Tuesday afternoon, the Athens County Commissioners left their offices on Court Street and headed out to Wayne National Forest to meet with Athens city councilman Peter Kotses, D-At Large.
Kotses and the commissioners toured the park to look for trash that had been illegally dumped there and discussed a possible solution for that problem.
"Some development in this area can increase traffic, which can reduce the dumping of trash," Kotses said.
That is why Kotses is hoping to put mountain bike trails in the park. He said it is a project he has been working on for over a year, and he hoped Tuesday's tour would help him secure $5,000 from the commissioners to cover part of the cost.
"We're looking for all it can do for the local community," Kotses said of the forest. "Right now we have 6,000 acres where there is nothing going on."
Kotses, in addition to serving on city council, is an avid biker and one of the owners of Athens Bicycle, 4 W. Stimson Ave.
County Commissioner Chris Chmiel said the total cost for the project would be about $37,000.
"They've been going around, asking for $5,000 here, $5,000 there," he said. "They were able to bring the numbers down by using a lot of in-kind work from the local mountain biking folks."
The actual commissioners meeting Tuesday morning was brief, with the group spending most of the time discussing the budgets of the Sheriff's office and the county records center. The commissioners also met with Lt. Aaron Maynard of the Athens County Sheriff's Office.
"(We're approving him) to work with the union on renegotiating some job descriptions," Commissioner Lenny Eliason said.
