Newspaper Page Text
Now Open!
ATHENS AREA
HUMANE SOCIETY’S
' brand new
adoption
location
Come by and meet
Wendy
t the Alps Shopping Center.
Hours at the new Adoption Outreach Center are as follows:
Mon*Thurs lpm-7pm • Friday Closed • Saturday 12-5 • Sunday 1-5
Intakes will be at 399 Beaverdam Road by appointment only.
Call 706-353-2287 to schedule.
2007
ACC ANIMAL ATHENS AREA HUMANE SOCIETY
CONTROL 15 Total Cats Received
25 Dogs Received 6 Cats Placed
12 Dogs Placed 0 AdoptaWe Cats Euthanized
NEWS & FEATURES I ARTS & EVENTS I MOVIES I MUSIC I COMICS & ADVICE I CLASSIFIEDS
APRIL 18.2007 • FLAGP0LE.COM 5
On College Avenue, someone with a can of spraypaint has a comment on the shape of things to come.
utilities). But the county discovered that Charter
had underpaid its fees, which the companies
sometimes try to do, she said. Turner routinely
goes to bat for local cable subscribers about
customer service issues, but that could end since
state legislators passed a bill (HB 227) promoted
by cable and telephone companies, she told
Flagpole. “It's really mostly being driven by the
telephone companies, because they want to get
into the cable business, and they don't want to
have to negotiate with individual communities."
Cable companies will still pay right-of-way fees,
but "under-served areas will become more under
served," Turner said, and customer service issues
will become unenforceable.
The bill, heavily lobbied for by AT&T, passed
the State Senate in a landslide vote Apr. 11, and,
at press time, awaits the governor's signature.
Media activists have argued in vain that the
bill—which, they point out, impacts high-speed
Internet access, too—will likely do the op
posite of its claims of increasing competition.
"It's a sweet deal for cable providers, but not
for Georgia rate-payers or citizens," wrote Bruce
Dixon of the Southern Center for Media Justice in
an opinion piece distributed to state news out
lets prior to the bill's senate passage.
John Huie jphuie@speedtactor>.net
Fire Code Fixes
Sinking in Downtown
Although it's been a jittery spring for some
downtown restaurant owners as fire department
officials dot the i's and cross the t's on fire code
compliance, some of those negatively affected by
changes say the department has done as much as
the owners could ask for in working with them
on the problems. Fire Marshal Kyle Hendrix and
Chief Iby George have lately been in the unenvi
able position of having to tell some restaurant
owners that their occupancy limits are actually
lower than they thought: lower, that is, than
prior department officials had listed them. ("They
are in a bit of a pickle," observes David Cappi
of DePalma's.) Other restaurant's numbers are
staying the same or actually going higher as of
ficials check up on them. And while an article in
last week's Flagpole detailed some of the reasons
behind the changes, the fallout from the changes
for specific businesses is an unknown quantity
that's still being determined.
At Gyro Wrap on Broad Street, longtime
owner David Carter is still very concerned about
a potentially significant reduction from the 70-
person occupancy rating he's had for many years;
a meeting with Hendrix last week to take a look
at his numbers allayed some of his fears, but not
all. "It's been one of those worrisome things,"
Carter says, "but I feel a lot better about it than
I did." While he doesn't know yet what number
he'll end up with, he has reason to believe it
won't be as low as a drastic one initially suggest
ed earlier this year. "They're trying to work with
us, but it's still a little bit up in the air," he says.
Down the street at Speakeasy, co-owner Diana
Fairbairn is less concerned. That's in part be
cause after receiving a drastic decrease, the store
contacted Hendrix, who discovered a mistake
in its calculations, she says. Another revision
brought the number back up: not to its original
level, but to one that she expects won't be too
damaging. At her other store, the tiny Five Star
Day Cafe, the new occupancy limit is to be 35
people, she says. That's down five from the 40
chairs that typically were in the place, though
the listed occupancy was still 49: it hadn't bee i
updated (before this year) since Five Star reorga
nized its extra-cosy interior four years ago.
Fairbairn says she feels most badly for newer
businesses like Amici, whose case was detailed in
an Athens Banner-Herald article Mar. 23. Because
Amici has only one exit under code (a back door
through its kitchen doesn't count), word was
that its capacity would be reduced to just 49
people. An update on the situation at Amici was
unavailable at press time.
