Two cities in Athens County saw modest population growth during the last 10 years, which has left Nelsonville comfortably above one population milestone and the City of Athens just short of another.
Athens gained 2,490 residents since the 2000 census, according to numbers released last week, bringing the city’s total population to 23,832.
But had the city hit the 25,000 resident threshold, it would have meant changes to the current political structure.
Athens is currently broken into four political wards, but if the city had hit 25,000 residents it would have been required to create a fifth ward based on guidelines set by the Ohio Secretary of State’s office.
“We would have to add a political ward and go up to nine city council members,” Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl said.
Athens City Council currently consists of representatives of the city’s four wards, as well as two council members. If the city were to hit 25,000 residents it would add two additional at-large members to the council as well as a council member for the new ward.
“The main thing our administration has been looking at is down the road at the 25,000 mark,” Wiehl said, adding that he believes the city will soon hit the 25,000 mark either through population growth or the potential annex of nearby townships.
But while Athens was looking at potentially becoming a larger classification, Nelsonville was simply hoping to remain a city.
In order to be classified as an Ohio city, a municipality must have 5,000 residents.
With a 5,230-person population count in 2000, the county’s second largest city was toeing that line and had county officials closely watching this year’s census numbers.
However, the city’s population rose to 5,392 according to the 2010 census numbers.
“I believe the population growth is a reflection of the pride that the people have in our community,” Nelsonville City Manager Joe Scherer said. “People were talking about us potentially not having enough residents, but we weren’t really concerned about it. We didn’t feel like we had lost any significant number of residents.”
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