At Athens City Council’s Monday night meeting, council members voted to submit a bid for design engineering of the bypass tunnel proposed for Richland Avenue.
The Richland Avenue Pedestrian Improvement Project will connect West Green to the area by Porter Hall.
The need for improvements comes from the area’s high pedestrian traffic rate.
“There have been incidents where there were pedestrian vehicle accidents; it has happened before, once deadly,” Athens Mayor Steve Patterson said in a previous Post report.
The Richland Avenue Pedestrian Improvement Project has a proposed cost of $2.3 million, Councilwoman Michele Papai, D-3rd Ward, said. Of that cost, the City of Athens would pay 5 percent, and the Ohio Department of Transportation would cover the rest.
Council members voted to submit a bid for design engineering of the bypass tunnel. Design engineering will cost $260,000, Athens City Council President Chris Knisely said. That cost is a separate appropriation from the 5 percent Athens will pay.
All members of council were in favor of the project except for Councilman Pat McGee, I-At Large. McGee expressed his desire to find an alternative method to increase safety in the Richland Avenue area.
“My opposition is based on the fact that an alternate solution has not been tried,” McGee said.
Numerous Athens residents have reached out to council members to echo McGee’s sentiments and express opposition to the project in favor of a less expensive alternative to the bypass.
“I had a few people from the public reach out to me, kind of concerned about this project,” Councilman Peter Kotses, D-At Large, said. “We’re looking to do something a little more radical in this process.”
One of the alternative methods that had been proposed was a permanent crossing guard. Councilman Jeff Risner, D-2nd Ward, said having a permanent crossing guard would cost approximately $360,000 a year.
Ohio University has expressed interest in assisting with the project, Risner said. OU has not, however, announced an amount it would contribute toward the project at this time.
“OU wants this project,” Risner said. “This is one of those touch points where you have university property and you have city property, and it’s going to be a collaboration where both of them work to make the system work.”
Council members also discussed joining other municipalities in Ohio in a class-action lawsuit against the state. The lawsuit will challenge the constitutionality of amendments to Chapter 718 of Ohio Revised Code, which pertains to the collection of income tax.
“All I can say is that this is another power grab by Columbus,” Councilwoman Chris Fahl, D-4th Ward, said. “They have tried doing this several times, and we have been successful in other suits we have joined.”
