Blog posts by Blake Aued, Editor
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ARMC CEO: Hospital Must Find a Partner to Grow
Blog: In the Loop
The health care industry is changing, and Athens Regional Health System CEO Charles Peck sees two options: Keep the status quo and possibly shrink, or find a “strategic partner” and grow.
The Affordable Care Act has hastened consolidation among health insurers, and fewer and larger insurance providers means that hospitals are at a disadvantage when negotiating reimbursement rates. Costs are rising, though more slowly than before the ACA took effect. Patients are looking more to outpatient care.
Then there was the botched new electronic medical record system installed under former CEO Jamey Thaw, who resigned last year. Peck, who was hired in February, acknowledges that implementation was “rough,” but also says media coverage was overblown. That coverage made potential patients (read: customers) think twice about seeking treatment at ARMC.
“People in the community probably started wondering whether this was the place to come at that time,” Peck said.
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ARMC Might Merge With Another Hospital
Blog: In the Loop
Athens Regional Medical Center is considering a merger with another health care organization.
The full announcement from ARMC is below. The hospital met with employees and affiliated doctors Tuesday and Wednesday before releasing the news.
For context, at least two top executives, including former CEO Jamey Thaw, were forced out in May 2014 over the botched implementation of a new electronic record-keeping system, among other issues. The move also came amidst rumors of a precarious financial situation for the health care group, which also includes several urgent-care clinics and a health insurance plan.
After being led by Chief Medical Officer James Moore for nine months, Athens Regional Health System appointed Charles Peck as CEO in February.
Here's the announcement:
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Epps Bridge Centre Is Doubling in Size
Blog: In the Loop
Photo Credit: Lee Becker
Best Buy is among the stores that moved from Atlanta Highway to Epps Bridge Centre.
Atlanta developer Frank Bishop plans on building an expansion of Epps Bridge Centre across the Oconee Connector from the current shopping center that would nearly double the size of the development.
Bishop applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last month for a permit to mitigate watershed damage from the development by purchasing credits to protect wetlands in Greene County.
Plans his company submitted with the application call for a 370,000 square-foot development, including a large standalone anchor tenant, two buildings with smaller retail spaces and seven outparcels, to be built in two phases.
Phase 1 of Epps Bridge Centre, which opened in 2013, is approximately 450,000 square feet, so the next to phases would bring the total size to more than 800,000 square feet (the size of eight Walmarts).
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Patterson Hood: South's Heritage Is More Than a Flag
Blog: Homedrone
The Drive-By Truckers’ Patterson Hood wrote an essay for the upcoming New York Times Magazine, published online today, about Southern heritage and the Confederate flag, which has been the topic of much debate since white supremacist Dylann Roof allegedly murdered nine black churchgoers in Charleston, SC. It's well worth your time.
Hood grew up in a progressive family in Muscle Shoals, AL, a city where the white South’s conservatism was somewhat tempered by the dozens of legendary African American musicians like Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett who recorded music there.
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J. Crew and CVS Are Coming to Downtown Athens
Blog: In the Loop
An artist's rendering of Georgia Heights.
A CVS pharmacy and a J. Crew factory store will be among the ground-floor commercial tenants in the Georgia Heights student housing development under construction in the old SunTrust Bank parking lot between Broad, Lumpkin, Clayton and Hull streets downtown.
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Commission Rejects Eastside Aldi Rezoning
Blog: In the Loop
The Athens-Clarke County Commission rejected a rezoning request to build an Aldi grocery store at the intersection of Barnett Shoals and College Station roads by a 5–4 vote Tuesday night.
Aldi, which also has an Atlanta Highway location, had wanted to build the 17,000 square-foot store on the site of what is currently a gas station, as well as a neighboring residential parcel.
Residents spoke out against the plan, arguing that it would bring too many cars to an area that’s already seeing increased traffic from the new University of Georgia veterinary hospital nearby, and that a proposed buffer between the development and the Crestwood/Green Acres subdivision was inadequate.
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New Georgia Fireworks Law Draws Complaints
Blog: In the Loop
Photo Credit: maf04/Flickr
I was out of town last weekend, but even in Savannah, fireworks were waking up my baby and driving my dog nuts. My social media feeds were full of people complaining about the racket, and it was no different in Atlanta, according to the AJC.
The Georgia legislature legalized fireworks effective July 1. The law allows fireworks to be set off until midnight and until 2 a.m. on and around the Fourth of July and New Year’s Eve.
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Sunday Buses Start Next Month; Will Be Free for Four Weeks
Blog: In the Loop
Photo Credit: Joshua L. Jones/file
Athens Transit will start running buses on Sundays Aug. 16, and fares will be free for the first four Sundays.
The launch will coincide with Athens Transit’s regular fall service changes the second week of August—when University of Georgia classes traditionally start—in order to recruit and train employees.
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Athens Power Rankings for the Week of July 6
Blog: In the Loop
Welcome to Athens Power Rankings. In the spirit of sports rating systems, through painstaking analysis, we rank the top movers and shakers in the Classic City each week. Who's hot? Who's not? Find out below.
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Here's the Deal With That Drone at AthFest
Blog: In the Loop
People have been wondering about the drone spotted flying over AthFest last week.
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Watch Athens' First Same-Sex Wedding
Blog: In the Loop
Photo Credit: Joshua L. Jones
Jordyn Dolente and Moriah Martin made history by becoming the first same-sex couple to get married in Athens on the afternoon of the Supreme Court's marriage equality ruling on Friday. (Probate Judge Susan Tate is officiating in the courtyard outside the courthouse.) They graciously allowed Flagpoleintern Benjamin Tankersley to document their nuptuals.
