City Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome to Athens City Council. This evening we will be meeting in council committees. The meeting will be called to order by the city council president, who will then pass discussion over to a respective committee. The chair of the committee will introduce the discussion topics and provide an overview of the issues at hand. If needed, members of the administration will offer brief statements to provide further context. We will then welcome input from the community. Any citizens who wish to speak will be asked to state their name and address, both verbally and on the sign-in sheet located at the podium. Individuals will be given one opportunity to share their thoughts, and the committee chair will have the authority to limit each speaker to three minutes. Once all citizens have had the opportunity to speak within the 15-minute time period allotted for total public participation on each topic, the public comment portion will be closed. Council committee members will then continue their deliberations. There may be additional questions directed to the administration during this time. When the discussion on the topic concludes, the chair will indicate whether legislation will be introduced at the next regular session of council and move on to the next item on the agenda or adjourn the committee if their work is complete. The next committee chair will then call their committee to order, proceeding in the same manner as before. Once all committees have adjourned, City Council will conclude for the evening. Welcome to Athens City Council. This evening, we will be meeting in council committees. The meeting will be called to order.

Good evening and welcome to Athens City Council. Today is Monday, June 8th, and we are in committees this evening. We will begin with Committee of the Whole this evening, and that will begin with a discussion of ADA and accessibility issues. And I will be using a five-point PowerPoint deck that we'll get on the monitors here in just a moment. The purpose of tonight's conversation is to help council members and the public develop a shared understanding of issues related to accessibility, infrastructure, ADA planning, and related public infrastructure questions. We want to acknowledge that a lot of work has gone into accessibility over the years, and we have a number of individuals and groups responsible for that work, so I want to thank our Commission on Disabilities, our Pedestrian Accessibility and Bicycle Safety Task Force, our administration, our public engineering, public works department, and so many others who have contributed to this. Tonight's goals are truly educational and information sharing in nature. We're about trying to establish some greater clarity and identification of priority questions that we would like to have answered or next steps for our direction. This is again is an information sharing meeting. Council members and the administration have received a draft guide that I prepared based on my experience working with the Commission on Disabilities for several years as council's liaison to that commission. And also as the primary council member who was assigned to the Pedestrian Accessibility and Bicycle Safety Task Force once it started under the Transportation Committee. I really want people to understand that this is a wide, systemic, and for many people, difficult, complex set of inputs to understand. But of course, we have an administrative responsibility. You'll see it at the foundation here that emphasizes the administration's role in the coordination and consultant management that leads to the actual establishment of the ADA plan, any technical review that's required. implementation and maintenance, and reporting. And meanwhile, the associated governance components relate to all of our committees, including transportation, which handles transportation policy, project and funding implications. Under planning and development, we have implications for planning context design and public space implications. Finance and personnel connects with this work through funding, contracts, and staffing, as well as budget and capacity implications. And City and Safety Services intersects with this work with regard to infrastructure and facilities context and service and maintenance implications. So this committee, the whole meeting, is bringing together the chairs of all those committees, the members of all those committees to understand the key questions, identify the follow-up pathways, and collectively, along with the input of the public, Commission on Disabilities, the task force, we will try to improve our public understanding. What tonight is and is not about, it is an information-sharing conversation. It is an opportunity to identify priority questions, a chance to recognize progress and clarify gaps, and it's a starting point for identifying follow-up pathways. It's not a final report. This is not a legal determination. It's not a complete accounting of all accessibility-related issues or accomplishments, and it's not a substitute for technical or administrative work. Again, the goal is understanding clarity and direction, not to solve all problems tonight. What is an ADA transition plan? Under Title II of the American with Disabilities Act, the ADA, public entities must make programs, services, activities accessible. When structural changes are needed, a transition plan provides a public roadmap. So an ADA transition plan helps identify accessibility barriers, outlines how barriers will be addressed, assigns responsibility for improvements, provides a schedule for implementation, and supports public accountability and progress tracking. In other words, it's a roadmap for understanding what exists now, what needs to change, who's responsible, and how progress will be tracked over time. My intent to manage this discussion in an efficient and respectful manner is to begin with this framing as the chair of our committee of the whole, and then invite administrative opening comments if desired. Then I'll move to the public for comment, or if there are invited perspectives that the administration would like to bring in. Then I'll invite council members to provide any initial identification of priority questions or responses to the guide that I provided. I'll ask them to be brief in their first round of responses or questions, just a minute at most, please. And then we'll move to the administration for an opportunity for clarification, since at that point they'll have heard some comments and questions from the public as well as from council. Then I'll end us with a summary of possible next steps, as I will be trying to put us into buckets of what needs to happen next. So with that, I will invite Mayor Patterson as the head of our executive branch to offer any preliminary comments.

I would love to. So thank you, President McCary. I'm going to start with putting us in the Wayback Machine and go back to 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 when I was a city council member here in the city of Athens. It was during that time frame where not only was I appointed as the council liaison to the Commission on Disabilities, I ultimately became the chair of the Commission on Disabilities here in the city of Athens to include being one of the shepherds of an MOU between Ohio University and the city of Athens when it came to our ADA efforts here in our amazing city. Since that time, and since becoming the mayor of the city of Athens, just kind of walk you through a number of improvements that have been made over the past 10 years So please bear with me, but I am going to take these on one at a time. The very first thing that I implemented was to come and visit the mayor in the mayor's office was impossible if you had mobility issues. We were able to work with Barney Gruzer, who is a historic structure expert, to where we were able to put a lift to mount those six steps that were insurmountable. for an individual rather than to meet me or me meet with them out in front of the building or in our former conference room, which is now the Berry Conference Room, to meet with me in my office. Moving forward in time, when we started doing the work on replacing our difficult to access excess swimming pool back in the day, which was 40 plus years old. We intentionally designed that $7.4 million swimming pool to where it was ADA accessible. Not only putting lifts in, but to have the leisure pool, which is a zero degree entry, which is the most accessible water structure that the city had ever seen before. Again, not an inexpensive project, but it was one that was much needed and warranted. I was deeply involved in that. Arts West became another challenging facility in the city of Athens because it too had its barriers for people with mobility issues. We were able to address a number of those to make it much more accessible than it had been in the past, continue to look at ways in which we can make that structure accessible. The community center also had challenges to where the doors did not have automatic door openers or anything of that nature associated with the building. We were able to get those implemented fairly easily and started working on other elements within the community center to rectify some of the accessibility issues surrounding that particular structure. Some of you may remember the Richland Avenue Pedestrian Passageway because there was some near fatality incidents that took place with students that were crossing over from West Green to Baker Center, Porter Hall, which is where my office was at the time, as well as to the new Baker Center. But that wasn't just for student access to get safely across that street. It also was designed with intention to make it ADA accessible, as with Oxbow Bridge. If you look at Oxbow Bridge, there is a significant crash barrier between Richland Avenue and where pedestrians pass along through that region. That was with intention as well to keep pedestrians safe, but also those who may not be able to navigate across as quickly as our spry freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, fifth-year seniors, graduate students at Ohio University. Also, in that same vein, the Richland Avenue project that took place back in my council member years, where we redid Richland Avenue to beautify it, but also to, which only goes to the improvements, the full-scale improvements only went up to Canterbury. But when I noticed that the improvements were only going to go to Canterbury, I said, we've got to make improvements to a fairly decrepit sidewalk that goes all the way to the South Y, all the way up to Pomeroy Road. We did that. We put money into fixing the sidewalks, not at the resident's expense. I'll get to that in a minute, the ordinance as it exists. But we went ahead and said there's money that we can deploy to fixing those sidewalks, which we did. In the East 8th Street improvement, the most recent one, we added a sidewalk that did not exist before on the south side of East 8th Street. Again, and I want to just remind people, these weren't free. All of these items that I'm listing have significant price tags associated with them. So the city has made intentional investments to make our community more accessible. The Stimson Avenue Bridge, the most recent. It didn't have a safe passageway for pedestrian or for cyclists to get across that bridge. It does. Granted, you're going across the bridge to an area that doesn't have much accessibility beyond it, but we're also talking about an area that's outside the city corp responsibility as you get beyond onto beyond Stimson Avenue Bridge east, and you're heading to Bong Hill or wherever you're going. Wouldn't that be great to have a pathway that's accessible all the way to the top of Bong Hill, but that isn't going to happen. Speaking of recreational access, we were successful in getting a NatureWorks grant to where we were able to put a switchback ADA-approved access up to Sells Pond, which is one of the more tranquil, beautiful recreational spaces, in my opinion, which is even more so now with those beautiful dancing ballerinas that are cresting the water surface. But that was, again, with intention to make sure that that was ADA accessible. North 1804 Way, to improve the sidewalk down in that region, all the way to Mill Street and to South Green Drive was something that we did with intention to make sure that that was a new sidewalk, that it was much improvement to that particular region. Mind you, the fire station headquarters, a $13 million plus project by design has many, many ADA accessibility elements within that particular structure. So I would contend that that $13 million investment by you, City Council, and by the citizens of Athens with the bond that is in place with that particular structure has allowed for that to be a much accessible structure with its ADA improvements to include an elevator. Elevators, by the way, are an extremely expensive element within any structure, which was probably the highest price tag that went into the Armory improvements. But it's in the Armory as an improvement, as well as the at-grade entrance off of Armory Drive. Again, all by design to make sure that we were making elements as the city has improved them. or repurpose those into areas that are ADA accessible. The East 8th Street curb bump out at Madison, while I know that that created a whole lot of consternation from certain individuals in our community because of that design, that had to be designed as such in order to make the grade as you transition from east to west across over Madison along East 8th Street, the only way that could be done was to put those bump outs in there to where we could put a more level crossing that fits ADA requirements to transition that particular sidewalk. We all know that we put 1.1, actually we put more than that, million dollars into curb ramp improvements throughout the city last year. And I give a lot of credit to Sully Alibaja, our director at the time of Engineering and Public Works, to make sure that we were able to disperse that throughout the city to get those improvements in place as we continue to do improvements, are we perfect as a community? No. Are we perfect as a government? And I include council in that perfectness, if that's a word. More perfect? We are not. We have a lot that we have yet to do as a community. It takes a community to get this work done. I think to have volunteers helping with our ADA transition plan, with doing the inventory of said structures throughout the city, is vitally important as we continue the work on our ADA transition plan with Sunday Creek Horizons. I don't know if I mentioned this, and I apologize if I already did, the West State Street ball fields, restroom improvements. I've had people sit there and say, those bathrooms that you've built are large enough to house people in as well. as micro-estates. Well, there's a reason for that. The reason is to have adult changing tables that are in those particular restrooms, which we have put in place in those which didn't exist before within our former, dare I say, decrepit restrooms that were down there. But we have great improvements associated with that as well. You know, I want to remind Council and the viewing audience, and those of you who are here today, we have over 200 one-way miles of street in the city of Athens. We have over 30 miles of sidewalk in the city of Athens. And with that comes a lot of responsibility when it comes to those who are responsible for repairing their sidewalks. So, Council, if you would bear with me just for one moment, and then I'll cede my time. But while I have the pulpit, I'm gonna use it. There's a section in Athens City Code And that section in Athens City Code, it's section 9.12.20, abutting property owners to keep sidewalks in repair and free of nuisance. Two sections, section A, the owners or occupants of abutting lots and land shall keep the sidewalks in repair and free of nuisance. In repair and free of nuisance. Section B, whomever violates this section upon conviction shall be fined not more than $50, semicolon, each day the violation continues may be considered a separate offense. I am now kind of laying this out there as fair warning to everyone in the city of Athens that sidewalk is impassable, meaning that your sidewalk has heaved up by more than half an inch above what is ADA approved or acceptable. That includes, by and large, the uptown historic overlay here in Athens. that we will be enforcing this. I was just talking with our director of code enforcement two hours ago and said, this is what we're doing moving forward is that we will issue warning. We will give reasonable amount of time to make corrective actions to include if that means replacing a section of your sidewalk. And if non-compliant, this will absolutely be going into place to where you're going to start getting a $50 fine every single day until you get that repaired. Council, this is your code. It's my responsibility to uphold the codes of council, of the city. I have heard the Commission on Disabilities. Not just heard, I have listened to the Commission on Disabilities. I understand their frustration. Just last week, I instructed our street crews to make corrective action, albeit temporary, but it's a corrective action at the intersection of State and Court Street. In particular, in front of Dale's BP, I encourage council to go down and take a look at it to where they've pulled. And Tim, you're going to hate hearing this. I'm Tim Traxler because I know Tim and I appreciate the work that he has done along with the Historic Preservation Commission. But temporarily, we have removed some of the brick from that intersection and put in asphalt because it's the only way that we could, at this point in time, effectively correct an impassable section of that crossing to get over to... the west side of Court Street. I've also instructed Curt Male, the lead of our street crews, to also put this epoxy vinyl into some other areas at the curb ramp that need to be corrected. And I should also remind council that since 2020, to late 2022 and into 2023 with DOT funding that we were awarded for the Uptown Improvement Project, which was to correct a lot of the intersections from Union to Washington to State to Carpenter for issues. We put it out to bid four plus times and either had zero bids, I've mentioned this to council before, and so I'm on the record again as saying this, We put it out to bid. We either got one bid that was clearly a throwaway bid that was one that was twice what the engineers estimated cost was to make these repairs, or we got no bids at all. We finally got to the point where DOT said, you know, we can't continue. to give you extra years to do this because of budgetary requirements on their end. We understood that. We told them, okay, we will find other ways to do it. Council is working on the CDBG funding to make some corrective actions on Court Street, which is appropriate. We still have some challenges ahead of us with getting that done. When I say challenges, it's something that still has to go out to bid. We'll see how that all plays out at the end of the day. We're hopeful. I should also mention this because some people may sit there and go, well, why doesn't the city themselves, the street crews, just do this? We don't have the expertise on my street crews to do flat concrete work in the city of Athens. It would be wonderful if we did. but we do not. It is typically something that has to go out to bid for a contractor to come in and take care of. I've shared a lot. This isn't my first time sharing this when it comes to making ourselves the best that we can be when it comes to ADA accessibility. But again, there has been challenges, but I also need for council and for those who are watching today to recognize that this community has done a lot of work when it comes to making ourselves more accepting, welcoming, acceptable, well, I don't mean to say acceptable, accessible to all community members, whether it's someone who lives in our community or someone who is visiting our community. And I'll stop there and allow anyone who's here today to make comment if they choose to or ask me further questions or counsel.

