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Lane Changes for Cedar Shoals Drive and Hawthorne?

originally published April 16, 2008

Despite complaints about the three-lane configuration of busy Hawthorne Avenue, county staffers recommend leaving it at three lanes - except for the first block-and-a-half north of West Broad Street, where traffic is backing up into the intersection. That portion will return to four lanes when the road is repaved this summer between West Broad Street and Oglethorpe Avenue. The three-lane configuration is “not necessarily a complete failure, as some people like to characterize it,” ACC Transportation and Public Works Director David Clark told ACC Commissioners at their work session Apr. 8. Many business owners like it, he said, and crashes have been more frequent but less serious.

The busy street has never been wide enough to satisfactorily handle the traffic it draws, and while it includes bicycle “areas” of minimal width, sidewalks are blocked by hedges and telephone poles. But the street can’t be widened without purchasing additional width from numerous property owners, and there are currently no plans to do that. Hawthorne originally “was paved literally on top of raw dirt in places,” and needs to be properly rebuilt, Clark said. The work will take up to four weeks, he said, and can mostly be done at night.

Cedar Shoals Drive also needs to be repaved, and Clark recommends three-laning its entire length. (County policies require his department to consider three-laning any four-lane street that comes up for resurfacing.) With four lanes, “we have excess capacity along that corridor” at present, he said, and a center turn lane could reduce accidents. Five-foot bicycle lanes will be included. There is no money available for streetscape improvements, but it’s possible a center median could be added later, and a roundabout traffic circle could be considered at Whit Davis Road, he told commissioners who asked. North Avenue will also be repaved, but without substantial changes.

John Huie

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Commission Powwows with Legislators, Post-Session

originally published April 16, 2008

The twice-yearly meeting of Athens’ state legislators with ACC Commissioners - occasionally confrontational in the past - was merely lively last week. State Senators Ralph Hudgens and Bill Cowsert (both Republicans, although representing Georgia’s perhaps most Democratic city), Watkinsville Representative Bob Smith (also Republican), and Democratic Rep. Doug McKillip discussed legislation of interest to the local commissioners for about an hour at their Apr. 8 work session (Rep. Keith Heard did not attend). The gold-dome session had ended only a few days before.

“We really didn’t get much done,” McKillip told commissioners, echoing a widespread perception of the session. With a much-criticized tax proposal on the table, getting nothing done might have satisfied some local officials.

“I thought it was an awful tax plan,” ACC Commissioner Andy Herod admitted. Commissioners asked about several bills of interest, but Mayor Heidi Davison (traveling in China) wasn’t there with her usual checklist. Herod went on to thank two legislators - Cowsert and McKillip - for actually answering his emails during the legislative session (he did not mention Hudgens or Smith).

Nor was it a do-nothing session, both senators said.

“Some of the issues that didn’t get resolved are really hard issues,” said Sen. Cowsert. Revamping the tax system is “not something to take lightly,” he added. To Sen. Hudgens, “the Lieutenant Governor’s personal agenda and the [House] Speaker’s personal agenda clashed” on tax policies. Proposed elimination of the car-tag tax “was not a tax cut,” Hudgens said, but was “just shifting the taxes around.” But Hudgens said he supported a sales tax - wanted by local commissioners - that (if approved by local voters) would have helped fund public transit.

A new medical-school campus for Athens seems likely, Sen. Cowsert said. A state-funded consultant’s plan that appears to have been embraced by the General Assembly called for a satellite campus of the Medical College of Georgia in Athens, he said. The rivalry between Augusta and Athens is no longer an issue, added Sen. Hudgens, because the plan calls for expansion of the Augusta campus as well. And Cowsert touted $120 million for planning new water-supply reservoirs that regional water councils - set up under the new statewide water plan - may decide to build.

“The emphasis will be on regional-type projects, and we are the poster child for how you should go about doing it,” he said, referring to the Bear Creek reservoir. “We’re going to actively try to increase our water resources.” The state is also looking at “conservation lakes” - existing state-maintained lakes on private land - that could serve as back-up water sources, said Rep. Smith.

And Smith - who in the past has refused support for some local initiatives because they’d raise taxes - said he was tired of hearing complaints from local governments about “unfunded mandates,” or requirements that are imposed by the state but without its paying the resulting costs.

“Every time we turn around,” Smith said, “we can’t pass [some] piece of legislation because ‘it’s an unfunded mandate’” opposed by the Georgia Municipal Association or other lobbyists for local governments. Smith asked for a list of such mandates. “I’d just like to see it,” he said. The local commissioners quickly offered examples: cuts in school funding, underpayment for keeping state prisoners in local jails. Commissioner Herod, meanwhile, seemed skeptical of the legislators’ enthusiasm for ”local control.“

“I’m very heartened to hear Sen. Hudgens say that he’s very much in favor of encouraging local control. So I have to tell you - from our point of view in the trenches here - it seems that that was not on the agenda of the assembly this year. In fact it seemed that was completely opposite from the assembly’s agenda,” Herod said.

And for next year? “Everybody’s looking at re-election right now,” said Sen. Hudgens. But tax reform, transportation issues and water issues will likely come up, said Cowsert. And “we need to make certain that we’re adequately funding education - and fairly funding it across all areas of the state,” he added.

A do-nothing session? But there was the dogfighting bill. “I got a million emails on dogfighting,” said Cowsert. “We did tighten up on that, which I think will make a lot of people happy.” Next political powwow: Nov. 11.

John Huie

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Catching Up on Cable TV Regs

Altered by the ’07 Legislature

originally published April 16, 2008

People with complaints about local cable TV service may have less recourse since the cable industry got what it wanted in 2007 from Georgia’s legislature, says Sandi Turner of the ACC Public Information Office. Because Charter, the only company that has applied to serve Athens, strings its wires along public streets (paying the county about $1 million a year for the privilege), the county has had some regulatory authority over the company’s local operations.

