Recent editorials from Georgia newspapers:
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Nov. 19
Savannah Morning News on archaeology regulations for developers to help save history and artifacts:
Last summer, Savannah State University officials broke ground on the construction of a $20.5 million science and technology building, but before they did they took the time to research whether they were building on the site of a former cemetery for slaves.
They also took time to honor the memories of those who may have toiled on that spot - part of the old Placentia Plantation - before going forward with the construction of the needed campus building. Archaeologists detailed their findings and respectfully relocated the remains of the dead.
The experience at SSU, and the due diligence that university officials did, showed proper respect for history and the past while not slowing down needed progress. It also helps illustrate why the city could benefit from having its own archaeology ordinance on the books to help save history and historic artifacts from earth-movers.
The lack of such an ordinance prompted the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation to include “Underground Savannah” as one of 10 sites on its 2018 list of “Places in Peril” released Nov. 15. The group called on Savannah to incorporate archaeology into its regulations.
“Many of the more recently constructed buildings have deep architectural footprints that have obliterated any archaeological potential beneath them,” the “Places in Peril” report states. “Savannah has no archaeological ordinance that requires comprehensive archaeological study in advance of a site’s destruction. As a result, countless archaeological sites have been destroyed. Unmitigated development continues across Savannah, moving into areas where archaeological sites have managed to survive thus far. Savannah’s current public policy needs to incorporate archaeology into its regulations.”
The regulation doesn’t have to be an ordinance, it could come instead in the form of incentives to encourage archaeology, said Georgia Trust CEO and President Mark McDonald. The Georgia Trust is one of the nation’s largest nonprofit preservation groups - its missions include reclaiming, restoring and revitalizing the state’s historic sites, from the obscure to the well-known. Mr. McDonald knows Savannah well, as he is a former president of the Historic Savannah Foundation.
The idea of an ordinance to help preserve historic treasures that may be underground here isn’t new. Indeed, only a year ago, Savannah archaeologist Philip Ashlock pushed the city to protect sites that may be historically significant. He urged Savannah to join other historic communities that have such protections, including St. Augustine, Fla., Beaufort County, S.C. and Alexandria, Va. Alexandria’s law has been on the books for about 24 years and is considered a model for the nation. During those 24 years, it has not been shown that the law imposed an unreasonable burden on developers or property owners - a typical objection to a new archaeological ordinance.
But last year’s push for a Savannah law failed to pick up traction, and the momentum for it slowed down, only to be renewed again by the Georgia Trust’s involvement.
Savannah City Council should give it a serious look. Indeed, federal law already requires an archaeological survey on land being developed with federal funds, and that law led to the discovery of ceramic shards and the possibility that Native Americans once had an encampment and brick wells at the site of the Chatham Area Transit’s Joe Murray Rivers Jr. Intermodal Transit Center on West Oglethorpe Ave. The shards had been hidden for about 1,500 years. That’s about 800 years before Gen. Oglethorpe landed here to found the Georgia colony.
The federal law helped reveal important evidence about this area’s past that otherwise would have been lost. Indeed, it’s highly likely that more evidence was destroyed in the 1960s during construction of the former Greyhound Bus depot on that site before surveys were required for projects involving federal funds.
As it stands now, developers are able to excavate sites for hotels and other private projects all over the city without regard to whatever history or artifacts their buildings will pave over. This is not the developers’ fault. They have no legal responsibility to search their properties for remnants of the past. It is the fault of previous generations of Savannah leaders who were unwilling to protect such relics.
It seems to be a glaring inconsistency on Savannah’s part. The city has an historic preservation law, but won’t touch archaeological protection. That needs to change.
About a year ago, the Metropolitan Planning Commission wrote a voluntary policy to address this concern. Under that proposal, developers with large-scale projects could get permission to exceed the height limitation in their area by one story in return for devoting 4 percent of the project cost - up to $500,000 - on an archaeological survey and, if any money as left over, dedicate it to outreach and education.
This plan wasn’t ideal, but it was better than nothing. As a voluntary measure it couldn’t promise protection against paving over Savannah’s past unless the developer agreed. Besides, how many big projects would opt for digging in the dirt to gain a bonus floor when they can already get one in several other ways, like using higher-grade building materials or sustainable technology or public art?
Alexandria’s archaeological protection code offers a better way. Developers there can find out ahead of time, with help from city staff, whether the site they want is likely to require an archaeological survey. Not every piece of property does. In that way, developers can factor a survey into their location decisions and into cost estimates, which is only fair.
The MPC staff liked the Alexandria model, too, but twice before, in the 1980s and again in 2012, attempts to preserve Savannah’s hidden archaeological treasures stalled for lack of mayoral and city council support, which is why the voluntary policy emerged to help protect Savannah’s past and prevent it from being paved over and lost forever.
These untold stories include how Native Americans, slaves and ordinary Savannahians once lived. The stories of the rich and powerful are already well-chronicled, but they paint an incomplete picture of Savannah’s past.
A potential treasure trove of historical information could exist. A dig in Madison Square uncovered a trash-filled ditch from the time of the Revolutionary War. In Yamacraw Village there’s evidence of a Revolutionary War-era fort.
But because the city doesn’t compel or incentive developers to survey for artifacts before they build, it’s rarely done. And as development increases, these stories are being permanently lost.
