Hello, everyone, and welcome to Athens City Council. I think there are a few chairs dispersed throughout. Please utilize those.
We do start tonight's meeting with a public hearing. So the students who are here from Dr. Settles' class, please know that we will start our normal council meeting after the public hearing.
This public hearing is for council has received a recommendation from the Athens City Planning
Commission to amend Athens City code zoning code section 23.04.03 permitted uses in R3
residential zone multifamily to permit temporary housing shelters as a permitted accessory use
or the gathering place located at 15 and 7 Congress Street.
At this time, we invite the public to come up to the podium to share any comments with
City Council regarding this recommendation from the Planning Commission.
I will simply ask that you state your name and your address and whether you represent
a group or just yourself, and then you will have three minutes to share with Council
your comments.
My name is Aaron Leatherwood. I live at 100 Coventry Lane. Homelessness is a
national problem. I appreciate the efforts we've made as a city over the
years to do our part. The gathering place, Timothy House, Good Works, the
Salvation Army, Athens Hope, the Clems House, my sister's place, the Athens
County Homeless Shelter and so many other organizations in Athens all were
required to prevent and alleviate homelessness and I'm proud to have
supported their work. The city also purchased a motel to provide transitional housing. Two
things are clear. We are currently doing a lot and we will never be able to do enough.
It's hard to solve national problems at the local level. The gathering place's desire
to provide tent wagons is well-intentioned. The gathering place has mentioned that traditional
shelters are not an option for the homeless people with mental health and or addiction
issues which the tent wagons would serve. The proposals before council are problematic for
several reasons. Uptown has large numbers of people consuming substances late at night, mostly
beer but it's not an environment which is conducive to recovery. Putting an addict next to a school
is a bad idea for any number of reasons. Drug crimes within a thousand feet of a school face
escalated penalties. The site is less than 200 feet from the Athens Middle School.
When we're trying to help people, we need to set them up for success.
We should not house addicts in an unsupervised, uptown environment next to a school.
The site will set up the people we want to help for failure.
What we need.
As one of the projects proponents stated in an earlier meeting, it is important that
tent wagon sites offer the ability to support people.
We have options.
The new fire station on Stimson is an ideal location.
station. It has space for wagons and ample room for portable bathrooms. The fire station
also has facilities which could be made available on an outreach basis. Best of all, the fire
station is located far away from uptown. It's not within 1,000 feet of a school and
is staffed 24-7 by individuals who are experienced at providing first aid.
The city's new homeless shelter on Columbus Road and the Athens County Public Library
would also be excellent choices in this regard. I've been the victim of crime twice in the
past five years, most recently involving a felony on North Congress, involving a repeat
offender on probation. In both cases, the perpetrators were homeless people. Also in
both cases, despite the perpetrators being caught and pleading guilty to the felony
on North Congress, no jail time was served. As a straight, up-down vote, I would urge
council to vote no on these ordinances. However as a community we pride ourselves on collaboration
and I believe there's an opportunity to find the middle ground in which these could be operated
on a pilot basis in a well supported and continuously supervised location far from alcohol in schools.
I would expect the city to require background screening to ensure that these facilities
are not made available to individuals with a misdemeanor or felony criminal record.
thank you for your time. I
am Nathan Crowley I live in the Plains and I am a
member of the GP for those of you that don't know that's a short for the
gathering place. I have been a member for two years and homelessness has
affected me directly, twice in my life, so has violent crime.
I was a victim of violent crime most recently when a man broke into my house who was high
and out of his mind.
And in the past, I was a victim of violent crime of an attempted mugging right here in Athens while working as a Jimmy John's employee.
In both instances, despite their criminal history, I urged the court for mercy because
I understand that a lot of what fueled them was because of their addiction issues.
Sometimes it was not because they were bad people, addicts are not bad people.
They just make sometimes bad choices based on their addiction.
But onto the matter at hand, I think the gathering place is a secure location.
That parking lot is actually locked, okay, for the chain, a physical chain, and from
my understanding from talking to the director of the gathering place, Ginger, it will be
moderate 24-7 and I understand the concerns about the possibility of them
getting alcohol and drugs but that exists now okay they're out on the streets
rates now. They have no shelter now. Okay? So and for them, this gives them that one step.
And while the firehouse seems like a good option, they haven't offered that. So this is the
best we got right now. And I truly support Ginger's mission in this, the
Gathering Places mission.
I think that it will be well taken care of. In my time
at the Gathering Place, there has not been any violent altercations. So I
I just ask you to please consider that we are doing a thing that is in the best interest
of not only the city of Athens, but to show our humanity.
Thank you very much.
1980s, Carpenter Street, me again.
I'm here to voice my support for the Conestoga Hut project.
If passed by council, people who need to stay in one will begin to stabilize their lives
by receiving support from the GP staff to get permanent housing, jobs, education, whatever
they need is made, what they may need.
This truly will be in hand up and it's much safer for everyone involved.
Thanks.
Hi.
My name is Grace Pavich.
I'm a student at OU, and I live in the house directly next to the gathering place, 15 North
Congress. I'm representing my nine other roommates also. We just wanted to voice our concern with
this project taking place next door to our house. A lot of my roommates work at bars,
and they have to walk home late at night by themselves, and they already feel unsafe
having to do that in the first place. And there's just a lot of safety concerns and
just a little bit of uneasiness and being uncomfortable with this happening. We
live in a house with all girls. I'm sure there's a lot of other houses on
Congress Street and surrounding areas that feel the same way.
Sorry, I'm like
looking at the things I have written down. We didn't know that this was
going to happen when we signed our lease two, three years ago. I'm sure like the girls that
are living there next year have no idea this is going to happen. And we should just be able
to feel comfortable and safe in our own home.
And yeah, it's just,
I don't know. I don't
really know what else to say, but thanks.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Hey, I'm Mason Korb.
I've lived in Athens.
I'm living at 18 Euclid.
And I was a student here and I worked for AmeriCorps and I've been in Athens for a bit.
Thanks for sharing your concerns.
I just wanted to share some of the data and talk about what this looks like.
So people that commit these types of crimes are often people that are very desperate
desperate and not having housing makes you more desperate, but having a place to sleep
makes you a lot safer and allows you to make safer decisions.
So there was a Denver study that found that people in supportive housing were arrested
52% less often for minor offenses than unsheltered individuals.
A UCLA study found that 80% reduction in crime among house participants within 18
months.
Ohio's own Returning Home project showed participants with supportive housing services were 40% less
likely to face re-arrests.
So in general, when we put people in safe places, they're able to make safer decisions
and I want to voice my strong support for the project.
And I also want to just generally suggest that when the city puts things out like
no camping or asks police officers to move houseless people from one spot to another that
we offer other options.
So there's a bridge next to the public library that says right underneath that bridge, no
camping here, but there aren't other options.
They doesn't say you can call this number.
And when police have moved people from A to B, they usually don't.
All the anecdotes that I've heard, they don't offer another option.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Hi, I'm Megan, 15th Station Street.
Hi, I'm Nora at 55 Mill Street.
We are students at Ohio University and we are currently interning at the Gathering Place.
Before we start, I would like to make corrections and clarify our numbers for our door-to-door neighborhood outreach.
We completed conversations with 34 neighbors of the Gathering Place, 32 out of 34,
which is 94% were supportive or expressed no concerns about the Conestoga Huts.
Two out of 34, only 6% did not support or had concerns.
11 doors went unanswered.
For this week, we decided to touch on the personal experiences of members of the gathering place
and discuss the Conestoga Hut project with them.
Previous concerns have been about the safety of students,
but our observations this week have shed light on the fears and uncertainties of unhoused individuals.
The following is a collection of quotes, not our experience as interns,
but those who are in most need of the Konestoga Hut projects.
I have survived more things than I can count, and to survive, you have to find the good.
The Konestoga Huts are a good thing that can turn the tables.
I know someone in the community who has lost a leg from sleeping on the bench in the winter.
The gathering place has spent 50 years helping to make things better for people like me,
and like you, and like all of us.
In those 50 years, we have not had any issues with the community being harmed by the programming.
Not everyone is homeless by choice.
They just need to get their feet on solid ground.
These huts are a start and mean more help and safety.
Last winter, a woman I know froze to death because she couldn't leave her dogs alone in her tent.
I know the stigma that is attached to being displaced.
I know the fear and the misunderstanding, and I know the pain.
I also know the hope that simply having a shelter and a wellness and treatment program can give.
I stood in the rain and...
I watched my children's memories, drawings, and report guards dissolve in my hands because
I had nowhere else to go. I feel like society doesn't care about me. We don't value our
own species enough or help provide basic necessities. I served in the military for 13 years. I
was deployed twice to Afghanistan and Iraq. I did everything right and I still sleep in
car. Losing things is devastating. Intense stuff gets stolen and ripped but
these huts have a lock for my safety. We all want help. We all want to make things
better. Sometimes it's about finding that way. The way that you can make things
better that other people can't. From these personal statements from members
of the gathering place you can hear the desperation and inherent necessity for
housing. The temperature is going to drop. Winter is coming and hypothermia
can set in anywhere below 40 degrees. This isn't just a proposal, it's a lifeline. We
are not standing here today to debate policy. I don't care about your biases or fears for
this project when you have a safe place to go to at night. We're here because these
are people that we know and we care about who are sleeping outside in the wintertime.
This is a cry for help for dignity, shelter and a chance at stability. Don't let your
prejudices speak louder than your compassion. Pass the Conestoga Hut proposal. Show the Athens
community that we are willing to act with humanity, with heart, and with urgency. Thank you for your
time. Thank you.
Excuse me. Is there a sign-up sheet that's still circulating somewhere?
Oh, it's
okay. Hello. My name is Shelby Elzinga and I currently live in Nelsonville. I have come to
speak as a formerly homeless person to exemplify that it is possible to be homeless
without a substance abuse disorder, I do not even drink.
I have a bachelor's degree and several tech certifications
that are supposed to be highly sought after.
I even run my own business doing tech support.
But even with these qualifications,
I have found myself with unstable housing
because I have undiagnosed autism
and faced gender and various other disability discriminations
such as not being able to stand for two hours,
which locks you out of most entry-level roles.
With the frankly asinine job market, rising prices, and many other issues,
I am not uncommon and I am going to become a more common example.
I hear the issues around the offenders.
I have dealt with them myself, but I do not think it is an issue
of whether to house homeless people,
but more of an issue of why our legal system continues to let them reoffend.
Perhaps this project needs some of its details modified in order to reflect that,
but ultimately such housing for the homeless that has as little bureaucracy as possible
should be considered if we are to have a functioning society.
Thank you.
Hi, my name is Allison Perry and I'm a student here at Ohio University.
I also live at 15 North Congress Street, and I'm representing all of the girls over there or College Street. Sorry. I'm really bad at my address.
But I want to first start off by saying it's not like we understand what the project is trying to do and we support that.
I think it's more where they're trying to put them I know that homelessness is
obviously a very prevalent thing in Athens but I think more of our concern is
where they're planning on putting the huts like we said we live in a house
with all girls we don't have we're not very good at defending ourselves if
something were to happen and there also are a bunch of other houses with
with only girls I'm sure on that street as well and we should feel safe and comfortable
in our own house and along with that I know I'm not a middle schooler but there is the
concern of that the middle school is there and when I am walking to my classes I see
children like students, middle schoolers walking along in the sidewalks and I know
that my parents we've obviously brought this concern up to them and what was happening
and they are not they don't feel safe for us they don't feel like this is a
smart place to do this and I can only imagine what the middle schoolers parents
are thinking as well so I just wanted to bring up the aspect of walking home
feeling safe and I think we're not against the ideas and goals of the
project but I think it's more the placement of where this is occurring
And I think that if it were to be picked up and moved somewhere else, that there would
be a lot more support for this.
Also there is a college campus and if I were to tour and see and know this, I know that
my parents probably wouldn't have felt as comfortable with me going there.
