Police Charge Man
With Athens Rapes

Police believe Sylvester Deon Collins, 21, of Jackson County, GA, is responsible for three sexual assaults on young women in the downtown/UGA area.
In the early morning hours of November 15, Collins was apprehended after allegedly pointing a gun at a female motorist just off Atlanta Highway. The victim got away, then contacted police with a description of the assailant. A short while later, Collins was stopped by Athens-Clarke County police on the Athens Perimeter and arrested on aggravated assault charges.
At a November 16 press conference, police said physical evidence and witness identifications linked Collins to three recent Athens rapes. ACC Police Chief Jack Lumpkin said authorities are "certain" Collins is responsible for the July, August, and October attacks (see City Pages, Nov. 8, on-line at flagpole.com).
"We are glad that no other victim had to suffer before we captured this perpetrator," Lumpkin said.
More charges against Collins, reportedly AWOL from an undisclosed branch of the US Armed Forces, are possible, according to police.
Lumpkin credited UGA investigators and Safe Campuses Now for helping in the investigation. Though not all students, the assault victims are all of college age.
"Safe Campuses Now wants to stress the fact that the Athens community, toward criminals, is a target-rich environment," said group representative Michael Greene. "At the University you need to protect yourselves at all times."
All three rape victims were assaulted as they walked home late at night. In order to help reduce the risk of future attacks, Safe Campuses Now is asking the University and the city to work together to provide more nighttime transportation options.

Greenbelt? Bikes?
Commission: Duh!

Just two Athens-Clarke County Commissioners showed up to see them, but close to 100 citizens gathered outside City Hall on November 14 for a rally to encourage the Commission to return low density "greenbelt" zoning to the county development ordinance.
Hosted by the Athens Grow Green Coalition, the rally served as a prelude to what may be the final Commission work session on the ordinance before a scheduled December 5 vote.
The Coalition is a conglomerate of citizen and environmental groups that want the Commission to delay a vote on the new regulations until its original provisions for rural development can be restored (see Guest Editorial, page 7). The current draft of the ordinance is a dramatic departure from the guiding principles of the land use plan and would promote urban sprawl, the Coalition says. Commissioners John Barrow and Tom Chasteen, along with Mayor Doc Eldridge, were given the names and phone numbers of residents at the rally offering assistance in amending the ordinance.
A "Delay the Vote!" drive earlier this year by a small group of real estate agents, developers and other landholding interests succeeded in getting Mayor Eldridge to postpone a decision on the ordinance, as the Commission increased rural density allowances and weakened its environmental provisions. At the Commission work session immediately after the rally, however, there was no discussion of putting off the vote at the behest of citizens.
Following a brief discussion on grandfathering multi-family housing in single-family zones (see City Pages, September 27, on-line at flagpole.com), Commissioners moved on to address the last of a large number of spot zoning requests.
As part of the development ordinance process, the Commission has rezoned numerous parcels of land throughout the county. In almost all cases, rezoning requests were made by property owners, and were decided by the Commission with no public hearing before the Planning Commission and without the usual public notice requirements, such as posting signs on the properties.
Some of the rezonings, which will take effect when the development ordinance passes, would have likely drawn strong community opposition had they gone through normal channels. For example, the hotly contested site of a proposed west side Wal-Mart will be rezoned as commercial under the new regulations. Wal-Mart's decision to withdraw its plan was considered a landmark victory for area neighborhoods, yet the Commission will render that triumph null if the ordinance passes as written.
For the most part, the rezonings in the November 14 meeting resulted in minor changes from the existing ordinance, and almost all were approved with little discussion. One notable comment came from Brian Kemp, a developer who serves on the ordinance steering committee.
Kemp said the Commission should be careful when changing zoning densities at "this late hour," as property owners will have little time for redress.
Commissioner Barrow replied that that same consideration should be extended to the community before changes are made to agricultural densities.
The final item on the night's agenda concerned a requirement for bicycle racks at new businesses. The ordinance originally called for new commercial development and some commercial expansions to include one bicycle parking space for every 20 car spaces. Commissioner Hugh Logan had the requirement removed, he said, after receiving a complaint from the St. Joseph Catholic school.
Commissioner Cardee Kilpatrick asked to have the provision reinstated. If Commissioners are serious about their commitment to alternative transportation, Kilpatrick said, "This is the least we can do."
"I question the necessity of bicycle parking," said Commissioner Alvin Sheats. The requirement would "handicap" businesses, Sheats said, and should only be considered "if" cycle use in Athens increases. Sheats suggested cyclists use spaces designated for cars in the meantime.
"You could carry it to all extremes," said Logan, including hitching posts and "heliopads." Cyclists worried about their bikes being stolen can wheel them inside whatever businesses they patronize, Logan said, including his own [Normal Hardware].
"I ride a bicycle," said steering committee member Scottie Atkinson, who pointed out to Logan that cyclists would not have to bring their bikes into his store if they had a place to secure them.
Mayor Eldridge suggested a line item vote on the provision, but eventually the Commission settled on Commissioner Barrow's request that it be returned to the ordinance pending further action.

Greens Happy With
Clarke Vote Totals

"The Green Party is alive and well," begins a written statement by Ralph Nader released the morning after Election Day. "We are now the third largest party, supplanting the Reform Party as the major competition to the Democratic and Republican Parties."
As with Vice President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush, final national tallies for the Green presidential nominee were unknown at presstime, but with all the votes counted in Clarke County, local Greens officially have reason to celebrate.
As a write-in candidate, Nader received substantially more votes in Clarke County than either Libertarian candidate Harry Browne or Reform candidate Pat Buchanan, whose names appeared on the ballot. Browne scored 538 votes and Buchanan 102, compared to Nader's 1,247.
"We feel pretty good about it," says Athens-Clarke County Green Party Secretary Jim McGown. "I think we had the highest percentage of any county in Georgia. We invested time and money, and it paid off."
Nader's running mate, Winona LaDuke, received 769 votes; under federal law, a write-in vote for president does not presuppose a vote for that candidate's running mate.
Green U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Gates did relatively well locally. Though he finished far behind Democrat Zell Miller and Republican Mack Mattingly, Gates' 705 votes in Clarke County earned him the third spot in a seven-candidate contest. With 21,247 votes statewide, Gates finished a close fifth, just behind Paul MacGregor and Ben Ballenger.
State Greens were pushing for 40,000 write-in votes for Nader/LaDuke in order to give their candidates statewide ballot access in 2002. Currently, independent and third party candidates must meet stringent petition signature requirements to appear on Georgia ballots.
Official Nader/LaDuke totals for the state were not available at presstime, but should be available soon, according to Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox's office.
As of this writing, Project Vote Smart puts Nader's national count at just over 2.7 million votes, or 3 percent. That number does not include Florida, New Mexico or Oregon, a state where Nader could have a particularly strong showing. The nationwide total may not yet be completely accurate; a week after Election Day, several major media outlets posted Nader's Georgia total at 105 votes.
Nader is not expected to get the five percent nationwide vote he needed for the Green Party to qualify for federal matching funds in 2004. But, like Nader, McGown and other local Greens believe they have come a long way over the last few months. A Green candidate or two may even surface in Athens by 2002.
"I know of two possible Commission races," McGown says. "I know several people who are thinking [about running]. It's premature, though, to say."