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8/23/2018
Construction is a necessary evil in college towns, where it seems like roads are always being repaved and buildings are constantly given facelifts.
Athens City Council members approved numerous infrastructure projects prior to their July recess that will affect Ohio University students and Athens residents in the coming months. Members also debated the use of parking spaces by mobile vendors and whether to raise the minimum age to buy tobacco to 21.
Council passed an ordinance which would allow Athens Mayor Steve Patterson to apply for a grant that will fund improvements to increase pedestrian safety by adding curb extensions at intersections and making crosswalks shorter on East Washington, East State and Mill streets.
Meagan Hall | DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
City Council members Patrick Mcgee, Peter Kotses, and President Chris Knisely listen to Mayor Steve Patterson on Jan. 16th, 2018.
During their final session before the recess, members voted to approve the third phase of a construction project, which would create a spur from the West State Street ballfields to University Estates, connecting the neighborhood to the Hockhocking Adena Bikeway.
A limited partnership agreement was reached with the Ohio Department of Transportation and the city which would allow them to move forward on improving the Richland Avenue bridge that runs over Coates Run, originally built in 1935.
“I don’t what kind of overhaul I’m going to get when I am 83 years old, but I think this bridge is ready for some updates,” Pete Kotses, D-At Large, said in June. “It is time.”
The construction would take place during the summer of 2019 and is estimated to cost more than $1 million, according to a previous Post report.
On June 11, Athens City-County Health Department Representative Kari Boyle told council members that adopting Tobacco 21, an initiative that seeks to raise the minimum age to purchase tobacco from 18 to 21, could protect younger teens from addiction.
“It's definitely a gateway drug,” Boyle said in June.
The initiative is mostly aimed at stopping smoking, the leading cause of preventable disease in the United States, from affecting high school students, according to a previous Post report.
No ordinance regarding the initiative is on the table at this time.
Members spent multiple sessions debating proposed changes on how mobile vendors, like food trucks, can pay to park uptown.
Councilman Pat McGee, I-At Large, said the city loses money when vendors don’t use their reserved spots and proposed changing the times vendors’ spaces are reserved.
The ordinance would have allowed the public to park in spaces reserved for vendors, like the Burrito Buggy, on Sundays and after noon on normal days. It was ultimately shot down with a 4-2 vote.
“It’s overly complicated,” Councilwoman Chris Fahl, D-4th Ward, said in June.
Fahl said addressing a small part of a bigger problem, like addressing the way vending works in Athens, isn’t the right way to create change.
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