originally published March 12, 2008

Dam It All: While Athens wonders if a full Bear Creek Reservoir means the county will loosen watering restrictions (has anybody looked at the river recently?), and David Lynn bugs staffers to speed up the boat ramp work out at Bear Creek (see below), a lot of the folks at the state Capitol are hard at work to fast-track the process to build a whole bunch more water-supply reservoirs all across North Georgia. Now, City Dope doesn’t deny that a few of these might make sense in places, but the prospect of seeing all the rivers in half the state dammed up is not a pleasant one. After all, doesn’t everybody know that Georgia could do a lot better job of conserving water? And don’t our legislators know that reservoirs can’t make water? Rather, they simply store it, and keep some from going downstream to other folks who might need it too. What will become of this and other General Assembly moves this year? The legislative session churns along…

Speaking of Legislators: The Atlanta and Athens daily papers reported, not too long ago, that right-wing North Georgia state Sen. Nancy Schaefer has entered the race for the 10th Congressional District seat in Washington. That makes four in the race, including incumbent Rep. Paul Broun, Republican state Sen. Barry Fleming of Harlem (near Augusta) and moderate Democrat (and business owner/ Iraq War vet) Bobby Saxon of Nicholson.

And Speaking of Elections: In other electoral news, late last week state Democratic Party Chair, Jane Kidd of Athens, added her name to the list of Georgia superdelegates throwing their support to Barack Obama for the Presidential nomination. (Is there significance to be gleaned by Jane’s going for Obama just in the wake of the Hillary Clinton bounce-back in Texas and Ohio? Probably not, but it does strike City Dope as odd timing.) Kidd’s endorsement tips Obama a majority - seven out of 13 - of the state’s superdelegates.

Road Notes: Here’s a follow-up on last week’s City Pages story about local road planning that City Dope thought worth noting. Dropped from planning documents earlier this month by the MACORTS board was even a tentative description of where a proposed new road (intended to connect Commerce Road with Danielsville Road) might cross Sandy Creek. The road is needed, ACC Transportation Planner Sherry Moore says, “because there’s absolutely no way to get east-west in that vicinity.” Fire trucks from the new Danielsville Road fire station can’t reach Commerce Road without doubling back to Loop 10, she said. But local environmentalists raised “strong objections” to any crossing of Sandy Creek and Cook’s Trail when the road first showed up in plans a few years ago, so even the “dotted line” showing a general proposed route has been removed from the map. A proposal to connect Commerce and Danielsville roads remains in the long-range plan, she says - but without any mention of a location, or even whether it will be within Clarke County. [John Huie]

Go Fish: “Plenty of municipal reservoirs in this state happily commingle a joint recreational use and water source” - but not the Bear Creek Reservoir, Commissioner David Lynn complained at last week’s Commission meeting. At least, not yet. The 500-acre lake near Bogart - partly funded by Athens-Clarke county as a drinking water reservoir - has been stocked with fish since 2002, and a public boat ramp was designed to accommodate non-motorized fishing boats. But after 9/11, authority members decided the ramp was sited too close to the water-treatment plant, and decided to relocate it. The new ramp (along Highway 330) won’t open until fall; to Lynn (an avid fisherman), the authority has been dragging its feet. “If the authority is as concerned about security as it seems to be, there’s nothing that makes a facility like that more secure than having eyes on the facility every day,” he said.

“The reservoir was never intended to be a recreational facility,” ACC Deputy Manager Bob Snipes (who serves on the reservoir authority’s board) told Flagpole two years ago. Commissioner Lynn thinks that attitude needs to change, and that the authority needs to “accept general recreation as a part of its mission,” he told fellow commissioners last week. He wants the authority to allow “canoes, kayaks and possibly sailboats” on the water, along with fishing boats. [JH]

No Kissinger for You: Folks hoping to get into that nifty event the end of this month, when UGA is hosting four former U.S. Secretaries of State for a roundtable at the Classic Center, are out of luck: the shindig sold out in a hurry. (It helped, surely, that it’s free for faculty, staff and students.) There is a waiting list - contact the Classic Center about that - and for what it’s worth, you can learn more about the event at www.uga.edu/ruskcenter.

This Was Interesting: Word came over the wire last week that a New York production company was in town shooting a documentary about the Moore’s Ford murders - that is, the infamous late-1940s lynching of two African-American couples on the Oconee/ Walton county line. City Dope will most certainly be keeping an eye out to learn more about the production.

What’ll It Be?: Last but not least, don’t forget the public meeting Mar. 17 about the repaving slated for Cedar Shoals Drive and North Avenue. Might they be three-laned? It seems doubtful, but is more than worth discussing. Info at www.athensclarkecounty.com/publicworks.

Ben Emanuel

Send your city dope to ben@flagpole.com.