30 Oct 2009 12:33am | Posted by Steve Rogers | Steve Rogers' Column
Thank You to Anderson Grove; Will Angry Circuit Clerks Speak Out
For years, the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors, Columbus City Council and the Columbus Lowndes Recreation Authority have played political ping pong with discussions over a soccer complex, neighborhood parks and other improvements to the county's recreation offerings.
Tuesday, the three groups will get together and likely approve, in principle, $1.5 million in park upgrades. The meeting will conclude a whirlwind six weeks in which the debate has gone from uncertain, at best, to virtually assured.
Those who believe the need for meaningful investments in quality of life issues to sustain the county's growth and vitality have two groups to thank.
First are the outside consultants whose recommendation in favor of Burns Bottom for the soccer complex and downtown park turned that proposal around. The second are about 35 residents of the Anderson Grove community. Deep down, District 1 Lowndes County Supervisor Harry Sanders always has supported upgrades to community parks, even though his public comments sometimes suggested otherwise.
A month ago, when the supervisors and the City Council agreed to locate a soccer complex and park in the Burns Bottom area on the edge of downtown Columbus, Sanders balked at District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks' efforts to link the soccer complex with the parks. Sanders didn't say no, he just asked for time to seek input from his constituents and for the CLRA to fine tune its parks plan.
Tuesday night, Sanders got all the input he needed. The 35 Anderson Grove residents overhwelimingly supported a 5,000-square-foot addition to the existing Head Start center in their community. The center would enhance a walking track and other amenities already in place. Sanders suddenly began talking like he couldn't wait to get the project off the ground, telling residents he hoped work would begin next summer. With him on board, Tuesday's joint session is little more than a formality.
The result will be the most aggressive upgrades to the county's recreation system in almost two decades. Give CLRA Director Roger Short some credit; he's no dummy. The parks plan has a little something for everyone.
In addition to Anderson Grove, other areas -- Townsend Park, East Columbus, Sim Scott, Artesia and Crawford -- also will get additions or renovations, as will a small neighborhood park in Northaven Woods in District 2 Supervisor Frank Ferguson's area. A special needs playground or playing field also may be included. Together, the neighborhood parks and the soccer complex add up to about $5.5 million, counting land purchases. It'll be money well spent.
With the contentious, poltically charged debates finally out of the way, city and county officials can turn their attention to making sure we get the most for taxpayers' money. If the CLRA is given the go ahead to start next summer, Short and his board should get the neighborhoods involved in the construction, whether it's site preparation, painting, landscaping or some other aspect of the projects. The cooperative approach not only saves money but also gives the neighborhoods ownership.
That ownership will make residents more likely to take care of and use the facilities. Churches and other faith-based groups should be brought in to operate programs for residents of all ages. Those programs would reduce the CLRA's operational costs and further strengthen the community's buy in. If we are going to invest in our neighborhoods -- and we should -- we must take a new approach to make sure we get our money's worth from those investments.
CROOKED CIRCUIT COURT CLERKS?
Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant is doing all the right things as he lays the foundation for a run for governor in two years. He's making appearances all over the state, riding Gov. Haley Barbour's coattails on all the right issues, talking tough on budgets and spending, starting to quietly raise money -- he had a fund raiser in the area on a swing through the area last week -- and generally sounding like a strong leader. One area where he's failing -- if you don't count his caving to pressure on the MUW name-change issue -- is election reform. Bryant is among state Republicans leading the charge for a statewide referendum on voter ID. It's a popular issue among most of his audiences and should have been approved a long time ago.
In his speeches, Bryant talks about how the Senate has approved voter ID measures for several years only to have them die in the House. He notes this year the House approved a voter ID bill but says it was "filled" with "crazy" things like early voting and late registration. Those provisions killed the measure.
Bryant makes it sound as if the House is to blame. I disagree. In a speech to the Columbus Rotary Club last week, Bryant touted his skill at bringing people together. "That's why I do," he said. If he is so interested in true election reform -- more than just the politically expedient voter ID -- he'd have taken last spring's House and Senate proposals and brokered a compromise.
It shouldn't have been that difficult. Yes, we need voter ID. It just makes sense and a large majority of state residents agree. And no, we don't need same-day registration; the existing requirement to be registered 30 days before election day is a sound one. But most residents also agree we need other reforms, such as early voting, which works effectively in more than 20 states. Bryant opposes the idea.
About two months ago, following his speech to the Starkville Rotary Club, I pressed him on the issue of early voting. He admitted he'd never been to another state to see how the process worked. He also said it was too open to fraud. "You can't be sure election officials will make sure only qualified people vote," he said. He followed up by saying circuit court clerks, the elected men and women who run state and county elections in their counties, can't be trusted. He all but said some clerks and their staffs are crooked. At one point as we discussed the subject, he asked indignantly, "Are you going to argue with me or interview me?"
During his speech in Columbus last week, Bryant took the same position, telling Rotarians early voting isn't a good idea because it's open to fraud. The problem is, Bryant doesn't back it up with anything. He sometimes notes several counties in the state have more registered voters than they do voting age population. That's true but none of those counties have more people actually vote than they do voting age population. The solution is forcing local governments to purge their voting rolls and giving them the tools and financial assistance they need to do it.
He also cites the ills of absentee voting. But voter ID won't solve those problems. But early voting would. Bryant and his fellow Republican, Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, don't want those simple, real solutions because they fear higher turnouts and greater access -- early voting has done both in states where it's in use -- will hurt their party's candidates.
Under early voting, instead of handlers scouring nursing homes and the residences of the elderly, infirmed and easily swayed for absentee votes, those who want to participate in the election process have to show up at a courthouse or satellite voting location operated by trained officials. Representatives of both parties are on hand to weed out skulduggery.
Election officials also go to nursing homes to allow residents to cast ballots rather than depending on absentee vote getters. Again, representatives of both parties go with the election officials to monitor the voting.
In large counties, election officials could have satellite voting days in rural communities. In Lowndes County for instance, polls could be carried to Artesia, Caledonia and Crawford one or two days during a three-week early-voting period. Under such a system, about the only absentee ballots come from military personnel overseas.
Voter ID is needed. It's unfortunate that Bryant and others are willing to wait two years for a referendum while they make political hay over voter ID rather than showing true leadership on an issue that touches all our lives. Maybe some angry circuit court clerks will speak out.
WHERE WAS THE MEDIA
Two weeks ago, Lowndes County announced one of the most visionary economic development proposals in the Southeast. Funny thing was, the media hardly noticed. WCBI extensively covered the annoucement of the 2,500-acre GTR Global Industrial Aerospace Park as did The Commercial Dispatch. WTVA in Tupelo also had a reporter at the press conference. But the Clarion Ledger, which has come to Lowndes County numerous times in the past for economic development announcements, was nowhere to be found. Neither was the Daily Journal in Tupelo, which prides itself on its regional coverage. Both were invited to a preview meeting on the annoucement to get advance information, but neither attended. They also skipped the actual press conference. The same goes for the Starkville Daily News and the Daily Times Leader in West Point. Timing and distance might explain Jackson and Tupelo not attending, but it's hard to understand Starkville and West Point, especially given the intimate role their communities will play in promoting the park and the extensive benefits they stand to reap from its success during the next two or three decades. Makes me wonder if they stayed away out of jealousy or just don't get it.