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The Jamie Hood Trial Is Completely Bonkers
Blog: In the Loop
Photo Credit: Photo by @wycam1 via Twitter.
Unfortunately, Flagpole does not have the resources to send a writer to sit in a courtroom for eight hours a day for two months, but oh my God, as tragic and reprehensible as Jamie Hood's crime spree was, this story is amazing.
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Athens Mourns With Charleston Over Church Massacre
Blog: In the Loop
The Rev. Claude Ray James, First AME's pastor, leads a prayer.
Athens First AME Church—the oldest African American church in the city—invited members of other local churches to participate in a prayer vigil on Wednesday for the nine victims of the racially motivated killings last week at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC. Flagpole photographer Joshua L. Jones documented the emotional evening.
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Terrapin Almost Left Athens for South Carolina
Blog: In the Loop
Photo Credit: Joshua L. Jones/file
Terrapin Beer Co. used lucrative offers from other states to move its Athens brewery to extract more than $1 million in taxpayer incentive offers from the Athens-Clarke County government, according to documents obtained by the Athens Banner-Herald.
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Athens Power Rankings for the Week of June 22
Blog: In the Loop
Welcome to Athens Power Rankings. In the spirit of sports rating systems, through painstaking analysis, we rank the top movers and shakers in the Classic City each week. Who's hot? Who's not? Find out below.
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A Former Athenian on the Charleston Tragedy
Blog: In the Loop
Photo Credit: Travis Dove for the New York Times
Former Flagpole editor Richard Fausset reports in today's New York Times from Charleston, SC, on the racially motivated massacre by a white gunman of nine African Americans attending a prayer service.
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Athens Congressman Jody Hice: There's No Such Thing as Separation of Church and State
Blog: In the Loop
Jody Hice, the Walton County tea party Republican who represents Athens in Congress, told a San Diego Christian Conference that the "so-called separation of church and state" is a "false belief," and that Christians staying out of government has made it more corrupt, the website Right Wing Watch reported.
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Taxis, Food Trucks and Aldi: What the Athens Government Is Up to This Week
Blog: In the Loop
Photo Credit: Joshua L. Jones/file
The Athens-Clarke County Commission holds its agenda-setting (non-voting) meeting at 7 p.m. today at City Hall.
Agenda items include a plan to extend the North Oconee River Greenway (see tomorrow’s City Dope for more), reforms to the local taxi ordinance and a change in the sign ordinance allowing businesses to post an additional sign, for a total of two (aimed mainly at restaurants that wish to display menus).
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Michael Adams Comes Out of Retirement to Take Over Pepperdine
Blog: In the Loop
Former University of Georgia President Michael Adams has been hired as chancellor of Pepperdine University effective Aug. 1, the Malibu, CA school announced Thursday.
“I have great confidence that Mike will open doors of opportunity, giving us the advantage we need to become a preeminent, global, Christian university,” Pepperdine President Andrew K. Benton said in a news release. “Mike and Mary Adams are true and dependable friends who have never been far from the Pepperdine community.”
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Creature Comforts Re-Releases An Athena Variant; Terrapin Has a New IPA
Blog: Grub Notes
This week, local brewer Creature Comforts is re-releasing one of its most popular limited releases from last year: Tritonia, a version of its Athena berliner weisse (a light and tart style) brewed with cucumbers and limes.
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latest stories
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In the Loop | July 20, 2015 2:50pm
ARMC CEO: Hospital Must Find a Partner to Grow
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In the Loop | July 17, 2015 12:00am
ARMC Might Merge With Another Hospital
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In the Loop | July 16, 2015 12:37pm
Epps Bridge Centre Is Doubling in Size
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Homedrone | July 9, 2015 12:09pm
Patterson Hood: South's Heritage Is More Than a Flag
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In the Loop | July 8, 2015 2:51pm
J. Crew and CVS Are Coming to Downtown Athens
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In the Loop | July 8, 2015 10:25am
Commission Rejects Eastside Aldi Rezoning
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In the Loop | July 7, 2015 4:07pm
New Georgia Fireworks Law Draws Complaints
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In the Loop | July 6, 2015 4:26pm
Sunday Buses Start Next Month; Will Be Free for Four Weeks
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In the Loop | July 6, 2015 3:21pm
Athens Power Rankings for the Week of July 6
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In the Loop | July 1, 2015 2:24pm
Here's the Deal With That Drone at AthFest
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In the Loop | June 30, 2015 12:50pm
Watch Athens' First Same-Sex Wedding
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In the Loop | June 29, 2015 11:46am
The Jamie Hood Trial Is Completely Bonkers
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In the Loop | June 25, 2015 1:16pm
Athens Mourns With Charleston Over Church Massacre
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In the Loop | June 24, 2015 12:50pm
Terrapin Almost Left Athens for South Carolina
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In the Loop | June 23, 2015 12:53pm
Athens Power Rankings for the Week of June 22
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In the Loop | June 21, 2015 1:27pm
A Former Athenian on the Charleston Tragedy
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In the Loop | June 18, 2015 2:25pm
Athens Congressman Jody Hice: There's No Such Thing as Separation of Church and State
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In the Loop | June 16, 2015 11:16am
Taxis, Food Trucks and Aldi: What the Athens Government Is Up to This Week
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In the Loop | June 12, 2015 12:22pm
Michael Adams Comes Out of Retirement to Take Over Pepperdine
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Grub Notes | June 9, 2015 3:04pm
Creature Comforts Re-Releases An Athena Variant; Terrapin Has a New IPA