Newspaper Page Text
d%(ifep©
ATHENS NEWS AND VIEWS
Late and Breaking: It was the Friday afternoon
at the start of AthFest, the Flagpole office
was all but abandoned, and here came two
big pieces of news: the draft Environmental
Impact Statement (EIS) for NBAF is out, and
Carl Jordan is not running for re-election to
the Athens-Clarke County Commission after all.
It was, of course, typical federal government
style for the Department of Homeland Security
to release the thousand-page draft EIS on a
Friday afternoon. Oh, well. City Dope can't
hold a grudge against Carl Jordan, though, no
matter his timing—and if only because the
brief press release he sent out is an eloquent,
honest statement about his own personal role
in this community—past, present and future.
Read it online at flagpole.com.
Meanwhile, Monday brought yet more news
before Flagpole went to press. Commissioners
Harry Sims, Alice Kinman, Andy Herod and
Elton Dodson all qualified to run again. And
in Jordan's district, at least two names—Ed
Robinson's and Red Petrovs'—are officially in
the hat. Plus, Kenneth
Brown filed to run for
Sheriff as an indepen
dent, but still needs
to collect petition
signatures to get on
the ballot. More news
to come!
Your Bio-Lab Weekend
Reading: And what
about that EIS? Well,
it's really long, and
here's one line out of
the parts that matter:
"DHS has not identified
a Preferred Alternative
at this point in the
evaluation process."
In other words, no
decision yet. There
is an awful lot of
information in the
document, though; for
instance, although the
projected average daily
water use for NBAF still
looks quite small in terms of Athens' overall
water use, it is up a good bit from the figure
that was cited earlier this spring, to 118,000
gallons a day. There are plenty more details
buried in the thing, and Flagpole—presumably
along with other news outlets and, of course,
concerned citizens—will be looking them over
in the coming weeks.
The public comment period on the draft
EIS is June 27-Aug. 25, according to the
DHS website. Official public meetings on the
document start in late July, but Athens' turn
doesn't come around until Aug. 14.
Local News Ahoy: Meanwhile, here we are in
the thick of it—qualifying week, when so
many political questions will be answered.
Some of them already have been answered, of
course, before anybody even picked up this
Flagpole—starting with the news from Jordan
and the others noted above—but never fear:
qualifying is still open through the end of the
day on Friday, the 27th. At stake are the seats
in the even-numbered districts for Athens-
Clarke County Commission and—oh, yeah—
the Clarke County Board of Education, too.
Long Time Coming: And all of a sudden, every
body's talking about the Board of Education.
City Pages in this issue has a rundown of the
drama there, as much of it as had unfolded by
press time. The best news at that point was
that school board members had at least sched
uled a sit-down with interim Superintendent
James Simms for Monday, June 23 to talk
about what's gone wrong at the top levels
of school district decision-making. Meeting
or not, though, the growing expectation is
that perhaps more citizens than just Chinami
Goodie—who announced her intentions to
run for school board back in early May—will
troop down to City Hall this week and plunk
down the $108 qualifying fee to run for school
board in the fall. Sure enough, Monday saw
J.T. Jones and Jim Geiser do just that, in
districts 2 and 6, respectively. Allison Wright,
meanwhile, qualified Monday to run for re-
election in District 4.
Not Over Yet: Who else is serious about run
ning for Commission or Board of Education
this year? Since these are all technically non
partisan races nowa
days, it's this week
that we find out.
Meanwhile, down
in Oconee County, the
political yard signs and
billboards (depending
on the candidate) are
already pretty thick.
The big news there
will be happening in
the July 15 primary,
when the voters will
select from among the
Republican incum
bents and challeng
ers to decide who'll
serve on the county
commission.
Y'all Come on Out: July
15 is also the date that
determines the Paul-
Broun-versus-Barry-
Fleming winner in the
Republican primary for
the 10th District seat
in the U.S. Congress. That's why the Athens
Press Club is kicking off its candidate debates
this year with a Broun-Fleming showdown at
the Melting Point in dowotown Athens on
Monday, June 30 at 7 p.m. And although a
recent debate was reported to have been civil,
with the two candidates agreeing on most
issues, the race has just started getting nasty.
The emails and "press releases" are flying,
slinging the mud back and forth about each
man's record. How will they behave on Monday
night when it comes time to answer your
questions about Northeast Georgia's represen
tation in Congress?
Come on out and find out: after all, it's
free, and also on the schedule are state
Senator Bill Cowsert and Oconee County
school board member Tommy Malcolm, who
also are headed for a July 15 primary contest
at the polls.
And no, it's not too late: if you've got a
question for any of these candidates—Broun,
Fleming, Cowsert or Malcolm—email it to
ben@flagpole.com any time before the end of
the day on Monday.
Ben Emanuel
Send your city dope to ben@flagpole.com.
It’s this time of year that you start wishing the
Oconee River really did look like the clear, cool,
rocky-bottomed stream pictured on the advertis
ing for 909 Broad, the big new mixed-use apart
ment building going up along the North Oconee
River downtown. Alas.
Cabins
Restaurant Tent Camping
706-245-4163
S15 MON-FRI • S20 SAT & SUN (and Holidays)
ONLY A 30 MINUTE DRIVE FROM ATHENS: TURN RIGHT
ON 72 PAST ATHENS TECH. GO 9 MILES. THEN LEFT ON
. 172. WE RE 12 MILES DOWN 172 ON THE RIGHT
| www.thesandbarbroadriver.comi
Go to Flagpole.com and set up your own ad.
Pay online through PayPal!
Reach the people you want!
Get the items you need!
Sell the items you don’t want!
Lowest Rate In Town!
AtobeKmae
roHAoco f; gii is
1066 Baxter St
706.549.6360
open Mon-Sat 10am-1 lpa
San 12pm-6pm
DETOXIFYING PRODUCTS
CIGARS • PIPES • TOBACCOS •
INCENSE • HAND BLOWN
GLASS•CANDLES•
DRINKING & BOARD GAMES •
CIGARETTES• CAN SAFES•
GRATEFUL DEAD, PHISH &
WIDESPREAD PANIC
MERCHANDISE • HEMP SEED
LOTION & MASSAGE OIL • NAG
CHAMPA BODY PRODUCTS•
HOOKAHS & HOOKAH TOBACCO
AND SO MUCH MORE!
*
*
*
N*
It
*
*
*
*
*£
*
*
tgN
**********
706-546-6787
289 College Are • Under Parkin* Deck
Come Experiepee ^
W /Keeps’ 1st
wapd friendliest ®
JTOOtytyl IQUjVCjE!
ft? .. K ‘ l .
NEW EXTENDED HOURS
Mon-Wed 10axn-9pm
Thu 1 Oam-12am • Fri 10am-2am
Sat 12pm-2am • Son l-6pm
ti
*
£
*
tN
IN
in
ih
dN
iM
n*
JOT ‘EM DOWN
STORE & BBQ
GROCERIES • BBQ.
HOT BOILED PEANUTS
/06 -^-2tfo 1
www.americanclassictattoo.net
1035 Baxter St.
di 706-543-7628 [F
NEWS & FEATURES I CALENDAR I MOVIES I A&E I MUSIC I COMICS & ADVICE I CLASSIFIEDS
JUNE 25, 2008 • FLAGPOLE.COM 5