Athens -Clarke County Library
Wednesday, December 14, 2016

by Star Farrington
AADM Campaign Project Manager,  Athens Civil Rights Committee

On Wednesday evening a TSPLOST meeting was held at the Athens-Clarke County library. The meeting began at 7PM; and was an informal gathering in which interested residents of Athens-Clarke County could ask Board Members questions in regards to the proposed local options sales tax.

There were several groups of people meeting within the room and after signing in, I met a Board Member by the name of Keith Sanders. He explained that anyone who had on a name tag was a part of the board. After reading an information sheet, I spoke briefly with Mr. Sanders. I introduced myself as being a part of the Athens Anti- Discrimination Movement as well as a student at UGA. In speaking with Mr. Sanders, a TSPLOST Board member, we spoke about the purpose of TSPLOST, the reason for the sales tax, distribution of the funds collected if the referendum should be pass. We spoke about how communities such as Winterville and Bogart are needed as a part of the intergovernmental agreement as the 0.75% or 1% is based on them joining in on the proposal. In speaking with Mr. Sanders, he also explained how the intentions of the proposal is to have the money distributed evenly amongst each community. I let him know that in my work with the Athens Well-being project that I was tasked with conducting surveys in Winterville, and that residents did complain of the lack of sidewalks, bike lanes, and transportation. I told Mr. Sanders that I hoped that the residents of Winterville would vote yes to the referendum.

During our conversation, Mr. Sanders also explained that the Mayor of Commissions will vote on the projects, and that the citizens of ACC will vote on the tax. During our conversation, we were then joined by a reported from the Flagpole, as she was asking some similar questions. I thanked Mr. Sanders for taking the time out to speak with me, and that concluded our conversation.

This is my report from the meeting, please let me know if you have any questions as I have a copy of the information sheet as well as more information could be found at www.athensclarkecounty.com/tsplost.