The Aiken Town Crier

Public Reception to Unrestricted Downtown Parking is Mixed

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 10:00:04 -0400

It's been nearly five months since the Aiken City Council eliminated downtown parking restrictions and reception to the situation continues to be mixed. The Aiken Downtown Development Association maintains that the John Edwards study was good and that there should be some type of restriction. Some downtown business employees state that they can't really see a difference between when the restrictions were in effect and now. The Metro Spirit writer states, "While downtown streets have continued to be busy, the amount of shoppers and lunch-goers did not significantly increase or decrease following the change," but offers no data or metric to support this statement. Metro Spirit Article

Aiken County Library Auctioning Card Catalog

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 11:50:30 -0400

The Aiken County Public Library is conducting a silent auction on two card catalogs. Bidding opened at $25 and will run through July 27th, 2010. Bids must be placed at the library building. There's a little over a week left! NBC Augusta Article

BAE Systems Receives $69 Million Contract

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 11:45:45 -0400

BAE Systems was awarded a contract for the production of 30 Army M88A2 heavy equipment recovery combat utility lift and evacuation system recovery vehicles, four sets of authorized stock list spares and three spare engines. 1.5% of the work will be completed at the Aiken, SC facility. Defense World Article

SuperPetz Begins Closing This Week

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 11:30:20 -0400

Citing non-profitability, SuperPetz will close the store at 1589 Whiskey Road this Fall. Merchandise liquidation begins this week. Augusta Chronicle Article

The Post and Courier Article

SRS Should be Better Prepared for Natural Disasters

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 11:20:00 -0400

A report released by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Board shows that SRS needs better preparation for natural disaster response. The report shows that the number of natural disaster drills at the site have been declining. WMBF Article

Neighborhood Watch May Deter Criminals

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 11:00:00 -0400

Instances of criminal activity have been increasing during the past several weeks around Aiken County. Law enforcement officers throughout the county work hard to solve crimes; however, preventing a crime from happening is the best option for everyone. Deputies with the Aiken County Sheriff's Office state that forming a Neighborhood Watch can prevent robberies and other criminal activity from occurring in your area. Neighborhood Watch programs in Aiken County are setup through the Aiken County Sheriff's Office. Community officers can be reached at 803-593-9954 extension 1320.

WRDW Article

Team 1102 � M�Aiken Magic at the FRC Palmetto Regional

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:22:38 -0400

The Aiken County Robotics M�Aiken Magic Team 1102 arrived in Clemson, South Carolina on Thursday morning March 25, 2010. The team faced this competition with a spirit of enthusiasm and confidence, although they had no way of knowing then that they would have such an exhilarating experience over the days to come.

Team 1102 spent the day Thursday making changes to the robot and practicing for the competition. The members had observed things in other robots at Orlando that they thought would work well for them. In the week prior to going to Clemson, team members worked to build all of the parts necessary for the changes they wanted to make, the most drastic change being a new kicking mechanism. After arriving Thursday, the changing of parts went very quickly and smoothly. The team was immediately able to jump into practice matches for the remainder of the day.

Friday morning brought the beginning of the Qualification matches. Team 1102�s practice paid off! The robot had quite a presence on the field, proving to be one of the best defensive robots at the competition. Even the highest scoring robots had met their match when battling Team 1102�s robot, with its quick-movements and its ability to stand its ground when pushed. Team 1102 pushed through the beginning of the day with three fantastic matches! The end of the day was a little frustrating, with a couple of hardware malfunctions. However, by the end of the Qualification matches at noon on Saturday, Team 1102 had made its impression as a great defensive ally, and the robot made its way into the finals.

Team 1102 had two alliance partners heading into the finals. The alliance captain was Team 1772, the Trail Blazers, from Brazil. This team�s robot had amazing maneuvering capabilities and an almost unbelievable knack for aiming and scoring. The other alliance partner was Team 2751, Team Spark, from Pickens, South Carolina. This team�s robot had a great hanging mechanism designed to earn bonus points at the end of each match.

The alliance battled hard through the first couple of rounds of eliminations; then they were down to the final matches. Only two alliances remained in the competition. Team 1102 and its alliance partners won the first match in the finals. They lost the second match in the finals. It came down to the last match. Spirits were high; team members from the stands continued to cheer loudly as they had done all day. However, despite an amazing effort, Team 1102�s alliance ended up losing the last match. This brought Team 1102 and its alliance partners to 2nd place overall for the entire competition.

The members of Team 1102 were awarded medals during the awards ceremony. These medals were in recognition of a job well done, and each member deserved such recognition. The team members worked hard to ensure their robot was solid. The drive team worked to make smart, quick decisions on the field. The media team got plenty of amazing action shots during matches. The pit crew pulled through by keeping things organized and helping to keep everyone safe while in the pit area. What about the other members? Where were they? They were in the stands, cheering for their drive team � a task that proved to be instrumental in maintaining enthusiasm on the field. Each member of Team 1102 had his or her own contribution to the planning of the robot, the building of the robot, and the success of robot at competition. Overall, the big bot has had a great season, and Team 1102 has momentum to build on through next year.

