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NEWS & FEATURES I ARTS & EVENTS I MOVIES I MUSIC I COMICS & AOVICE I CLASSIFIEDS
Historic Downtown
Tying Up the Loose Ends
A historic core of downtown Athens build
ings got historic-district protection earlier this
month, but it's still up in the air as to just how
downtown interests will be represented in deci
sion-making for the new district. The historic
district is a multi-block area covering the oldest
buildings, where exterior changes or demoli
tions must be approved by the local Historic
Preservation Commission (HPC). Downtown prop
erty owners have asked that two seats on the
HPC be set aside for building owners or others
with a.stake in the area.
But, asked Commissioner Kathy Hoard at the
Athens-Clarke County Commission's legislative
review meeting Aug. 15,
can't downtown owners ap
ply just like anyone else to
join the HPC? Even outside
downtown, she said, some
residents aren't interested
in history as much as they
are in "how much money they can make how
quickly.” Qualifications should go beyond interest
in a specific area, she said.
But Commissioner David Lynn—who chaired
the citizens' committee on the downtown his
toric designation—made the case that downtown
is "sufficiently different” to justify some separate
representation. "The dynamic of construction
downtown is so much different from residential
construction," he said, and it can involve a lot
more money. And whether the criticism is war
ranted or not, Lynn pointed out, some say the
county takes too long to approve new projects.
It's in the larger part of downtown—outside
"The dynamic of construction
downtown is so much different
from residential construction."
$ UPCOMING $
ATHENS-AREA MEETINGS
Please note: times, dates, and locations
of some of these meetings are subject
to change. Check back with local gov
ernment websites for updates and infor
mation on additional meetings.
Aug. 23,4 p.m. Historic Preservation Commission
Designation Committee—120 Dougherty St.
Aug. 28,5:30 p.m. Partners for a Prosperous
Athens Volunteer Fair—Clarke Central High
School
Aug. 28. £30 p.m. Madison County Board of
Commissioners—Madison County Government
Complex
Aug, 28,7 p.m. Partners for a Prosperous Athens
Regular Meeting—Clarke Central High School
Aug. 29,7 p.m. Oconee County Board of
Commissioners Agenda Meeting—Oconee County
Courthouse
Sept 5,7 pjn. ACC Mayor & Commission—City
Hall
Sept 5.7 p.m. Oconee County Board of
Commissioners—Oconee County Courthouse
Sept 7,7 pjn. ACC Planning Commission—120
Dougherty St.
the historically protected core—where most
new growth is expected to occur. Less-stringent
design guidelines have been proposed for that
area, and a proposed "urban design committee"
will hear appeals for "exceptional designs" that
don't fit the visual guidelines, Lynn said, 4 forms
of architecture that we can't even foresee right
now." Lynn's committee wants the urban design
committee to also function as "a separate plan
ning commission for downtown"—a suggestion
that didn't go down well with the present ACC
Planning Commission.
”1 think there was unanimous opposition,"
Planning Director Brad Griffin explained to
county commissioners on behalf o ( the Planning
Commission, a standing board of citizens
who make recommendations to the Mayor and
Commission about land-use issues. Planning
Commissioners feel that those recommendations
should be made in the
context of a broad, county
wide view based on Athens-
Clarke's written land-use
plan. Griffin said.
But, argued Lynn,
"We're really talking about
appearance-based issues"—and the Planning
Commission never rejects designs based on ap
pearances. "We don't ever say, 'Your building's
ugly, we're not going to let you build it that
way,'” Lynn said. That, he said, is what a design
committee is supposed to do. The much-criticized
Gameday Center at the west end of downtown
"aotted every I and crossed every T" of county
ordinances. Lynn said, but that didn't make it an
appropriate desiyn. "Why not just have one body
that's qualified to do both?” he asked.
And ACC Manager Alan Reddish urged the com
missioners at the meeting to outline their con
cerns about downtown representation to his of
fice, rather than to make all the decisions them
selves. "The charter leaves that for the manager
to do,” he said. The legislative review committee
will continue to discuss the issue next month.
John Huie iphuie@speedladory.nel
Electronic Recount
What’s the Point?
