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')*A4'pM»Rf?»WQ2007~. www.thlsmodemwor1d.com
| OUR FRIENDS THE AMERICANS
WERE VERY DILIGENT.'
WE CERTAINLY
WEREN'T GOING
TO GIVE THOSE
X THOUGHT
Of THAT
MYSELF!
X'M THE Vm
THINKER-~%
UPPER! (M
IN EARLY 1007, PRESIDENT 8u5H
UNVEILED HIS DECISIVE NEW.
STRATEGY FOR VICTORY!
WE MUST COMMIT TO WINNING
RATHER THAN LOSIN6!
AND IT wasn't long BEFORE ALL
THE INSURGENTS AND TERRORISTS
JUST GAVE UP!
WE surrender; YOUR newfoun
COMMITMENT TO MIINNIN6—
—HAS LEFT US COM
Pl£TELY DISEMBOLDENEI
THE DEATH SQUADS STOPPED MUR
DERING CIVILIANS—AND STARTED
PAINTING SCHOOLS!
IRAN S PRESIDENT COULDN'T BACK
DOWN QUICKLY ENOUGH'
IT WAS Alt A SILLY MlSUNDER
STANDING! You SEE. IN FARSI,
THE PHRASE FOR “NUCLEAR WEAPONS
PROGRAM" IS PHONETICALLY VERT
SIMILAR TO THE PHRASE FOR
"DELICIOUS PASTRY TREATS".*
WHY, EVEN THE TRAITOROUS LIB
ERAL media Finally tossed in
THE TOWEL;
IT'S TRUE--WE DID GO OUT Of
OUR WAY TO EMPHASIZE THE BAD
NEWS FROM IRAQ.'
WE'VE COLLECTIVELY DECIDED
TO RESIGN IN SHAME.
YOU HAVE FOX
NEWS—WHY DO
YOU NEED US?
AND JOE LIE8ERMAN LIVED HAPPILY
EVER AFTER.
in his place." Hamilton tells Flagpole that the
now year-and-a-half old article gave the wrong
impression; he says the decision to run has al
ways been all his own.
Similarly, Jonathan McGinty, the blog's ad
ministrator, responded to the anonymous poster
by calling their impression a "misconception,"
and said, "To say McCarter recruited him is
flat-out wrong." Hamilton describes McCarter
as a neighbor and friend, and says that beyond
their similarity in background (they've both ap
proached politics through neighborhood-level
organizing) there's nothing more in the way of a
connection between him and McCarter. Hamilton
points out that it's nearly impossible to hand
pick a successor anyway, noting that the point is
to convince the electorate of one's own merits.
As for a contest between the first two an
nounced candidates for the seat, Hamilton cites
smart growth and neighborhood protection as
top issues. Herod notes the importance of smart
growth, too, as well as environmental protec
tions. Both emphasize general quality of life and
Athens' unique characteristics as a community.
Ben Emanuel ben@flagpole.com
Commish Business
Corridors & Politics
Despite some misgivings, ACC Commissioners
went ahead at their Feb. 6 voting meeting with
a "corridor management" plan to provide future
design goals for various categories of streets in
the county. Major streets would be designated as
suburban, urban, rural, "transitional," or "scenic"
corridors (like Morton Road), "limited access"
corridors (like the Loop) or "gateway" corridors
(like College Station Road). The "corridor appear
ance program" (as it was first called) came out
of successful streetscape improvements made
before the 1996 Olympics, and
improvements made to Baxter
Street have been its first suc
cess story. The changes along
Baxter have helped draw back
businesses to that area, which was once a prime
business district, but had declined in recent
years.
No major renovations of other streets have
been planned or funded yet; that will be up to
county commissioners. In the meantime, the
corridor plan provides fairly specific guidelines
on inclusion of sidewalks, street trees, and such
amenities. The plan recommends bike lanes only
where specified in the existing Bicycle Master
Plan, and sidewalks along most streets (but
not along "scenic" or "limited access" roads).
At present, sidewalks are required to be built
piecemeal on all roads along with any new de
velopment. Center medians—controversial with
business owners, who feel they limit customer
access—should be considered only "where ac
ceptable to adjacent businesses," the consul
tant-written study says. Curb cuts—driveways
entering businesses—are to be limited in some
corridors, but only to one per business. Grass
strips (between curb and sidewalk) and street
trees (beyond the sidewalk) are recommended for
most urban and suburban streets. The $42,400
consultant-produced study initially recommended
outlawing billboards, but the final version recom
mends banning them only along "scenic" roads,
with "strict limits" elsewhere. To ACC Planning
Director Brad Griffin, the document represents
a "buy-in from the elected officials" (and their
constituents) that gives authority for developing
more specific requirements that might apply to
zoning districts or county street maintenance.
"It's a green light to continue to work on the
more detailed standards," he told Flagpole.
But some commissioners wanted to see the
plan go farther, while county staffers have con
sistently resisted widening its scope. "It's short
of establishing a vision for us," Commissioner
Carl Jordan said at last week's meeting. Jordan
wanted to see policies on overhead utility wires
and methods of slowing down vehicle traffic.
Commissioner Kelly Girtz thought the plan should
also address lighting and how to integrate bus
transit, and should include more specifics about
planting trees. But ACC Manager Alan Reddish
told commissioners he couldn't see going back
and revising it, and Griffin said that, while the
document is supposed to provide a general vi
sion, "it was never intended" to cover traffic-
calming or road design.
