Athens City Council allocated $460,000 to provide housing and rental rehabilitation for Athens residents in need, finalizing what city officials described as an effort to spruce up local homes and rentals for residents who lack the funds to do it themselves.
The money is coming from the Community Development Block Grant Fund, a federal program. It will also allow Habitat for Humanity to build one home within the city limits.
Three private homes and 13 rentals will be rehabilitated, said Councilwoman Chris Knisely, D-at large, adding that HAPCAP will help identify with local landlords to find people in need.
This is all expected to take place in October 2015.
The city also plans to allocate $55,000 to its water fund, and $4,500 to its water debt fund.
“Money comes to the city from a variety of sources, some of it’s from citizens paying their water bills,” Knisely said. “The money moves from the water fund to the water debt fund to pay off projects; it’s almost like moving money from savings to checking.”
The city is still paying off improvements made to water lines under Curtis Road, and water lines under West Union Street and Richland Avenue will be rehabilitated this summer, Knisely said.
Councilman Steve Patterson, D-at large, also discussed replacing the city’s 10-year-old street cleaner at Monday’s meeting, when the city decided to pay $220,000 for a new one.
“If you’ve ever seen it cruising around the streets, it’s really slow,” Patterson said. “It may not sound very old, but it’s logged a lot of time.”
The new cleaner should arrive later this year, council members said, adding that the old one could be repurposed as a leaf collector.
Council members also discussed the zero-waste action plan, which will create a 10-year game plan to ease landfill waste in Athens and Hocking counties, proposed by the Appalachia Ohio Zero Waste Initiative.
The counties are currently recycling about 6,000 tons—or about 30 percent—of the more than 21,600 tons of recyclable material it produced, according to data from 2012 that was included in the plan.
“Conceptually, there is a lot of pieces to it,” Mayor Paul Wiehl said. “It’s a good goal to strive for. It’s building to what we want to see in terms of local control for the future.”
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