I am writing to correct Ian Ording’s article from Feb. 28 regarding a City Council committee on fluoridated water in Athens. I also report on Athens City Council and have no stake either way in the decisions of the council, but I feel the position of council members has been distorted.
Ording’s assertion that, “In 1973, the state took out the language that said Athens did not want fluoride in the water, which Councilman Elahu Gosney said shouldn’t have happened,” is factually incorrect.
What Gosney said during the meeting, quoting from a letter by the council’s former law director, was that the state passed a law in 1970 mandating that cities of more than 5,000 people fluoridate their water — the law previously cited by Law Director Pat Lang.
However, there was an exemption window for cities wishing to opt out via citizen vote, which Athens and 29 other Ohio cities did. In 1973, the bill was amended to remove this language, since the exemption window had passed.
That was merely simplifying the bill, and Gosney clarified that it did not take away Athens’ exemption. That, Gosney said, was done in 1997 by an ordinance of the Athens City Council, which he believes might have improperly overruled the citizens’ exemption.
This mistake, while only one sentence, alters the foundation of Gosney’s position, which is that the Athens City Council might have been wrong to force Athens to fluoridate in 1997. Ording makes it sound as though Gosney blames the state of Ohio.
The Post ought to correct this with an accurate account of events from Councilman Gosney, who called the committee, as it is likely to form the basis of future discussion on fluoride in Athens, and The Post essentially begins with a false representation of that discussion.
Jacob Derr is a senior studying broadcast journalism and political science.
