surely local bicyclists will
have a bike-friendly candidate to support next time around. Biking
is not easy in Athens, and few pretend it is. But to hear
Commissioner McCarter talk, bicycling is impossible. States
McCarter is the poster boy for the attitude that has been •'vercome
and transcended in other places that recognize what cycling can do
for their communities and their citizens. Instead,of discouraging
our government from making this a bike-friendly community, let us
hope that McCarter's successor will understand that the first step is
for the government to make up its mind that everything it does
regarding streets and sidewalks (and greenway? and rails/ trails)
should be done with pedestrians and cyclists in mind, as well as
motorists.
I have seen McCarter riding his one-speedi, and he claims to
have ridden it around in his district I wish he could find some
other gear for his mouth except the one that keeps him riding
backward and holds Athens back, too.
Some day, when our planning department and our transporta
tion and public works departments have committed themselves to
thinking proactively about cycling and walking, as well as driving,
and a much higher percentage of our citizens arq out in the open
air cycling and walking to work, we'll occasionally look back at this
period, and it will be hard to believe that our government could
have been so hard to convince that automobiles aren't the only
way to go.
Pete McCommons Editor & Publisher
DM Me...
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STREET ADDRESS: 112 South Foundry Street, Athens, GA 30601
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EDITOR A POBUSHEJt Pete McCommons ADVERT1SIM6 DIRECTOR A
PUBLISHER Alicia Nickles PRODUCTIOR DIRECTOR Larry Termer
MAMASM6 EDITOR Margaret Moore ADYERTlSlMfi SALES Anita Aubrey.
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Crosby, Patrick Dean ADOPT ME Cindy Jarrell ABC Chris Hassiotis, Ben
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ADVERTISES INTERNS Erica Goss, Phi Nguyen, Jessica Pritchard
COVER DESEN Keifer Ruberto featuring a detail of a work entitled
“Seaweed" by Catherine Hart on display at OCAFS Southworks exhibit
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VOLUME 19
ISSUE NUMBER 21
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