And I also wouldn't feel safe.
And I know that the university does bring in a lot of people to Athens.
So, yeah, just wanted to bring awareness up.
Thank you.
Hello.
I'm Kayla Campbell.
I live in the Plains.
I'm a member of the GP.
I also am a manager at Taco Bell.
I walk home from Athens at 4 or 5 a.m. some nights to the Plains through Congress.
It's a very quiet area.
Not a lot happens.
We do not have a lot of incidents when we are at the GP to participate.
You are trying to get sober. You are trying to better your life.
They have helped me and my husband and my two kids get out of homelessness.
When we first started, we were jumping hotel to hotel, barely paying.
My paycheck was barely affording it.
So, they are a big help and they do help you get better and help you find what is causing
your issues to get you where you can succeed and strive in life.
That's all I had.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Hello again.
Kent Lankes.
I'm the senior resident at Mike's Bridge House, 34 West Washington.
It's the recovery sober living house that is next to the gathering place and shares
there's the parking lot for the proposed site. I've told my story before, it's already on
the record, but you know, Val Victorian honors tutorial college at the university. I also
built the sound systems and managed two of the bars uptown, so I'm very familiar with
student life and things like that. A lot of them still know the name Kento.
You
I was homeless living under bridges and whatnot,
and I was facing addiction and substance use issues
and mental health issues.
With Mike's Bridge House and the programming
by the gathering place, which has been an operation
for almost 50 years, specializing in recovery,
mental illness, substance use,
all of the things that people have concerns about.
And yes, I do live next to the middle school as well.
But if I did not have the shelter, the safety and security of shelter, a wellness and treatment
program, which all of the individuals that would be considered for this pilot program
have wellness and treatment programs, they are in recovery, they are on the path to recovery.
This is not, you know, some crazy fish concert parking lot where a whole bunch
of random, you know, people are going to be in there, you know.
So in less than seven months, I have not only embraced recovery, I've become a certified
peer recovery specialist.
I live in the house attached to the parking lot, so I am there 24 hours a day, almost,
except for when I work, because I am also gainfully employed, which I was not able
to say seven months ago or when I was living under bridges.
I no longer face uncertainty, but just that one thing of having shelter, of having security
that allowed me to come so far.
I was a featured speaker a few weeks ago at an event at ABH called Appalachian Stories
of Resilience and Recovery.
I was a featured panelist.
Hope is infectious.
Hope trumps stigma.
We need to break stigma as far as the safety concerns are going.
I am not kicking any of the members from the GP out of my yard at 3 a.m. For urinating in the bushes or throwing their beer cans
Everywhere, you know, I understand that student life is student life
They need to be allowed to embrace this part of their personal evolution
but also we as a community and as adults need to not shelter people from the fact that the world can be
difficult sometimes it can we all know this but
With what I could accomplish in such a short amount of time
Who are we to deny three other individuals in our community that same opportunity, who
are participating in wellness and treatment programs, you know, it's getting colder outside.
Thank you.
Hi, everyone.
I'm Ruby Gallo and I live at 65 South Court Street and I'm speaking on behalf of my
friends who live at 14 North High and 15 North Congress Street.
I want to start by saying that I care deeply about helping those in need, and I truly respect
the gathering place's mission.
However, I have serious concerns about the proposal to build temporary housing huts
at 7 North Congress and about expanding the zoning change citywide.
My biggest concern is safety for myself, my neighbors, and for the individuals who
would be placed in these huts.
Putting small shelters in a parking lot with limited supervision, minimal access
to bathrooms and no clear security measures raises real safety issues. Without proper oversight,
this could put both residents and surrounding community members at risk. I live nearby and
I would no longer feel safe walking alone at night or even parking near that area if this
plan goes forward. It's not because I lack compassion. It's because this approach doesn't
ensure accountability or safety for anyone involved. If this goal is to help people,
We need real solutions, transitional housing, mental health resources, and long-term support
systems that protect everyone's well-being.
Quick fixes like these huts don't provide that.
I urge the council to vote no on this proposal and focus on safe, sustainable housing options
that truly serve both the unhoused community and the neighborhoods around them.
Thank you.
Hi, my name is Tara Boreen.
And I lived at Timothy House and I'm also part of the gathering place.
And I can tell you from experience, I lived out on the streets for five months.
I've been stolen from twice, robbed, and where I came to the gathering place I just
felt that I could do all this on my own.
Well, I ended up getting with Ginger and all the crew over there at the gathering place
and I knew I couldn't do this alone.
And by the time I'm there, I've got all this help.
I go to my meetings, what meeting area is, and then we talk everything out.
I mean, if it wasn't for gender and everybody, I don't know where I would be,
but the huts,
they are 100 percent going to be safe for anybody that needs it for the wintertime, because
I believe if I was out there in the wintertime and I was in Athens, that's probably where
where I would stay is in my hut, but from experience of someone that lived out on the
street, it's a dangerous world.
Everybody ought to be thankful that they have some place to
go. For me, I choose to be out on the street, but I came,
now I'm here speaking about
it because it works for if
they need it just come on the board and come over we
all will talk to you and
see how it all is ran and personally you would see that
it's being ran the way that it needs to be ran by Ginger and the rest of the
crew. So that's all I have. Thank you.
Good evening. Thank you President Crowe and members of the
Committee for the opportunity to speak this evening in support of rezoning to allow the gathering
place to build more connoisseurs of huts on their property. My name is Ari Faber. I live
at 23 Meadow Lane, and I am here tonight as the executive director of United Campus Ministry.
In 2015, my parents kicked me out for being queer. That's what brought me to Athens.
I spent several months couchsurfing between two cousins who were already living here.
I was grateful to have a roof over my head, but I knew it could disappear at any moment
if one of their roommates decided they didn't want me there.
I was one conversation away from being alone and outside.
That experience shaped the way that I understand housing insecurity.
It showed me how quickly anyone can lose stable housing and how terrifying that uncertainty
feels.
When we talk about people who are in house, we sometimes forget that they are not
strangers.
They are community members who are in crisis.
They are people who, like I once was, are simply trying to find safety and stability.
They are not the boogeyman seeking to harm you or to face your property.
They are our neighbors.
The Gathering Places Conestoga Hut Project offers those neighbors a small but powerful
measure of safety and dignity.
It's a modest, well-supervised pilot, just a few huts on a fenced camera-monitored
block next to an organization that has been serving Athens for nearly 50 years. These huts
provide secure temporary shelter for people already connected to mental health and case
management services. This isn't about turning Athens into a tense city, as some have said.
It's about creating opportunity.
It's about ensuring that when someone in our community
loses their footing, we have a place for them to land. Athens has always been
city that leads with compassion. Approving this rezoning continues that tradition and it tells
our neighbors that they still belong here. That their safety matters and that our community
refuses to turn its back on those who are struggling. I urge you to approve the rezoning
and allow the gathering place to move forward with this humane and responsible project.
Thank you for your time and commitment to building an Athens where everyone has
the dignity of a safe place to sleep.
Good evening.
Thank you, Council.
My name is Nick Tepe, and I am speaking tonight as a private resident of Athens living at One
Ellis Avenue.
As I've mentioned in previous statements to Council, while I am speaking as a private
citizen on this topic, my professional experience deeply informs my views on this matter.
I have worked in public libraries for 25 years, and I have worked with individuals living
in insecure housing for all of those 25 years.
Tonight, I would like to comment on a theme I have seen in the statements made by those
who are opposed to this initiative, namely that those of us who support this initiative
are downplaying or ignoring the safety concerns that are being raised and not taking those
concerns seriously.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Working in and managing a public facility, I have seen every type of bad behavior that
every member of the public is capable of.
If you can imagine it, I have seen it in a public library.
Probably some things you can't imagine.
Whatever safety issues the opponents can imagine, rest assured that I have seen it, and I have dealt with it in managing my public facilities.
I have evicted people exhibiting bad behavior from libraries more times than I can count.
While some of those individuals were people living in insecure housing situations,
who inadvertently or otherwise brought the chaos of their lives with them into the library,
far more were unruly teenagers, people angry with each other or with the library,
and people with ill intentions that had nothing to do with their housing situation.
I've also gotten to know many individuals living with insecure housing
who are some of my best patrons, who would come to the library in the morning,
use the computers, read magazines, stay warm or cool, chat with me, chat with their friends,
and leave at the end of the day without any trouble.
This should not be surprising.
If you have nowhere to go, you don't want to get kicked out of one of the few places.
you can go. I do not have any concerns about the Gathering Places Conestoga
Project because I know the people who will be running the facility and I
know that they have as much if not more experience than I do in working with
people living with these circumstances and they know how to handle the
safety concerns that come with managing a facility like this. I also have no
concerns about conditional zoning allowing similar projects elsewhere in
the city because I know the city's Safety Service Director and the Board
of zoning appeals will do their due diligence in assuring that any facility offering services
like this will be able to manage it effectively. Those who claim that this will somehow lead
to tents all over the city are engaging in a slippery slope fallacy, it is false, it
is fear mongering, and it severely denigrates the professionalism of the safety service
director and the Board of Zoning Appeals who will be deciding whether or not to allow
conditional use of certain properties. The bottom line here is that as a city
we essentially have two choices. Change nothing about what we are doing and continue to live
with the chaos and suffering that come with the housing crisis that has grown worse over
the last five years and will likely continue to grow for the foreseeable future. Or pursue
any and all options available to us to alleviate the situation for the benefit of not just
the people who are living without secure housing, but also for our whole community.
When the people who can be helped are being helped, there are far fewer of the
sorts of incidents that the opponents are concerned about, and there are more resources
is available to deal with the real safety concerns.
Those of us who are advocating for this initiative represent decades of experience in working
with individuals who are living within secure housing, possibly centuries.
And we are all saying that we must pursue these solutions in order to improve the lives
of everyone in our community.
Please trust in the experience and expertise represented here and give us the tools
we are asking for to address those issues.
Thank you.
My name is Eric Johnston.
I am a social worker, and so you're speaking as a private citizen of at 300 Highland Avenue.
I just want to voice my absolute support for this project.
I think the realities of today are that all of us, or not maybe all of us, but many of
us, are but a few paychecks away from facing homelessness.
Many of us in this room have experienced such, right?
I think this is the compassionate thing to do, as Nick pointed out.
As a city we have an opportunity here to do things differently and I hear the
concerns about safety. I don't want those conflated with this project. Safety is
important and should be addressed, but I feel like that's maybe a separate issue
that could be taken up in other ways. The connection with the university can
be improved, the connection with the city and the university. There's a lot of
different things we can do here, but I think we have an opportunity that
shouldn't be missed to care for those around us and so maybe even care for those in this room.
So again, I just want to voice my support. Thank you for your time.
Good evening. My name is Kelly Brar and I'm here tonight as a board member of the Gathering
Place. I do not live here in the city of Athens, but I do live in Athens County,
actually in Coolville. I've proudly served on the board for seven years and I have been
involved with the gathering place for well over a decade. My son went to Athens
Middle School for three or four years and as a parent we had no concerns with him
leaving school many days most days walking uptown downtown over to the
community center wherever he wanted to go. I'd also like to take just a few
minutes to focus on key facts and common-sense truths especially amidst
all the information and unfortunately the misinformation that is out there.
If we truly want to talk about facts, common sense and community, we have to start with
the people who are working every day to be a part of that solution.
These are the people who care deeply about addressing issues that affect all of us, like
affordable housing, income inequality, lack of employment, among many other things.
Every single day, and again, as several people have mentioned for almost 50 years, the gathering
place has been and offers that solution.
It's a place where individuals in recovery, folks who want to be in recovery, sometimes
Sometimes people just living with the mental health illness who are trying to be in recovery
can find community, they can find stability, and they find hope.
The gathering place is not a place where people gather to use drugs, commit violence, commit
crimes, drink alcohol.
It is structured supportive environment with rules and accountability and community.