Also on Broad Street, Cappi at DePalma's is
resigned to a 16-person reduction but praises
what he calls the "forthright" and "very agree
able" attitude fire department officials have
taken with the issue. They've been fair and open,
he says, "in the attempt to keep people safe and
keep the businesses open." In fact, his initial
revision this year took his occupancy from 150
down to 124, but in working with Hendrix, the
two found room for another 10 in more precise
calculations. The "150" went up on the wall,
Cappi says, when he expanded and remodeled
in 2001, and gave the department an architec
tural rendering of the space. Why didn't that
provide an accurate number? "I* seems like a
gross negligence that that wasn't done when our
architectural rendering was handed in," Cappi
says. Indeed, questions linger—but answers are
not forthcoming from ACC officials—about the
inaccuracies and out-of-date records that seem
to have piled up under Hendrix's and George's
predecessors in the department.
Restaurant owners, though, recognize the
need for safety and compliance regardless of
past practices. Says Carter, "Everybody feels the
same way: we want to do what's right. Everybody
wants the safety issue to be in the forefront."
With efforts being made in that direction, the
question remains if some businesses will be
ruined by the revisions. But the process is neces
sarily case-by-case. If your business has a seri
ous issue with its occupancy limit, contact the
Flagpole city editor at the address below.
Ben Emanuel ben@ilagpole.com
Park-and-Ride
Commish Don’t Like It
Asked last week to pick a site for a proposed
park-and-ride lot for bus commuters, Athens-
Clarke County (ACC) Commissioners were less
than delighted with any of their options, and
even discussed returning the $2.7-million fed
eral grant. That seems unlikely, but the location
pegged by county staffers as making the most
sense—College Station Road at Loop 10—hasn't
been a favorite of commissioners, who have fa
vored negotiating to use "existing asphalt" (like
shopping center parking lots).
"I don't think Athens-Clarke County is really
the community to have a park-and-ride lot,"
Commissioner David Lynn, a former transit plan
ner, said at the Commission's work session Apr.
10. He suggested Oconee County, but the grant
requires the lot to be built in Clarke, and no
Athens buses now run outside the county anyway.
The College Station Road location was never
popular with commissioners. At a previous meet
ing, they initially dropped it from the list, asking
staffers to investigate shopping center loca
tions farther out, or a Lexington Road location
at Loop 10, the location rated second-best by a
county consultant. Commissioners also included
for study the staff-suggested parking lot of the
Assembly of God Church on College Station Road,
but hadn't discussed it with the church. They
soon heard from church members who insisted
they don't want to participate. And shopping
center owners are also "very cool to the idea" of
leasing part of their parking lots to the county,
ACC Transportation and Public Works Director
David Clark said. The proposed College Station
location would be publicly owned, but there are
other reasons county staffers prefer it: frequent
bus service (six UGA or Athens city buses pass
there each hour) and high volumes of existing
car traffic. The grant requires construction to be
completed by 2010; commissioners will probably
have to decide next month where the lot—or
possibly two smaller lots—will go. That, or send
the money back to Uncle Sam.
Last week, they seemed unusually unenthu-
siastic about their options. "I wish I felt like I
wanted to give anybody marching orders," said
Commissioner Kelly Girtz. "If it's going to cre
ate this big heartburn," suggested Commissioner
Harry Sims, "give the money back and move on."
John Huie iphuie@speedfactory.net
TV on the Internet
ACC Meetings To Go On-line
The twice-monthly ACC Commission meet
ings—agenda-setting sessions and voting meet
ings—that are now broadcast live (and re-run
later) on the county TV channel (Charter cable
channel 7) will soon be streamed live on the
Internet as well, Sandi Turner of the ACC Public
Information Office told commissioners at their
work session Apr. 10. They'll also be archived for
a year, so Internet users can view past meetings
in item-by-item segments, she said. Commission
meetings—televised by several unobtrusive,
remotely-controlled cameras mounted in the
Commission chamber—cost the county about
$500 per meeting in staff time to produce, she
said. People have often asked about viewing
meetings on the Internet—and about viewing
them item-by-item—and now they'll be able
to do both, she said. Software and equipment
bought by the county will allow any recorded
video material to be streamed online in a format
resembling YouTube, and requires minimal staff
time to set up. And while there are no specific
plans to broadcast (or webcast) other meetings
or events, Turner said her office recently bought
a four-camera portable video system that can be
used anywhere. Meeting videos will be available
starting with the Apr. 19 agenda-setting session
at www.athensclarkecounty.com.
The $40,000 in software and equipment
came from money owed to the county by Charter
Communications, Turner said. The cable company
pays the county for letting it string wires along
public roads (as do Georgia Power and other