ATHENS, Ohio — Following its annual July recess, Athens City Council returned to action Monday night in a combined meeting of the council and its committees.
The meeting ended in an executive session to discuss two items of pending litigation. On Tuesday afternoon, the city announced that it would not appeal a ruling from the Fourth District Court of Appeals upholding an Athens County Court of Common Pleas decision that struck down the city’s plastic bag ban.
BLOCK: Athens plastic bag ban is officially dead
Following discussion in committee meetings, the council also amended an ordinance authorizing expenditures on the SR 682/56 roundabout; accepted the final price tag for the new Stimson Avenue fire station headquarters — just over $14.5 million; and debated the administration’s proposal to spend $325,000 on a pre-fabricated restroom facility for West State Park.
682/56 roundabout project moves forward
Transportation Committee Chair Solveig Spjelnes, 1st Ward, reported that the Ohio Department of Transportation increased its funding for the SR 682/56 roundabout, from just over $2 million to $3.65 million. In all, the state will provide 69% of the project’s $5.9 million cost.
City Service-Safety Director Andrew Stone said the city is ready to accept bids for the project, but that the authorized amounts needed to be adjusted and ordinances passed first to confirm funding. The city is approaching 60 days since bid opening.
During its subsequent regular meeting, the council suspended its rules unanimously, then passed an ordinance amending the April ordinance that authorized expenditures for the SR 682/56 roundabout project.
Roundabout construction, which had been set to start as early as July, is now expected to proceed by late summer or early fall.
Last adjustments to fire station headquarters
The first item on the City and Safety Services Committee agenda was revisions to the final cost of the new Stimson Avenue fire station. However, Stone asked the committee to delay its discussion temporarily so he could correct errors in the proposed ordinance. The council proceeded with all other committee meetings before returning to City and Safety Services.
At that point, Stone explained that the ordinance council passed on June 19 — which amended the 2025 appropriations ordinance as well as Ordinance 145-23, passed in December 2023 — failed to include an even earlier ordinance, which itself amended the original construction authorization ordinance.
The ordinance that council passed in June “changed a prior ordinance that still had … a significant amount from the general fund identified, and we didn’t want to do that,” Stone said.
Stone noted that council has passed “seven different ordinances for this project over a four-year period.” The Independent’s review of city council records online found a total of eight ordinances addressing project funding dating to October 2022.
Since the June ordinance passed, Stone said, the city received funds from a $400,770 Federal Emergency Management Agency grant that was used for exercise equipment at the fire station.
The new ordinance:
- Increases the transfer from the unspent balance to Safety Services Fund 206, T.C. 500, from $350,000 to $400,770;
- Eliminates a transfer of $30,000 from the unspent balance to Capital Improvements;
- Changes line items in the 2025 appropriation ordinance, moving a total of $552,000 for interfund transfers; and
- Authorizes interfund transfers to Safety Services Fund, 206, totaling $531,230.
With corrections Stone made at the meeting, the ordinance authorizes a total of $14.6 million for the fire station project, including $640,000 from General Fund, Fire, 101.208, previously authorized for planning, preliminary engineering, and design and construction management; and $13.9 million from Safety Services Fund, which represents proceeds from the 0.1% addition to the municipal income tax rate that voters approved in May 2022. That levy is in place for 20 years and started Jan. 1, 2023.
In its regular meeting, council heard first reading of the new ordinance.
West State Street restroom facility: A sharp critique
During the City and Safety Services Committee meeting, committee chair Micah McCarey, At Large, presented a description and rendering of a 520-square-foot prefabricated restroom facility to be installed at West State Street Park.
Site work involves plumbing, grading and pad installation to precede building manufacture in September and placement in October, McCarey said. It is set to be located on the north side of West State Street as a complement to existing restroom facilities on the south side of the road.
The building would be transported from a CXT Incorporated plant in West Virginia.
The city proposes spending $325,000 on the project, which will include four single-user, non-gendered restrooms with four changing tables, a drinking fountain and flood venting. That cost drew scrutiny from committee member Alan Swank, 4th Ward, who said it “seems like an outrageous amount to me.”
The new cost is 30% higher than the $250,000 originally approved in February 2022.
Council member Jessica Thomas, At Large said bids solicited from local companies came back “way higher” than the project allowed for.