In fact, very often, when you go in there on an afternoon, you'll find a game of UNO,
some bingo, people playing music, making some meals together, among several other really
good community level services that these folks need.
Members are expected to follow guidelines that are outlined in our handbook, and as
As a board member and as a collective board, we take that responsibility very seriously.
I myself personally have worked in health care in the behavioral health space for over
30 years and several of our fellow board members bring professional expertise and credentials
as well.
We are deeply committed to ensuring that the gathering place operates safely, effectively
and with compassion.
We have complete confidence in our Executive Director and the staff who follow best practices,
protocols, and provide ongoing and continuous monitoring to make sure our programs run responsibly.
There is no better time than now to move forward, especially in partnership with the Co-Create
Project and the Development Happening Columbus Road.
Lastly, it's important to remember the folks that we help, that who need our help are our
neighbors, our brothers, our sisters, our friends, our coworkers, and the same people
who have the gathering place has been helping for decades.
Why would we turn our backs on them now?
This is not a reckless step, it is a responsible one towards compassion, safety, and progress.
And to those who are afraid or uncertain, I understand that fear.
But I ask you to consider the perspective of those who have so little.
The people who need these temporary shelters are not afraid.
They are hopeful.
They look forward to the opportunity to have safety, dignity, and a chance to rebuild.
Shame on us if we don't at least try to help make that situation better for someone else.
This is not about politics or fear.
It's about humanity.
It's about compassion, responsibility, and the belief that everyone deserves a chance
to live with dignity.
Thank you.
Good evening.
For those who don't know me, I'm Mark Sutton.
I was born and raised here in Athens.
My father actually used to be on City Council.
His name is on the parking garage over there.
I'm here because I've been a social worker for approximately 40 years.
I'm now retired, but my
issue has been with the fearmongering that I've seen that some
of my peers in from this town, such as Jack, I'm here because of Jack writing the letter
to the editor, feeling out a lot of fearmongering.
And that's all I heard from the last, Kim Goode, when she spoke at one of the meetings,
the same thing,
even Crisk Cornwell, and I'm really disappointed to hear their views
but my view is very opposite. I have been assaulted in this town either by friends or students.
Students are much more dangerous than any homeless person you're going to ever run into. I'm
just appalled that we, upstanding community members in here are so afraid of what, I
don't know what they're afraid of, because everything that I read was not based on
In fact, it was, you know, obviously I've heard what the gathering place says and what
the media has reported and all of that disputes any of their concerns about fear.
So I pray that you pass this and we really need it because, you know, these people are
living in our community whether you like it or not.
And a lot of them, many of them are friends of mine who are from here.
So they're not coming from out of town.
But, you know, winter's coming up, we need to protect them.
So please do what is right.
Make sure that this happens.
Thank you.
I'm
going to wait a little longer, but I get that's by queue.
My name is Jack Stoffer.
I live on Elmwood.
I'm here to represent myself as well as quite a group of concerned citizens.
We're not a group.
We don't have a name.
We are a group of concerned citizens.
This
letter, you all received it. It was in the Athens messenger. It was on the
independent. It was faxed or emailed around town where it says fact. It's a
fact.
It says concern, it's a concern. We make reference to a incident that happened in the past and
a not too recent past that has a direct reflection on the past and present people running the gathering
place.
This letter I had quite a bit to do with input on. Where it says fact, it is
a fact. I believe you could verify that from the information that's in the letter.
For
For those of you who know me fairly well, you already know I have neither the intellect
or technical or computer skills to produce this document.
I'm the front man, the fall guy, the guy with the internal strength to face the hateful
blowback that I expect to follow and hear tonight.
Many working folks, business people, fellow citizens, gave input to our team.
team. Folks still in business must be careful. I'm retired.
I delivered it to Debbie to email.
I tried several times over two weeks to talk with Ginger at the gathering place, but she
never returned my calls as I didn't want to cause her hardship or embarrassment. By the
time I found her returned voicemail at 516 on the day I had already been to City Hall.
In any event, this is accurate.
I hope you use your knowledge of facts in the past to realize that we don't know what could happen there in the future.
And if you pass this and something goes wrong up there, it will be a poor reflection on you folks and our city.
It could damage our city's image to the point of affecting OU enrollment which would devastate our town.
They have done some good work, I'm sure, in the past, but you, we need to look out for
the future.
I have an idea and I plan, I think, will work well for all parties involved, and I will
speak to that at first reading, unless you want to let me do it now.
Hi, my name is Dr. Kate Enger.
I've been working in the social sciences for decades.
I'm a little concerned to hear the kind of we versus them sense in here.
The reality is we are them.
Many are just looking around this room.
Statistics tell me one out of five of us will be diagnosable with a mental disorder this year.
Lifetime, one out of three.
It's not them.
And people with mental illness are not scary.
They're not dangerous.
Statistically speaking, they are much more likely to be the victims of crime than to be the perpetrators of crime.
Do you know where a woman, a young woman, is most likely to be assaulted?
That would be a college campus, not near a homeless shelter.
I have spent thousands and thousands of hours in rehabs, in homeless drop-in shelters,
recently in eviction courts in three different counties have not felt unsafe
in any of those places. I have been unsafe in other places but not in those
places.
For every three families who need housing right now there's one place
available so people are not choosing to be homeless. The people I know right now
that are facing homelessness were injured, they were ill, they left work to
take care of somebody who was ill, they were abandoned by a partner or
abused by a partner. They were rejected by family because of their sexual orientation
or some other difficulty. These days it could even be a political issue. I've actually
seen that a few times. The recovery community members that I know, people who are in recovery
in this community are some of the finest, wisest and most productive citizens we have.
If we give people shelter, if we help them, they become those fine, wise, productive citizens.
If we just tell them to go somewhere else, there is no somewhere else.
And they are us. We need to be realistic. Thank you.
I want to make sure that people in the hallway know this is coming down to the last chance to approach the podium and speak or anyone in the room, obviously.
here we go thank you hello my name is autumn brown and after this I will be
going home to my warm house at 5 3 1 6 a new floodwood in Nelsonville I work in
Athens live in Athens County and I simply wanted to back up some of the
statements that have been shared tonight as we have been working on this
Conestoga Hut project. I am now a board member for the gathering place. I became a board
member from the gathering place because I was one of the leadership that helped with
the Emergency Warming Center. I was a partnership with the City of Athens. Thank you for letting
us use the firehouse. We're in process of trying to figure out what that will look
like this year. So in that opportunity where I was able to help operate the Warming
Center, I met a lot of the individuals that would benefit from a Conestoga hut. Individuals
who are living in Athens in random places that I don't know about, you don't know about,
but they're here on the streets in the woods making do. And I've heard the fears where
it's not an us against them in this situation. We're looking, I sit in the co-create housing
team working on these solutions. And, you know, there are no other places for the Conestoga
Huts to go. The gathering place has stepped up. They have a plan. The co-create team supports
this. We've been working with the City of Athens to make sure this will work for everyone
involved. There will be close oversight. The facilities will be maintained. The individuals
individuals who are selected to go into those Conestoga Huts will be, as shared by many
of the members, in active support of resources.
Not everyone that's going to go in those huts may be an addict.
That's always a go-to.
These are individuals who are down in their luck who need help.
And this has been very well thought out.
This has been several years in the planning.
And so this isn't taken lightly.
If this opportunity is given to the gathering place, it's supported by Co-Create.
We're also supporting the shelter down on Columbus Road to help make sure that they're
using all the resources available to have a thoughtful plan in place.
And the Conestoga has just a very small start to opening a door to be able to support opportunities
for people to get into homes, homes that aren't available right now.
And so I'm happy to reach out.
Anyone can reach out to me.
I'm easy to find my contact information, but if you need more information, there
There are details about this plan that really show that it's thought out and well intended
and if there are issues, we will be working together to address those as this pilot project
starts.
So, thank you very much.
55 minutes into a public hearing and I just want to make sure everybody that would like
to speak has the opportunity to do so.
Hello.
Ginger Schmalenberg.
I work at Southern North Congress Street.
I live up for 1-1-1 Williams Road, Shade, Ohio.
I am not one to do a tit for tat of every misinformation that people are calling facts
to refute that.
I've been able to, on my own, give information to those people that need to.
But I do want to say as I'm listening to everyone, I've listened for a while, which
which is why I did not want to speak until I've listened to everyone.
We have never said, something that Erin said, it has never been said that the connoisseurs
took a hutzure for individuals because they have a mental illness and it's better for
them.
That was very confusing to me.
And also, I think there's also some confusion with everyone's talking a lot about addicts
and all these different things.
And yes, indeed, we do serve individuals that do have lived experience of the mental
health or co-occurring substance use disorder, but that's 25 percent of our population.
And so you have to understand that these condensate huts are for individuals that are
unhoused in general.
I certainly, my plan, I did not want to say this out loud, but I'm playing vulnerable
vulnerable women that we serve in these huts, everyone, you know, because that's what seems
to be the most need.
I'm not saying it will always be women.
And I do want to respond to our next-door neighbors at 15 North Congress.
I did not want to bring this out in the open, ladies, but before we ever started having
meetings like before September 8, that first weekend that they moved in not knowing
about anything.
I have one video and I have it here.
We caught one of them coming over, breaking our chain on the porch.
They were obviously under the influence, stole a chair.
They ended up throwing it back into our side yard.
And so, and we were actually more concerned because they hobbled.
It almost looked like they would fall onto Congress Street.
So, and then my program manager a couple of days later recognized the individual,
went over and talked to them.
They were very polite to her and she just mentioned of how we do monitor, we do see things.
No apologies.
No one's offered to replace that $60 chain.
And I'm not going to, you know, I do have this, but, you know, I did not turn it into
the police.
I did not turn it into judiciary because I believe in second chances.
I believe that individuals should, you know, have an opportunity to learn from their mistakes.
But I just think like who are we afraid of when that happens, it's like the gathering
place, we do have 15 cameras, anyone in the past few years since we've had cameras that
have come onto our campus and done anything to do with drugs or drinking, they have been
young people.
It has not been the individuals that we serve.
So, I think that's something really important and I think everyone, our community, set it
for us.
I am not one to go into running an unsound program.
I really want safety for our neighborhood.
I want safety for the individuals that I serve and I know we can do a salt program.
We have a record.
We have a reputation.
Thank you.
Anyone
else like to speak during this public hearing?
Yes, thank you.
Hi, my name is Nora Reynolds and I live at 14 North High.
And as people said, I just have some concerns.
And like everyone has said, I'm 21 years old.
I live alone with my six of the roommates.
We're all girls.
And like our landlord had sent out,
every girl he had sent an email telling us
come to this meeting, 100 girls live on our street,
live in the street behind us.
And my parents have a lot of concerns for this.
I mean, I pay a lot of money to rent our house, I want to feel safe.
And I have sympathy for people who are struggling with addiction and need police to go.
But I just have some questions about, like, if something happens, who is held accountable
for that?
Who is paying for the security?
Is there security all the time?
What if something happens or if they're going to be police on standby?
Are people going to come and help if something goes wrong?
Are they just going to blow it off because those people are struggling with addiction
so they're going to blame it on that and not an actual issue that's happening?
And, like, are there going to be cameras?
How much are those people getting paid to sit there?
Like, if there are security, are they just going to, like, not pay attention and just
not do their job because they're being paid, like, less money?
And other curfews, check-ins?
There's just a lot of concerns we have, and I know people say that college students
are more of an issue than homeless people, but as a young girl, I still have concerns
with people.
I mean, I walk home alone at night all the time.
I work at a bar.
I'm walking home alone at night all the time. I get scared walking home alone
I walk right next to that parking lot and at 3 a.m. When I'm walking home alone
I would be scared if I look over and there's people I didn't know I don't know what they have
Going on in their life if they're still struggling if they're still addicted. I just don't want something to happen and
There's not some sort of
Some some way to like people not someone
like there won't be someone like held accountable like someone will do something
sorry thank you hi
my name is Andy vote I live out in the county however I own a
business in town I just have a couple first things first I wanted to say our
community is better with the gathering place what they do and what we've heard
that they've done is definitely a valuable asset to our community nobody
doubt set. Is the idea of having three covered wagons in a parking lot cure for what the
problem is? Maybe in time, maybe a little bit, but good works is not at capacity. It is not.