Turner is the point lady for customer complaints about cable service - and there are quite a few, especially about the cable company’s internet service. (The county can’t regulate that, however, nor rates or programming either.) And while Charter is required to answer their complaint lines within 30 seconds, those phones ring in South Carolina, and there’s often been “a huge disconnect” with repair people in Athens, Turner told Flagpole recently.

In the past, Athens-Clarke has had the clout to negotiate with Charter over such issues, but that changed with the law passed last year. The law doesn’t say local governments can’t negotiate with the company about service complaints, but it takes away their enforcement ability, she says. “It includes the same customer service standards that are in the [old] federal law, but there is no penalty for violating them,” she says. So far, “I have not had any trouble continuing to negotiate on citizens’ behalf,” Turner says.

But “the good side of the legislation is that it’s going to encourage some competition in the television delivery market,” she says. Heavily lobbied by AT&T (and passed overwhelmingly), the bill means that companies can provide local TV service without negotiating separately with each local government. Turner says AT&T plans eventually to offer internet-based TV service in Athens. And new TV providers will still have to provide local government channels - like channel 15, with UGA’s daily programs; channel 16, with school board meetings; and ACTV Channel 7, which carries ACC Commission meetings - although Turner worries that the channels may become harder to access.

John Huie

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Crime in Athens

Innovative Solutions Getting Anywhere?

originally published April 16, 2008

With one in every 99 citizens now in jail or prison, America has been locking up more and more of its citizens - a larger proportion than in any other nation. But local alternatives to jail may be bucking that trend for some nonviolent offenders, Superior Court Judge Steve Jones told a Federation of Neighborhoods forum Apr. 7. “Part of the problem is drugs,” said Jones. One-third of Georgia’s prisoners are drug offenders, he said. Local courts now deal with some nonviolent offenders through “DUI court” or (since 2004) through felony “drug court.”

Back when he was an assistant DA, Jones said, “I had the attitude of: you catch them, you prosecute them, you give the max. But maturity showed me… that putting somebody in jail with a substance abuse problem, all you’re going to get out is a person with a substance abuse problem. So what we’re trying to do with the felony drug court is not ‘baby’ anybody.” Still, instead of going to jail, offenders must work full-time and attend a 12-step counseling program, and they are tested for drugs almost daily, Judge Jones said. Drug dealers and most repeat offenders aren’t eligible for the program - only drug users, and people who committed other crimes because of a drug problem. The program has saved the county over $300,000 in jail costs, he said. There are also “mental health court” programs, and “ankle monitors” (that can keep tabs on an offender’s whereabouts using GPS technology) are keeping some nonviolent offenders out of jail, Jones said. Then there’s juvenile court - which “is not set up to punish. It is a court set up to rehabilitate,” Jones said.

The average jail inmate in Athens has been arrested a dozen times before, said Clarke County Sheriff Ira Edwards, who also attended the forum. “It’s not that we have a lot of new criminals. We have a revolving door of old criminals - seasoned criminals.” A typical example, said the Sheriff, is a local man who the Sheriff knows not only from his jail, but also from his church, he said. “He’s a recovering alcoholic, and he was doing so well.” But then he “just got with the wrong crowd… He had too much to drink, got a little violent…chuck-chuck, you’re going to jail.”

The jail is still overcrowded, Edwards said, but the alternative programs are making an impact. And there are also programs for people who do go to jail: inmates can study for their GED (as about 20 are currently doing) or attend alcohol- or drug-addiction programs (60 are currently doing so). Other programs teach employment skills and offer referrals to jail inmates. “We realize we can’t save them all… [but] it’s important that we try to save some,” said the Sheriff.

But for an ex-felon, getting a job isn’t easy, said Jenni Austin of the nonprofit Athens Justice Project. “We find that so many people that we try to work with are just instantly booted out. They don’t get a call back, they don’t get an interview.” The group screens ex-inmates and runs an eight-week class on re-entering the workforce. Sometimes it isn’t easy, Austin said. “Sometimes your family isn’t waiting there with open arms. Your friends are the problem. Your support system is extremely limited.” (The Athens Justice Project seeks local mentors to spend several hours a month with ex-prisoners. The group also seeks employers who will “really look at the person, versus just what you see on a background check.”)

Associate juvenile Judge Robin Shearer also participated in the forum. Various demands on the juvenile courts - by the public, by legislators and by the Governor - “are almost working at cross purposes right now,” she said. Harsh penalties popular with legislators a decade ago - like 10-year minimum sentences for youths tried “as adults” for some crimes - have had something of an opposite effect, she said. Those offenders have “used up all our resources,” leaving little prison space available for other juvenile offenders, she said, so “there’s a huge effort in the juvenile justice system not to lock people up.” And evaluation methods used by state probation officers - which tend towards leniency, following past abuses - make it “pretty impossible to get detained for committing a misdemeanor, Judge Shearer said. “Sometimes it’s frustrating for us, because there are kids that I know are repeat offenders, and I’d like to see them detained and held until we can get them in court - and maybe have an impact.” Typical offenders are school drop-outs who were “not being reached” in school, she said.

And even though “crime’s been going down, down, down,” Shearer said, “our climate is very fearful,” and school systems sometimes push students into the justice system for minor offenses like fighting or cursing. Shearer thinks it’s important to ask “who are you afraid of, and who are you mad at? And if you’re just mad at somebody… [to] try to help those that we’re mad at, and we really need to try to get those we’re afraid of - and we fear could commit more harm - out of the community.”

John Huie