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ATHENS NEWS AND VIEWS
"Friendly" Skies: GeorgiaSkies, the commuter
airline whose contract to fly in and out of
Athens-Ben Epps Airport was recently renewed
by federal authorities despite Mayor Heidi
Davison's endorsement of one of its com
petitors, is not at all happy about the ACC
government's handling of the recommendation
process or the Athens Banner-Heralcfs report
ing of it. How do we know? Why, because the
airline has added a "Breaking News Athens"
page to its website containing two docu
ments that make its unhappiness abundantly
clear! The first is a mammoth pdf detailing
(among many, many other things) the car
riers curtailment of non-federally mandated
services to Athens and containing 14 pages
the county's inability to accept stray and
unwanted felines after the Athens Area
Humane Society abruptly walked away from
its agreement to provide those services. Just
one of those little benefits of civilized soci
ety, now restored; the shelter is at the same
Beaverdam Road location as the ACC Dog
Shelter and can be reached at (706) 613-3887.
Big Six: The staff of Clarke Central High
School's Odyssey newsmagazine went to
Kansas City for the National Scholastic Press
Association's convention and competition two
weeks ago, and they came back having been
named the sixth-best high school news
magazine in the country. Congratulations to
Flagpole news intern and co-
Dope Lauren Pruitt—the maga
zine's Viewpoints Editor—and •
the entire Odyssey staff.
Time to Give: Clearly, if you
tried to ride it, your knees
would hit the handle bars. The
old, discarded bike in your
garage is meant for a child,
so why not give it to one?
The folks at BikeAthens are
requesting bikes for their Bike
Recycling Program, a crucial
part of their eighth Annual
Holiday Bikes for Kids project.
Last year, 60 children received
bicycles from BikeAthens dur
ing the winter holidays. Even
without a bike, Athenians are
encouraged to donate cleaning
and repair supplies, as well as
money and volunteer services to
help bring the donated bikes to
their original luster. Suggestions
for cleaning and repair supplies
range from paper towels and
Simple Green to bicycle lubri
cant. Cash donations will be
used for new parts and helmets
for the recipients of donated
bikes. For those who wish to volunteer, the
opportunity is available during normal office
hours at BikeAthens' Bike Recycling Program
repair shop in studio 6, Chase Park Warehouse.
Volunteer hours will be available up to the
week of Christmas, and additional Saturday
hours from 8 a.m. until noon will be added on
Dec. 4,11 and 18. You can donate by coming
by the shop or by emailing brp@bikeathens.
com. [Lauren Pruitt]
Johnny Cash Also Came Up Short: The Dope
would never encourage anyone to squander
his or her precious right to vote by engaging
in sophomoric humor. With that said, hell
sii-gply observe that the 8oard of Elections'
records of write-in ballots cast in the recent
general election make for a highly entertain
ing read. Interspersed among the protest
ballots cast by voters for themselves in
uncontested races are a great number of far
more creative gtstures. Some of the notable
write-ins—amid the obligatory votes for
Jesus Christ, Mark Rkht and various Disney
and Warner Brothers cartoon characters in all
races—are votes for 'Lord Voder" for labor
commissioner, 'Gay Marriage 1 ' for Georgia
Senate District 46, and 'Margot Kidder' and
'Snoopy' for Georgia House District 115.
Dorky fon!
Dave Man & Lauren Pruitt
Yes, its that time again, apparently.
of emails between county and airport officials,
ABH reporter, columnist and Associate Editor
Don Nelson, and Greg Kahlstorf, the CEO of
Pacific Air Holdings, the parent company of
GeorgiaSkies. The second, a 'breaking news
feed' entitled 'County Records Irk Reporter"
(an apparent response to a recent ABH article
called 'Commertls irk Georgia Skies chief"), is
a pseudo-journalistic press release about the
'widening controversy" whose incredulous,
sarcastic tone reminds the Dope of the conver
sational style of none other than the pugna
cious Kahlstorf himself. Fight on, Greg!
One Last Shot: ACC obviously considers the
Hug's Space tax exemption case pretty impor
tant, because it's availing itself of its final
opportunity to try to keep the musicians' men
tal health nonprofit on the property tax rolls.
The county attorney's office filed a motion
for reconsideration with the Georgia Supreme
Court late last week. The court's veriict was
about as narrowly decided as it gets—a 4-3
decision with only three justices signing an
opinion from the majority side—so there's
reason to imagine the county's motion will be
more than routinely considered. Well keep you
posted.
Yes, It's Important: It was gratifying to see
ACC Animal Control open its new cat shel
ter last week, ending more than a year of
Dave Hudgins
5th District
Commissioner
November 30th
Pro Athens Since 1964
JARED BAILEY
DISTRICT0COMMISSIONER
Endorsed by:
Alice Kinman, ACC District 4 Commissioner
Bertis Downs, R.E.M Manager and UGA Law Professor
Ed Robinson, ACC District 6 Commissioner
Georgia Equality
Heidi Davison, ACC Mayor
Lucy Rowland, Former ACC Planning Commission Chair
Pete McCommons, Flagpole Magazine Publisher
Tony Eubanks, Former Boulevard Neighborhood Chair
WWW.JARED-ACC5.COM
Paid for by the Committee to Elect Jared Bettey, Lucy Mhnogue Rowland, treasurer
NOVEMBER 24,2010 FlA6POLE.COM 5