When Athens lawyer Bill Overend formally
requested a recount last week in the election for
Solicitor General, there was little argument that
performing a recount was the appropriate course
of action. The vote totals from election night
showed Overend trailing C.R. Chisholm by only 33
votes. With a margin that was less than one per
cent of the total number of votes cast. Overend
was entitled by law to an automatic recount if
he requested it. But since 2002, Georgia has
been using electronic vot
ing machines. (According to
the website electionline.org.
Georgia is one of 15 states
that use electronic voting
machines and do not require
"voter-verified paper audit
trails," i.e., ballot receipts.)
So, a recount nowadays in
a state like Georgia involves no hanging chads,
no arguing over whether votes were cast or not,
no poll workers laboring long hours to determine
the winner.
What does a recount involve in the era of
electronic voting? Not much. "What we do is
upload all the memory cards again," says ACC
elections supervisor Gail Schrader. On election
day, each voting machine (there are three per
precinct) saves all of its results internally and on
“The funny thing about this
sort of thing is that no one
ever thinks it’s going to
happen in the big elections.”
THIS MOBfctM W«KLB
TAKING TERROR SERIOUSLY! A HANDY GUIDE
by TOM TOMORROW
SERIOUS: CONFRONTING TERRORISM
HERD-ON BY STARTING WARS IN
UNRELATED COUNTRIES.
OUR TROOPS WILL BE GREETED WITH
SHOWERS of ROSE PETALS-
ISLAM Of ASClST LEADERS THROUGH
OUT THE REGION SHALL FEAR OUR
MIGHTY WRATH!
ONLY A
SERIOUS
can under:
HOW WELL
WILL
SERIOUS: using news of a
FOILED TERROR PLOT TO SCORE
POLITICAL POINTS AGAINST DEM
OCRATS.
NOT SERIOUS: trying to Figure
dUT WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED.
If IT S TRUE THAT MANY Of THE
SUSPECTS DIDN'T EVEN HAVE PASS
PORTS—t don't understand how
AN ATTACK COULD HA*- SEEN
IMMINENT*!
a memory card which poll workers remove when
the election is over. That night, all the memory
cards are fed into a central server at the Board
of Elections office downtown. Together with the
cards from the five machines used for early vot
ing, plus the optical scans of the paper absentee
ballots that arrive in the mail, these results make
up the vote totals. The procedure doesn't change
for the recount. "We do that on election night,
and then we do the same thing again, just to
make sure we've got it right," Schrader explains.
So why do a recount? Mostly, for the same
reasons recounts have always been done: to
check and make suie, for the sake of voters'
rights as much as candidates', that all the vote
counting went according to
plan. Still, recounts seem
a little bit less relevant in
the age of electronic vot
ing, when the results are
less likely to change very
much. John Neiman is a
new professor in UGA's law
school—he doesn't special
ize in election law, but while in private practice
he helped represent Alabama Governor Bob Riley
in a recount dispute stemming from the 2002
election. Neiman points out that all recounts
raise some basic questions to begin with: If
we're not comfortable with the election results
the first time around, what makes a second
count any more reliable? But while conventional
recounts seem more and more to leave lingering
questions, Neiman agrees that electronic ones,
and procedures like the one used here in Athens,
present their own problems. "It sounds like it
just renders the whole recount useless," he says.
The recount in the relatively low-profile race
for ACC Solicitor General may have been more of
a formality than anything else, but it begs the
question of how the voting public would feel
about an electronic recount in a race with more
on the line. "The funny thing about this sort of
thing is that no one ever thinks it’s going to hap
pen in the big elections," Neiman says. He points
out that the Alabama state legislature moved to
reform recounts there after the dispute involving .
the 2002 election—but it seems to take a case of
that magnitude to move anyone to action. "There
has to be a huge slip-up at a major level for any
change to be made," Neiman says. "No one ever
anticipates this kind of thing happening."
Oh, and the results of last week's recount in
the Solicitor General's race? No change.
Ben Emanuel ben@1lagpole com
OR
MAN.
X GUESS m JUST TOO
COMPLICATED FOR A
NINCOMPOOP LIKE ME
to understand;
GOODNESS
THANK
SERIOUS
FOR
PEOPLE
LA
LA
LA
LA
Stream Buffers
When Rubber Eits Road
A new restaurant proposed for Lexington Road
will be built on land adjacent to Tuckston United
Methodist Church. The site features two small
intermittent streams, so earlier this year, its
developers asked for a variance (an exemption)
6 FLAGPOLE.COM • AUGUST 23,2006