Athens City Council’s Monday night meeting will be the last for two city council members. Councilwoman Michele Papai, D-3rd Ward, and Councilwoman Arian Smedley, D-At Large, will be honored with special one-reading resolutions at the meeting.
Papai was elected to serve on Athens City Council in 2011, according to a previous Post report. Prior to her election, Papai also served as an Athens 3rd Ward 6th Precinct Democratic Committee representative and was on the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals. Papai’s seat as the 3rd Ward representative will be taken by Samuel Emerson Crowl, Ohio University’s sustainability project coordinator.
Smedley has been a city council member since July, when she was appointed as an at-large council member by the Central Committee of the Democratic Party, according to a previous Post report. Sarah Grace, Pat McGee and Peter Kotses will serve as at-large representatives in the coming term.
Additionally, city council members will discuss disposing of outdated police equipment such as certain firearms, forfeited and abandoned bicycles, and other obsolete equipment. Such equipment is no longer suitable for the use of the Athens Police Department, Councilman Kent Butler, D-1st Ward, said at the Dec. 4 Athens City Council meeting.
“A lot of (the equipment) is scrap,” Athens Mayor Steve Patterson said. “It’s junk; it’s stuff that you really can’t garner much from.”
In the past, the city has held auctions to dispose of such obsolete equipment. That method, however, has proven to be economically inefficient after factoring the cost of putting on an auction, Patterson said. City council will instead discuss other methods to dispose of that equipment, such as donating the items to municipalities that can use it.
