After a six-week vacation, the Athens-Clarke County Mayor and Commission had a lot on its plate when it convened July 18 for a work session, followed by a called voting meeting, followed by its regularly scheduled agenda-setting meeting. Here are some of the issues they discussed.
Eastside Library: Next month the commission is scheduled to vote on four finalists for an Eastside library location—a six-acre ACC-owned parcel on Barnett Shoals Road, the Early Learning Center on Gaines School Road, the Kroger shopping center on College Station Road and Southeast Clarke Park.
Southeast Clarke Park originally was not considered because it’s not within walking distance of a school, but after it tied for first place with 56 out of 80 possible points, a site selection committee voted to add it to the list. “The benefits of this site really outweigh the negative of not being walkable to a school,” said SPLOST administrator John Simoneaux.
Commissioner Carol Myers, who represents the Eastside and chairs the site selection committee, said the other three sites “all have various issues associated with them in terms of practicality.” For example, will Kroger or the Clarke County School District cooperate? The Barnett Shoals site has construction challenges with a stream buffer and Georgia Power right-of-way on the property, as well as traffic, Myers said.
Commissioner Mike Hamby agreed that choosing property ACC already owns is an advantage, because that would free up money for the building. $16 million is budgeted for the project, including $14 million in local sales taxes and $2 million from the state.
However, East Athens Commissioner Tiffany Taylor said that walkability is a priority for many of her constituents. “It will be kind of hard to get to the library at Southeast Clarke Park because it’s not within walking distance,” she said.
While Southeast Clarke Park was not listed as an option at the time, the Kroger shopping center was the clear favorite among the nearly 300 residents who took an online survey or attended a public hearing. About 100 preferred the Kroger site—which the grocery store is redeveloping—out of eight options.
The commission is expected to finalize the site in November. [Blake Aued]
New Courthouse: Based on the selection criteria, the best choice for an $80 million new courthouse—also approved by voters as part of SPLOST 2020—is the downtown federal building. “A lot of people who responded to the survey really wanted to see it downtown,” Simoneaux said.
Mayor Kelly Girtz said he has spoken to Rep. Mike Collins and federal officials about acquiring the Hancock Avenue property. “They’ve at least been open to the concept,” he said. A deal could involve a property swap between ACC and the federal government.
But if it’s not downtown, a site near the jail off Lexington Road emerged as the frontrunner. Building a courthouse near the jail has practical advantages, he said, but some respondents thought it sent the wrong message.
Another possibility downtown is two ACC-owned parking lots on Strong and Jackson streets. But at two acres, parking and future expansion “will be a challenge,” Simoneaux said. The same goes for the current planning department office on Dougherty Street. ACC employees will be moving into the existing courthouse once the new judicial center is built, but Commissioner Jesse Houle asked, where would they go in the meantime?
The Piggly Wiggly shopping center is also under consideration. It’s easily accessible by car and bus, but not by foot. It would also be expensive to buy, take the property off the tax rolls and displace the only grocery store in the area. [BA]
Classic Center Arena: Originally the mayor and commission planned to build the judicial center on county-owned land near the Multimodal Center, but that land is now being leased to developers to help fund the Classic Center arena. The arena project, however, continues to run into financial problems.
The “master developer” that was going to build a parking deck and other developments around the arena has pulled out, Classic Center Executive Director Paul Cramer said. Without funding from the private developer and an associated special tax district, Cramer is reconfiguring the repayment on two previous bond issues, as well as an upcoming third round of financing. Ticket fees, naming rights, parking revenue and higher-than-expected revenue from the county’s hotel-motel and short-term rental taxes will cover the bond payments, he said. “We can still cover the bonds with that which we already have,” he said. The Classic Center will seek a new master developer.
One of the developer’s concerns, Cramer said, was the lack of a tenant for the arena. An agreement for an ECHL minor-league hockey team was in place, but the team never paid the money it owed to the Classic Center. Cramer said he briefly pursued UGA basketball after part of Stegeman Coliseum’s roof collapsed last spring, but when the university decided to repair Stegeman, he pivoted back to hockey and signed an agreement with Spire Hockey South to bring the Greenville Swamp Rabbits to Athens. “We’re gonna have a hockey team,” he said. “It’s gonna happen.” Not to mention hundreds of other events, he added.
No taxpayer dollars are going toward paying off the third round of financing, but commissioners were skeptical anyway, asking whether ACC could find itself on the hook, or if Cramer would come back again asking for more money. Cramer said the Classic Center Authority is taking on the bulk of the risk, and reminded commissioners of its 28-year track record. [BA]
Delinquency Prevention Initiative: The commission gave its initial approval for the Boys & Girls Club of Athens to start a new delinquency prevention initiative funded by the federal American Rescue Plan Act. The purpose of the program, proposed by commissioners Tiffany Taylor and Dexter Fisher, is to help at-risk youth stay out of gangs and improve their academic performance, hopefully reducing gang violence in Athens over the long term. The Boys & Girls Club is asking for $1.6 million to fund this initiative, and another $1.3 million to allow them to reopen community centers in Broadacres and Parkview while continuing support for their satellite locations in Nellie B and Rocksprings. The commission will vote on the contract with the Boys & Girls Club next month. [Chris Dowd]
Courtroom News: The commission approved a request from Superior Court Judge Eric Norris for $650,000 from the ARPA to upgrade audio/video equipment in the ACC and Oconee County courthouses. Court officials say the funding will allow for equal videoconferencing capabilities in all Western Circuit courtrooms, improving the speed at which they can handle a backlog of thousands of cases left over from the pandemic.
However, the commission delayed the approval of a related request from District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez for two new legal assistant positions funded through the same means. The request is intended to help address the DA’s prosecutor shortage, which has also slowed down the pace of Western Circuit court proceedings, but commissioners said they don’t have enough information about why the positions are needed. [CD]
Vaping Ban: When the commission banned indoor smoking in 2005, vaping wasn’t a thing. But now e-cigarettes are everywhere, and the commission is looking to update their old anti-smoking ordinance to include vaping.
“It’s not harmless water vapor,” Lauren Bracci, the government relations director for the American Heart Association of Georgia, said at the commission’s Legislative Review Committee meeting in May. “Second-hand aerosol contains heavy metal, cancer-causing toxic chemicals and fine particulates that can worsen heart and lung disease.”
At the recommendation of the Legislative Review Committee, the commission placed the anti-vaping ordinance on their consent agenda, meaning all 10 agree on banning vaping in indoor public spaces like retail stores, bars and restaurants across Athens. [CD]
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