News 12 at 6 o'clock, December 2, 2008

AUGUSTA, Ga.---The local sagging pants debate began more than a year ago on News 12. It may be coming to a dramatic halt. A bid to send saggers to etiquette school failed.

A bid to send saggers to etiquette school failed, and that's before the real test even begins. The commission says it's can’t be enforced.

Commissioner Corey Johnson, the guy making the recommendation, took his bid off the table. This comes after his original call to send violators to school got downgraded to a small mention in the current indecent exposure law. The whole idea was to keep people out of jail. That's where things got sticky.

"That's reality,” said Commissioner Johnson. “We have to be realistic about it. We will be infringing upon the rights of expression if we do that. So I had to look at the bigger picture."

"One thing we cannot do is legislate morality,” said commissioner Calvin Holland. “We cannot legislate self respect, but we want our community, especially our young people, to know we are very much concerned."

The folks in Hyde Park are also concerned after years of battling alleged contamination. The community is now taking matters in their own hands. They are starting by calling for the Hyde Park sub-committee chair Don Grantham to step down.

They've also brought in a consultant who's pushing for relocation. There is nothing new there, right? Well, listen to this. He says he doesn't want the city's money. He wants the city to identify land that could be used for a new development.

"The residents needed to have forged their own plan and now they have,” said consultant Gary Willingham. “The commissioners need to either buy into the plan or take a stand against it. I think that the attitudes and the temperaments that's going back and forth now can be quelled."

"If they can identify the funds and they can be relocated then I'm all in favor for them," said commissioner Don Grantham.

Willingham says his first funding source would be grants. He wants to build a mixed used community valued at more than $30 million.

Former Augusta commissioner Andy Cheek is calling foul when it comes to managing canal maintenance funds.

Did you know the canal pumps more than 60 percent of the city's water? There are plans to drain the canal to install a new pumping system. Andy Cheek says, while you're at it, go ahead and clean it up. Cheek says the commission approved $3.2 million for a clean-up but may have gotten selective amnesia. He wanted to remind them.