Woodworks is run by two of the most ethical people in our whole county, Darlene and Keith
Wasserman. Secondly, we have a large project being opened up on Columbus Road where I think
we've got 80 bedrooms coming into service. Why is it so necessary that we have three
more huts put into this place. Another thing our law director has basically said this is
not a good idea and it has been blown off as just her opinion. I don't know about you
but I've hired an attorney in the past and not followed those things and I've paid the
price. It's just not a good idea. Now again I do want to reiterate that the folks at
gathering place are offering a valuable service to our community.
On February 9th of 2026, I will celebrate 20 years of sobriety.
So I know what it's like to take responsibility for your actions.
I know what it's like to sacrifice what you want to do for what is the best thing to
do.
And I'm asking you guys the same thing here, is three bedrooms and cover wagons
It's really going to make the difference that we need when we know we've got 80 bedrooms
coming up and when we have a known homeless shelter that is not at capacity.
Secondly, I want to thank you women for coming here today.
It took a lot of strength to get up here and talk.
And I'm proud of each and every one of you.
It's not easy.
And I want to also thank you guys for your time for this opportunity to speak.
So thank you very much.
Appreciate it.
Hello.
Some of you I know.
Hello.
My name is Kristen Walts and I'm a licensed independent social worker.
I work in the city of Athens.
I live in the county on Mill Creek Road, sorry, a little nervous, I wasn't prepared.
I will say that the people I serve, which many of them are members of the gathering
place, three bedrooms is three people who aren't living under bridge.
It's three people that you don't cross on the street when you're walking home.
It's three people who have a safe place.
Three people who have services.
They have a case manager.
They might have a therapist.
It's three families who may not live in Athens, but know that the people that they
love are housed for the night.
It's not long-term solution, but it's three beds for three people, and that's important.
We have this great shelter that's going to be opening up that people keep referencing.
That isn't opening up right now.
It's got a lot of work to go, so we have a lot of people who are going to be unhoused.
unhoused. I work with people daily who are unhoused and it's heartbreaking. And the staff
that I supervise come and they're like, why can't we do something? Something has to be
done. There are not enough churches in this county to pay for people to be in a hotel
room who need a place to be. I have people who wear everything that they own on their
back every day.
That's a lot when it's 100 degrees out. It isn't enough when it's
zero.
I worked with survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence for seven
years for the University. Some of you know that. Not once did I work with
somebody who had a perpetrator of that violence who was unhoused.
The vast
I think we need to look at this and realize that we come from a place of privilege.
We're housed.
It's really easy to say, well, just wait until the place on Columbus Road opens up.
Tell those three people who are going to be freezing,
or those three people who have to find their way to the old firehouse.
It's a lot.
I worked there this winter with Eric and Ginger and Autumn.
and it was beautiful, and the people were thankful, and the community members that came
in and set up beds and brought food were thankful to have the opportunity to help. Thank you.
Thank you.
Anyone additional who would like to speak? Yes, please.
My name is Sam Redfern. I've been a lifelong Athens, Ohio resident. I went to Ohio University.
I work here. I live here. And, you know, I'm really excited about this Columbus Road
development it's not 80 beds it's 41 and it's not built yet. Three people in these huts are
three people off the street, three people who can be safe and warm and have a locked door
between them and the outside and that's three people who won't be on a street corner potentially
just sitting there and making people uncomfortable as they walk.
Housing is a real issue here
in Athens. We walk down the street and we see people. We may try and avoid that. We may
try and ignore that. But they're here. Unhoused people are here. And until there are methods
for people to find housing, and they're going to be unhoused. And we have to create path
lines for them to go from being unhoused to becoming citizens of Athens, Ohio, who
can pay taxes. You know, if you have a place to stay today, you're going to
paying taxes tomorrow? Do we want these people to be business owners, taxpayers in a year
or do we want them to be unhoused in a year? That's the question. I want them to be community
members. I want them to be neighbors. I don't want them to be left out in the cold. Thank
you for listening.
Thank you.
Hi, I'm Michelle Pappy. I live in North Congress Street. Ex-City Council person.
and last time I saw this place is filled
was the last time we had a conversation about homelessness.
The mayor probably remembers that and Ms. Walker.
All I wanna say is takes a lot of broad shoulders
to be a council person and to listen to all the community.
And I'm hoping you have the broad shoulders
to support the Conestoga Huts.
Thank you.
Hi.
My name is Ava Justino and I'm a student here at Ohio University.
This is a very important issue to me.
I'm a sociology, criminology major, so in the past three years I've done a lot of research
projects and things on this issue of homelessness, addiction, mental health issues and such.
I do just want to say I do hold a lot of compassion in my heart for these individuals
who are facing these struggles, especially in the community of Athens.
I was an intern at the CASA program last semester and I saw firsthand really the impacts that
addiction and housing have on these individuals.
But I think that getting to the root cause of this issue instead of putting a band-aid
on it is something that I hold really close.
I live with multiple of these ladies standing right here and walking home alone for me
can be very scary at times and I'm sure a lot of the other women in this room
have felt those same insecurities as well.
As a woman living in this day and age, it can be extremely terrifying.
When you're walking home alone anytime, going anywhere alone is terrifying sometimes.
When you don't know your surroundings, you don't know who you're with.
You don't know who's around.
So I just want to make that point.
I don't want to feel unsafe in this community.
I came to Ohio University because of the safety and how safe I felt here.
And if there are people around that I'm not really sure living right directly in
my backyard, that just might make me feel a little bit unsafe.
So thank you all for listening and I really do want to thank everyone coming here tonight and sharing all your opinions because I think this is a very important issue. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Hi, I'm Josie. I also live at 15 North High with all these girls and some of them that live behind us directly like we share backyards together.
I just wanted to show that there's power in numbers and that we're all just concerned
about the safety of all of us and I think there's a lot of concern about what we don't know
and a lot of like fear about the unknown, like what would happen if the three rooms or
huts were filled, we're just scared of what might happen.
So yeah, thank you.
Thank you.
I'm sorry.
I'd like to speak again real quick.
So I'm sorry.
We can we only allow once although I will let everybody know that this is coming up for a first reading during our regular council session
So anyone mr. Stauffer has already mentioned this they would like to stay and speak there will be another opportunity at that point
Hi, my name is Brita. I'm not a
Life-long resident of Athens, but I did commit to moving down here and becoming part of the community a little over three years ago
When I went to Hawking College
I'm also nervous.
I live at 23 Elliott Street and intend to stay here for a while.
I'm nervous because I didn't intend to talk, but I was very moved by different things that
people said tonight.
And so some of the things that I've been thinking about are that the comment of like only
three people or like that it's not worth it to help three people.
There's two things about that.
But number one, the situation really is truly that dire.
It is that dire.
People would give anything to like sleep on a bathroom floor.
It is that dire.
Also, it's not just three people.
It's three people for a minute, but then a new crew comes in.
Like people are moved up and on through the system.
This is not permanent housing for three people.
They're not going to live there for a year.
This is a temporary part helping to funnel people back through a system.
I also want to point out that I think law enforcement should be offended by the fears
that these ladies have expressed.
I think that anyone in this room who is invested in the safety of other people, especially
like protecting young women, should be offended that these women feel so unsafe and so
at risk.
I think that protection as a word is really coming out here.
So it's like protection of other community members by letting three people sleep there.
Like there are so many eyes on those huts.
People are watching those huts.
People don't want stuff to happen there.
People don't want like big chaos happening there because they don't want to get kicked
out.
There are eyes.
There are people in this room like when you say that you're scared about people being in those huts
You are telling people in this room that you don't trust them to keep you safe
You are telling people in this room that they are
Not super protective people who are going to like join together and like protect one another
So I think this is a yes and situation in which we have yes
Protect some people add three more huts
when there's like a waiting list of 300 who would probably be willing to live in that
hut, including me.
I am very biased.
I was at one point without stable housing and that has come up a few times in my life.
So I do know from personal experience how dire it is.
And from the emergency warming shelter, how dire it is in this county and with our
community members.
I have seen people lose housing because medical issues miss a paycheck, miss a payment
it spirals down from there.
It is our community members.
So I hope that the people in this room who are scared
do have people that step up and protect them
and that there are systems in place to help them protect.
And as a last note, feelings of unsafety
are not more important than actual safety issues.
Thank you.
Okay, I think we're nearing our last call
all for anyone in the hallway or in the room who would like to address council on this issue
during this public hearing.
I really appreciate the community coming out. It's very important
that we hear all voices and I want to thank you all. I will note that this will be the
end of the public hearing and we're going to take five minutes to allow anybody who
is not staying for the regular council meeting to leave the room and work their way out
safely and so we will begin our City Council meeting at 8.22. Thank you. Call the end of the public hearing.
Okay, thank you very much. We are now going to start our regular session of city council.
It's Monday, August, excuse me, October 20th, 25, and we are in regular session tonight.
Excuse me, may I have the attention? Thank you. I'd like to start that by acknowledging
that here in Athens County we live and work on land initially settled and developed
by earlier people, particularly the Shawnee and the Osage, and those identified through
cultures commonly known as the Edina, Hopewell, and Fort Ancient. This acknowledgment
that reminds us of the importance of honoring history people in the planet as we work to
improve our city's legacy. I want to thank Member McCary for speaking about this statement,
particularly right around Indigenous Peoples Day. Our first order of business is to establish
quorum. We have all members of council here with us tonight, which is wonderful.
And so we have quorum. And then the next item is a disposition of minutes. May I have a
motion to accept the regular session of council minutes held October 6, 2025, please?
Seconded.
I have a motion and a second. Any comments or questions about these minutes? All those
in favor signify by saying aye.
Aye.
Opposed nay. The regular session of council minutes held October 6, 2025 are approved.
We now have communications and I want to start by letting the public know both here in the
room as well as online that we received a lot of communications particularly about the
issue of the public hearing that we just experienced and we will be having a first reading as
I mentioned of this ordinance this evening.
There is some question as to whether city council will read publicly into the record every communication that it receives.
This is not a requirement by the High Revised Code.
It is not a requirement in council rules for us to read into the record any communication that we receive.
You might imagine, and I'm afraid I have to share that we don't always receive letters
that I would read publicly.
They often, they sometimes contain language or derogatory comments or name calling, and
it would not be appropriate to read that into the record.
And sometimes we receive communications that are very, very lengthy.
And if we were to spend the time to read all of these into the record, we wouldn't
be able to do our normal business.
So what I have told council members is that if they have individual communications, they
will each have the ability to share any communications to read into the record.
Then they are welcome to do so.
They might choose to read an entire communication into the record.
They might choose to read a portion of a communication into the record.
And they might also just choose to say, I received this many emails that were generally
saying this, and this many that were generally saying that, so the public has a sense of some
of these communications.
On that note, I am going to note that on a completely different issue, I received a
communication from a citizen who is not able to be here tonight.
And so he, in particular, asked me to communicate this to the public and really to our cities,
to our city.
And this is from Cody Sigmund, and he wrote that he believes it's fair for the citizens
of Athens to receive, and I quote, thoughtful, planful, road construction timing that supports
businesses and citizens rather than actively making things harder for them.
And two, proactive communication about in-progress road construction and its impacts, as well
as how they can access businesses impacted by the construction.
And I just note that Mr. Sigmund was concerned about numerous transportation and communications
issues, not just with the City of Athens, but with the Ohio Department of Transportation
with projects outside of the city limits and in the region in general.
So that sort of ask from him really goes out to many entities in the area.
Do other council members have any communications that they would like to share this evening?
Admiral McCary.
Thank you, President Crowell.
