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378 East Broad Street • Downtown
Locally owned since 1979
Well, that’s one place for a bumper. (Seen around town.)
Hudgens Heads 'Em Off?:
Capitol Impact's Tom
Crawford reports that our
own state Senator Ralph
Hudgens has brought on Guy Millner as
co-chairman of his 2010 campaign for state
insurance commissioner. Millner's is a big
Republican name—he ran two close but los
ing races for governor in the '90s—and this is
another sign that Hudgens is doing his best
to sew up the Republican nomination for the
seat, which would probably mean it's his. And
despite Athens', urn, difficult relationship
with Hudgens, it's hard to see him as anything
other than a very slight improvement over the
verrry-right-wing John Oxendine, who cur
rently holds the seat but is running for guv
himself.
Meanwhile, there are already four can
didates for Hudgens' Senate seat—in a
stretched-out district that has included a third
of Clarke County since he custom-gerryman
dered it back in '06—and not one of them is
from Athens! As soon as Bill Cowsert runs for
governor, we'll likely have ourselves a Walton
Countian (no offense to them) in his district,
and not a soul in the state Senate represent
ing Athens who's got a close relationship
planners, who calculate traffic congestion rat
ings for each street and then plan "improve
ments" to ease the congestion. Some of the
most interesting places to live have high
traffic congestion ratings, Dover said. Instead
of continually widening roads—which "wrecks
the adjacent real estate" so it's only good
for fast-food stands—he suggested putting
the money into public transit, making areas
"development-ready." Developers will often
fight strict development standards, he said—
but local leaders should set them anyway,
and then stand back and watch good market-
driven development take place. [John Huie]
Sexy Sales Tax: Sales-tax collections in an
unpredictable economy have been "erotic,"
ACC Manager Alan Reddish told commissioners
in the work session on SPLOST last week....
"Yes, he said what you thought he said,"
chuckled one commissioner after a few breath
less moments. Oh, to be an accountant! [JH]
Ben Emanuel & John Huie
to this city or to the University of Georgia.
Thanks again, Ralph! Have fun cleaning up
after the Ox... [BE]
Local News News: Congrats are in order for
Melissa Hanna, who's been named to follow
Jason Winders as the new executive editor at
the Athens Banner-Herald. Hanna, the news
director at the paper for three years, is already
a veteran of helping produce the Athens Press
Club's candidate debates at election time, but
City Dope welcomes her formally now to the
excuse to meet for beers known as the APC.
In other ABH news, the paper's parent
company, Augusta-based Morris Publishing
Group, just negotiated a one-week extension
until Friday, Aug. 21 on its nearly $10 million
in way-overdue interest payments. Any news
on Friday? We'll see. [BE]
City Hall Notebook: Hearing about how
road projects get into the county's long-
range plan—in the process of observing the
MACORTS transportation planning process, for
which a public comment period just wrapped
up—reminded City Dope of one of the more
interesting county consultants he's heard
over the years. That would be Victor Dover, a
Florida town-planning consultant who spoke
to ACC Commissioners at their 2007 retreat.
You might call Dover a contrarian of the plan
ning world—he advocates ignoring the road
A Taste for Rotten Fish: Unless something has
changed between the writing of these lines
and their publication, U.S. Rep. Paul Broun,
Jr. has not yet scheduled a town hall meeting
on health care in the Athens area. If that con
tinues to be the case during Congress's August
recess, it'll be a shame; with Broun and his
far-right buddies out encouraging the constit
uents of Blue Dog Democrats to get active on
health care, the least he can do is complement
his recent town halls in Evans and Clarkesville
with one over here. That way, we can have
our own chance to ask him about things like,
oh, his recent letter to constituents via the
American Conservative Union about the presi
dent's health care proposal (posted online by
Talking Points Memo), and this gem therein:
"When mama falls and breaks her hip, she'll
just lie in her bed in pain until she dies with
pneumonia because her needed surgery is not
cost efficient* Can you clarify that for us,
Rep. Broun? [Ben Emanuel]
In Local News: Get out your *Elections 2010*
notebooks, folks, and jot down Spencer Frye's
name in there. The young Athens Area Habitat
for Humanity director has made it official
that he's at least thinking about running for
mayor next year. In fact, Frye is clearly hedg
ing a little in his recent email about the idea,
writing this: *In an effort to keep all of my
options open at this time and to comply with
election law, I have decided
to form a campaign com
mittee to fully explore my
candidacy for Mayor." If that
seems like a light touch, it
doesn't bother City Dope
as a strategy at this point.
After all, the election is still
a good ways off, and Frye
may not turn out to be the
only one to add his name to
the list that's already form
ing. (So far we've got Nancy
Denson, Charlie Maddox
and a couple[!] of students.)
Exploring is just what all of
Athens should be doing at
this point anyway. [BE]
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ATHENS NEWS AND VIEWS
4 FLAGPOLE.COM • AUGUST 19, 2009