Those are the kinds of conflicts that occa
sionally surface between commissioners—who
meet only several times a month and sometimes
advocate far-reaching visions—and Reddish
and his assistants—who must carry out poli
cies as day-to-day managers of the government.
Commissioners make policies, and the man
gers carry them out, but within limits. While
he's typically deferential to commissioners ("I
would suggest to you, commissioner..." is a
frequent refrain), Reddish urged commissioners
at a Legislative Review Committee meeting last
August not to tell him exactly
how he should carry out poli
cies about downtown repre
sentation on local Historic
Preservation Commission
(HPC). "The charter leaves that for the manager
to do," he said. At last week's meeting, com
missioners approved a new requirement that at
least one member of the eight-person HPC—an
appointed board that must approve significant
exterior changes to buildings that lie in Athens-
Clarke's historic districts—must either own
downtown property or have "documented experi
ence in development in historic districts." A core
area of downtown was added last year as the
county's ninth historic district, and the change
to the makeup of the HPC represents a compro
mise with the recommendation of a downtown
citizens' committee that wanted two seats set
aside for downtown property owners. "I recog
nize that not everyone involved in this thinks it's
perfect," said Commissioner Elton Dodson, but
no citizens spoke against the proposal.
> continued on next page
“It’s short of establishing
a vision for us.”
NEWS & FEATURES I ARTS & EVENTS I MOVIES I MUSIC I COMICS & ADVICE- I' CfcASSiflEOS •
FEBRUARY 14,-2007 "fLAGPOLE.COM 5 -
McCarter Quits
District 8 Up For Grabs
The day after their February voting'meeting,
Athens-Clarke County Commissioners learned
that their colleague representing District 8 since
2001, States McCarter, had decided to quit his
post, effective immediately. On Wednesday, Feb.
7, he sent a simple, enigmatic email to constitu
ents and others on his email list, as well as de
livering a letter to ACC Clerk of Commission Jean
Spratlin. According to Spratlin, the official letter
of resignation was similar to the email missive in
that it offered nothing in the way of explanation
for McCarter's resignation.
Since quitting, McCarter has made himself
unavailable for comment either by phone or
email, so any guesses about
his resignation are pure
speculation. His motivation
for resigning aside, there's
also been little in the way
of explaining McCarter's
timing. One detail is inter
esting, however: McCarter's
announcement came 30
business days ahead of the Mar. 20 special elec
tion date that's now been set. State law limits
local special elections to only four days out of
the year; after Mar. 20, the next available date
would be in June. State law also requires a space
of at least 29 days between the announcement of
the election and the day it's held.
(The ACC Board of Elections met on Friday,
Feb. 9 to set the election date, and legal notice
of it was published in the Athens Panner-Herald
Feb. 10. Elections supervisor Gail Schrader says
that the board counted every day of the week,
not just business days, in scheduling the elec
tion, because the law simply reads "days," not
"business days." There are almost 40 days, in
cluding weekends, between Feb. 10 and Mar. 20.)
Because McCarter has made himself unavail
able for comment, it's difficult to evaluate the
significance of the timing of his resignation. It's
also impossible to say whether he was count
ing business days or including weekends in
scheduling his resignation. If the former were
true, it would seem possible that he tendered
his resignation so as to leave only a minimal
amount of time—a week and a half, as it turns
out—for candidates to qualify to run for his
seat. (Candidate qualifying will run from 9 a.m.
on Monday, Feb. 19 until 5 p.m. on Wednesday,
Feb. 21. District 8 residents should also note that
they must be registered to vote by Feb. 19 in
order to vote in the special election.)
So, who's running? At press time, two candi
dates had announced their intentions: insurance
agency owner David Hamilton and UGA professor
Andrew Herod. Both men are well-positioned for
what will be a quick campaign: Hamilton has
just become president of the Cedar Creek Civic
Association and sits on
the steering committee of
citizens appointed to work
on the update of the ACC
Comprehensive Plan. Herod
has been president of the
Green Acres-Crestwood
homeowners' association
since 2003 and of Athens'
Federation of Neighborhoods and Community
Groups since 2004, and he was appointed to the
ACC Planning Commission late in 2006.
Discussion of the two candidates has already
begun on local blogs. An anonymous commenter
on the blog safeashouses.blogspot.com raised
the question of Hamilton's relationship, politi
cally speaking, with McCarter. The impression
seems to exist—it's not clear to what degree—
that Hamilton was essentially hand-picked by
McCarter as a successor in 2005. It $eems to have
come in part from a sentence in a Banner-Herald
article in September of 2005, when McCarter
quit his short-lived run for mayor: "McCarter still
plans to resign his commission post at the end
of 2006, and lined up a candidate, insurance man
David Hamilton, a resident of the same subdivi
sion, Cedar Creek, that McCarter lives in, to run
McCarter’s announcement
came 30 business days ahead
of the Mar. 20 special election
date that’s now been set.
E l So SORRY we VOTED AGAINST j
IN THE PRIMARY.*
IF NOT FOR YOUOW-1
WAVERING SUPPORT [
FOR THE WAR—WHO
KNOWS WHAT MIGHT
HAVE HAPPENED?
m
please;
x'm just
A HUMBLE
PUBLIC
SERVANT-
—WHO
HAPPENS
TO AL
WAYS BE
RIGHT.
THIS MtlhlH WtILI
by TOM TOMORROW
OUR ONLY PROBLEM IS FINDING
SCHOOLS THAT NEED PAINTING.'