I was intrigued and a bit confused by the ad recently run in local newspapers by an unknown group calling itself Neighbors United for a Better Athens (NUBA). They are quoted as saying, We must have a plan for growth! and We must insist that our government fairly represents the best interests of our community
and I thought it was an ad in support of Paul Wiehl. The ad goes on, however, to repeat reasons given in a recent Post article stating that Baum is the better candidate because of his academic degrees and where he went to college. So THEN I'm thinking the NUBA ad is a satiric piece because, well, George W. Bush went to Yale.
Reading more closely, however, I noted that the treasurer of NUBA is R.T. Conard, who is also the developer of University Estates (UE), and some troubling issues came up for me. I am very concerned, and have been for several years now, about the potential contamination of Athens drinking water when the golf course is completed at UE because of its proximity to the wellheads.
Given that Ed Baum voted to approve UE development plans before Council had passed the wellhead protection plan, in spite of widespread citizen opposition to this premature approval; and given that Baum voted to waive $750,000 in UE tap fees; and given that Baum recently said that the golf course shouldn't be a problem, I guess it's not surprising that R.T. Conard would endorse him. Voters should think twice before voting for the candidate who advocated trusting the developer (Conard) who later sued the City and now promotes that candidate.- 17
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