Thank you. I'll ask our government channel staff just to put a slide back on the screen from my computer just to refresh our memory on the discussion flow. And I want to affirm what the mayor has already shared that gives us some information that we can add to the list of things that the city has already accomplished with regard to accessibility, we can add those to the guide that I circulated to council members and to the administration. We also heard already an administrative update about sidewalks and code enforcement, and that might even raise questions for council members about the policy that we have on the books, as the mayor indicated, about charging folks $50. And if that's going to be something that we're newly enforcing, then I think we'll probably want to have some discussion about that. But for now, I'd like to turn to the public, and we'll only be able to allow three minutes per person at most. But if you would please, if you have a comment or question, especially something that you would like to have confirmed or you'd suggest that we follow up on or that we request an update from the administration at a later date, please feel free to approach the podium. We'll ask you to share your name and address, at least put that on the sign-in sheet for us. And do we have anyone who'd be willing to start us out? All right. As Mr. Trexler approaches the podium, I will remind you that the three-minute timer will be displayed with a red mark when you have 30 seconds left. But thank you for introducing yourself. Let us know if you're just representing yourself or an organization, and then your three minutes will begin.

I'm currently representing myself, although I do meet with other members of the community in my normal... life here in this community.

Would you remind us of your name, please?

Pardon me? My name is Timothy Traxler, Hooper Ridge Road, Millfield, Ohio. Thank you. I'm a 60-year resident of the Athens community. I used to live in the city. I do not any longer, but like many people who live beyond the city limits, consider Athens, Ohio our hometown. My concern, I heard that we're going to talk about streets or sidewalks or something today at this meeting. so I was alerted that bricks might be on the agenda and in the past I've supplied the City Council with documents and photographs and information regarding using brick for crosswalks and I've been in construction for 55 years I've worked a lot with brick and concrete and everything else and you can accomplish the same ADA compliance, using brick surface as you can with stamped concrete or asphalt. The idea is to solve the problem. And when it comes to Athens, who takes pride in its brick history and the essence of Athens, the character of Athens, it's kind of intertwined with brick, The university takes pride in its brick. We have Bounty on the bricks, we have Boogie on the bricks, and so on. So bricks is kind of a staple identity for this community. And I think that it's worth discussing ways to construct crosswalks that are ADA compliant. It's been done on High Street right in front of the State Capitol building. They're beautiful, and if it comes down to the kind of brick, there's nothing stating that some more modern version of a paver could be used in the crosswalk areas to make it maybe easier because the old Athens block brick are a little rounded on the corners. But brick should remain a part of the what makes this community and why people actually come to stay here and live in here and contribute. My hats are off to the ADA committees that I've met with, and I certainly applaud Mayor Patterson's efforts to make Athens ADA compliant. I just recently had total knee replacement surgery, so me looking for a handicapped parking spot is In other words, you get to know at some point where handicap accessibility is really important to all of our lives. So that I'm not opposed to at all. The second thing I'd like to say is whatever I'm saying, I'm not saying on my own. There are people who I know in this community who feel quite similarly. And if we were invited to be a part of the discussion of how to think about how to address ADA compliance using BRIC Thank you, Mr. Trexler.

We'll have to stop you there, but I do appreciate what you've shared, and it points out something that's highlighted in the guide about a potential value conflict or at least tension between historic preservation and accessibility. You've managed to acknowledge that both are very important, and we appreciate that.

Oh, yeah, very much.

We'll make sure that we include the Historic Preservation Commission and other relevant folks in future conversations, but we need to move on to the next person for time's sake.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

If we could have the next person approach the podium. Thank you. We'll have you introduce yourself with your name, let us know if you're representing just yourself or an organization, and then there's a sign-in sheet there for you as well.

Hi, I'm Michelle Hahn. I live at 774 West Union Street, which is within the city limits of the city of Athens. I just- Oops, sorry.

Go ahead, sign in, and then we'll start your time.

I just had dinner uptown at Kane's, and so I did the barn stands across Court Street and Union, and I had to laugh because this is a really good example of a really great way to take the opportunity to think first about accessibility. When you're doing projects like repainting the lines on the street, and then the one crosswalk goes straight up to the curb, The other one goes to the brand new low-stroke corner that the truncated domes are going the wrong direction. But it was a really perfect opportunity to say, we need to realign these streets. Let's do it right. Just paint. It's paint. It wasn't hard. But the process that they followed was just paint over the existing lines rather than measure them out the way they should have gone. So I would just say, in everything we do, the first thing we should do is say, how can we make this better? How can we do this right? And not just do it the way it was always done before and make it better. So I took a picture and everything. It was wild.

Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that insight and the concrete example, no pun intended. All right. Do we have anyone else? Can I have a show of hands just to get a sense of how many folks intend to speak from the audience on this topic today? Just two more, okay? If we could have the next person approach and that will help us with the time management.

Okay, I'm Rob Delich. I live at 124 Morris Avenue here in the city. I've served on the Disabilities Commission's Accessibility Committee for a number of years now, and also the Bicycle Pedestrian Task Force, mentioned a couple times by President McCary. I think one thing I've tried to make a point of is being a cheerleader for the city when it's doing good things. And the mayor laid out a great case, but he didn't even cover everything that the city's done. So rebuilt Stimson Avenue, rebuilt West Union with shared use paths that are accessible. And right now Columbus Road is under construction to build an 11 foot wide shared use path. Those are all great projects too and had a big impact on bikeability and accessibility in the city. So really good work, and definitely want to see more. There's still more work to do. A big part of it, though, is the city's fixed a lot of things, including the curb ramps, but it's the intervening spaces, in many cases, that are the challenge. And what the mayor just talked about, enforcing code to get people to improve fix those sidewalks in front of their property that are not accessible may be the right step to take because the city can't go around replacing all the sidewalks in the city. There's about 40 miles of sidewalk. They've included the new things that have been constructed in the last couple of years. So enforcement, I think, is a piece of the puzzle. And so welcome that because that has not, I don't know if there's a single case of enforcement for a sidewalk that was inaccessible in at least modern history of the city. So I think that that's important. I think that it is a good approach. I'd like to see enforcement as a piece of the puzzle at least. As far as bricks, the Disabilities Commission had worked with the city to try and come up with solutions. And brick pavers, just the city's history, you can see the condition of the streets we have currently, many places are not accessible because the bricks move. And the city doesn't have the staff, expertise, or money to really maintain those kind of facilities. And I think that's ultimately the problem. It's not that can you build one time an accessible brick crosswalk. It's that, well, can it be maintained long term? And what's the cost to do that? And a concrete, stamped concrete crosswalk is right here. across the street from this building. It's been there for 30 to 40 years, and it still works great. Most people don't know it's not brick. I just, part of the Disabilities Commission, walk, talk, and roll, had a station there, and I asked people to look at it, and everybody thought it was brick. They just didn't even realize that it wasn't brick. So I think it's not really a requirement to to hold to the letter of the law about brick everywhere we can have it. There's compromises to be made, and I think this one makes sense.

Thank you, Mr. Dalish. So far, we've heard comment about the importance of honoring historic preservation and early involvement when it comes to city improvements, and we would like to invite any further comments if we have any. Please approach the podium and let us know your name, your address, and if you're representing yourself or an organization.

Hi, my name is Anna Corpy. I guess I'm representing both myself, but I'm also the chair of the Disabilities Commission. So also here on behalf of all of them and us, I live at 14555 Coolville Ridge. So I'm actually not an Athens City resident, so I don't vote for any of you. But I know people in high places who do, so it's just a joke. I was just going to tell you, A quick synopsis of my morning, I drop my son off at camp at the community center. I pay a caregiver $500 to go to a $100 camp because he has a lot of disabilities. He's in a wheelchair, he's nonverbal, so he needs support. That's actually a gift from a family member allowing us to do that camp this week. Then I went and had a conversation with Aaron who works at the community center about getting some volunteers for baseball. so that some children with disabilities who need extra support can participate in that baseball. And it's wonderful what the community center's been doing, the staff, and also really excited about the changing tables because we'll be out on the baseball field. After that, I wrote a letter to our Ohio legislators about the legislation they're trying to ram through at the state level concerning Medicaid and disabilities. That took me about an hour. After that, I had a phone call with a woman who's trying to create opportunities for dance for people with disabilities and how we can partner here in Athens. And then finally, before I went and picked up my son, I called two tool companies to see if I could rent a compactor because this week we're hauling in 250 tons of dirt. to my son's school in our playground renovation so we can finally get the rubber surfacing after we got rid of all the mulch a couple weeks ago. So trying to find a compactor to do that work. I'm just telling you this quick synopsis because for two reasons. One is the theme of all this is participation. So I really want my son to participate in sports, in camps, in dance, be with his peers. And I also want to participate. And that's really the theme of a lot of what a lot of us are talking about on our commission is really want to participate in our wonderful community. And there's been so many things that the city has done, as the mayor listed, which has enabled us to do that. And the community center, for example, is just wonderful in all the ways that he mentioned. But the second reason I bring that up is it's nonstop work for those of us with disabilities or who are caring for people with disabilities. It's literally a lot of it's night and day. And I don't have a disability and I'm spending my free time with my child at camp working on more disability advocacy work. So my son and people like him can participate. And likewise Davey who was here last week and he has a disability and has a lot more to struggle with than I do in terms of health when dealing with those things. And I'm saying all that because I think at the end of the day we want everyone to care and we can't do it alone and the city has helped us in so many ways. I know there's so many community members who have strong opinions about things. And the messaging or the communication style or the bandwidth or the energy might be hard for people to hear or it might bristle. But I just ask for grace because some of us are really exhausted, some of us aren't the best communicators. And so my message is just, I don't want us to ever shut doors and shut our conduits to city council members, to the mayor, to the employees of the city. And I want to keep that door open. and know that there's been so much wonderful work, and we have still so much work to do, and I would love to see us all give each other a lot of grace.

