Discussions about The Ridges were missing an important part of the Athens population — the residents.
Harry Wyatt, associate vice president for Facilities, and Joe Adams, associate vice president for Risk Management and Safety, meet weekly with the Athens city planner to discuss OU’s projects that also pertain to the city, said Mike Gebeke, executive director of Facilities Management.
However, Facilities does not survey the opinions of Athens residents, Gebeke said.
“I believe they’ve done things in the past, but I have no experience with that,” he said.
Originally, a Ridges Advisory Committee comprising university, city and county representatives, met from 1988 to 1991 to discuss the fate of the entire Ridges complex, but the committee adjourned without any legislative prompting.
Ron Luce, director of the Athens County Historical Society & Museum, has attempted to communicate with OU officials about his concerns for the entire Ridges complex.
“The university is hearing from people,” Luce said. “They can’t ignore the county commissioner or mayor.”
He reached out to OU Facilities, OU President Roderick McDavis and the Board of Trustees about his concerns for the entire Ridges complex. He even found two interested buyers for Building 26, the building OU recently demolished.
“(Demolition) could easily be put on hold while these opportunities for consideration took place,” Luce said.
However, some Athens residents, including Tom O’Grady, president of the historical society’s board, said there were a lot of possible preservation options for Building 26 that would have preserved the character of the building.
O’Grady visited Atalaya in South Carolina, which is similar to the TB ward. The building was repurposed and now serves as a tourist attraction. It is marked as a National Historic Landmark that people can visit for $2.
“With all the other asylums torn down in the country, it makes this one that much more valuable,” O’Grady said.
Athens contractor Tim Traxler said the sturdy construction of Building 26 would have made it easy to restore simply by replacing windows and insulating it.
“Those things can be done,” Traxler said. “What it takes is a will to want to do it, that the building is important enough to insulate a building.”
He also said restoring the building saves energy in addition to saving money.
“You can’t build a green (building) from scratch as well as you can make a standing building green,” Traxler said.
Luce said he hopes anybody who has an opinion is given the opportunity to express it before OU makes a decision concerning the rest of The Ridges.
“Whoever lives here is a part of the community, up to people who moved in last week,” Luce said. “We’re all in this together, and we should all have a part in every decision.”
dk123111@ohiou.edu
