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ATHENS NEWS AND VIEWS
Endorsement Watch: So, Charlie Maddox
has thrown his support behind Nancy
Denson in the race for Athens-Clarke County
Mayor, which isn't a big surprise. What does
seem a tittle odd is that neither of the more
progressive-leaning former candidates has
endorsed Gwen O'Looney. Glenn Stegall won't
be making an endorsement—"I'm too young
to start making enemies," he says—and
Spencer Frye hasn't decided whether he will or
not, apparently out of concern for how such
a move might affect the Athens Area Habitat
for Humanity, which he heads up and which
has to ask the county for money every year.
What's the deal, guys? Is Nancy scarier than
Gwen? Sure seems that way.
Over in the District 5 run-off, Jared Bailey
has picked up the endorsements of Mayor
Heidi Davison and District 4 Commissioner
Alice Kinman. So, there's that.
A Closed Matter?: When ACC Manager Alan
Reddish told the mayor and commissioners
that the closing of the east end of Hancock
Avenue had been a part of every public pre
sentation of plans for the SPLOST 2011-funded
Classic Center expansion (see City Pages,
"M&C Talk Classic Center Expansion, Meet
Legislators'), he was technically right—but
only If you don't consider the SPLOST proj
ect statement, drafted by staff, approved
by the mayor and commission and posted on
the ACC website to communicate the essence
of the project to citizens, to be a public pre
sentation. Not that project statements are
supposed to be detailed summaries, but the
closing of a crucial public right-of-way is a
pretty important detail. Now there will be a
public input meeting in January to discuss
plans for the expansion, but it appears those
plans are already all but final—at least the
part about the "abandonment" of Hancock.
"Suppose the public decides they don't
want to abandon Hancock," Commissioner
George Maxwell asked SPLOST Program
Manager Don Martin at last week's M&C work
session. The question was
all but rhetorical, and
Commissioner David Lynn
framed the issue even more
pointedly, suggesting that
if closing Hancock was the
only option on the table,
there was no reason to
invite public input at all.
Reddish countered that the
input being solicited would
pertain to other aspects of
the expansion plans, not the
Hancock closing.
Here's a suggestion:
let's go ahead and talk
about it anyway. Before
final phns are pushed
through to facilitate a
summer 2011 construc
tion start date, we need to know that every
option to preserve this key connection to
the current and future eastern edge of down
town-including expensive ones—has been
explored. Maybe it truly is impossible, but
that case remains to be made in full to this
community.
Shut Out in the Dome: In a meeting with
the local delegation to the state legislature
at that same work session, Mayor Davison
requested the delegation reconsider the "una
nimity rule,* which prevents local legislation
from moving forward without the support of
each of the three representatives and two
senators, rather than with a simple majority.
The rule has allowed Republicans—or, in many
cases, one Republican—to clock legislation
favored by the progressive ACC government
even in the House delegation, where they're
outnumbered two-to-one. The two Democratic
representatives, Keith Heard and Doug
McKillip, could vote to change the rule fo.
the House delegation (that wouldn't require
unanimity), even without the support of newly
elected Republican Rep. Hank Huckaby (who
said he'll consider it), but Heard doesn't seem
eager to do so.
"I want to talk to my constituents," Heard
told the Dope, as opposed, merely, to the local
officials those constituents have elected to
represent them. But he does have a more valid
reason not to bother with it, which he pointed
out during the meeting. Traditionally, when a
local bill was introduced by a municipal del
egation, it was basically waved through both
houses; Heard says that's not the case any
more. In the current era of fixed ideological
positions on issues like, say, tax increases, it's
not unusual to see a local bill shot down on
principle, even if it's supported by the legisla
tors and citizens of the municipality it would
solely effect. If a bill, for instance, to raise
the ACC hotel/motel tax was introduced in
the House with Heard and McKillip's support
but not Huckaby's, it's pretty hard to imagine
it would take more than a snap of Huckaby's
fingers to kill it.
"Priority" Means You Have to Do It, Right?:
Jobs are the real answer to poverty, the
OneAthens anti-poverty project has said. But
according to a task force of local business
and academic leaders, our region has been
doing a lousy job of selling itself to potential
new employers. Lacking a
"cohesive marketing effort", the Athens area
is seen as having a "dysfunctional, factional
economic development effort," said the 2008
report. As a result, our region is "missing out
on hundreds if not thousands of private-sector
jobs per year, and millions of dollars in private
capital investment."
Last year, ACC commissioners took a first
step in implementing that report's recom
mendations: they offered to cooperate with
Oconee County on a joint effort featuring a
single "go-to" agency for prospective employ
ers to contact. But Oconee appears to have
dropped the ball, fearing that any new devel
opment would go to Athens—never mind a
real regional effort involving additional coun
ties, which so far appears to be beyond the
abilities of elected officials to imagine. (A
couple of ACC commissioners have even been
heard to declare "the jobs aren't coming
back"—which could become a self-fulfilling
prophecy, if they are willing to let it.)
Both of the remaining candidates for mayor
have declared jobs their priority. Athens is
at risk of becoming a boutique community,
with many amenities for its "upper crust" of
educated citizens, but without even decent
jobs available to its many poorer ones. Will
the new mayor (whoever she is) make a differ
ence? [John Huie]
Dave Marr & John Huie new$@flagpole com
s Krazy Korner
The war on the Second Amendment is fought in many small
skirmishes. They're coming for our guns, slowly but surety. This
time it’s the tree buggers, moaning about how the lead used in
hunters' rounds is supposed!/ dangerous when ingested by wildlife,
tell you what, if those pinko C r ev n blue-state liberals had their way,
all hunters' rifles world be taken and replaced with some sort of modv
Tied Nerf guns firing biodegradable soy pellets, A glorified food fight at
Tne Grit, basically. Luckily, though, Congressman 8roun went to bat for
the National Rifle Association and other hunting groups, authoring a bill to
restrict the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating lead to ammunition and
fishing tackle. Braun's bill is the legislative end of a large, lobbying effort by the NRA to
maintain the legality of lead-based rounds.
menagerie of, if I'm no* mistaken, the principal cast of The Uon King}, Broun authored
his bill to provide that toe EPA would not be able to "prohibit, limit, or contra!, based
on material composition, any type of firearm ammunition or fishing tacte" to other
words, if ain’t just lead Braun was thinking about. He has his sights on securing toe
_ to
get even awesomer than it already is. £ s '. .,
Think about toe possibilities: the U.S. military found it advantageous to use ; . ri i
depleted uramitot to i^ roun<te ln both Iraq wars. White, yes, depleted urarifcfm might
be a tad radioactive, boy, does it tear through whatever It hits. Forget toad—hew about
uranium buHe& lor hunters, as well? It would be like having a miniature nuclear war
with deed Or how about fitting rounds with the same sort erf holy oil Braun used to con
secrate President Ctoarria^ toaugufal stage? that my you take toe animats 8fe white-
saving its soul. '. ; ' - .
If you haven’t been by UGA’s Stegeman Coliseum lately, take note: it’s
changed. The question is, do the renovations make it look more or less like
a spaceship? Discuss.
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