The 520-square-foot building would cost $625 per square foot, Swank said — a much higher rate than the value of his 1,760-square-foot home on Athens’ Far East side.
Stone said that while he appreciated Swank’s concern about costs per square foot, hundreds of people per day do not use the restrooms in a typical house — which this restroom facility will need to withstand.
Stone further noted that the restroom facility has to “be able to flood and has to be able to be cleaned out and then reused.”
Swank asked about the cleaning schedule for the facility. On Wednesday, he told the Independent that the combination of tracked-in mud and the facility’s lack of urinals will present difficulties in keeping the area clean.
At Monday’s meeting, Stone said that restrooms at city facilities are typically cleaned daily “during the season,” but that he didn’t have a schedule for the new restrooms yet.
Swank’s “biggest beef” with the proposal, he said, was the request that council suspend its rules and pass an ordinance authorizing the expense without the normal three readings. The request was especially troubling, he said, because “we’ve had this project in the works for three years” and suddenly the city was asking council to approve more money for the project in the first meeting back from summer break.
“I don’t see the great need to rush it without all the questions answered,” Swank said.
The urgency, Stone said, arose because Arts, Parks and Recreation Director Katherine Ann Jordan “accidentally closed” the original purchase order at the end of 2024.
“We’re just trying to meet a construction timeline,” Stone said. “The prefab contractor has asked to get started so we can get it installed this year, and we need to be able to pick up and do some site prep work beforehand, and money in place to do it.”
Thomas said the only change under consideration was an increase in the cost and reappropriating funds to reopen the purchase order.
“I don’t think it’s a whole new ball game we’re talking about here, pardon the unintentional pun,” she said.
Mayor Steve Patterson also advised against further delay, “with the actions taking place at the national level with tariffs and the tariff war that’s going on right now.”
“We can certainly kick the can down the road for another year,” he said. “I guarantee you the cost of having this built … is going to go up and it’s going to go up significantly.”
However, the council opted to hear first reading only to keep the project moving while Stone verifies the city’s plans for cleaning the restrooms.
In an echo of the mixup with the fire station ordinances, the restroom ordinance introduced Monday night shows an increase from $250,000 to $325,000, a total of $75,000. But city records show that the council already increased the authorization to $300,000 in February, so the increase should be only $25,000.
The project was originally estimated at $140,000 for a commercial-grade prefab building plus $70,000 for site preparation. In January of this year, according to meeting minutes, the committee learned that three rounds of bidding had found no one who could complete the project at the $250,000 authorized. An ordinance increasing the authorization to $300,000 was introduced on Jan. 21 and approved on Feb. 18, according to records on the city’s website.
Stone returned to military duty Thursday and was unavailable to comment on the conflicting ordinances. City Council Clerk Debbie Walker said the new ordinance will be corrected for the council’s next meeting, and thanked the Independent for bringing it to her attention.
In other action Monday, the council:
- Heard first reading of an ordinance to shift 0.5% of city income tax revenue from the Recreation Fund to the Street Fund. Finance Committee Chair Jeff Risner, 2nd Ward, said the Department of Arts, Parks and Recreation “is doing well this year,” while the street fund “does need an influx of capital.”
- Heard first reading of an ordinance increasing the amount to be paid for the city’s share of an Army Corps of Engineers study of the Hocking River from $300,000 to $386,753. Stone said the study aims to determine the viability of seeking federal funding for improvements to water quality and recreational safety on the river.
- Agreed to hold a public hearing on a request from the owners of Gem Sports Bar at 700 E. State St. to extend its hours of liquor sales by 90 minutes, to 2:30 a.m.
- Reminded the public that nominations are now open for the 11th annual Athena Award, which honors outstanding contributions and service for people with disabilities in the Athens community. The deadline to submit nominations is Sept. 2. A nomination form can be obtained by emailing the Athens City Commission on Disabilities at disabilitiescommission@ci.athens.oh.us.
Athens City Council’s next meeting will be Aug. 11 at Athens City Hall, Council Chambers, third floor, 8 E. Washington St. Meetings are also streamed online. Regular sessions are on the first and third Mondays of the month; committee meetings are on the second and fourth Mondays.
Corinne Colbert contributed reporting to this story.
This story was updated at 10:57 a.m. Aug. 8 to include a response from Athens City Council Clerk Debbie Walker.