I am going to read one or at least a portion of one from Stephanie Hunter, a member of
the pedestrian accessibility and bicycle task force that the city has.
And I believe it's sufficient to say that this was a result of a motion and a discussion
and a vote by members of that task force to request assistance from the administration
for improved pedestrian safety regulations for Halloween.
And we may have some individuals here who end up speaking further to that, but I know
our administration is aware of that and will be in touch.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McCary.
Other members of council, any communications?
Seeing none, we now turn to reports and communications from other elected officials.
Mayor, anything to communicate this evening?
A couple of things.
I think everyone is well aware that as usual, when I say usual it wasn't necessarily the case in the past,
but neighborhood trick-or-treating is coming up.
it will be October 31st again this year, which is Halloween, which is when it should take place.
I will also mention that with the trick-or-treating, the city has put out numerous guidelines for how
to make it safe and effective and whatnot. We have the Near East neighborhood, we have the
Far East neighborhood, we have the South Side neighborhood, with the West Side neighborhood.
We have a lot of trick-or-treating that's taking place all over the place. I would encourage
parents with individuals under the age of 12 that need to be accompanied to make
sure that when individuals are trick-or-treating and transitioning from
one side of the street to the other to help make sure that they get across
safely, it takes a village to protect everyone. So encouraging everyone to do
that. On the point of announcements when it comes to the street closures and
what not it is timely so therefore I will mention that on October 24th between
the hours of 2 a.m. to 9 a.m. the Simpson Avenue bridge will be completely
shut down for that period of time to pour the second half of the concrete
decking which is great because once that's done and it's cured and the
crash rails go up that's concrete as well so that's work that has to take
place further on that street that we're looking at hopefully putting this project to bed you know
in the not too distant future and by that I mean this year that we will have Stimson Avenue bridge
back open again but to pour that decking the entire bridge does need to be shut down from
2 a.m to 9 a.m on the 24th of October so please plan accordingly in terms of being able to
come down the Stimson Avenue corridor if that's what you do take an alternative route take the rich
We all know how the city works and it's manageable, but again, since you brought up the issue of challenges
at times of getting the information out, one of the big challenges that I acknowledge first
and foremost is that it's difficult for any municipality to hit all the different ways
in which people consume their information. I would be remiss not to sit there and say,
We have two great products in the city of Athens you can use number one
You can use the Athens, Ohio CitySource app and get information that is provided to the city
But also alerts the website is another one, but the third one is Nixle
Nixle is a product that again is is easy to find easy to download. It's free as is the
the
Athens, Ohio CitySource app
That is free as well. You can find that at Google Play or
or the Apple App Store, and then the Nixle you can get at blanking on what the number is,
but we'll get it out. And for anyone who ever pays attention to my weekly update with the
Mayor and Kyle Johansson, who's my favorite weather reporter in the city of Athens, we
talk about those two products all the time. Those are ways in which you can keep yourself
self-informed as to what's happening when we're talking about street maintenance, road
closures, if they're necessary, and things of that type.
Thank you, President Cropel.
Thank you.
Mr. Townley, anything from the law director's office?
Nothing from the law director's office.
Thank you for being here.
Okay.
We will now move on to ordinances for third reading.
Ordinance 85-25 is an ordinance amending certain sections of the Athens City Code
Title IX, General Regulations, Chapter 9.12, Streets and Sidewalks, Section 9.12.18, Materials
on Street or Sidewalk, introduced by Council Member Spianus.
Thank you, President Crowell.
So this one has been talked about quite a bit.
This is the third reading, so this is where we make the decision.
And we've changed wording on this based on new ideas of how to make this easier.
So, I'm going to read the new sections, that's G, no dumpsters, moving pods or construction
trailers may be set on sidewalks or public streets without first being permitted by the
service safety director or their designee.
The fees for said permits shall be established by separate ordinance.
And then H, no temporary closure of any street alley or sidewalk may be allowed unless
permitted by the service safety director or their designee.
Any temporary closure requests shall include a pedestrian and vehicle maintenance of traffic plan
and follow the manual on uniform traffic control devices.
Sidewalks closed for extended periods must be appropriately barricaded and signed.
Alternate passageways may be required.
Special event street closures are not regulated by this section.
The fee for the temporary closure of any street alley or sidewalk per day shall be established by separate ordinance.
So I move that we pass this ordinance, this proposed ordinance.
Second.
We have a motion and a second for approval.
Are there any comments or questions here?
You're the only elected official here tonight, I guess.
Anything to comment or add?
Okay, audience members, anything to comment on this ordinance?
Seeing none, all those in favor signify by seeing aye.
Aye.
Opposed nay.
Motion carries and the ordinance is approved.
Ordinance 96-25 is an ordinance amending the 2025 appropriation ordinance 115-24
introduced by Councilman McCary. Thank you President Crowell. This is an item
that we've heard on multiple occasions annually from our partners with the
Athens County Public Libraries and it is a request. This is legislation
authorizing support for the Imagination Library project that will
benefit to children in our city. This would be at a price tag of $10,000 and it's coming
from our general fund. So I think it's important to recognize that our mayor has offered his
support for this despite the challenges that our budget faces and that this is an important
community value with an important impact. And I believe with that I would rest. Do
We need to hear from others first or okay a motion to adopt 96 dash 25 second. Thank you
We have a motion the second for approval any comments or questions on this ordinance
Yes, member would second Micah's motion for rest
You may any other comments or questions. Yes members like
Apologize my grand youngest granddaughter just got her most recent book. I left it on the kitchen table
But thank you for sorting the program and this is obviously one that I think all the members
of council stand firmly behind as well as the administration.
Mr. Mayor, anything to add?
Audience members, anything about this ordinance?
Please, Mr. Teppy.
Thanks for being here.
This time I am speaking as the Director of Athens County Public Library to extend
my thanks, particularly members Wank for your persistence in making sure that we
secure this funding.
this is a great benefit to the Imagination Library in Athens County and I appreciate it.
Thank you very much.
Okay, any other audience members?
Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.
Aye.
Opposed nay.
Motion carries and the ordinance is approved.
We now have ordinances for second reading.
I will read the title and then check to see if there are any comments or questions.
Ordinance 100-25 is an ordinance authorizing the Service Safety Director to enter into
a pre-annexation agreement with the Athens County Commissioners, introduced by Council
Member Swank.
Ordinance 101-25 is an ordinance authorizing the Service Safety Director to advertise
and accept bids where necessary and enter into contracts for construction of a new
water line along Jacob Street from Graham to Stony Brook, Project Number 386, introduced
introduced by Council Member Thomas.
Ordinance 103-25 is an ordinance establishing Title 29,
Housing Regulations, Chapter 29.37,
Unoccupied and Vacant Property Registration,
introduced by Council Member Swank.
Yes, Member Swank?
This is a wonderful proposal that's being advanced
from our Assistance Service Safety Director, Andrew Chicky.
and it's gotten to this point very quickly but in reading through this over
the weekend there's a section under exemptions that I have a bit of a
concern about. This is section 29.37.07 exemptions letter C and the way it
reads it says a property that is for sale enlisted with a licensed state of
Ohio realtor shall be exempted for a period of 12 months from the start of
vacancy, provided that the owner submits proof of such listing and for sale status.
As this is written, it would preclude a sale by owner from getting an exemption.
Now granted, there are some people that need a realtor to sell property, but there are
many others who do not.
And I'm just wondering if we need some wording along the lines of if someone is
selling it on their own with an approved sales plan.
A plan that will be approved by, I guess it's the code office
is excited throughout this, but it kind of forces people
into a real estate relationship.
And for every $100,000 of value, that's $6,000 more
they have to charge for the property
than they hope to net.
For example, if you had a $300,000 property
and you wanted to sell for $300,000,
If you listed it with a realtor, you'd have to list that for $318,000, which further drives
up the cost of housing in the city.
So I'd throw that out for your consideration if it's something that Council feels might
be in order, then we would need to amend Section C of this.
Thank you for that comment, Member Swank.
Like any additional comments on members' points, point about under exemptions, C.
Yes, members,
Bill?
Yeah, I hear your point.
I think this is one of those things, though, that could be, you know, as I've talked about
with Deputy Safety Director Chicky, that you could say, well, you know, this is
an exemption an exception because I want to do it this way instead I don't know
that we need to change the wording I guess I could ask our representative from
the law the law director's office if you feel that's necessary law
director and
we can get an opinion to council I'm
sure yeah my concern with that is if we
do that this will come up for third reading on November the 3rd and if
If we do amend it, that knocks it back to first reading, which means we wouldn't be
approving this until December.
And that's getting real tight to the end of the session.
And I think the Service Assistant, Service Safety Director, would like to have this in
place for the 2026, let's say school year, for the 2026 calendar year.
To your point, Member Spellness, I went through this looking for a place that that
could be covered and I couldn't find it in terms of general exemptions or I'm
thinking just for a property is for sale enlisted with the license stated
state of Ohio realtor or has an approved sales plan shall be exempted
something that simple.
I would think adding sub-language like that at the
end would probably cover just that there's an approved plan or the plan
has been filed with the Code Office? Yeah.
I know
the 3% and what that looks like when
you have a realtor working with you as opposed to them. That happens a lot in the city about
them so our individuals will be for sale by owner. So I think it's appropriate to put
that in there because it would capture all. And if it's a simple amendment like that
to keep this piece of legislation on track, I support it.
Remember Thomas, what you said, I think nailed it. Can you give us the verbiage for that?
I don't mean to put you on the spot, but what you said.
Yeah, we can, I think just adding to the end that a sale plan must be filed with the Code Office
to avoid or to be qualified for exemption.
A property that is for sale enlisted with a licensed state of Ohio realtor or has a
code office approved sales plan for sale by owner.
So I would move the section C reads, a property that is for sale enlisted with a licensed
sales, licensed state of Ohio realtor, or has an approved sale by an approved plan for
the code office for sale by owner. Be exempted for a period of 12 months for the rest of
that.
Changing it is the garbage sale plan defined term.
I've never heard of that before.
Retail sales business. Obviously.
This is my concern is what the code office would recommend in terms of the language
for this inclusion.
Maybe I'll ask the city administration again.
Yes, we would like this
legislation to be approved on a regular schedule. Is there something timely that would cause
a problem if this was not January 1st, 2026? I'm wondering just how we should make this
amendment, whether we should talk to the code office, talk to Mr. Chicky, and find out what
his intention is, or we should make this amendment here on the CSA, which may have to be amended
again.
Member Spelz.
Okay.
If we just said a property that is for sale shall
be exempted for a period of 12 months
from the start of vacancy, provided that the owner submits proof of listing and
for sale status. Then they can have to do it either way.
That's right. That nails it.
I'm curious as to why Mr. Chicky included a licensed state of Ohio realtor and I'm
guessing he had a reason for that, but I'm comfortable with this language and
proposed there. Lately because Director Chicky is pulling this from what
municipalities doing, and it's probably language that was in there. Tell us more about this.
I like the language you just put forward. It captures all. You know, if someone is selling
the house, whether it's through a re-letter or by sale from owner.
Right. I think if we just do that, we're done.
So we would, so I would withdraw that original motion.
And make it read, a property that is for sale shall be exempted for a period of 12 months
from the start of vacancy, provided that the owner submits proof of such listing and for
sale status. What we're basically doing is crossing out and listed with the licensed
state of Ohio realtor. Yes. But that sparks one question, at least for me. If we remove
the part and I'm totally in favor of deleting the part that says listed with
a license state of Ohio realtor but then the later wording of such listing
doesn't make sense so that maybe need a little word spitting. A sale by owner can
it be listing? Yeah. Yes it's a listing. And even if you're doing for sale by
owner you probably have it on Facebook or something. There's all
kinds of options there, but that's part of making it plan.
OK, we have a motion to amend this ordinance by striking the language that the clerk, I'm
certain, has recorded.
Is there a second for that amendment?
Second.
