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8 TUf UMST mpRessive muffin A charming picture book about a little boy who won't eat his breakfast. By local author Mandy Branch Order your copy now at www.leastimpressivemuffin.com Not Pfenning on Getting a Flu Shot this Year? Researchers at the University of Georgia and the Oak Ridge Associated Universities are conducting a study to understand how adults think about adult vaccines, and to get their reactions to vaccine education materials. Your participation can help efforts to provide helpful Information to the public about vaccinations recommended for adults. You may be eligible to participate if you: • Didn't get a flu shot or vaccine last year and don't plan to get one this year * Are between 19 ■ 49 years old Eligibility will be determined through a telephone screening. Eligible subjects will first be sent an online questionnaire to complete, then will be scheduled for a research visit lasting around 60 minutes. During the research visit, you will view immunization-related education materials and complete study questionnaires. Subjects will receive compensation of $30 for completing the study. You will not receive any vaccinations as a part of this study. The study will be conducted at the Clinical and Translational Research Unit (CTRU) on the UGA Health Sciences Campus. The Principal Investigator is Dr. Glen Nowak. For more info, call 706-713-2721 or email try ■■■.ti’h.edu Clinical and Translational Research Unit UMVEftSJTV OF GF.OROIA MiCUlYA Uhifrift¥iT¥ MEDICAL PARTNERSHIP iy Ela ip I? rip 4jttriapi|j rm± feature Polishing the Eastside DICKERSON VS. DAVENPORT IN COMMISSION DISTRICT 1 By Blake Aued news@flagpole.com one of six contested Athens-Clarke County Commission races, pro gressive activist Patrick Davenport is look ing to oust District 1 incumbent Sharyn Dickerson on May 22. Davenport, 38, grew up on the Eastside, has been involved with the progressive group Athens for Everyone and is oper ations manager at Peachy Green Clean Co-op, a worker-owned cleaning service started by the Economic Justice Coalition. He said he was motivated to run by an argu ment Dickerson made during a 2016 work session against raising wages for part-time ACC employees. “We’d all like to get paid what the president of the United States gets paid, but we don’t have the knowl edge, skills and ability, and we haven’t paid the dues to get there,” Dickerson said. Davenport said he felt the comment belittled his mother, who worked in a factory for minimum wage for 30 years. “There are a lot of people in Athens who work 40 hours [a week], 50 hours, 60 hours, work two or three jobs, and it barely [provides] a liveli hood,” he said. Beyond that specific issue, Davenport said he believes Dickerson is out of touch with parts of the district, which includes suburban and rural areas on the eastern edge of the county. For example, Dickerson co-chaired the steering committee for the county’s once-a-decade comprehensive plan, but Davenport said several black churches in his neighborhood were not told about the plan and only found out about it through the media, while a meeting was held to discuss it at a primarily white church nearby. “I would include everybody,” he said. “I can’t say she purposefully left people out, but it’s trou bling to me.” Dickerson, though, said she prides herself on keeping constituents informed, whether it’s through social media or a monthly newsletter. The first-term commis sioner and recycling consultant also chaired Envision Athens, a planning process that brought together ACC, the school district, UGA and other local institutions and gath ered public input used in the comp plan. Envision Athens drew more than 5,000 public comments. “We made an effort to have people at the table who didn’t have a voice or weren’t ordinarily involved,” she said. Davenport is also critical of the way ACC has handled infrastructure on the Eastside. He would like to see the Lexington Road corridor study implemented. That 2015 consultants’ report referred to the Eastside as “a diamond in the rough” and recom mended improvements like sidewalks, bike lanes and trails—perhaps even a brewery trail—to help it reach its potential. He said he’d also like to see bus service extended to Winterville and Whit Davis Road. “There’s still broken sidewalks. People still walk on the grass,” Davenport said. “There are a lot of neighborhoods where people walk through bushes, so let’s formal ize that and make it a trail. Instead, we get banners.” The Lexington Road committee, of which Dickerson is a member, is indeed hang ing banners along the corridor, as well as working with the Georgia Department of Transportation to do some landscaping, which she said will make it more inviting for businesses. “We’re trying to do what we can to make Lexington Road a more attrac tive corridor,” she said. Dickerson pointed to the $4 million set aside in T-SPLOST—the 1 percent sales tax for transporta tion voters approved in November—for Lexington Road improvements, which could include trails, bike lanes and sidewalks. In addition, T-SPLOST includes $17 million to finish Firefly Trail, which will run from downtown Athens to Winterville, and $1.5 million for improvements at Athens-Ben Epps Airport. Davenport said the airport funding would be better spent on sidewalks. Drawing a commercial airline is “a good idea, but not at this time a practical idea,” and would mainly benefit UGA and executives at big corporations. Dickerson said the airport has the potential to grow into a regional economic develop ment force. Another study—“I truly feel Sharyn loves stud ies,” Davenport said—found that thousands of potential passengers live within a 50-mile radius of Ben Epps and would fly there, given the chance, rather than Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta. Athens has been without a commercial airline since 2014, when Congress canceled a federal subsidy. The county’s Airport Authority has applied for a $750,000 fed eral grant and is in talks with Florida-based Elite Airways about providing service to either Washington, DC or New York three times a week, but it’s caught up in bureau cracy, Dickerson said. “The problem is we haven’t responded with what we’re going to do” in terms of incentives, she said. “I’m pushing for that.” The candidates do agree on a few things, such as the need for rural broadband and a library on the Eastside. Davenport also wants an urgent-care clinic or even a hos pital, and is concerned about ambulance times to far-flung parts of the Eastside. Former EMTs have criticized National EMS, which contracts with St. Mary’s and Piedmont Athens Regional, and the com mission hasn’t looked at the issue closely enough, he said. © Patrick Davenport Sharyn Dickerson FLAGPOLE.COM | MARCH 28, 2018