It’s time to reverse the momentum in a reasonable way that doesn’t punish thoughtful developers. City leaders should show that they care as much about the city’s hidden history that’s underground as they do with the visible history that’s above ground.
Online: http://savannahnow.com/
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Nov. 18
The Telegraph of Macon on two health care systems announcing they’re exploring ways to cooperate in a region:
There are times when pigs fly, Hell freezes over and you get blood from a stone. In the not-too-distant past, if someone had just mentioned a “strategic combination” between the Medical Center of Central Georgia (Navicent Health) and Houston Healthcare, the idea would have been met with derision on both sides of Echeconnee Creek. The announcement on Nov. 16 that the two health care systems were exploring ways to join forces should tell us just how much the health care landscape has changed and is expected to change in the future.
While the days of competition between health care systems and other specialized care operators is far from over, in fact it’s getting more intense, cooperation on the local level can have many benefits, for providers, but most importantly, patients.
In an interview with Ninfa Saunders, Navicent’s president and CEO and Charles Briscoe, the chief operating officer and vice president of Houston Healthcare, both executives agreed that they are seeking to create a “local high performing organization,” that would “improve access and quality of care” for the people they serve.
It was also clear to both executives that they were embarking on a journey that will leave a lasting legacy. “The region will never be the same again,” said Saunders.
It’s clear that larger health care organizations can better weather the ebbs and flows of one of the most complicated businesses on the planet. Many experts say organizations in this space need assets of $2 billion or more to survive in the ever-changing world of 21st century health care. And if this “strategic combination” comes to pass, and we have no doubt that it will, the combined organization with facilities in Macon, Peach County, Baldwin County, Monroe County and Perry, will be getting closer to that magic number.
This “strategic combination” is also an example of something that has been talked about for decades but rarely implemented: Regionalization. We’ve discussed the necessity of acting regionally, but for many odd reasons - it has never happened. Until now.
Regular people act regionally all of the time. The workforce at Robins Air Force Base comes from more than 50 Middle Georgia communities. Other employers, from Frito Lay to Graphic Packaging to the Houston and Bibb counties school systems have employees who call cities all over Middle Georgia and beyond, home.
Could it ever happen that our elected officials would come together and join forces and get rid of the artificial lines that separate communities that are only a stone’s throw apart? It’s been tried before.
In 1995, Gov. Zell Miller appointed a 30 member Future Communities Commission authorized by the state Legislature. Members included then-state House Majority Leader Larry Walker of Perry, state Rep. Robert Reichert of Macon, Macon City Council member Dee Shields, and Houston County Commission Chairman Sherrill Stafford.
At the time, Georgia had 159 counties and almost 2,000 government entities, including city, county, school districts and various authorities, plus 636 local constitutional officers. The Future Communities Commission wasn’t the first attempt at paring down the number of governments, two prior attempts had failed.
What happened to the Future Communities Commission effort?
Somewhere in the state Capitol a final report from the commission sits on a shelf gathering dust. It never saw the light of day and no other governor has even whispered about an effort to consolidate - on a wide scale - the state’s many governments.
Interesting note: Only one of the local officials named to the commission ever saw any part of its vision come to reality while in office, and Reichert could not have known that he would be mayor of Macon when it consolidated with Bibb County. Walker had retired from the Legislature, Shields from council and Chairman Stafford would pass away in 2000.
Could Macon-Bibb, Houston, Peach, Crawford and Twiggs counties come together as we are about to see the area’s largest health care providers? They serve the same populations.
If two sprawling complicated enterprises with thousands of highly-skilled employees and millions of dollars-worth of equipment, real estate and other assets can do it, what about our local governments?
When pigs fly.
Online: http://www.macon.com/
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Nov. 16
The Daily Citizen of Dalton on November as national diabetes month:
One in four people with diabetes don’t know they have it - and more than 30 million Americans have the disease, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There are three main types of diabetes: type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes (diabetes while pregnant, which can put the pregnancy and baby at risk and lead to type 2 diabetes later).
Around five percent of people who have diabetes have type 1, according to the CDC. There is currently no way to prevent type 1 diabetes.
Most people who have diabetes have type 2.
Risk factors for type 2 diabetes include:
. Being overweight.
. Being 45 years old or older.
. Having a parent, brother, or sister with type 2 diabetes.
. Being physically active less than three times a week.
. Ever having gestational diabetes or giving birth to a baby who weighed more than 9 pounds.
Diabetes increases the likelihood of serious health complications, such as heart disease and stroke; blindness and other eye problems; kidney disease and amputations.
Risk of death for adult diabetics is 50 percent higher than for those without.
Medical costs for people with diabetes are twice as high as for people without diabetes.
There are ways to lower your risk for developing type 2.
The CDC recommends losing a small amount of weight (5-7 percent of your body weight) if you’re overweight and getting regular physical activity.
The CDC defines regular physical activity as getting at least 150 minutes of “brisk walking or a similar activity” per week, breaking it down further to 30 minutes a day, five days a week.
For diabetics, the CDC recommends the following steps to manage it:
. Follow a healthy eating plan.
. Get physically active.
. Test your blood sugar
. Give yourself insulin by strings, pen or pump, if needed.
. Monitor your feet, skin and eyes to catch problems early.
. Get diabetic supplies and store them according to package directions.
. Manage stress and deal with daily diabetes care.
Online: http://www.dailycitizen.news/
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