We have a motion and a second.
Any discussion on the amendment on the table?
Are there any dead?
Audience, anything to add on this amendment?
I guess 34 West Washington.
I'm just wondering what the state of Ohio realtor has to do with it.
Are there specific extra taxes or funds or fees?
Maybe that is something where they don't want people from out of people in Florida buying
up a whole bunch of properties here.
It has to be listed with the local somebody related to the community because there is
a lot of instances that I've, you know, heard of where people out of the country, people
out of the city, people out of the state are buying up lots and lots of property and doing
developments and things like that without, you know, the community's involvement. So
maybe that's something that...
Thank you for that point.
I wouldn't make any difference.
Any other comments or questions? All those in favor of amending this ordinance signified
by saying aye.
Aye.
The ordinance has been amended and read for the first time.
Ordinance 104-25 is an ordinance amending Title 29, Housing Regulations Chapter 29.37, Definitions
introduced by Council Member Swank.
Ordinance 105-25 is an ordinance amending App in City Code Title 1, General provisions
Chapter 1.03, Code Fees Established.
to include section 29.37.06 introduced by Council Member Swank.
Member Swank?
The second thing that I came across was section 29.37.06 fees.
And what I can't get my head around is why the fees for vacant commercial properties are double what they are for residential properties.
And as an example, I will use my colleague to my left, Member Wood.
If his house set vacant, the first year would cost him $300.
If his record store set empty, it would cost him $600.
Why double the price for businesses?
Member Stonis?
I think this is based on, as the Mayor pointed out, what you see in other communities.
And I know I ran this by the West Side Community Association.
They said, oh, I don't think those fees are high enough.
So I don't see a problem with having residential be lower than commercial.
I mean, it's a money-making business.
That's different than you're trying to deal with your own home.
I'm sorry?
I didn't promise to give them a say.
Please.
Yeah, I would say the same thing as what Membership Illness was saying.
and also that generally a commercial property it might be larger and it's
going to have higher rents, maybe just keeping it more tied to to that commercial
stuff generally goes has higher fees, higher penalties, rent, everything.
I just can't justify it. I mean I don't know what the
economic philosophical reasoning for it is and I could use because not
to use your property, because he's sitting next to me, but the same thing. Your business
would pay double what your home does. And I just, there's no logic to it in my mind.
Please.
I can kind of understand that, but I can also say that looking around town we have commercial
properties that sit empty for long periods of time, a rent that's just outrageous.
And it prohibits people from opening a business. You know, we have more people
People come to town when people think the city is anti-business, landlords are anti-business
and happens.
It costs way more money to rent here than a lot of other places in comparison to the
number of months you have or business available.
So if there's a way to motivate them to have a reasonable rent that makes sense for
a business plan versus letting it sit empty just because they own the property and it's
no loss to them, I think a higher fee is going to motivate them a little bit
more.
Member Wood.
Yeah, I think, to that point, my record store makes more money than my house, luckily.
Glad to hear that.
Not much.
And so, yeah, there's more urgency around it.
I think the survey brought up the example of the bait shop a couple of times.
It's been empty forever.
The community cost is higher.
and I think that it just makes sense. Also, there's a higher demand for residential property
than businesses, so there's less of a sort of, if my landlord decided to leave my building
empty, that would be less harmful to them or less likely than them leaving the apartments
upstairs empty because there's way more demand for them so people are going to
fill them anyway.
I think another point to this is it's not just about the value
of the property and the taxes or whatever it's also commercial and
industrial property translates into jobs and we want more jobs as well as for
you know the business and the residential.
I guess I would have a question for our
acting law director this evening.
Granted, there are two different classes of property.
One's residential, and one is commercial.
From your experience, and you may not know the answer to this
today, but in the eyes of the law,
and this was brought to me by a couple of business owners,
full transparency.
In the eyes of the law, would this
be a discriminatory practice?
As long as the government and council
can provide a rational basis such as what council member Thomas did. You can justify under the
rational basis test then for instance keeping the businesses open you know promoting those
and what members illness said I think you could justify it. Okay thank you.
Any other
106-25, an ordinance establishing a do not knock registration program through the Northeast
Ohio Public Energy Council introduced by Council Member Swank.
Ordinance 107-25 is an ordinance amending Athens City Code Title 11, business regulations
Chapter 11.04, vending, peddling and soliciting, Section 11.04.17, trespassing of peddlers
or solicitors introduced by Council Member Swank.
Ordinance 110-25 is an ordinance establishing a cybersecurity policy for the city of Athens,
introduced by all members of council.
Okay, we now move on to ordinances for first reading.
Ordinance 112-25 is an ordinance amending Athens City Code Title 23 Zoning, Chapter 23.04,
four permitted uses to allow temporary shelters as a permitted use in an R3 residential zone
at 1, 5 and 7 North Congress Street, introduced by Council Member Swank.
You know, bear with me one second, a lot to scroll through here to get to 1-12.
Cybersecurity policy is pretty long.
Okay.
Let me read the meat of this.
This is A, principal permitted uses, temporary housing, shelters, one, five, and seven, Congress
should be in North Congress Street.
Anyway, Congress Street, commonly known as the gathering place and known by Athens Mental
Health Incorporated, housing structures of a temporary nature that are not affixed
to the property and that do not contain kitchen or bathroom facilities.
Biennial review, the use must be formally reviewed and renewed every two years by
the Service Safety Director, Infrastructure Limitation, no more than three temporary housing
shelters may be installed per available sink and toilet located within 200 feet of the shelters.
This approval may be revoked at any time by the Service Safety Director for serious safety
or sanitation concerns.
This approval shall cease upon transfer of the property to different ownership.
Last month, we asked for a legal opinion from the law director about this, in reference
to this recommendation from the Planning Commission and a subsequent recommendation from the Planning
Commission and the differences in requirements.
In reading this, because this is a pilot project, and it has been called a pilot project
by the director of the gathering place, I would be a little more comfortable if we
changed the review from every two years to one year.
This is a pilot, one year, and that would address one of the issues that the law director
brought up in terms of what might happen if the two approvals, assuming both do get
approved, had different criteria.
The two things she brought up is one, this could be considered spot zoning and be taken
to court or it could be differential treatment and a possible citizen initiative.
I would like to kind of head that possibility off or those possibilities off and again
if we approve both of these to make them consistent in their review and be simply
changing one thing from biennial every two years to one year particularly because
it's a pilot project. Throw that out for the consideration of members of council.
Members Billness. Okay, so it's my understanding just before we get a
conversation further with this. It's my understanding that because the Planning
Commission already approved the language as is that if we want to make any
changes we have to have supermajority. Supermajority. Yeah. Right? So six out
of seven, right? That's correct. Okay, so just so everybody knows that.
Thank
Thank you. Any other comments from City Council?
Member Swank?
Member Wood?
It does seem like we should change 7 Congress
in the two places to 7 North
Congress as those are
different places.
And that seems minor
enough, but I think it's
clerical.
Thank you, Member Wood. Member Swank?
Just something to add, Member Swank?
Oh, yes, to that end.
And one of the reasons that we're doing this tonight
as opposed to two weeks ago give opportunity for member Reisner to return to his rightful
seat there almost 12 years now to be a participating member in such a vote.
I flew back from Bangkok just for this vote.
So with that said, I would move that we change by annual review to annual review.
The use must be formally reviewed and renewed every year by the Service Safety Director.
I'll second it.
We have a motion and a second to amend this ordinance by changing biennial review to annual review.
Any additional comments or questions from City Council members on the amendment?
City Administration, I need to add on the amendment proposed.
Clerk of Council, is that an administrative change from two to one?
Thank you, Mayor. Anybody in the public would like to speak to this? Please.
Mr. Stoffer,
just so you know, this is about the amendment on the table. So this is about changing from
two to one year. We'll get to the next point in just a minute. Please stay with us. Thank
you. On the amendment, anyone? Okay. All those in favor of amending the ordinance
from biannual to annual.
Yes, that's a good signify by saying aye.
Aye.
All those opposed say nay.
Remember, Swank, the ordinance has been amended.
It has been read for the first time,
and we're now back to...
City council, none from the mayor. Anything additional? And now to the public. Mr. Stoffer, if you'd like to join us, please.
I actually wanted to add something.
Okay, that was why I asked.
Yes, I guess I did.
That's okay. Members, please.
I'm way down here.
I see you.
I just wanted to add, in addition to the comments being made earlier about this, I wanted to add that Carrie Pigman,
Again, the Executive Director of Athens County Foundation again wrote a support letter confirming
her appreciation and confidence in the gathering place and I'll quote, this project is a thoughtful
and practical step towards addressing the housing crisis in Athens.
It will provide safety and dignity for individuals who are already part of our community and
already served daily at the gathering place.
The project has been carefully designed with input from local partners and with
safeguards in place to ensure community confidence. I also wanted to emphasize that there was a
repeated discussion about safety and I just want to say and pardon me for repeating this again,
but I was a social work professor at Ohio University. My students volunteered at the
gathering place for the entire time that I was working at OU for 13 years and many of
them worked as volunteers, and some went on to work there. Also, both my sons, who are
now past that age, they volunteered at the gathering place, and one of my sons worked
there a total of four and a half years. So I got to know the various staff members,
how things operate, how it functions, and I heard the stories from my son who worked
there for four and a half years. So I have probably a better understanding than anybody
on council anyway about the intimate workings of the gathering place and I want to say emphatically
that all that time, and now it's been 17 years since I've been in the city, I have
never heard of any volunteer or anybody in my family or when I've been there that
It has had any violence issues or felt unsafe or assaulted or anything of the kind.
And I want to emphasize again that people who are unhoused, especially those people
who have mental illness, are much more likely to be the victim of crime than the perpetrator
of crime.
And as someone pointed out earlier, students are probably, women students are probably
more in danger of the male students in college than the people who are unhoused in our community.
So I think it's really important that we take some solid steps to help folks.
So I am very much in favor of this.
Thank you.
Thank you, Member Spellness.
And I'll just say that we received, as I mentioned during the public hearing, numerous communications
both in support and against this initiative.
And I personally won't be reading all of these communications into the record.
They are public documents. Once they are received by City Council,
they're part of the public record.
So they are available through Freedom of Information Act
or anybody who would like to collect that.
But that is all I have. Anything additional from City Council?
Okay. Mr. Stauffer, sorry for the delay. Your turn.
Before I step in for the timer starts,
I've watched a lot of City Council meetings.
I've missed a lot of City Council meetings.
I know, Dan Goodinwell, that I've watched the President of Council read letters to the Council, to the public, to the TV.
All the folks that I communicated with, I said, send your letters to the clerk of council
and they will be read into the record because I've seen it happen before.
It did not happen tonight.
All the folks that I contacted, they're in my camp who's laying up there.
They didn't get read into the record.
I don't think it's fair.
I want to say that and now I will address the council.
Jack
Stoffer Elmwood.
Please listen with an open heart and mind and consider a
common-sense decision. This is about Athens, its citizens of all stripes, the
working folks, the business folks, the OU students, their parents, our children, and
visitors to our town, including the homeless. No one I've been working with
or talking with doubts that the gathering place has been providing a
needed service to some folks who needed guidance. That is not the point of this
hearing. The point is there needs to be a common-sense approach to your
consideration and decision for our town. My proposal seems to make sense. Please
Please listen closely and ponder the possibilities.
No huts on Congress Street.
There are many locations in town that could accommodate these three huts only in town
for one year or until the Sunset Motel opens and then the huts go away.
Your proposed needs at the gathering place continue to be provided to the unfortunate and we enjoy our downtown area as it now exists.
I've spoken to the mayor and several council members and I have suggested alternative sites that would be out of public view and give some sense of privacy to the folks in the huts which they may appreciate.
The
fairground seems to be a logical possibility.
I'm sure there are several or many possibilities on city property in green spaces or corners
of parking lots that could provide privacy for these folks.
