About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 10, 2011)
Mayor, Commish Vote for EDF Compromise Backpedalling towards an apparent compro mise with the Athens Economic Development Foundation, ACC commissioners last week agreed to continue the group's funding if it will add one commission vote to its board. Some commissioners, skeptical of the founda tion's effectiveness, had earlier requested that three commissioners be added, but instead the EDF voted to add one non-voting commis sioner: mayor pro-tern Andy Herod. The com mission is now asking that Herod be allowed to vote. Mayor Nancy Denson, who also sits on the EDF board (and does vote), opposed what she saw as earlier efforts to "pack" the board, but said she supports the current request. "This compromise had to happen to get funds released," she told Flagpole. "I believe jobs and tax base are the more important issue." The EDF's board will meet Wednesday, Aug. 10; approval would presumably lay the conflict to rest, but requires compro mise also from the EDF, which (lacking a spe cific request from ACC commissioners) denied Herod a vote when they seated him earlier. Commissioners apparently expected approval; "they are very anxious to put Commissioner Herod to work," Commissioner Kathy Hoard remarked. Denson also said she expected approval. Commissioners were at pains not to person ally criticize EDF board members, calling them "good people." They are also asking the EDF to provide a plan for how it will market ACC to business prospects, and for raising additional operating funds from private businesses. And hearing frequent complaints about late leaf-and-limb pickups (Commissioner George Maxwell said his own pickup was two weeks late), commissioners assigned their Government Operations Committee to look at the problem. "I'm sure we'll have a very spir ited discussion at that session," said Hoard. As a money-saving measure, pickups have gone from every eight weeks to every nine, but sometimes they don't even meet that schedule. "They are far behind," Commissioner Alice Kinman said. "We've created that situ ation ourselves, a good bit" with the slower schedule. "Sometimes we cut off our noses to spite our faces," Maxwell added. But ACC Solid Waste Director Jim Corley told Flagpole that pickups are now meeting schedules available in the newspaper, online, and by phone (at 706-613-3501). For now, even oversized piles will be picked up, he said, as crews catch up on the debris left by early summer storms and the unexpected loss of several employees. Commissioners cut one position to save money, but otherwise crews are back to their normal (but minimal) staffing, Corley said: two three-man crews with no backup. The Aug. 16 commit tee meeting will be "more a listening session than an action session" chair Harry Sims said. Commissioner Kelly Girtz offered one sugges tion: don't charge people for taking their own yard waste to the dump. And despite protestations from ACC Manager Alan Reddish that billing people 60 cents a month for recycling education might cost the county more than it collects, the commission directed him to figure out how to do it. Reddish had proposed adding the fee only to trash bills, but not everyone gets trash pickup, commissioners said, and everyone should pay equally—even people who haul their own trash to the dump. It's not as simple as adding the fee to stormwater or water bills either, Reddish said earlier, because not all citizens own land, and some have wells. Commissioners may also balk (on envi ronmental grounds) at the recommendation Mayor Nancy Denson opposed what she saw as earlier efforts to “pack” the board. A ROUKJO TOUJfJ So Hop <o° THAT IS THE 8/6&EST Pah iug \jj£EQo\ EvJ£r ir$ huge) ST*. ff' (V I gjemt tosee a free SNOCJ Ar the. fjeuJ georgca theatre IT uMS 50 Hor THe t>AV I 8Qv7GHP A PoPSiO-g 1X>u>MTOujAu Uy PAVfO W1ACU. IT'S REAU.V wiCE AMD FAfJCY up HERE (Too 0Ad iTS SO v Fki6<£IW' hot Oot SIDE IT NlocJ has A rooftop BALCOfjy OJITH A BAP AMO RtVTAJRAMT V»Ou) lu_ fJEV/Eft Be. HOT A6AIAJ/ AMD THEM l uJEmT To HABiTAT' Po Buy a Pam loujcu. tHOAJKE'i' F/*J<S 6 RS .MET of staff that a creek crossing by the new Jennings Mill Road be made via a large culvert rather than a more expensive bridge. "I'm very much in favor of this road," which should reduce traffic on the Atlanta Highway, Kinman said, but "I'm also interested in the larger ecosystem" of the pristine creek, and a bridge would have less environmental impact, she said. Reddish told commissioners that aquatic life wouldn't be affected by a 185-foot con crete box culvert. Initially, the new road will be only two lanes wide, but plans propose eventually wid ening it to four lanes; and building a four-lane bridge weuld cost $400,000 more than a con crete culvert, Reddish said. But commissioners questioned whether four-laning will ever be needed, and asked Reddish to come back with cost estimates for a two-lane bridge. John Huie Landfill Methane Harvested for Sale Rotting trash produces methane gas and carbon dioxide—both "greenhouse gases" that promote global warming—but at ACCs landfill, that methane will soon be burned to produce electricity. "They're actually installing wells right now," Solid Waste Director Jim Corley told Flagpole. Dozens of wells, drilled into now-closed areas of the landfill, will harvest methane for electricity that a private company will then sell into the power grid. 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