A couple of citizens spoke about Number Fest at Monday night's meeting.
Nearly a month and a half after this year’s Number Fest, the event remains a major topic of concern at Athens City Council meetings — at least among a small group of citizens.
Two Athens County residents spoke out about the fest again at Monday night’s meeting, asking council members about possible ways to better regulate the fest.
“They’re bonded and united together in really trying to help challenge the city to find a better way to engage in Number Fest or put a stop to it,” said Councilman Kent Butler, D-1st Ward.
In the past, issues relating to the event have been largely out of the city’s reach because the event takes place outside of the city’s boundaries.
“One of the the citizens asked about the idea of annexation (of the land where Number Fest takes place),” Butler said. “How quickly could that happen, what slows the process down and how is Number Fest affected.”
Resident Janet Polzer asked what would happen to township residents who got annexed into the city along with the fest venue.
“I’m just interested in a question about city annexation of property,” she said. “I’m wondering if properties are annexed … I would like to know what burden that places on people in the township that are annexed into the city. Would they have to pay for city water? I assume they would have to pay city taxes.”
But Butler said the talks Monday night didn’t lead to any formal solutions, since the general sessions of council don’t allow for much discussion between citizens and council members.
“They were hoping to be able to discuss things further with the committee meeting next week,” he said.
Council also voted on a measure establishing a protocol for receiving compensation from overpaid employees.
The measure has been in the works for at least four weeks but was only formally introduced two weeks ago at the last council meeting.
The ordinance would potentially require any employee who is overpaid to repay the funds, either in a lump sum or in increments.
The measure will only have to be voted on once more before it takes effect.
Council did cast its final votes on a number of other ordinances, including one that increased staffing levels in a number of departments.
Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl explained Monday night that this ordinance would increase the number of council aides that each member of council can have.
Previously, that number was set at two, but the new ordinance will allow council members to have as many aides as they want. It will also increase the number of internal services employees and allow the city to hire another D.A.R.E auxiliary officer.
Council members also voted on an ordinance introduced by Councilwoman Jennifer Cochran, D-At Large, several weeks ago. The ordinance removes a portion of city code that previously permitted smoking in public establishments.
“We discovered when we were researching for our smoke free parks ordinance that we had some code on the books that were made redundant by parts of the Ohio Revised Code,” she said. “Essentially, we’re taking out some pertaining to smoking in restaurants and bars.”
At the end of the meeting, council members went into a private session of council “regarding contract negotiation,” Butler said.
He said the negotiations affected ”the majority of the city workers who are not fire, not police and not code.”
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