If you choose to insist on Congress Street, then this appears that your intention is
a political statement or a political stunt. Athens invites other homeless downtown. That's
what it looks like. We can't solve homelessness in Ohio, but maybe with your thoughtful consideration
we can help the needy in Athens City and Athens County. Let our sweet little town remain
our sweet little town. You don't have to put the homeless on display on Congress
Street unless that is your point and intention. Table this and give it
further thorough consideration. Please let common sense and reason prevail. I will
also reiterate the fact of what Mr. Slank made that Ms. Eliason gave you some
advice and at least one member said, well, that's just an opinion. Most people that hire
a lawyer follow their advice and when they don't follow their advice, things don't go
their way and this indeed could be challenged.
I just want to reiterate the fact and things that were echoed by members of council, like
councilwoman Spelanus of, you know, it's this proposed site at the gathering place.
There's cameras everywhere.
It is a perfect spot for this program because immediate access to services is extremely important.
Shoving people somewhere, you know, I lived under the roundabout bridge and, you know,
until they put Porta John's up in the dairy barn, like the Dairy Lane Park, you know,
it was quite a trek to be able to find any sort of a facility.
And, you know, access to facilities is very, very important, and access to services is
very important.
But also, as far as safety, you know, the place is monitored 24-7.
I just want to quickly read what I posted on Facebook as a response to some of the
misinformation that's going around.
And I can be found on Facebook, you know, I'm not trying to hide.
As always, if anyone has any questions whatsoever, please reach out to me or better yet, come
over to the gathering place any time during their operating hours and see for yourself
what this wonderful and essential part of our community for almost 50 years is all about.
I volunteered there when I was in high school and I am still playing the same piano there
today.
It's in the same spot.
It's awesome.
There is no place for the sensationalism, fear mongering and misinformation that is being
spread about this project, or this amazing organization that has done and continues to
do so much for the Athens community, period.
Thank you.
Anyone else like to speak to this?
Aaron Thomas, 28 A-bomb Place.
So I really only came to listen in on Eric and what's going on and follow the council
mean all the readings on this for the past few months, reading all the good information and
misinformation on Facebook and other social pages. And I come here wearing a multiple hats as a
community member, as a business owner, as a member of the board, as owner of appeals. So
this opinion is my personal opinion. I, three houses is better than no houses. You know,
So I'm very disappointed in some of the people that believe addiction is the reason for people
homelessness.
I've had family members and friends who have been homeless and not been addicted to drugs.
So I'm disappointed when people say, you know, that people live in these houses would
be drug addicts or recovering addicts.
So that as a community aspect.
Now on the other side of it, a lot of support has come from this and I love
to support from the county, but one of these things I feel sometimes people show support
for things that's not in their backyards, you know, and it's one of these things, oh
yeah, this is great, long as you don't put it in my backyard.
So when I hear people speaking outside the county, outside the city, I support that,
I support the opinion, but you know, put yourself in that situation, can this happen
in your backyard?
Which takes me to my final, as a member of the Board of Zoning of Appeals, and
And I think if this do get passed, the law really needs to be very tight, because before
I was a member of the Board of Zones Appeals, CIDA-Baptons lost a few hundred thousand dollars
to a court case.
As a member of Zones Appeals, we have dealt with the BNV problem at Athens for a decade
to three, three and a half years ago when City Council finally passed resolution that
that didn't come to our desk as the BZA on the BNB, which you all can read the statements
and we still have people coming in about BNBs, which we did have a lawsuit against us last
year that was dropped over a BNB.
So this is something looking at all aspect as a community member, as a business owner,
as somebody, a part of the city, I have volunteered my time for the last 20 years
to make sure Athens stays a community and my whole thing is that once again I
respect people's opinions but you know once again could this be in your
backyard and will you allow this to be in your backyard. I commend the ladies that
came up and spoke from Congress and Hyde because this is in their backyard. I
live on a far east side it's not in my backyard but I have been through sales
parking I have seen the encampments I have rode my bike down the bike path
homeless you cannot hide it I'm sorry it's here you can't hide it you can't
help temporary with the three housing what was going on on Columbus road but
I'm just looking at all aspects and I want you all look at that as as a board
as a council member from the legal side ends a community side so we don't
have a repeat of what happened ten years ago for those who've been around
long enough thank you thank you
any additional comments from the public
on this ordinance, please.
I am a member.
I do live on North Congress Street, not right next door to them,
but I've been a North Congress Street resident for 35 years.
The only time I've had any problems with anybody has been students.
And even one year, many years ago,
one of my house guests was here for Halloween.
She went back to the house just three blocks from downtown.
and the streets were crowded with people and when I walked by the time I got
home she was running down the middle of the street. Somebody had
followed her home stalked her they arranged three exits out of my house
right up here on North Conga Street and it was a student. I mean fortunately my
friend she was a tenant and then in the Navy she was able to take care of
herself and this guy put his tail between his legs and ran down the
street, but there's 200 people.
But again, to reiterate, I have never, ever, and I've worked with crisis intervention. I've
been a survivor advocate. I used to run the crisis, you know, programs at the hot lines
and things at Fright County Mental Health. I've been a survivor advocate, off and on
for years. You know, it is not, it is not the homeless people that we have to worry
about. And that's why I just encourage you all to support this effort. I've worked
to the gathering place off and on for years, and it's only been good things. And everything
I've read, they have this set up, and it's not going to be a problem. And it's certainly
not going to be an eyesore, and there's going to be security. And I just think this is what
we need. So thank you very much.
Thank you.
Any additional comments from the public on this ordinance?
No, this is the
first reading, so there'll be second reading and third reading. Come on back.
Tonight's
It's happy when I was speaking as a private citizen.
I wanted to just briefly touch on a couple of the things that were raised earlier.
The primary reason why the location that has been selected makes sense is because services
are available there.
A gentleman earlier suggests the public library parking lot is an option.
If I was able to pay my staff to be available in the way that the gathering place folks
are available, sure, but I can't.
Talking about in my backyard, I'd be more than happy to have the Conestoga Hut
to my backyard.
If I was able to provide 24-7 services, I can't.
Part of the reason for this to be located where it is is the services that are available.
I would like to see there be more opportunities like this at other places where services are available.
But this is something that we can act on right now that will make the situation at least a little bit better
and provide people with a path forward out of the situation they're living in.
Thank you.
I'm just listening to all the different themes.
And most of the themes I'm really hearing is there's this fear, they're fearful of these
kinds of houses there, but no one's saying what they're fearful of, what are they fearful
of?
Are they afraid that someone's going to jump out and rape them?
I mean, because you just need to say it, that's the case, because what are you afraid
of?
I do know that I am always shocked when I put on the cameras on weekends, like what's going on in the neighborhoods.
And I know a lot of landlords encouraged their tenants to maybe feel a certain way.
But I guess what I'm seeing is, so what's been said is, who's supervising them, who's monitoring them?
So my question is, who is monitoring supervising students?
Because we're monitoring them, and it is shocking what one might see.
You know, if we want to talk about drug tests and drinking and crowded and people having open fires,
that's what you can see on high and on North Congress.
I'm, you know, I'm more fearful for our property damage, which whenever there's no property damage,
I want to say they're a student, they're a person that would be a student age.
So I just think that's something we should all really think about,
the majority of damage that happens in our town, the urination, throwing up, I know when
I walked down Court Street early, that's what I'm seeing, I'm seeing a lot of vomit.
So I just think, we should think about, because we're talking about, is that people are not
going to be in the gathering place drinking or doing drugs, that people come there to
be sober. And they've been fixating on addict, addict, addict. And it's like, that's, people
are in recovery. And that is not the majority of what we serve. And the got-in place started
50 years ago serving those individuals that were former patients for mental health and
community members. And that's what we are. We are a community. We are a social community.
And I just, I just really need help. People can put aside their fears. We've made friends
with our neighbors, because sometimes our residents at our recovery house, you know, they're seeing
all this going on. We go and we talk about what we are and then you see the change in
our students. We have so many students that want to help build now. So I just think that
everyone should hear that that's also a big side of this. Thanks.
Thank you.
Anyone else like to address Council on this ordinance?
Okay. Thank you very much
for your comments. Um, we are now moving on to 113. Ordnance 113 dash 25 is an ordinance
rezoning portions of North Lancaster Street, Second Street, Columbia Avenue and Columbus
Road from Zones R1 and B2D to Zones R2, B1 and B2. Introduced by council members
first one. Oh, that was quick. Didn't have to ask for it.
Commission made up of the mayor,
the A&M Service Director, Chris and Isley, former President of the City Council, who
have gotten Allie Lee Wrapped, a realtor here in town, and there's one more person.
Who am I forgetting, Mr. Mayor? The Chair. John Katowski. That's right, John Katowski,
former planner for high university. Some discussion about rezoning this area. What is this? This is
12 Lancaster Street or Lancaster 2nd Street. There's a little antique shop right here on the corner.
You go on, continue on through. You've got Columbus Road and out of town.
Rezoning this entire area to make it more walkable, hopefully to encourage businesses
and it makes some rhyme or reason out of what we have here.
The Planning Commission's recommendation was to zone all of this as you see it.
This is a cemetery, that's what OS is.
The various zones, R2B2B1.
And on this side, this entire area from the corner returns into Columbia,
except for those two properties to R2.
We had several meetings, lots of people turned out.
We had a meeting last week some residents came and met with me behind this area
We had discussion we talked to the city planners and what this represents is the to
the Planning Commission's recommendation
Do all of this?
But leave this as it is r1 all these properties and those two would stay as
The b2
B1, I'm sorry, B1, the pink is B1.
What this does, it gives us further time, further time to look into this, particularly
how these buildings could be used, but also the environmental,
and all of you have been
right here long enough to know, we've lost a house on a cliff, not too far from here.
The other thing this does, it allows us to proceed with the leasing of the fire
station, and we need to get that taken care of as soon as possible, get some tenants
tenants or a tenant in there make use of that property.
So what I am proposing today is amending the Planning Commission's recommendation, accept
all of this, modify this to leave it the way it is until we can take a further and deeper
look at it.
Offer that in the form of a motion, Mr. President.
So I'm unclear if we would just exchange out for that.
Yeah, we don't need a motion to amend the Planning Commission's recommendation. The ordinance itself is this map
Is that correct? It's clear. It's still it's still an amendment. It's still it is a meant an amendment
Okay
So I've been corrected. This does come forward as an amendment
Or as a as part of this ordinance
We are amending the Planning Commission's matter.
City Council, any comments or questions on the amendment
that Member Swank has proposed?
Thank you.
We have an amendment and a second.
Yes, members of the audience?
Based on the comments I've heard from people who have been very engaged with this
and talking to people on the west side where I represent
and other folks, I feel as though this change,
change. This amendment is just what we need to do because there was a lot of concerns and
almost all of it basically was that portion. And I think there was some good reasons for
being concerned about that portion remaining as it is until maybe down the road we can
figure out if that's the best way to go. But I think there's been a lot of good
input and that this will make the residents happy. So, thank you.
any other comments or questions on this. May or anything to add?
I would like to
first start by saying that the Planning Commission meeting as we discussed as
you had indicated the R2 possibility along Lancaster slash Columbia and I
I want to commend someone who's here tonight, who came to those meetings and suggested they're being
small group to really look more closely at the suggested changes that we were proposing through
the Planning Commission. And that would be former Council Member Michelle Pappy and many others
who were there as well. But the communications had been outstanding in terms of treating this
as another opportunity to engage with our citizens on a level of importance, such as this, because
this would create, in theory, if you looked at what the map showed with the B2 and the B1,
as well as now having this removed, I should have said, should have said on the front end,
Councilmember Swank that I'm supportive of retaining that southeast, whatever direction that is,
of Lancaster and Columbia as it sits now. This opens the opportunity for there to be
kind of a small neighborhood commerce area. There's already, you know, a couple businesses
This is that are in there that are basically non-compliant with what the current zoning
is in this area, but I think it was very fruitful for everyone to come together and figure out
how to best solve this interesting re-zoning of an area.
