Best of Augusta 2012 - Best Miscellaneous

Car Wash
When you wash your own car the hose is running for hours, are we right? Save time, money and, last but not least, the planet by supporting the best carwash around, which readers say is Top Notch. Redundant? Yes. Top Notch means is top notch. Lulu’s Exterior Express and Sparkle Express Car Wash win second and third.

Local Charity
It’s almost counter intuitive to list winners in a category like this. It’s like your preacher saying, “This is a good scripture.” What, as opposed to all the bad ones? So let’s say there are no losers in this category. There are only winners, the first of which is Golden Harvest Food Bank. American Red Cross is next on the voter lists, followed by a tie between Salvation Army of Augusta and United Way of the CSRA.

Fundraising Event
Top o’ the heap here is 12 Bands of Christmas. We’re giving them five golden rings. We have five winners, after all. Yes, second place is a tie between Rock Fore Dough and the Ronald McDonald House Plane Pull. Finally, forth and fifth of the top three spots is another tie: Relay for Life and United Way’s annual campaign in third.

Christmas Light Display
Lights of the South claims to have over 4 million lights, and last year we counted. They were not lying. Fun fact 1: To fit that many lights into one spot takes 100 acres. Fun fact 2: Lights of the South is the only finalist in this category visible from space. Downtown Augusta’s Christmas light display was the next favorite, followed by Hopelands Gardens holiday light spectacular.

Reason To Visit Columbia County
The largest object in Columbia County wins. It’s visible from space! And it’s man-made! Since we’re reporting from Columbia County we’re going to call the winner Clarks Hill Lake. You may have your own name for it. Shopping is the reason mentioned next most often, and the Columbia County main library follows next.

Reason To Visit Richmond County
Downtown events—and there are more of them than you could shake a calendar at show up on more ballots that anything else. Museums are the next most popular reason and shopping rounds out the victory circle.

Historic Landmark
Sacred Heart Cultural Center has been a landmark of Augusta’s skyline since 1900. It’s probably Augusta’s first skyscraper and it is your favorite. Your next most favored historic landmark has been around for all of seven years. We feel good telling you it’s the James Brown statue. The haunted pillar wins third place.

Hot Local Issue
This is almost laughable. The winner, elected into office during summertime voting, was the ASU/GHSU merger. The merger! Voters thought that was the hottest local issue. Little did they know the firestorm that would erupt over the name. In that context, we would have to say the TEE Center parking deck and the Richmond County sheriff’s race are a distant second and third.

Local Celebrity
All honor, say voters, goes to Mayor Deke Copenhaver as the top paparazzi target. Vera Stewart, whose star seems to be more and more on the rise, wins second. Did she bribe voters with red velvet cake? There is no evidence of that, but personally, we wouldn’t have minded. The inimitable Austin Rhodes wins third.

Thing To Happen To Augusta
Let’s see…checking…hmm…not finding anything about Ricardo Azziz… How odd. Well, let’s see… looks like the top vote-getter is the world-famous ESi Ironman 70.3 Augusta. Forward-looking voters gave the TEE Center second place and Lady Antebellum Amphitheater won third.

New Civic Project
Lady Antebellum Amphitheater is a great new addition to the park where it is located and the community at large. In second, the major late June USA Cycling event, not exactly a project in the bricks and mortar sense of the word, but even so a great source of civic pride. The Miller Theater restoration was voted into third place.