M'Aiken Magic Competes in Orlando

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:30:00 -0400

After arriving in Orlando, FL on the afternoon of March 9, 2010, M�Aiken Magic Team 1102 spent the next 36 hours working on homework assignments and team building activities. During these hours, the team members and mentors developed a spirit of unity and friendship that would be crucial over the next couple of days. On Thursday March 11, the team arrived at the University of Central Florida Arena to uncrate their robot and to take the robot to be inspected. Unfortunately, the bumpers of the robot did not pass inspection due to a slight rule change that the team had not previously noticed. The team members, however, did not let this inconvenience stop them. They banded together to redesign the bumpers and the bumper mounts in just a few hours. This task could have easily taken much longer to do, but the team worked together to get it done in time to pass inspection by the end of the day!

Despite their tremendous effort to complete the new bumper system, the time that it took was irreplaceable. Some of the other teams were able to use those hours to practice driving their robot and to find possible glitches in programming.

Friday morning brought the beginning of the competition. There were a total of 53 teams competing. During the first few matches, there were programming and hardware glitches that were easily fixed but that caused just enough problems with driving and kicking to knock Team 1102 pretty low on the rankings from the start. The drive team and programming team persevered to fix each problem as it came along, but it was not enough to bring the team to the top. At the end of Friday, Team 1102 was ranked 49th out of 53.

On Saturday, the team faced the competition with renewed enthusiasm. Out of three matches played on Saturday, Team 1102 won two! The autonomous programming finally worked as the team wanted it to. During the teleoperated period, the drive team finally had the desired amount of control over the robot to become an almost impenetrable defense team! The robot stood its ground with, as the team members like to say, �the strength of ten bears� in its tank tread design. The team�s efforts were successful throughout the day, bringing Team 1102 to 40th place by the end of the competition.

Overall, the trip was a success! The drive team is now very comfortable with the robot, and the programming team now has the robot doing what they want it to do. The team grew closer and was able to work well under pressure. Members from Team 1102 are now working on slight alterations to make the robot even better for the upcoming Palmetto Regional that will take place at Clemson University in less than two weeks. The FRC Orlando Regional was an experience that Team 1102 will not soon forget.

Aiken City Council Eliminates Downtown Parking Restrictions

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500

The Aiken City Council voted unanimously during tonight's meeting to eliminate the two hour downtown parking restrictions. Existing 30 minute parking spaces will remain as they are. The City Council plans to reevaluate the downtown parking situation in six months. The downtown parking discussion at tonight's City Council meeting began with City Manager Roger LeDuc explaining some of the origins of the downtown parking ordinance followed by two proposals to alleviate the complaints about the parking ordinance. The ordinance was approved by city council at the November 26th, 2007 meeting and not implemented until March 2008. The justification for the ordinance was given by a study of downtown parking, conducted in 2005, by John Edwards which showed that an average of 47% of the parking supply on Richland Avenue and Laurens Street was unavailable. Mr. LeDuc's first proposal was to eliminate the two hour parking restrictions everywhere downtown except for the curb-side spaces along Richland Avenue and Laurens Street. His second proposal was to entirely eliminate parking restrictions downtown; effectively returning the parking situation to the 2007 status.

After Mr. LeDuc finished speaking, Mayor Cavanaugh welcomed statements from members of the public. Four members of the public, who were the first to speak, supported the downtown parking restrictions and encouraged further restrictions coupled with stricter enforcement. They were followed by an overwhelming number of people, most of them downtown business owners, who called for the elimination of all downtown parking restrictions. The first person to speak was Mary O'hara, owner of MB Jewelery and Beads, supported the parking restrictions in order to prevent employees of other businesses from parking in front of her store. Bradley Czajka, who owns Oliv'a, made an impassioned plea for the removal of all parking restrictions so that his, and other downtown businesses, would thrive. Many other downtown businesses were represented by their owners, but some decided to remain seated and see how the proceedings concluded instead of address the council and the public.

Following the statements from the members of the public, Council Member Beverly Clyburn stated that she would like the number of downtown handicapped parking spaces increased. Council Member Lessie Price stated that she supported removing the downtown parking restrictions since, referring to an earlier statement, everything seemed to go smoothly and no complaints were received when the parking restrictions were lifted during the Christmas shopping season. Mayor Cavanaugh then repeatedly asked for anyone to give him a compelling argument supporting the downtown parking restrictions in January through November when not having them worked so well in December. When no good argument was provided, he made a motion to eliminate all parking restrictions downtown and the rest, they say, is history.

Related Articles:
January 14th, 2010 Aiken Town Crier Article

February 10th, 2008 Aiken Town Crier Article

March 9th, 2010 Aiken Standard Article

End Parking Restrictions in Downtown Aiken Now! Facebook group

WJBF Report on Parking Restriction Opposition

WRDW Report on Parking Restriction Opposition

Aiken Standard Article from January 14th

City of Aiken Webpage About the Program

Outback Steakhouse Now Open for Sunday Lunch

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:25:02 -0500

The Outback Steakhouse near the Aiken Mall on Whiskey Road will now be open for lunch on Sunday. This change from the chain's usual business hours has been based solely on customer feedback, according to manager John Griffin. TradingMarkets.com Article

Aiken Standard Article