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Schedule for Next
Round of SPLOST
Is Now Set
"No one's going to pat us on the back
for building a new jail," said District 5 ACC
Commissioner David Lynn at last week's
Commission voting meeting, "but it's some
thing that has to be done." The cost of a
mostly new, larger jail—conservatively esti
mated at $80 million to build—could rise to
$126 million if the county borrows the money
and takes 24 years to pay it back. And that's
the default schedule commissioners approved
at the Sept 1 meeting—
although the money
could also be repaid
sooner, saving interest
costs, ACC Manager Alan
Reddish told Flagpole.
But delaying payback
of the jail bonds means
more community projects
could be built, and sooner, with the remaining
revenues from a renewed 1-cent sales tax...
provided, that is, that voters approve the proj-
. ects eventually selected for the next six-year
round of collections.
Construction costs have declined lately,
so bids to build the new jail could come in
below $80 million. "We are beginning to meet
with the design professionals," Reddish said.
Athens-Clarke County's jail has been over
crowded for years; last year the county paid
$1.7 million to house out inmates in other
jails. Local burglaries are up, but most crimes
have been down since the 1990s (in Athens
and elsewhere), ACC Police Chief Jack Lumpkin
has said. But police are arresting more people
anyway, county-hired consultant Bob Goble
said last year—because the worst offend
ers are already in prison, he said, allowing
police to make arrests for less-serious crimes.
The county is pursuing several work-release
programs to reduce the number of people sen
tenced to jail or awaiting trial.
John Hule johnphuie@gmail.com
Commish Approves
Oak Grove, Frat House
in Zoning Decisions
While ACC Commissioners differed—by a
six-to-three vote at their Sept. 1 meeting—on
approving a revised, more commercial plan
for the Oak Grove development on Jefferson
Road (at Lavender Road), the plan will now
go forward. The original Oak Grove develop
ment, approved in 2000, brought public pro
tests to City Hall—it was a good, piogressive
residential development, opponents said, but
too far out in the county's supposedly pro
tected "greenbelt." (Oak Grove's innovative
layout clustered some homes around common
areas and built them along the land's natural
contours; it was featured in a National Public
Radio story several years ago.) In 2004, com
missioners approved an expansion of the
project, including some commercial develop
ment (never built). Recently, developers asked
to expand the commercial plans slightly; the
compromise approved last week will keep a
50-foot-deep tree buffer along Jefferson Road
and will group retail shops around a parking
lot and open green.
But it was controversial with some com
missioners (and with the ACC Planning
Commission, which recommended denial of
the plan). The proposal isn't New Urbanism,
said Planning Commissioner Lucy Rowland
last month, but just a suburban strip mall. "I
think this is a bait-and-switch," said District
8 ACC Commissioner Andy Herod. And while
the majority of commissioners agreed with
District 5's David Lynn that "you can't undo"
past decisions, District 6 Commissioner Ed
Robinson argued that approval now would
only deepen past errors—and pave the way
for future ones. "Once a bad decision is made,
that itself becomes the
reason for the next bad
decision," he said.
Also approved were
variances to allow a
small UGA fraternity,
Tau Kappa Epsilon, to
occupy a house at 2815
Riverbend Rd. (The house
itself won't be changed, but more parking will
be allowed.) In comments to commission
ers, one nearby apartment dweller opposed
the change, which will allow six or seven
students in the house, but another favored
it, saying UGA's frat rules would provide more
control over the property than exists now.
Commissioners agreed—except for George
Maxwell, who voted nay. "I know what's going
to happen. When a fraternity goes in there,
noise will follow," he predicted.
John Huie johnphuie@gmail.com
Organizers Talk
Health Care Reform;
Commissioners Agree
At meeting's end inside City Hall Sept. 1,
several volunteers with Organizing for America
offered views on health care reform. (A citizen
may speak for three minutes on any subject
after ACC Commissioners have finished the
business before them.) Under the present
health care system, "I feel like we all walk on
eggshells," said antiques store owner Airee
Hong. "The corporate-dominated health care
system has brought everyday Americans to
their knees," said law school student Russell
Edwards. "We do not have the best health care
system in the world," Edwards added, citing
low U.S. rankings of life expectancy and infant
mortality.
Some commissioners agre?d: "I was fortu
nate enough to grow up in a country that did
have a national health care system, where we
had plenty of choice," said Andy Herod, who
is British. Added Ed Robinson, "As a small
business owner, I live in constant fear of what
will happen if one of my employees becomes
truly ill. As long as the common denomina
tor... is that nobody has insurance, then
that's what businesses will compete to." Said
Commissioner Kelly Girtz, the profit-driven
health care system impacts health care costs
for county employees, too, "and that's coming
out of the pocket of every one of our taxpay
ers here in Clarke County."
John Hule johnphuie@gmail.com
“No one’s going to pat us
on the back for building a
new jail, but it’s something
that has to be done.’’
6 FLAGPOLE.COM • SEPTEMBER 9, 2009