The Athens City Commission on Disabilities and Ohio University’s Presidential Advisory Council on Disability Accessibility and Planning will now officially share resources, council members said at their meeting Monday evening.
Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl signed a memorandum of understanding with OU President Roderick McDavis Jan. 27 after city officials agreed that the university should collaborate with Athens on a variety of disabilities projects. As of Monday night, the memorandum took effect.
Residents can expect to see immediate results from the memorandum in the coming months as the city and university begin to collaborate to craft a “comprehensive disaster plan,” said Councilman Steve Patterson, D-at large, in case of a citywide emergency during which persons with disabilities could be at risk.
The memorandum Wiehl and McDavis signed abandons the old system under which OU and the city “used to operate completely apart from each other,” Patterson said. “This has been a long time coming.”
The two entities have agreed that while conducting projects on shared city and university roads, persons with disabilities must be kept in mind.
“The disaster readiness is critical and needs to get going,” Patterson said.
Councilwoman Chris Knisley, D-at large, also worked with Patterson and Wiehl to construct the accord. She said this idea has been in the works for a while, adding that McDavis and Wiehl started meeting after the university helped pay for a ladder truck the city’s fire department needed in early 2012.
“We realized there were a lot of areas where the city and the university operated, it just wasn’t documented,” Knisely said. “Now we can start meeting and looking at safety and land use issues. There is an overall understanding that the city and university need to collaborate.”
In the future, the collaboration will also mean that city and university buildings will be renovated for persons with disabilities in a manner that council and university officials can agree on.
Also at council, city leaders touched on the snowfall that closed OU’s campus for most of Monday and resulted in all classes to be canceled.
Wiehl said Athens residents must be clearing snow from their sidewalks and driveways four hours after snowfall, due to Monday’s weather.
“We had about five snow plows out, and we’re low on salt,” Wiehl said. “That’s the state of things.”
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