Thank you so much for taking the time to be here. Do we have anyone else who'd like to speak from the public on this topic this evening? We'll now move on to members of the Committee of the Whole. Do we have any council members who'd like to comment on either the mayor's update, public comments, or content of the guide? Member Klopfer.

I guess I would say that I really appreciated the Mayor's update. I'm really proud that the City of Athens has done so much to improve accessibility. But I also really appreciate Ms. Hahn's comments that let us know that there's still room for improvement. And that I do agree that it would be great if we could find a way for I don't even know exactly who it would be, but somebody in charge of things to talk with members of the Disability Commission earlier in the planning process. It would probably save a lot of money to make things accessible from the beginning rather than to finish a project and then have to change it. But I also, I know I've said this before, but I think it bears repeating. I really applaud the members of the Disability Council for your really kind of constant advocacy over the years. Every time you get a curve really made accessible, really changed right, not only does it help the members of your commission, it helps people with walkers. It helps people pushing baby strollers. It helps, as Mr. Traxler said, people who've just had a knee replacement. or high school kids who got hurt in sports, who are on crutches. What you guys advocate for so effectively helps the whole community, and I really thank you for that.

Thank you, Member Cloudfelder. Can I hear from another member of council if they have any questions or comments?

Yes, Member Swank. When we're talking about the transition plan, It's really a three-part process, and it's really that simple. Not that getting it done is simple, but the plan is very, very simple. The mayor alluded to part one. In part one, it deals with an assessment and an audit of barriers. What do we need to address? And probably a good way to do that would be to engage two of our commissions. The Commission on Disabilities has 11 members currently listed on the city website. The Pedestrian Accessibility and Bicycle Task Force has seven members listed according to our website. That's 18 members. And as we heard today, who better to help assess and identify the barriers than those who currently live that experience or family members of people who live that experience. Those individuals probably will see things that those of us walk around upright every day never see. So it's going to take some work from those people in cooperation with staff from the mayor's office. I would assume the city planner would be one of those. There may be others. But as the administration, it is their responsibility to make those people available. Those two groups, those commissions, 18 members, that's a lot of people, a lot of knowledge, and a lot of guidance. And the resources the city can make available to assess our current situation and do an audit to see what the barriers are. The second part is to set priorities. From that list, whether it's five or 55, how do we rank order those in terms of the ones that need to be addressed, not today, but yesterday? And we all know we can't go back, but anything that needed to be addressed yesterday, I would think would fall fairly high on that list of priorities. And then the third thing, again, those groups working together to set timelines, And I look at the auditor when I say this one, to establish funding. How much and where it's going to come from. And that's what it boils down to. Three simple steps, assessment and audit of barriers, setting priorities once those are identified, and then finally establishing a timeline and identifying funding sources to get those things accomplished.

Thank you, Member Swank. That's a very helpful synopsis of options for different groups that can provide assistance, and there may be even further options yet. Do we have any other council members who would like to comment? Yes, Member Almeida.

Well, on the west side, it's- very much an issue for accessibility with sidewalks and having sidewalks exist in a lot of the neighborhoods is incredibly important and I know there are a lot of us that talk about this. This is a very common conversation on the west side at the community association. We have big hopes and dreams that we can start to even add more Enhancements that way to our neighborhoods. I'm a little bit concerned about The codes with some folks I feel like there might be some barriers to some of the West siders But I'm hoping that as this conversation continues and you know, we learn more that we can consider that for Our side of the town. I do want to say I went on a walk last night with my favorite four-legged buddy and There's new sidewalks put in over near the intersection of West State Street and Schaefer at the Stumac four-way. They look really nice and it was a pleasant surprise. I kind of heard the work being done but didn't make the connections that was going on. So it was a really nice surprise in a space that was so needed. It was really bad there. I think it was pretty much dirt and bricks mixed in. So I really appreciated that, and I'm sure that a lot of us Westsiders, the Westsiders will enjoy that section now. So I wanted to thank the city for that.

I also appreciate Member Almeida bringing to light that as ward representatives, council members are also conduits for the concerns and observations of their residents. Of course, at large, members are getting those kinds of reports as well, but that is one of the reasons why I wanted the Committee of the Whole to be able to really bring together an opportunity for shared understanding. It may be the case that other committees decide that there's a particular follow-up issue, like transportation, I'm imagining that the public watching this will be surprised by the mayor's update about enforcing code charges at $50. So maybe that's something that we need to follow up on. But we've also heard financial implications and CDBG funds. And there's really no orientation on how council members are engaged in ADA transition plan work other than what we decided to figure out as a community in clarifying the role that our commissions and task forces play, that the administration plays, that each of our committees play. And one of that is in public understanding. And hopefully one of our takeaways from today will be an improved understanding of what an ADA transition plan is. Member Swank really helpfully outlined three major components of it. And I believe I've even seen in the press recently Sunday Creek Horizons identifying things that they've done to begin the assessment of specific places that need attention. But to our councils need to understand what these priorities are given the many, many miles of sidewalks, and the many city properties, and the many parks, and if there are top priorities, I couldn't name them, and I believe that it would be helpful for us to be able to do so. Do we have any final comments or questions from council members? Oh, we could. Membership would.

I just want to say, when it comes to the issue of bricks versus ADA, particularly at crosswalks, I mean, I love the bricks. I love Athens. I love it. But I don't know how that's a really fair conversation to say, sorry, we like the look of the bricks. And so you can't access the sidewalk on the other side of the street. And I'm still a little blown away to know that those are not bricks outside City Hall. I'm going to have to look at that when I go down. And so certainly we can maybe do both. I mean, we can preserve some of the bricks in parts of the city, but we can also do what's right by our, make participation in uptown life available for everyone. I also want to applaud the plan to implement the sidewalk code enforcement. I think that, and I certainly I think that particular code is something that we should take a look at. Are there aspects of that code that we want to address to make clearer and more easy for the city administration to enforce in terms of what is a reasonable time for people to make those repairs? What is the standards to which those things need to be repaired? and things like that. I'm certainly supportive of that. I also want to applaud the mayor as well for the temporary fixes that he was talking about.

It was our responsibility.

Okay, but the city, for taking on the, where possible, doing temporary fixes until the perfect solution can be put in place, the CDBG funds we'll hopefully vote on later tonight and get that in place so that that crosswalk at State and Court Street can eventually be repaired and made ADA accessible, but we don't necessarily need to wait until those things can be funded in that way. We can maybe take a look at other parts of the city where we can provide, at the very least, better levels of accessibility. And you asked for Grace to give us to give you Grace, I would ask give us grace and like we have, as the mayor just said, we have responsibility to all of the members of our community to provide this and so we appreciate that you're here and giving us the grace to try and come up with a plan to fix this for all of the members of our community. Thank you, Member Sherwood. Member Thomas.

I just, I mean, have been through these discussions before so none of this is new and we've had the BRICS talks and I think my thoughts on that are known. Jumping on what Member Almeida had said, though, I imagine we'll have some residents, and I was thinking of the west side sidewalks, concerned about the code enforcement and the $50 a day. And given the number of renters we have in the city, that goes to the property owner or to the property resident?

Property owner.

Just want to make sure that's clarified.

Now, if I may, what I would like to see is not to have that property owner then turn around and pass that on to the renter.

Yes. Yeah. So I think that's a part of the discussion.

There's no controls in place for the city of Athens to sit there and say, you can't do this. I mean, that's a whole different conversation. But thank you. I appreciate that. It's to the property owner. Yeah.

Thank you, Member Thomas. And Mayor Patterson, I think you've highlighted, when I combine your thoughts and comments with that of the Commission on Disabilities and the reports from the Pedestrian Accessibility and Bicycle Task Force, it seems like one of the obvious priority areas is sidewalks. It's just that that's very multifaceted. There are many sidewalks and there are many challenging ways to understand that they're not just sidewalks. this sidewalk's done because it's about the curb ramps, it's about the crosswalk that it leads to, and it's about making sure that you can not just be on a sidewalk at one point, but actually get off of it and to where you need to go. So I think that this is definitely one area that we could understand, and we can already see where we're trying to channel some CDBG funds to address that. Do we have any final comments or questions from council on this topic? It sounds like... Oh, yes, Member Almeida. Can I speak again?

Yeah. To Member Isherwood. If you walk in front of the new sidewalk strip from Cider House to the corner, again, the opposite intersection on Schaefer and West 8th, where Beads and Things are, the houses there repaired the sidewalks, I think, a couple of years ago, and they were very creative about kind of honoring the bricks. They put single bricks in to the cement, so there's creative ways to think about it and sort of maintain that. Sense of pride that a lot of us do have with our bricks in the city, so just wanted to throw that out there Yeah, take a walk through there. It's a really nice section of sidewalk

In the guide that I prepared for council administration's review, I identified the stamped brick concrete questions under planning and development. I'm not sure if Chair Swank will decide that that's where it best belongs or if we might need to consider other options, but so far I'm hearing the topics of sidewalk private property maintenance costs as something that would likely need to be pursued to determine what we will do to reconcile the fact that this hasn't been enforced previously this $50 a day and that I'm not sure if we would need a motion to maintain not enforcing until we figure out the best practice or if we just need to Request additional information from the administration about exactly what that would look like and how that would impact individuals, but I'll turn things to swing member swing and then to the mayor and then I'll close this out on this topic so that we can move on before 8 p.m.

Remember swing So that we don't do a willy-nilly approach to this. I'll go back to what I said earlier assessment of barriers and then priorities now The sooner we can do that with the help of the two commissions I mentioned and the mayor's office, the quicker we can move on this. But I would hate to say, well, let's just do sidewalks and then let's do this and let's get a plan in place. But I don't want to be sitting here in 2027 still having this conversation. So with Sunday Creek Horizons, and I'll defer to the mayor on this because I saw his hand was up too, the mayor on this, we have engaged them, their professional services, to help us through this process. And I don't mean to put you on the spot, sir, but Perhaps you could outline a timeline where Sunday Creek Horizons, representatives of your office, representatives from the two commissions we mentioned, can get together, sit down at the table, and start this process with all parties participating, because this is going to take some work.

Mr. Mayor. Let me address that first, Council Member Swank. And I would lean on the Commission on Disabilities to tell me otherwise, but I believe that Sunday Creek Horizons has engaged with the Commission on Disabilities. on the accessibility transition plan and will continue to do so. That is already taking place and has taken place. I'm seeing head nods. I know that people are watching me right now, but I'm seeing head nods from across the room. Thank you for affirming that. That doesn't answer your question completely. I will continue to press Center Creek Horizons to continue to do this work and engaging with the Commission on Disabilities and, quite honestly, other commissions that Council feels might be... that we might want to have at the table as well to have this fleshing things out moving forward. If I can, President McCary, just kind of address a couple things that I have heard I know that—I think it was Mr. Delitzsch that had mentioned something that maybe hasn't happened in the past. I think I'm compelled to share, because I was on City Council 2012 to 2015, and I remember distinctly the assessments that took place on properties along Franklin, Grosvenor, and South May, and it was painful, to say the least. It was appropriate, but that was the path we chose, which has its own separate process to where those properties are assessed, the individuals have the ability to repair the sidewalk themselves, have someone contracted to repair their sidewalk, or have the city contract someone to repair the sidewalk, which led itself to assessments on their property taxes for those properties to make that happen. very lengthy, very difficult and challenging, but it has been used in the past. That is not something that we necessarily want to go through again, but it is an option out there. The other thing I want to share, I'm a little surprised, pleasantly surprised that people didn't recognize or some of you on council didn't recognize that it is stamped concrete that goes from the parking garage to the city building. That was a Mayor Hendricker decision back in the day, and we're going back to the 1990s. But I would also point council to look at the north block of Court Street, in particular from Fern Alley all the way up to the intersection at the Armory, up on Carpenter. Believe it or not, that's stamped brick up there. So you can see places where stamped brick has been put in place, and a lot of people don't even recognize that that's exactly what it is. I'm not saying that we replace all of Court Street bricks with stamped concrete. What I'm saying is that we certainly look at something that has been recommended by the Commission on Disabilities to put smooth transitions from the ADA accessibility ramps. And yes, we will do a much better job with the half domes that go in in terms of their orientation because those are important for an individual with disabilities visual issues that they're dealing with. To include, I failed to mention this, even though it may not 100% be operable right now, but there was an individual with visual mobility issues to where we put a auditory signal down at the intersection of Schaefer and West Union Street to where it was an audible alert that told the person that they could could cross over. I'm going to be honest with you. I want those on every intersection on Court Street. One of the challenges I was hearing from Council at the time, as well as hearing it from the Engineering and Public Works, is that that could be disruptive for people living in apartments on Court Street. Disruption for someone living on Court Street or above Court Street versus an individual who has visual mobility issues, I'll let you be the judge of what you weigh out as being the better pathway forward. So I just have to get that out there. The last thing I want to share with everyone, to implode those of who might be watching tonight, and Scott... This wasn't premeditated, nor is it maybe something that we can do. I would encourage you, if we can do this quickly, is to put up the Athens, Ohio CitySource app information. You can get it, it's free. Download the app because that app becomes our force multiplier of individuals identifying impassable sidewalks in the city of Athens. This app is free, you can get it from the Apple App Store, you can get it from Google Play, and download this app and help us help everyone in identifying where there is a sidewalk a passageway, I don't care what that passageway is, that has a greater than half inch obstacle. You and I, we're temporarily able-bodied right now. But an individual with a mobility issue does not. That half inch may sound like, it's a half inch. That half inch becomes impassable. by individuals. There we go. Thank you. I don't ever do this, because this is not what I do as the mayor. But here's the CitySource app. Download it. Use it. You can sit there and take a picture. You can send it to Engineering and Public Works. And we can archive that, and we can work with the Commission on Disabilities and go, here's what we're starting to identify with challenging impasses here in the city of Athens. But again, know that this won't be fixed right now immediately. This is where we will need to use section 9.12.20 to sit there and start addressing this particular issue. And this isn't a new piece of code. This has been around for a long time. I would imagine that this has absolutely been used in the past to go through and identify things and used to compel people to fix their sidewalks. to include city properties. We know that we have an issue with the ADA ramp that is in front of the city building. I'm going to say this, and Council, please give me grace to be able to talk about some of the other things that we know that we need to do. The parking garage, the improvements that have recently taken place. There will soon, if not already, be an app to where someone who is going to be using an ADA parking space in the parking garage can use this app and get themselves into the parking garage and not have to try to reach out their window to hit and get their ticket and do this stuff. It'll all be done. It's just being responsible. To where you can use this and get into the parking garage, pay your parking ticket, your parking... rate in the parking garage and then get out again without having to feed something into the thing because the meter, the system in there will already have read the license plate and recognizes that that vehicle has paid their parking and is on their way out again. But with this, the city building is 150 years old. I think we all recognize that. We've made many improvements to the city building over the course of the past two years. One more improvement that we have to make, we will be removing the flagpole in the center of that still not correct ramp that comes up from Washington Street up to the city building. We'll make some leveling repairs along there too. We are going to be putting two new flagpoles in front of the city building on each side of that access. So we're not taking down the flagpole and getting rid of it. We're putting new flagpoles up. But to remove something that's just sitting square in the middle of the ramp that comes up to the city building. Again, there's yet to be corrective actions. I think those of you who are here tonight, you've said it, and I couldn't agree with you more, that this is one of those things, unfortunately, I view this but very, very different in the world of the systems of racism that are out there. It's a long, long journey. When it comes to a city that's 230 years old, that it's a long, long journey to make repairs, to becoming forever forward-thinking and accessible for everybody, that we're going to continue to do this work. It's not changing. You know, if anything, it is... embracing where we've come from, acknowledging our foibles, moving forward, and making corrective actions to those foibles as opposed to sitting there going, eh, there's nothing we can do about it. There's always something we can do about it. And for our citizens of Athens who own properties, there is something you can do about it as well.

Thank you, Mayor Patterson. I think that's a good note for us to end on. So we'll conclude that agenda item under Committee of the Whole. And I'll move us on to the next agenda item for Committee of the Whole, and that is Council Rule 13 regarding the public speaking and a proposed amendment. Rule 13 currently reads that when any person is about to address the council, He or she shall request permission from the President of Council. No debate, disrespect, or obscenities shall be tolerated. The President of Council shall rule any such individual out of order. And then importantly, citizens shall be permitted to speak only one time at each regular session of Council. This is something that Member Swank actually pointed out we have not been enforcing. It's been somewhat common understanding that members of the public have had the opportunity to comment on once per agenda item, and this clarifies that our current rule language would actually restrict that to once per time at a regular session meeting. So we have an opportunity to entertain any discussion or motions from council members to potentially suggest that we should maintain the current language of Rule 13 and enforce it, or to amend it to reflect the more recent practice of allowing members of the public to speak once per topic as opposed to once per meeting, or another amendment. I know Member Claudefelder also provided one option, but I will let any council member who'd like to begin the discussion do so. Member Thomas.

I would move that we amend Council Rule 13 to add per agenda item at each regular session of Council.

Seconded. Okay, we have a motion and a second. We have discussion over the suggestion that we update or amend Rule 13 to allow for public comment during regular sessions once per topic as opposed to the current language that allows you to speak only once per meeting. Any discussion? Member Wood?

I have a process question. Yes. Did I... What's the appropriate process to add in the striking home address part? Did I miss a window for that?

No, that's just for this particular discussion, we're just discussing, wait, is that under Rule 13? Is that also under Rule 13? It is also under Rule 13. Okay, so then that would be appropriate to entertain under separate motion. The current motion is just on the sentence, citizens shall be permitted to speak only one time at each regular session of council. Member Cloudfelter?

As I had shared in our city council email, I agree with that, but I think it would be prudent to have a bit of a safeguard on that. I've heard of city councils who've been overrun by certain groups who just derail the whole meeting because they speak over and over and over again and take up all the air in the room. And so one thing that I thought of as a safeguard that might be appropriate for our council is to say people can speak once per topic uh... at the with the sort of the grace of the president of council so that the city council president if necessary could shut down people who are trying to just derail the meeting and aren't actually there because they have something they honestly want to share thank you member clubfelter member sherwood do you have a response yeah and i understand member clubfelter where you're coming from but there's already a limitation of 15 minutes per topic so

I think if we were to say, wouldn't we regularly have members of the community here tonight who get and talk about multiple items, and doing a good city service, to say that they'd have to come and ask President McCary for permission to get up and speak, I think would be sort of suggesting that they are part of a problem rather than... voicing their First Amendment rights and providing good feedback and information to the city. So I think the idea that we would try and limit the ability of people to come and speak to city council, I don't think I'd like that. Member Cloudfeller.

I would just like to speak more precisely than perhaps I did before. I did not mean to suggest that anyone would have to ask the president of council to speak. I just think that the president of council should have a way to stop stop what's happening if people are trying to derail the meeting. None of you have done that. I love it when you guys speak. I want as many people who are legitimately from the city of Athens who want to share good ideas to speak. But you can find things on YouTube about people who have totally taken over meetings so that the good people of a community don't have a chance to speak because they are just dominating all the time. And I wouldn't want that to ever happen here. And if the president has some ability to end discussion or tell someone he or she has spoken enough times or what have you. I just think it would be nice to have a built-in safeguard so that we never regret we don't have one.

I want to check in with Clerk Walker here, because I have a motion on the table to amend Council Rule 13 to allow members of the public to speak once per agenda topic, as opposed to the current language that is once per regular session. And we've had a second. We're in discussion, and Member Claude Felder has pointed out possible direction we could go in where we could include some caveat that the president would be able to curtail people from speaking multiple times if that was deemed appropriate this is a committee of the whole meeting and we would typically make the formal change during a regular session under other business but I would like to get a sense of which direction council would like to go in on this particular topic so any further discussion member swank yeah we

It's a shame that our parliamentarian isn't here today, because we are treading into parliamentary business. I was intrigued by Beth's suggestion, and it made me think, President McCary, if we were to do that, In other words, if someone were to approach the podium for a second or a third time, and we were to bestow upon you the discretion to allow them to speak or not, what would you use to determine who could, and I'd like to continue with this one after you've answered this question, what criteria would you use to determine whether or not that person could make their statement?

I think my thought based on precedent would be to ask if they have new information to share on the topic. That's something that we've attempted to try and if you're just repeating someone's comments, that has been less important to prioritize than someone who has new information. So I think I might, before even allowing someone to come to the podium, ask if there are any folks who have not yet spoken. and if there are people who would like to speak for a second time who have new information to share, I'd probably need to get a sense of how many individuals would be interested in doing so and how much time remained. So I'm not sure there could be a hard and fast rule. It'd be a combination of new information and how much time we've been spending on a topic, I think.

Well, we've had that situation where people have said they've had new information to share, and it's basically a verbatim of what they've done before. What I'm getting at here is... If we're not careful, and Lisa's not here to tell us this, and this is one reason I think we probably need to set this aside, is we get into a situation where you're judging, and if you're sitting over there, Jessica would be in the same position. You are being forced to make a judgment on content, and very easily people could come back and say, sir or ma'am, you're not being content neutral, and you are. And I see this as a real problem of giving that power. And I think Lisa would say, yeah, you're right. You're getting into murky area here. Let me say something. At our rules meeting last week... A work session? Yeah, a rules session last week. It was apparent that most of the voting members of council in attendance... would like to keep our procedures for public comment the same with a few minor tweaks. To that end, I've created a draft that I'm going to distribute here in a minute that combines Rules 13 and 27, because they aren't the same rule, but there are conflicts within them, that recognizes concerns over privacy, which Michael Wood talked about, stating your home address, clarifies how often a member of the public can speak at each meeting, provides for possible extension of the 15-minute comment period, and preserves counsel's authority to regulate the total time allotted for public comment on a topic. So I've prepared something for each of you, pass these down please, that addresses those three things. And it may or may not align with the motion that was made earlier, but I think it captures that motion and clarifies things. And this basically is what it reads. When any person is about to address the council, they shall request permission from the president of council. No debate, disrespect or obscenities shall be tolerated. The president of council shall rule any such individual out of order. All of that is right what is in current rule 13. Citizens shall be permitted to speak only one time per agenda item at each regular session of council. Again, I think the majority, no, most of the people in the room last week believe that was the case. Each speaker shall identify themselves by name. I've dropped in home address, even though all four speakers today clearly identified their home address. But I did drop that because I understood from most of the people at our rules meeting that was a problem. And acknowledge any paid or voluntary affiliation. Each speaker will be limited to a maximum of three minutes. What you're seeing in red now is not a change. This is drawn from Rule 27. In the event that more than one person wishes to speak on the same subject, a limitation of 15 minutes will be imposed on the total amount of time allowed for public participation on that topic. The president, unless overruled by a majority vote of the members of council present, may extend the foregoing time limits relative to audience participation. Council members, other officials, administrative representatives shall not debate public speakers and shall only answer questions as directed by President of Council. This establishes how often a person can speak, once per topic. It deletes the need for stating your home address. It establishes or establishes, it continues the 15 minute period for speaking. It gives the president the right that he has now to extend that time, but it also preserves the right of counsel to say, no, we've heard it. It's time to move on. What this essentially does is address all those things that came up in our meeting and combines Rules 13 and 27 into one rule.

Thank you, Member Swank. With the addition of this newly proposed language for a potential amendment to Rule 13, and the fact that we've had at least a motion and a second for consideration of an amendment that would allow at least for the component about speaking once per topic, I believe that it would be best for us to conclude this conversation and then have each of the options appear as option A, B, C, as we've done in past updates to rules so that during our next regular session opportunity, not in a few minutes, not the special session, but that we would then have an opportunity for folks to even between now and that time provide additional options. Do we have anyone who'd like to comment further this evening during Committee of the Whole on this topic? before we conclude. If not, my next steps will be to invite council members to submit additional amendment options for Rule 13, which can address not only how many times the public can speak, but also, I don't want to say it's only Michael Wood who has concern about this, but many of us wanted to clarify whether members of the public needed to be required, as rules currently say, to share your home address versus other options that might be available to us. So, Member Wood.

Well, one, I think this is well done, Alan. I think this is a good synthesis of the conversation. I think that's great. And my point of clarity, since we already have a motion and a second, do we not have to close it out?

I was checking with the clerk and realizing that that would be more appropriate for regular session to have the formal motion second and vote. If I had just one option before us, I could have used that as an opportunity to clarify that people wanted to move forward with that option. But with multiple options, I think the best road forward is for us to wait until our next regular session where we can have everyone see the full language of each proposed amendment and then say, I like this option. And that does allow for council members who reflect on this conversation and have additional ways to format those amendments to send those to me and to the clerk, and we will follow up in a week. All right, with no further comments or questions, I would like to bring Committee of the Whole to a close and thank everyone for their engagement. We'll now move on to the Transportation Committee, which is chaired by Member Claude Felder. And I believe we are in such a situation with a special session coming up that let's have everyone stay at the podium, or not the podium, the dais. And Member Claude Felder will allow you and the members of our Transportation Committee to proceed with your meeting.

Okay, so at the end of our last full meeting a week ago, a very well informed citizen stood up and asked about the 2026 street paving schedule. And was disappointed to know that there won't be as much street paving as usual happening. So I asked top people in the city administration for updates about that, and I will be inviting the mayor to chip in to this topic later if he would like. But I just wanted to provide some clarity to members of the public about this. It is in fact true that there won't be as much street paving going on in the city of Athens in 2026. That is primarily because of the city having quite a bit of debt remaining from the big projects that happened on Stimson Avenue and the West Union Street construction project. Those two projects in particular, we're still trying to pay down the debt that we borrowed to pay for those, and we're still paying that down. We would like, the city administration would like to have a year to just make more progress on those payments and hopefully be able to pay down the principal some. And also, one thing that was said last week I do think has some, it has some legitimacy that these paving plans take months and months of preparation by the city administration. And until the last primary, the city administration did not know if the local tax increase was going to pass or not, and it just barely did. And so that really sort of not knowing that until May really kind of cut into the planning time for paving for this year. So this is going to be mainly a one-year break from the paving schedule. But maybe the good news is, as people have probably noticed, there are quite a few construction projects going on in city streets right now. And when necessary, each construction project that needs new paving is going to get new paving. So that will provide new paving at several sections of our city streets that really need it. But there won't be any ongoing just single street kind of paving projects. Would you like to add anything, Mayor Patterson?

I will. I mean, certainly, I hope that those who are watching today and those of you who are here is that we have a, there is a street levy. So this was something that the citizens voted for to continue paving. paving projects, street improvements. But that money, while it's restricted to those activities, it also includes paying debt on our SIP loans that we have that are for street improvements and street infrastructure. So we will continue to make repairs that are necessary this year. If there's potholes that we identify, we will repair those potholes. It's not like we don't have any money at all to do street repairs. We will do street repairs. What you're referencing is what we have done every year that I've been in office, both as a council member and as the mayor. to where we do a city-wide assessment of streets, and we usually go after, on the scale of zero to nine, nine being a brand new street, much like Woods Edge up at University Estates, or North 1804 Way, or anything like that. That's a brand new street to where those are, there are nine. Zero would be basically a goat path. We don't have any goats in the city of Athens, thank goodness. We have done so well that we really don't have all that many fours anymore. When I took office, we had threes to where we knew that we had to get in and get those streets closed. milled and repaved, and we've conquered a lot of those. We still have work to do, absolutely, but it's not like we're taking a break 100%. We're still gonna be doing some work in the city with our streets, and as you just indicated with a lot of the big major projects that are going on right now, that there's money that's going towards those. The roundabout at 682 and 56 with the approaches, those have to be paved, and so that'll be part of what we do moving forward, but it gives us a period to kind of get caught up on these SIP loans for Stimson Avenue, for Richland Avenue, for Derry Lane. Again, streets. And the other thing to be mindful of is always continuing to be very frugal looking forward into 2027. We have the mixes that we have where the general revenue that comes in Certainly, the lion's share goes into the general fund, but it also goes to insurance, healthcare, it goes into recreation, it goes into transportation, and it goes into streets. So we augment those. So we'll be continuing to be very vigilant as to the streets that need to be remilled and paved. into 2027 and what that looks like. But I would contend that we've done a great job in at least under my tenure to where we have attacked a lot of the lower rated streets and gotten them up to where they are nines, certainly nines, or built completely rebuilt streets. East State Street's another great example to where we completely rebuilt East State Street yet again during my Administration was not easy. It was not painless. Progress and change always has pain associated with it with street projects, but we're able to do it. The other thing, too, just to share with Councilman, I'll be quiet, is that we're very intentional as well to recognize that there's infrastructure underground that needs to be addressed at the same time we're doing a milling and repaving project in the city. So we're mindful that we've got to be smart as to replacing water lines, sewer lines, working with our partners at Columbia Gas to go, okay, we're going to be doing a street milling and repaving project in said neighborhood to where we need to make sure that the aged water or sewer infrastructure is also being addressed at the same time so that we don't find ourselves in a situation where we have a major water line break and everything that we just put into Monetarily to correct street paving that it all is for not at the end of the day so Members of the public who would like to speak to this issue of street repaving I

Well, I would just like to thank you for the response because the question has been, what is going on? And I think that once the public is informed and know what the situation is, it's very helpful. And of course, that equates to a lot of the transparency that citizens want. So thank you.

Before you step away, would you mind introducing yourself, Mary Abel?

I am so sorry. Nothing like screwing up right there at the beginning of Mary Abel Strathmore Boulevard.

No, we appreciate you. Thank you so much. And back to you, Member Cloudfelder. I forgot to specify that although all members are at the dais, Member Cloudfelder is chaired, joined by Member Woods, Dazer, and Swank for transportation. So we'll only be hearing from them.

Okay, yes. Do any other members of the public care to comment on this issue? Okay. Do any other members of the committee care to comment on this topic?

All right.

Oh, and I'm sorry, acting auditor, did you want to say anything? Nope. Okay. All right. Then that concludes transportation.

Do we have parking garage renovation project next?

That is now in finance and personnel.

Thank you. Great. Thank you. All right. Well, that concludes transportation committee, and we will move on to finance and personnel committee, chaired by member Jessica Thomas and joined by members... Cloudfelder, Staser, and Wood.

Thank you. We have several items on Finance and Personnel Committee, and a few came in today. The first one on the list that you'll see is $32,160 to the Parking Garage Fund to implement a Park and Go module, a Park Smart Reservation module. I'll just do the background on this before I make the rounds on questions, because it just came in and there wasn't much to send out prior to that. this is separate from the parking garage project and so that's why it's in this committee it's a subscription the deputy service safety director requested a quote for these items like about a month ago but has been waiting on it or you would have had it to us sooner what these are our subscription features that add on to the parking garage they do a variety of different tasks the parking go set up as the mayor mentioned earlier would allow people to set up an account that would include their license plate and be able to enter and exit a parking garage and get charged through their account without the need to get a ticket or scan a QR code. And it would have a ParkSmart reservation system that would allow if you have a client, an attorney or somebody uptown that you would like to get in and out of the garage without them having to Pay or deal with it. You can set it up on your own account and send them a QR code They could use there's a variety of issues that this will help address including some mobility issues The cost on this the 32,000 breaks down into eighteen thousand five hundred is a one-time cost for each park and go park smart reservation and then a forty six hundred for an implementation of the the software and After that, there'll be 13,650 annually for Park and Go and Park Smart annual contracts for a five-year contract. That is kind of the background and the basics on that, and I will go to the mayor and then the auditor for comments.

Anything more to add?

Auditor's office?

Summed that up perfectly.

All right, and do we have anything from the public or any questions? And members of the committee? Member Wood.

Just one. I think this is great to have these apps as options. Is there anything that would prevent just anybody from using the Park & Go? You know, I've got five parking apps on my phone at this point. I think I probably have Park & Go, actually. Could anyone download it and use it, then, as an option? Anyone can use this.

Yeah. You know, just know that you're going to see it on your own billing.

But, yeah.

Yeah, it would allow you if you want to set up a wallet, like some of them have a wallet where you could put on, you know, like however much you want to maintain on that wallet if you choose, or you can do it transaction by transaction.

Yeah, seems great.

Yeah. Any other questions? Not a question, but I think similarly to Member Wood, I think that a lot of people may prefer to be able to use their credit cards to set up an account rather than always getting a ticket and paying when they leave. So the option will be there to do either, and hopefully the fact that the park and go module and the park smart reservation module will be provided will make it more convenient for people who prefer those options. Excellent.

I would add that Director Chicky asked if we could pass this at first reading next week so that he can get it implemented over the July break and get it going. So this will be on for a first reading and with some other items that we'll get to just as a heads up and awareness. Does anyone have any problem with moving this forward or any objections? All right. Our next item on finance is $3,500 to general fund treasurer to purchase a new laptop. We can go and ask the auditor about this, but I don't believe any funds have been used out of the treasurer budget in the last several years, so it's probably time for a new laptop. But any additions from the—any comments from the administration?

from the auditor i would just say that just really i i i never had a budget for anything when i was doing it but once i moved out of my office downstairs and started using these nice new fast computers upstairs i i realized that uh mr shore really does need an upgrade down there um so that's why i just i kind of made the suggestion i think we needed to get a new that laptop that that i was using i mean it was probably 10 12 15 years old and it still runs but it's When you compare the two, it's very slow. So that's why I put this in. And so I think we need to upgrade his laptop.

Fair enough. Any comments from the public and from the committee?

It's the office's laptop. It's not going to be that nice of a laptop. $3,000 gets you a lot of laptop.

True. And that's just the maximum they can spend. So hopefully they'll do some budget shopping.

But we wanted to make sure if there were any add-ons or anything that we needed to put in. Sometimes you get it and then you have to do a little more to it.

All right. And do we have any objections to moving this forward to first reading? I don't know why I'm looking over here. You're not on the committee.

I don't, though.

The third item under appropriations is $31,788.21 to sewer fund to replace money transferred to cover the cost of a property tax bill for the wastewater treatment plant. Director Stone's comment on this was that this was a property tax bill that is new from the Hawking Conservancy District Special Assessment. that they had not account for when they built the budget. So they moved some money around, but they need to replace that now. And he is looking into whether this is going to be continuing. Any comments from the administration? Auditor's office? Do you have any questions from the public? And anything from the committee?

Member Kleinfelder? I would just appreciate clarification of your very last comment there. Did you... Maybe I misunderstood, but did Andy Stone think this might be an annual expense?

Well, I don't have much on it right now. He just said it was substantial and that it's new, and he's not really maybe sure on how they came to this amount. So he is just looking into that so we'll know for future budgets if this will continue to occur.

Okay.

From the mayor?

Yes. To that question, we're looking into the assessment that was made on the properties as to whether it's something that we can address or challenge moving forward. Okay. But at this point, it's the bill that we have and we have to pay it.

Okay. Actually, truthfully, it's already been paid. Truthfully, it's already been paid.

Yeah, we already have the property taxed. Even with that laptop?

Anything else from the committee? And do we have any objections to moving this forward?

Not if it's already paid.

Yeah. You can pretend. Last, we have some then and nows. There's one listed, and we had two additional that came today that I sent out quickly in an email, but I'll have more now. We have a then and now for $14,300 to Aqua Affinity for a leisure pool pipe repair for the city pool. Okay. I don't really have a whole lot of more information on that other than it has to get paid. Anything from the mayor on that?

No, just that you said, that was one of the things that certainly had Director Caffin and Jordan worried. Narvis was an issue that was identified earlier on the leisure pool, but this repair has corrected that to where we were able to successfully open a Memorial Day weekend. It's just paying that bill.

All right. Anything from the auditor's office?

to the other two that are coming up since I kind of threw them out late this afternoon. Again, the pool repair was one. We basically have another one that's going to be the Daryl Norris Greenhouses. This is going to be for all the flowers that you see on Court Street. And then iWorks Systems is for software that multiple departments use iWorks in there. to remind council that then and nows are just our invoices that have come in. I put notes on this. We have an invoice that's come in at the very end of May, but the PO just didn't get created until a day or two later. Some of these are just you think you have all the POs in the system that you need, that they're all in place, and then you get something and realize, shoot, we missed one. and that's like the greenhouses would be a good example of that um of where we just thought it was in place same thing with the eye work the pool repair would be one obviously you don't know when the pool's gonna you're not planning on the pool breaking but when water starts leaking you got to get it fixed so you hire somebody you pay them and then you have to figure out then you have to put the po in place and again just by the state rules we just need to say this was done properly do any questions from the public

And from committee, just because I didn't have the exact amounts when I sent out the email, I work is for $6,000 and the Athens and Bloom is for $5,133.50. And do we have any other questions from the committee? And do we have any objections to moving these three then and now forward? All right, and that will end finance and personnel.

Thank you. I believe that concludes our committees for the evening. And we'll bring those to a close at 8.38 p.m. And now we'll move into special session of council beginning at 8.39 p.m. on Monday, June 8th, 2026. And we have first up for... Oh, we need to do quorum. We have all members of council present. And... Now we'll move into ordinances for third reading. Ordinance 45-26, an ordinance designating Lasher Hall located at 43 West Union Street as a local historic landmark. Introduced by Councilmember Swank.

I visited this property this week, toured it, and I can attest to the fact that it is old and it is historic. Interesting building. I would move that council pass 45-26. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? From council? From the administration? From members of the public or other elected officials? All right, seeing no further discussion, all in favor of adopting ordinance 45-26, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. Ordinance 45-26 has been unanimously approved. Next, we have Ordinance 46-26. In amending Ordinance 36-24, the Athens Uptown Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area, known as DORA,

Expansion and hours of operation and declaring an emergency introduced by council members wink this ordinance primarily Involves the expansion of the door and the On the west side down around the cider house and other associated businesses and connecting with the existing door Over on West Union Street, I would move that council pass.

Oh 46 26 this evening We have a motion in a second any discussion from members of council? from the administration, other elected officials, and to the public. Please introduce yourself and let us know if you're representing yourself or an organization.

Rob Delich, Morris Avenue here in the city, representing myself. Quick question. When, if this approved tonight, when does it take effect that it would expand the Dora area to the west side? I'm not sure what the timeline is on. Is it next year, or does it start in 30 days, or do we have an answer to that?

Is it 30 days, Mr. Mayor? Okay. I think we signed this tonight, and then 30 days from then, it goes into effect. Is that correct?

emergency clause of something right okay recommend that remember Thomas did you have a response it does say declaring an emergency yes yeah I mean we'd have to get signs up and do all that but I don't know how that part works but yeah it does have an emergency clause in it when's the mayor signs all right

So we have a motion and a second. Any additional comment? We've heard from administration, other elected officials, members of the public. All right. All in favor of approving Ordinance 47-26, indicate so by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay.

Nay, but I think we were on 46. That was 46.

Yeah, we were on 46. Apologies. Thank you. Let's restart that vote. Ordinance 46-26 amending 36-24, the Athens Uptown Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area expansion and hours of operation. All in favor of approving this ordinance 46-26, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. All right, 46-26 has now been approved unanimously. We now move on to Ordinance 47-26, an ordinance approving the continuation of the Uptown Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area, DORA, also introduced by Council Member Swink.

According to the Ohio Revised Code, this is something that municipalities need to do every five years. They need to do a review of their DORA situation, which also includes a public hearing. I would be remiss if I didn't publicly thank Member Thomas for the survey that she put out that, quite honestly, we were overwhelmed with the number of responses we got. The last I heard, it was approaching 200. Did we break that barrier by June the 1st, or were we right up against it?

No, I think we capped out in the mid- 180s by the time it closed, but yeah, it was a lot. Wasn't what I expected.

Yeah, so thank you for that work and for a survey such as this, that's a great response. And over the predominant feeling from those surveys is that the Dora was a good thing for Athens and it was working. So I would move that council pass 04726. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Do we have discussion from council members? Mr. Mayor, members of the public. All right, seeing no further discussion, all in favor of approving ordinance 47-26, please indicate so by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. And please disregard the timer. I hear no nays. That means 47-26 has been unanimously adopted. We move on now to third reading for ordinance 48-26, an ordinance authorizing renovation of the pre-kindergarten playground located behind the community center, project number 394. Introduced by member Isherwood.

And as members of council know that I introduced a shared language of an amendment to this ordinance indicating the change to include funding to provide for a shade structure. So section one will now read. The 2026 Appropriation Ordinance 12025 is hereby amended by appropriating from the unappropriated balance the sum of $80,000 to APR Income Tax Fund 273 TC 500 toward renovation of the pre-kindergarten playground located behind the community center. That will include a shade structure, project number 394, and increasing the total appropriations by said amount. Section 2, the service safety director is hereby authorized to expend up to $125,000 from APR Income Tax Fund 273, TC 500, for said project number 394. This ordinance will be in full force in effect upon passage and approval by the mayor. So I'd like to amend. I move that we amend this ordinance. I'm also going to call for a suspension of the rules this evening to get this passed. This would have been the third reading. And just in case there's a scenario where we don't have quorum next week, if we don't get this passed, it would delay potential construction of that project for quite a bit of time. So... I'm not sure what the best way, do we do the amendment first?

Yeah, let's do the amendment first, and then you've already provided your reason for the later requested suspension of the rules. But we have an amendment proposed for Sections 1 and 2 of Ordinance 48-26. Do we have any discussion?

Second.

Second, thank you.

Member Swank? Yes, looking at the ordinance, Member Isherwood, I would suggest you also include an emergency clause here. Otherwise, we're going to have to wait until mid-July. Okay.

Okay.

So then the clarified amendment that we have a motion and a second floor is to update section one, section two, and to add a clause for emergency adoption. Do we have any additional comment from members of council on this amendment, proposed amendment from the mayor? From the auditor? From the public? All right, we have an amendment on the table. A motion and a second. All in favor of adopting, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, nay. Okay, the ordinance has been amended. We now have a motion to suspend the rules as member Isherwood has explained. Do we have a second? Second. We have a motion and a second. We have discussion from council members on the suspension of the rules. Any comment or questions on that suspension from the mayor, from the auditor, and from the public? Seeing none, all in favor of suspending the rules for ordinance 48-26, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. The rules have been suspended. Member Isherwood.

And so now I move that we pass 48-26. Second. We have, gosh, gets a second and we-

So we have a motion and a second to adopt. Any discussion from council members? From the mayor? From the acting auditor? From the public? All right. All in favor of adopting ordinance 48-26, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. The rules have been suspended and 48-26 has been unanimously adopted. We will now move on to 49-26, an ordinance authorizing a water meter upgrade, project number 395, introduced by council member Isherwood.

This, as we discussed several times, this is appropriating funding to upgrade the city's water meters. That will allow for much more efficient service of the water meters and our water system. And I move that we adopt 49-26.

Second.

We have a motion and a second on the table. Do we have any discussion from council members on ordinance 49-26? From elected officials. members of the public seeing none all in favor of adopting ordinance 49-26 say aye any opposed say nay ordinance 49-26 has unanimously been adopted and we now move on to ordinance 50-26 an ordinance amending ordinance 47 sorry 74-25 to increase the authorized expenditure for a new restroom facility at the West State Park project number 349 introduced by member Isherwood

And this is an ordinance simply to amend a previous ordinance to reflect what the actual expenditure was. This is not appropriating any further funding. And I hereby move that we pass 50-26. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Do we have any discussion from council members? From elected officials? From members of the public? Seeing none, all in favor of approving ordinance 50-26 indicate so by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed say nay. Ordinance 50-26 has been unanimously adopted. And we move on to Ordinance 51-26, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to enter into a 2026-2028 partnership agreement with the Athens County Commissioners as applicant and grantee, if funded, for submission of an applicant to the Office of Community Development, Ohio Department of Development, ODOT, for the Community Housing Impact and Preservation Program, CHIP, and declaring an emergency, introduced by Councilmember Isherwood.

This is a program we enter into every year. It provides CDBG funds to the CHIP program, which allows the city to help provide funding to folks to fix up their houses in such scenarios where they might not be otherwise able to afford repairs. It's a really great service, a really great system, and I move that we pass 51-26. Second.

We have a motion and a second. We have discussion from council members on ordinance 51-26. From elected officials. members of the public seeing none all in favor of adopting ordinance 51-26 say aye any opposed say nay ordinance 51-26 has been adopted unanimously and we move on to ordinance 53-26 an ordinance amending ordinance 09-19 credit card policy introduced by councilmember Thomas this is just an ordinance doing exactly what the title says updating some language and clarifying allowable expenses including convenience fees

And I would move that we adopt 53-26. Second.

We have a motion and a second. We have discussion from council members. Comments from elected officials? Members of the public? Seeing none. All council members in favor of adopting Ordinance 53-26 say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. Ordinance 53-26 has been adopted unanimously. Ordinance 54-26 is an ordinance amending Ordinance 14-23, authorizing an increased expenditure for the West Washington Sidewalk and Safety Improvements Project number 335. Introduced by Councilmember Cloudfelder.

You may recall that this ordinance, 54-26, is basically one to correct some bookkeeping issues. The project ended up costing about $2,000 more than expected. The additional $2,000 is going to come from CBDG money, not city money, and it's just correcting the books. Would you like to add anything to that, acting auditor? Okay, yeah, that's all it is. So I move that we adopt ordinance 5426. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Do we have any discussion from council members? Other elected officials? And members of the public? Seeing none, all in favor of adopting ordinance 54-26 say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. Ordinance 54-26 has been adopted. We now move on to ordinances for second reading. Ordinance 55-26 is an ordinance amending Ordinance 121-25 authorizing 2026 staffing levels introduced by the Finance and Personnel Committee. Ordinance 56-26 is an ordinance amending Ordinance 122-25 non-union compensation authorized pay grades introduced by the Finance and Personnel Committee. Ordinance 57-26 is an ordinance amending Ordinance 117-24, a fringe benefits package for non-union personnel within the City of Athens introduced by the Finance and Personnel Committee. Ordinance 58-26 is an ordinance amending the 2026 Appropriation Ordinance 120-25 introduced by Member Thomas. Member Thomas.

I think we have some additional discussion for this one. regarding the uh request of the 250th funds and yeah i'm sure there's several people that have comments so whoever you'd like to kick that off all right president i um see what this current where i guess what this currently has is 30 000 transfer uh from police fund vehicles to police fund vehicles lease, replacing some cruisers. And if we discuss the 250th funding request, we would need to amend and go down that process.

Okay, so to clarify, in order to consider the appropriation for the 4th of July event discussed previously, we would need to amend 58-26, and we're inviting discussion on that now. Is that correct?

Yeah.

Okay.

We brought it up at first reading.

I will take any comments or questions from council members. I can also start by sharing that I did receive a letter from the 4th of July committee here, and it reads, Dear Micah and members of council... Everybody got this. Oh, okay. Do you want to summarize it then, Members Wink? Or would you like me to read excerpts from it?

Everybody got it today. Everybody also got the budget today. Yes. So I assume that they've had a chance to look at that. So... Essentially, this is a request from the leading organization for the 250th anniversary, and that is the Southeast Ohio History Center. The budget that was presented last week was for $15,000 with requests for $7,500 from the city. Conversations took place. One of the suggestions was that that budget be reduced, the ask. The budget was reduced by over $1,000. Really, it was actually reduced by, I'm trying to do the math here in my head real quick, about $1,900. But one of the questions that came up, or one of the suggestions that came up, was could we possibly use some local bands in this? I don't know if you remember this or not, but the original schedule was set up that there would be a picnic on the College Green from which we received permission from the university administration to use the College Green for that for roughly 4 to 7, 4.30 to 7. And that we were told that that picnic would coincide with the community university band doing their 4th of July presentation for their concert. We found out at the last minute that indeed that was incorrect information, that that's going to be on Thursday night. So suddenly we had a picnic scheduled on the College Green, but with no entertainment. So the committee scrambled and scrambled and scrambled and did find three groups that are willing to do this. And it's all local groups, two of which I know for sure have played at Porch Fest and one that's played in Memawd, not to mention other places around the country, local people here. So that is how the budget got reduced, but it was also mentioned, I believe by Member Codfelder, if we were going to have these people. that we should probably compensate them. And in talking with Mr. DeLock, who kind of heads up the porch fest thing, he suggested an amount, and that's how we got back to $14,000. And this is really small type because I had to get it all on one page. $14,547.80. And again, with an ask... ask of the city now of not $7,500, but down to $6,953, a reduction in that ask. So that's the background on it, and that's how we got to where we are today.

Thank you for that update, Mr. Swink, Member Swink. Do we have any other comments or questions? Member Wood.

Thank you for preparing the new budget. I think it looks more like a real budget. It's much better. My question is for the mayor, really, I think. We talked last week a little bit about other things we fund. We apparently fund Fourth of July and the Athens Arts and the Halloween. Are those the three? Do I have that right?

Two. Halloween. And Athens Arts and Music. Yes.

Yes, please. Yeah, yeah. And I'll just add on my next. How do we choose which those are and where do they come from? Where do the money come from?

Well, if you recall, Halloween used to happen to us, not with us. So what we budget for Halloween is very different than what we're talking about here tonight. and we still have to budget for security reasons and for other things that go on with the Halloween block party. We do and have under my tenure supported through AMAC the Athens Arts and Music Festival because it happens at the end of mid-August. That's kind of the city's way of thanking our community for being as great as they are. and it's open for everybody to come and experience that with music and the stage and the funding. And we also apply for some other things to include through the Northeast Ohio, correct me if I'm wrong, Council Member Swank, Public Energy Council through NOPAC. We have what they refer to as their small $750 community fund engagement that they fund the City of Athens, so we apply that to that event as well, and it's been successful. And then, and now this as well. So we have funded things of this nature in the past and continue because it's a good community building event at the end of the day. The plan with the Arts and Music Festival was that we were going to use Some of the revenue that comes from and we do use some of the revenue that comes in from Dora because that festival takes place in the Dora footprint And we'll continue to explore that moving forward. So yeah, this is not anything unusual for what the city has done in the past If I may counsel just for one moment Or I could reserve my final comment that I have on this particular event for later in this conversation because it's not directly in alignment with your question of me. Did I hit on your questions or was there something else that you asked and I

I just how we picked which the ones we fund in the in the past and and what that money comes from that we Is a general fund money having the door one partially I think answered it I think that maybe but the howie howie picked which ones the Arts and Music Festival it came from the budgeting that goes through Requests that I've gotten in the past and continue to get through our boards and commissions so

Again, AMAC is the one who really started the Athens Arts and Music Festival and continue to ask, make that ask, and so we budgeted an appropriate budget to go towards the Arts and Music Festival. So that's that. Halloween, again, we just planned because we've been doing it for the past many decades and now kind of have our arms wrapped around the Halloween block party and take Basically, you know, ownership of how that all plays out here in the city. And then this is a new one, but it's a one-time thing. There's only going to be a 250-year anniversary of our nation. So, you know, this I'm fine with.

I do note that the mayor has another comment, but we want to continue with members of council who might have discussion on this item before we go back to elected officials, other elected officials. Yes, Madam Club Elder.

I really appreciated the more detailed budget, Member Swank. That was very helpful. And I was especially pleased to see that the funding for the out-of-state bans is going to be covered by, I believe, the Tavern Owners Association. The out-of-state ones, that the city would just be providing funding for the local bans, and I think that's appropriate. There were just a couple little things on there that I would encourage whoever's in charge of this budget to further pursue. I noticed $100 is going to pay Memad for rental of Memad. And it'd be really nice if Ohio University could do an in-kind contribution for the 250th anniversary, I think.

Well, believe me, I tried. And as I look around and I see several former and current members of Ohio University, you know how that budget works.

And secondly, I noticed that money is allocated for paper plates and forks. I sort of want to say this just to make the public aware. Rural Action Zero Waste Program offers people the chance to use reusable dishware. They have sets of... We used this for an event I was involved with recently. They have reusable cups, plates, bowls, and real silverware that they let you borrow. You have to pay a $20 deposit to pick it up, and when you bring everything back, you get your $20 back. So it's essentially free with a $20 deposit. And... Their dish sets have 50 servings in each, so 50 cups, 50 plates, 50 bowls. And I don't know if it might be nice to try to be more zero waste for this, if your committee would be interested in that.

Well, the plates are compostable. Right. And we would need 500. So when you do the math, it's going to be a bigger ask if we go that route. Plus the other thing you need to remember, this committee is a group of folks who volunteered at the very last minute. We threw this together in less than two months, and we're kind of running out of time. But we will contact them and see if they'd be interested in, because this is going to be a huge picnic up there, they're interested on a holiday of participating and Helping process what if there is there to minimize the waste so we can make that call Checking with council members for other comments or questions before I move to other elected officials member wooden yeah my only

real heartburn at this point uh is what josh pointed out uh last week um that we will get more people asking us to fund things it's notably a a significant event um we have approved the the street things for that um we will 100 have uh, uh, folks and other things come and ask us for money. And I think that's my, my main remaining thing is we end up picking winners and losers. I think a long-term solution, um, for both street closures and this kind of thing would be to punt it to the boards in some way. So we're not, I think everybody knows very well how I feel about all the street closings. And I think in both cases, it would prevent that by having sort of a designated route for such things and a designated amount of days and funds. So that's my primary, you know, remaining heartburn on this is do we want to be picking through those requests all the time?

for Staser.

I won't talk for too long. I share some of your concerns, right? I know that kind of once we fund this thing at the last minute, other committees organizing events are going to come to us and say, hey, we're short. Can you help us? And I'm not saying I'm 100% opposed to this, but it's Councilman Swank has said last week and now this week that this was kind of thrown together at the last minute, right? Like he said last week, two months ago, no plans for something like this existed. And I guess my comment would be this isn't something that snuck up on anyone. It doesn't take a lot to determine the number of years between 1776 and 2026. So why wasn't this being planned out a year ago? And then if that would have happened, then this committee could have gone and got sponsorship, right? But it seems like this was just thrown together at the last minute. They don't have enough money. They didn't have time to put all the money together, so they came to us. It just seems like sort of poor planning and that this request is now falling on the city to cover the shortfall. And that's my concern in that we're going to set a precedent and that we're going to get a lot of requests from, oh, we're a little bit short. Can you help us?

Member Swank, I think you'll be able to do this along with your comment, but can you clarify if we have any city representatives officially representing on this committee?

I believe you and... Andrew Chinky has attended many of the meetings when he's available and not occupied, or not occupied, obligated with other city obligations.

But it doesn't include our Commission on Historic Preservation, does it?

I'd have to look at the list of people on that commission.

We do have a representative from the administration and then from council who are part of this committee, but we don't have a formal commission of the city that's a part of it that we know of. Please continue your comment.

John, those are all good points. I'm going to say something here that's very risky. I want to be very clear that I'm not being critical of anybody or any organization. When you look at the other celebrations in other communities around the state of Ohio, there are two or three primary organizations that put them together. The local chamber of commerce and the local visitors bureau. And again, I'm not criticizing either one of them, but that did not happen here. And independently of one another, about six individuals, myself included, in late March, early April, got to thinking, what are we going to do for the 4th of July? And I don't want to patent on them back for myself or anybody else, but out of the goodness of our heart and the 168 hours we each have each week, we started working as quickly as we could to put something together. Because Mary was here, and I was here, and I'm not sure anybody else was here when we had the fabulous force in the late 80s, early 90s. And it was a big community event. And those organizations that I mentioned participated in it and organized it. And you're right. It was six, nine, 12 months in planning. But we're faced with the 250th anniversary, and we decided to come together and try to do something. We're not asking for praise. We're not asking for personal compensation. We're just asking for, at the last minute, I agree, because we've talked about this three times now, for the city to help fund a true community event. not only on Court Street, but on the College Green at the History Center. So yeah, I understand what you're saying, and I totally respect that. But there was a great void, and somebody needed to step in, and that's what we did.

Thank you, Member Swank. I believe we'll just go with Member Thomas, and then we'll go to the mayor, who mentioned he had another comment.

I understand and agree with a lot of the concerns that I'm hearing. have a couple points just that I'm writing down I think it's good to note that the city does spend you know money every year on fireworks and things like that to support and I think to acknowledge that this is a one-time event and it would be nice for some of these entities to been planning but this is where we are I think a couple thoughts I have are you know the amount this is currently at 69 53 and we would need to discuss you know whether we feel that's acceptable too much if there's a middle ground or a compromise amount and I think it's good to know when we're talking about setting precedents that typically like we do not get funding requests these typically would go through the administration or through a city entity they do not come to council so this is a not something that we would typically or should see so that should take care of things in the future kind of middle of the road on this one I have concerns about the amount and other things then had this not come to council we wouldn't really have waited on this so I think I would probably defer to what the mayor thinks but I would note that it does need to come out of if if it is moved to amend and suspended and passed and everything which would be probably tonight It would have to come from fund 101, 120, not for the enhancement fund per the deputy auditor. And those are just some general thoughts.

And can you clarify what fund that is?

That is special projects, yeah, general fund.

All right. Thank you for that. We'll go to Member Almeida before we return to the mayor.

Sorry, Mayor. I kind of share the same, I do share the same concerns. We received a letter, an email from Jessica Siders.

Yes.

Executive Director over at the Southeast Ohio History Center. And she did a statement at the end of her first paragraph was, there's a hope the event will serve as a model for future July 4th celebrations in the city of Athens. You can kind of read that a couple different ways, and so when I first read that I thought, uh-oh, so is this an every year ask? Is it going to increase? I do have a lot of concerns about this. Is it a one-off that we support them, and then they have a year to plan and get better at finding funding and not maybe leaning into the city for another big ask next year? These are questions that I have. I do find it's too open-ended for me.

Thank you. All right. I think I need to move to the mayor. Wait a minute. I want to answer that question.

If you have a direct response, okay. Yeah. I want to answer. This is a one-off. Okay. And by meaning setting, what did it say exactly? We serve as a model for future that going forward, there are Fourth of July celebrations in Athens. More than just the fireworks on the wrong day. But there are celebrations in Athens on the 4th of July that organizations like the Chamber and the Visitors Bureau and the City Administration and the Kiwanis and all those groups that used to do the Fabulous Fourth come together and plan this on a yearly basis. A good friend of ours, Jan Hodson, sent Mary and I clippings from the messenger from 1976. And the city of Athens actually put together a bicentennial commission made up of names that you see on buildings in this town that ran the newspaper and business people and all of that. And hopefully, when this goes off well this year, we can continue that. But in terms of the financial ask, this is a one-time deal.

I would just point out then that council members, if you wish to offer comment, if we have a motion in a second, you can certainly qualify your support or lack thereof if it is about just this year. You can mention that in your comments. We'll just have one last comment from Member Sherwood, then we'll go to the mayor.

I'll be sure. I totally understand the views of the—I think anyone watching this can see that we are taking seriously the expenditure of public dollars and what the process by which that should be done. And so the comments made by Member Wood and others, I completely agree. I do think, though, that, yeah, maybe we will elicit more requests for this kind of funding, but we can also say no. you know, we don't have to approve it just because we approve this. I think there is enough uniqueness in this. There are some things in here that I have some qualms about, but I recognize that this is, as someone said earlier, we are where we are. This is not the ideal process, but I think in terms of the nature of what the particular celebration that we're looking at this year, I'm comfortable moving forward, even if somewhat uncomfortable. But again, supporting and thanking those individuals who came forward to put something together and that we call on members of our community that if we're looking to do this a celebration on the scale in years in the future that we we you know don't let it fall to the last minute again and so that's all I'll say thank you all right mayor Patterson could you please share the additional comment that you brought up 15 minutes ago I will thank you I too am

certainly listening to all the comments up and down the dais and respect all the comments. I will say one thing, though, when it comes to, because I'm hearing, you know, setting precedents for future asks or whatever, there's not going to be another 250-year anniversary. And that's what this is really about at the end of the day, so I'll just say that.

Hopefully there will be.

I see, you know... The one ask I could see moving forward in time would be, and I hope that I'm here to see it. I certainly enjoy being the mayor and plan to run for another term in the future, but I don't plan to run in 2047 when the city of Athens becomes 250 years old. In next year, in 2027, we will be 230 years old. We're talking about a mark in time. We're not talking about someone saying, I think that you should fund a gap that I have in my event uptown. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about something very different. The other thing that I just want to share with council is that two things. We do fund for the firework display that takes place here in the city of Athens. $15,000 that goes to that firework display, which is again to give individuals, you know, the enjoyment of getting to watch a display like that. We often have people who are willing to, businesses that are willing to increase the amount that we're able to spend on that. We've had businesses in the past. Andrew Chicky's looking at a couple businesses now to see if we can increase that moving forward. And the last thing I want to share with Council that I certainly appreciate, albeit maybe last-minute movements to create something for this particular 4th of July, that there are going to be competing things going on on the 4th of July, just to get that out there and on the record, and most notably is Thunder in the Valley in Nelsonville. We've always been a good friend of Nelsonville, to where we don't want to have conflict with the firework display that we have, hence us always doing it on the 3rd, so it's the pre-party to the bigger party, I guess. if you want to think it that way, with the Nelsonville, which is nice. It's a great event for those of you who have attended Thunder in the Valley. I just say that out loud because there will be competing things taking place on the 4th of July, just to say that out loud so that people recognize that. I certainly do. When it comes to events, it's going to be a busy, busy time, not just across the nation, but here in the city of Athens.

Thank you, Mayor Patterson. As Finance and Personnel Chair Thomas shared, this is something that would typically not come directly to Council, but with other street closures and festivals, it would be something that would be an application that was dealt with administratively. If this had been an administrative request, would you have approved it or supported it?

I would have certainly scrutinized, as you have, what those expenses are and what we're being asked to Don't eat two. But, you know, again, you know, I certainly recognize and respect the fact that our nation has made it to 250 years, and it's been fragile. You know, democracy is fragile right now. And so, you know, to recognize the fact that, as a nation, we've reached this point in time, you know, all cities across the nation are doing various things and as has been indicated earlier, and have been planning for over a year for this. I mean, I can't remember, Council Member Stazer, if it was you, or if it was Council Member Wood, you know, this isn't like, this magically has appeared in front of us. You know, we've known that we were going to be 250 years young for quite a while. But again, to Council Member Swank's point, this was kind of one of those things where We haven't really planned anything, and that's unfortunate, but we are now in council. It's before you to sit there and make that decision. But if you're asking me if I had discretionary monies to go towards something like this, given that it is our nation's 250th anniversary, yes, I would.

Thank you. And I think my last question is just going to be for the acting auditor. Do you have any concerns over the proposed use of the special projects fund for the intended amount of approximately $69,000? No.

And again, the only point that I wanted to make, just to clarify for Member Wood, Again, when you pass the budget at the end of 2025, some of these things were planned for. Halloween actually has its own account line. That is not in special projects or anything like that. So the special projects fund line, there's a $44,000 budget in there for this year for these types of things, which would just bring me to the same point that's already been brought up, that as council members, all seven of you interact with the public if you get a request. Talk to the mayor. Take it to the administration first, because the administration will know what fund line we're talking about, and we'll know if there's money in that fund line. The first and foremost thing is, do we have money to do this, right? The administration, in the fall, plans for special projects, what they know they're going to need, which would be the Athens Music Festival that we do every year. That's where that comes from. The fireworks come out of there every year. But there's always a little bit of padding in there because you know things are going to come up. So, again, when these things come up, the most appropriate route is to go to the administration, go to us, let us look at it and see where we're going to put things, and then... Right? Come up with the game plan, bring it to you for your approval. You guys approve the money. But again, just to clarify for a member, there's special account lines for Halloween and then for special projects. We have the enhancement fund that's been mentioned before. Most notably, just so everybody knows, we have flowers on Court Street right now. That's the biggest thing we use that enhancement fund for is the beautification of Athens.

Thank you. All right. At this point, we've had a lot of discussions. We need to invite the motions. Do we have a particular motion for this ordinance amendment? Member Thomas?

I'll make the motion to amend 0, I guess.

5826.

Yeah, 58-26 to add approving $6,953 from Fund 101-120, special projects. Is there anything else we need in that?

And declaring an emergency.

Yeah, and declaring an emergency. Well, it's appropriation, so it won't need that. It's immediate. Okay.

And specifically for the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Do we have a motion on the table, do we have a second? Second. All right, any further discussion? All in favor of amending ordinance 58-26 as described, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. All right, ordinance 58-26 has been amended. Member Thomas?

Because this puts it back at first reading, we have this week and next week, we would either want to suspend and pass tonight or next week so that it is done in time in case we don't have enough people if we meet the following week.

That can certainly happen. Do we have a motion to suspend the rules? I would move that we suspend the rules on 5826.

I second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion on the suspension of the rules from council members? Comments or questions from elected officials on the suspension of the rules? Members of the public? All right. All in favor of suspending the rules, in favor of adopting Ordinance 58-26, which has been amended, adopting that tonight, indicate so by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. All right, the rules have been suspended. Now we need a motion to formally adopt, right? So moved. Okay, we have Member Sherwood who's made the motion. We have a second. Second. Member Swank has made the second. Any discussion from council members, from other elected officials, from members of the public? All in favor of adopting 58-26, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. All right, 58-26 has been adopted after being amended and after the rules were suspended. And now we move on to, for a second reading, Ordinance 59-26, an ordinance authorizing the Service Safety Director to enter into an LPA, federal, local, let project agreement with the State of Ohio Department of Transportation for major rehabilitation of the State Route 682-33 project and declaring an emergency introduced by Member Blodfelder.

Since this is declaring an emergency, I just want to provide a brief review of what this is. This was the financial agreement where the state, so this is where usually there's an 80-20 split on road repair options or projects. So that the state pays 80% and the community pays 20. But for a section of Route 682 where there is concrete that was put in, the road was constructed as a concrete road in 1970 or so, with an expectation that the concrete would last 50 years. And again, us doing math, it has lasted 56, but our city engineers have noticed some early signs of failure in the road. And when you notice that, You really can't put off making repairs too long. They don't have to be done immediately, but this project is tentatively scheduled for 2027. It will likely happen then, but we're waiting for final details from the state of Ohio, which they will only give us once this is passed. And I referred to this normally being an 80-20 split with the state paying 80%. In this case, the state is going to pay 93%, and the city is going to pay 7%, which will equate to a little over $498,000. And the financing of this is not part of this ordinance, but just so people are aware, City Safety Service Director Andy Stone has identified a way that we can get a five-year 0% interest loan To pay it back, which is unusually good. So between only having to pay 7% and then being able to pay that back with no interest I move That we suspend the rules and declare this an emergency.

All right, we have a motion we have a second Any discussion on the suspension of the rules for ordinance 59-26 from council members From other elected officials? No. From members of the public? All right. All in favor of suspending the rules for Ordinance 59-26 say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say nay. The rules have been suspended, Member Cloutfelder.

I move that we pass Ordinance 59-26. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion from council members? From other elected officials? From members of the public? All right, the rules have been suspended. All in favor of adopting Ordinance 59-26, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. Ordinance 59-26 has unanimously been adopted after the suspension of the rules. We now move on to ordinance 60-26 at second reading. An ordinance authorizing the service safety director to advertise and accept bids where necessary and enter into contracts for construction of Westside Sidewalks 2024 CDBG project number 396. Introduced by council member Claude Belder. Ordinance 61-26 an ordinance amending ordinance 31-26 Authorizing the service safety director to close streets and uptown area for 2026 special events and to change requested dates or cancel the events as necessary Introduced by a member cloud filter.

I hate to do this on the very last one, but it is necessary There's been a change for the street closure request for the 4th of July celebration previously Well, a while ago, we had approved to close Court Street from Washington to Carpenter for the Fourth of July celebration. Then we were recently asked to close Washington Street from the parking garage to Congress and West State Street from Court to Congress. And the reason that Washington Street had the requested street closure was because the Boy Scouts were planning to do a soapbox derby. The Boy Scouts have changed their minds. So, no-sell box derby, no need to have a closure of Washington Street from the parking garage to Congress. So, I move to amend Ordinance 6126. Wait a minute, wait, wait.

Time out. Excuse me for interrupting. Do we really need to do anything here? Can't we just let this go? Because this says... And to change requested dates or cancel events. As I look at the mayor, he's nodding his head over there. We could just let this go. Next week we vote on it and he cancels the event. No. We don't have to go through amending, suspending the rules and all of that. We can just let it go.

Would the clerk have any objection? Okay. All right. Comment from the mayor. It's true.

Okay. I mean, it's pretty clear. If an event were to be canceled, street closing just doesn't happen.

All right. Well, with no concerns from the mayor or from the clerk, we will leave it as it is. All right. With that, I'll thank everyone for their time and attention. It's 9.30, and I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Let's do it. All right. We have a second. No one wants a second? Okay, we've got a second. All right, all in favor of adjourning, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, say nay. We're adjourned at 9.31 p.m.

Thank you.