This is the first installment in a series. The second story is available here, and the third is available here.
ATHENS, Ohio — The City of Athens was instrumental in creating the Outdoor Recreation Council of Appalachia, the council of governments that oversees the Baileys Trail System. And one of its biggest proponents was Mayor Steve Patterson, who helmed the ORCA board from its earliest days.
“I was fascinated from the very beginning in looking at what could be a great opportunity, not just for outdoor recreation, but for economic development” in the city and across the region, Patterson told Athens City Council on Dec. 9, 2019.
Somewhere along the way, though, Patterson appears to have soured on ORCA. On March 31 this year, Patterson resigned from the ORCA board and unilaterally announced that the city would withdraw from the council of governments at the end of June.
As a new Athens County Independent investigation reveals, tensions between Patterson and ORCA staff and other board members had been building for months before his resignation — and the disputes within the organization didn’t remain internal. A conversation with Patterson contributed to the near-loss of $750,000 in state funding for the organization, according to an interview with a state representative directly involved in proposing the cut.
In an ongoing series, the Independent explores several issues that contributed to the rift between Patterson and others at ORCA:
- Disagreement over ORCA’s use of state funding, which shaped legislators’ attempt to revoke ORCA funding.
- Disputes over ORCA’s contract with Sunday Creek Horizons, the local lobbying firm that helped ORCA secure its state funding initially (and which also engaged with at least one legislator on issues related to ORCA’s near funding-loss).
- Tension related to the balance of power between Patterson as board chair, the rest of the board, and the ORCA staff — particularly Executive Director Jessie Powers.
For these stories, reporter Dani Kington spent four months reviewing hours of ORCA board meeting recordings, reading hundreds of pages of public records including emails and two years’ worth of minute minutes, and conducting interviews with about a dozen sources. Links to the source material are provided to the best of our ability.