I could see this being a model moving forward and looking at other such locations.
I would it was referenced earlier tonight and that was Frank's bait shop. I think it would be
wonderful in the future to see commerce down on the west side along Central Avenue because it used
to exist in that part of the city where Washington Street, State Street and Schaefer was its own
walkable little community when it came to getting the provisions that you needed. When we're
sitting there striving as hard as we are to reduce our carbon footprint. When we're
striving as hard as we are to make our city more engaging, welcoming and accessible, something
like this is perfect for that being a starting point to rethink how things should or could
be in the city of Athens. So short of that is that suggested amendment I feel is in
alignment with what the Planning Commission initially brought forward and is quite acceptable
moving forward.
Thank you, Mayor.
Just one quick comment.
Yes, please.
Before we vote, I have to be full disclosure.
If this passes, this is your award.
You take it from here.
Gee, thanks, Alan.
Members of the public, anything to add on this proposed amendment on the table?
I think we would be remiss if we didn't thank Megan Jennings, our planner for
for the really hard work she did
to bring this to the community
and have some conversation and lead the discussion.
I thought that was really a model
for how things ought to be in the future.
So thanks to Megan.
Thank you, Mayor Spelz.
Okay, all those in favor of this amendment
signify by saying aye.
Aye.
Opposed nay.
Member Swank, the ordinance has been amended
and read for the first time.
Ordinance 114-25 is an ordinance amending
the 2025 appropriation ordinance 115-24.
or introduced by Councilor McCary.
Thank you, President Crowell.
This has been discussed at committee
and is a $35,000 expense to replace the controls
for our HVAC at the community center.
Thank you.
Any comments or questions from council members?
City administration, HVAC, members of the public.
Thank you.
That has been read for the first time.
Ordinance 115-25 is an ordinance declaring property located at 25 Central Avenue, no longer
needed for a municipal purpose, and authorizing the mayor to sell said property to another
political subdivision introduced by Councilman McCary.
Thank you, President Crowell.
I'll begin since you already said a great deal of important information with Section
3.
The purchase agreement shall include as part of the sale of the following.
should Athens Metropolitan Housing Authority its successors or assigns wish
to sell the property the city of Athens shall have the right to first refusal for
purchase at fair market value. Section 4 reads upon completion of the sale the
city auditor is hereby directed to receipt the proceeds from the sale of the
property.
to be used for an eligible CDBG activity.
Thank you, Mayor McCary. Any comments or questions on this ordinance from city council members?
Members, Mike?
Member McCary, have we had the fair market value?
Do we have it yet? Has there been an appraisal?
I have not received a final figure.
President Crowley, do you?
The service safety director had mentioned getting that appraisal,
but I'm not sure it's been done yet. Mayor, do you have any information?
Okay, so we should have it by two weeks for the second reading. I believe that's accurate. Okay, great. Thank you
Any other comments or questions on this ordinance?
Mayor, anything to add? Members of the public?
Okay, moving on.
Ordinance 116-25 is an ordinance declaring property located at 458 Richland Avenue.
no longer needed for a municipal purpose and authorizing the mayor to sell said
property to another political subdivision introduced by councilmember McCarrick.
Thank you President Crowell this is very similar to the ordinance we just reviewed
so I'll jump down to section 3 and indicate that once again this would be
for the Athens Metropolitan Housing Authority and section 4 reads that
upon completion of the sale the city auditor is hereby directed to receive
the proceeds from the sale of the property into the general fund 101
and appropriating from the unappropriated balance,
the sum of $144,160 to general fund 101 slash 120
for transfer and increasing the total appropriations
by set amount.
So again, there, the total price would be $144,160.
Thank you, Mr. McCary.
Council, any comments or questions on this ordinance?
May I add members of the public?
Thank you.
116.25 has been read for the first time.
Ordinance 117-25 is an ordinance authorizing the disposal of equipment no longer needed for a municipal purpose,
introduced by Council Member Thomas.
Thank you.
The title pretty much says it all.
We talked about it last week.
This is for the government channel to dispose of three tricaster systems used for broadcasting,
One of which has already been replaced and just see what they can get for it to put towards a backup.
Thank you, member Thomas. Any questions or comments on this ordinance from City Council members?
Mayor, members of the public. Seeing none, we now move on to announcements and other business.
May have a motion to accept the September 2025 financial reports.
We have a motion and a second. Any comments or questions on those reports?
All those in favor, signify by saying aye. I pose nay.
The reports are accepted. May I have a motion to accept the August
2025 credit card transactions? A motion and a second. Any discussion?
All those in favor, signify by saying aye. I pose nay.
2025 credit card transactions for August are accepted.
We now have an opportunity for citizens to –
A couple announcements.
Oh, yes, sure, please.
Now we have other announcements in other business.
Members rank.
A couple of notices of public hearing.
I'll read the first one.
Athens City Council will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. on Monday, November 3, 2025, in
the council chambers on the third floor of the city building.
This public hearing is to consider a recommendation from the Athens City Planning Commission
to amend Athens City zoning code section 23.04.03 permitted uses in our three residential zone
multifamily and 23.0407 B3 general business zone to permit temporary housing shelters as
a conditionally permitted use. The full text of the recommendation is available by contacting
DeWalker at ciatans.oh.us.
So that's the first public hearing and that's the R3B3 zoning request that we spoke earlier
in connection with the one we did up on Congress Street.
Second notice of public hearing.
At the City Council, we'll hold a public hearing at 7pm on Monday, November 17th,
2025 in the council chambers on the third floor of the city building.
The public hearing is to consider a recommendation from the Planning Commission, case 2506, proposing
zone changes for properties along North Lancaster Street, 2nd Street, Columbia Avenue, and
Columbus Road, basically what we talked about up here.
This hearing will take place before any final consideration of council on whether
we should pass it, amend it, or not pass it.
Thank you, President Crow.
Thank you, Member Swank. Any other business or announcements from City Council members?
Mayor, anything? Okay. We now have an opportunity for citizens to speak on legislative items
and city services that were not covered on tonight's agenda. Mr. Gluck, please.
My name is Rob Delich. I live here in Athens, City of Athens at 124 Morris Avenue.
I serve on the City Council Created Pedestrian Accessibility and Bicycle Task Force, which
was referenced earlier by Michael McCary, Member McCary.
We passed a motion at our last meeting to send a letter to the City and the Council,
which I will read just part of because I don't want to take any more time than I
have to here.
It's been a long meeting because we feel strongly about this issue, about safety
in this case children in our city.
So dear deputy city service safety director,
city council president and council
and the other city administration.
Halloween is the most dangerous night in the country
for children pedestrians due to it being one of,
if not the only night we as an American society
encourage children to walk around their neighborhoods
in any number.
This danger they face is not poison apples,
vehicles, it is car traffic. Even when children stay on sidewalks perfectly, they must at some
point cross the street. This puts them in direct conflict with vehicles. When traffic
as usual is allowed during such an event, during dusk, children can too easily become
statistics. In the Near East and Far East Side neighborhoods specifically, children
and parent participants in trick-or-treat numbers number in the thousands, far exceeding
the sidewalk's capacity to hold them, meaning that children and parents often spill into
the street outside of intersections. Additionally, exciting young children can easily be separated
from their adults on the overcrowded sidewalk, leading to further safety issues. And no
child can be expected to act perfectly, especially not during such an exciting time.
This is compounded this year by the fact that the trick-or-treat Halloween Eve falls
calls on OU-DAD's weekend, which will flood the town with drivers unfamiliar with our
neighborhoods and roads.
Physical safety measures taken by the City of Athens to curtail excess traffic from the
neighborhoods would not only help keep everyone out of danger, but allow it to bloom into
its full potential as a beloved Athens tradition.
Therefore, the Pedestrian Accessibility and Bicycle Task Force by unanimous motion
is formally requesting the following safety measures, and I will mention two items
briefly.
for the city to place saw horses or barriers with signs bearing the legend local traffic only at the main intersections to the neary side neighborhood and far east side neighborhoods.
For city police officers at those intersections to man those intersections to help alert people to take caution if they do enter the neighborhood, go around the barrier and enter the neighborhood and drive carefully.
Those are the two things I want to mention in particular.
The task force feels that these measures described above are minimally invasive to those traveling
in the city while ensuring the safety and comfort of all those participating in trick-or-treat
this year.
We look forward to the city's continued care and investment in the safety and traditions
of us all.
Sincerely, Stephanie Hunter, Rob Delich, Rory Brennan, Wolfgang Soetzel, Michelle
Hahn, George Turner, pedestrian accessibility and bicycle task force.
So two points I want to make in addition to this is OU Dad's weekend is not something just thrown in here.
I personally was hit by a pickup truck driven by an OU Dad three years ago almost to the day of this event
and had injuries that took a long time to recover from.
And the court settlement still not even happened years later.
It was an OU dad that, exactly like described here, didn't know where he was going and made
a rapid change in direction unexpectedly.
That's the kind of stuff we can expect that complicates trick or treating this year.
The other thing I want to mention is that this letter is written and sent to the
above mentioned because in the last two years we've sent an email to the city administration
asking to do something, just leaving it up to the administration to figure out
something to do, and neither time have we received a response in any form. So
received is all we got basically both times. Never did the city administration
respond to the task force saying we're not doing anything or we're doing
something, no response. That's why I'm here tonight and that's why the
Commission did what it, the task force did what it did.
Thank you. We appreciate your comments. Appreciate it.
Any other comments from the public?
Aaron, Thomas, 28, Avon Place.
Oh, already?
Got you.
So just sitting here tonight and over the, I mean,
over the past few years has been a conversation
about affordable housing in Athens.
And I want to, you know, request that the city
and the city council start working with the state
as they're trying to pass legislation for property tax relief.
We talked about the unhoused, the homeless, and a lot of people in Athens on the fixed
incomes are just two paychecks away from being homeless and losing their homes.
We talked about the cost of housing in Athens, and there's a reason why the cost of housing
in Athens is so expensive.
Any time the property taxes go up in Athens, it's going to roll down to the renter,
it's going to roll down to the business owner.
When you look at the average cost of housing in Athens, you know, non-student or just any
housing, it's $1,400.
It was a house in my neighborhood rent for $1,800 a month.
Business locations are written for $5,000 to $10,000 a month here in Athens, Ohio.
There's a reason.
If a person is paying $15,000 for their building, they're not going to eat that.
If a person is paying $6,000 on their home that they're renting out, that they still have
a mortgage on, that they're using it as some way to get passive income, they're going
to pass it on to the renter.
So my whole thing that I have been looking at over the past year with everything going
on to stay houses, hopefully the applicants can look at that, because I see a lot of
people in my neighborhood that are retired.
And my biggest fear is, did they fix income raised with the cost of property taxes
and inflation?
And one thing people look at when these levies do pass, it's $100 per $100,000.
Well, if a house is selling far east side for $400,000, that means everything else around that house is going to go up in property taxes.
Which leaves that person who may already own a house that's retired stuck with paying rent on a house their own.
My whole thing is that we talk about the people that are unhoused now.
What about the retiring community in our area that potentially can be unhoused if they can't
afford to pay $6,000 to $8,000 in property tax on a house that they currently own?
So I would encourage the city to look at what's going on at the state and look at is it going
to be some opportunities that can help our region, our city, our county, the people
that's here because my goal is to retire here in Athens but can I afford to pay $10,000
dollars on the house that I hopefully will own here in 10 to 15 years, what would that
be at?
So I encourage you all to keep that on your radar and hopefully get something going here
with the state that we can have something that can help some of these people in our
neighborhoods that want to stay here and hopefully they can afford to stay here.
So trying to keep people who own the houses affordable, that makes zero sense, but thank
you.
Thank you. Any other questions from the comments from the community?
Okay, seeing none, I take
a motion for adjournment. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. We are adjourned at
946 will hang out.