Candidates discuss city, college relationship at forum

Candidates hoping to win the District 4 seat for the Milledgeville City Council conversed this past Monday night during an open forum held in the Arts & Sciences auditorium.

District 4 encompasses all of Main Campus, Centennial Village, as well as downtown Milledgeville.

Candidates attending the event included: John Alton, who has lived in the district for 16 years and has taught at Georgia Military College for 13 years; Ed “Dodo” Hollis, who is a 1969 undergraduate alumnus of GCSU and received his masters degree from the school in 1970; and Phillip Joiner, who came to Milledgeville from Athens in 1996 and graduated from GCSU in 2001.

The forum was co-sponsored by the American Democracy Project, Student Government Association, Department of English and Rhetoric, and Department of Government and Sociology.

One issue raised at the event was how the relationship between the college and the city is viewed.

“I think the relationship between the city and the college can stand some improvement,” Alton said. “The vast majority of those who sit on the Council are graduates of Georgia College & State University. Now that we’ve matured, we have a slightly differ-

ent opinion and a different stand, but we don’t forget that we were college students.”

Joiner wants both the students and community to put in an effort to bring the whole district closer.

“I believe in educating the students in how to relate more effectively with the community,” Joiner said. “I also believe because Georgia College & State University has now jumped to the second largest employer in Milledgeville and Baldwin County, and because the economic impact of the college is so great, that the community continue moving up to fully embrace the impact of not only the college as an institution has, but the students themselves.”

Hollis said he did not draw a line between the campus and the town.

“I never separated the two,” Hollis said. “I’m from Milledgeville. I went to school here. I just always thought that Georgia College was a part of Milledgeville. There’s no distinction whatsoever.”

Another important issue to the students, merchants and residents is the construction of a new parking deck downtown.

“I hadn’t thought about having a new one,” Hollis said. “I thought about improving the one we got. We could go up with the one we have. In Atlanta, they have four, five or six rows of parking.”

Joiner agreed with Hollis that a new parking deck does not need to be a necessity, but merely change the parking deck already in use.

“Let’s open that up to merchants and their employees,” Joiner said. “If those people can park in that upper section parking deck, we open up consumer parking all around downtown.”

Alton thought that there should be more than one new parking deck.

“There are several parking decks needed because we have an abundance of people driving vehicles,” Alton said. “There are at least three different places in Milledgeville right now we could build a nice parking deck to accommodate. I wouldn’t go over three levels.”

The topic of recycling in the city also was discussed.

“There’s potential for a new recycling center in the city,” Joiner said. “It’s being considered right now one of the key issues of the city.”

Alton thought that recycling bins should be picked up outside of homes and that more residents should be knowledgeable about recycling.

“That should be a part of a contract with our solid waste pickup,” Alton said. “If we don’t educate people to do it, we’re making a big mistake. Recycling will help save our planet.”

Hollis was unsure of the best approach to take regarding the recycling issue in Milledgeville.

“I’m not sure what would make it easier,” Hollis said. “I could definitely say, ‘Use less,’ but that won’t do it.”

Rochelle Small, a junior mass communication major and forum moderator was surprised at the number of college students in attendance.

“I’m just really proud of us for stepping up and taking the initiative to get out and vote,” Smalls said. “I think that shows the future isn’t as bad off as some of the candidates tried to make it seem.”

Jay Parker, a sophomore rhetoric major, served on the panel as a representative of the student body.

“I think that the most important issue that all the candidates discussed was the relationship that exists between the District 4 community, the city of Milledgeville and the Georgia College & State University population,” Parker said.

Dr. Amy Burt, an associate professor of speech at GCSU, represented the residents of District 4.

“I thinkthere are a number of important issues,” Burt said. “I think that whoever wins that election is going to have a plateful.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 30 2009. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry