ATHENS, Ohio – An Uptown Athens business owner raised questions about the city’s procedures for street closures at Monday’s meeting of Athens City Council.
The questions arose during a meeting for the committee of the whole to address a request from Cool Digs owner Sara Quoia for council to approve closure of Union Street on Oct. 19 for the shop’s annual gem show.
In introducing the application, Council member Alan Swank, 4th Ward, said that the shop had held the show for years near its location on Athens’ Far East side. According to the business’ Facebook page, it opened a location on West Union Street in Uptown Athens in November 2023.
Quoia told the council that she wants to do this event Uptown this year because she has seen “a lot of people holding events on the road this summer” and it seemed fun.
She also noted that Union Street has been closed in front of her store for four different events — some of them added after the city approved 2024 street closures in March.
“Only one of [these events] was on the city list of approved road closures, but it seemed like [Athens Deputy Service-Safety Director] Andrew Chiki was just able to shut the road down,” Quoia told the council.
She said that she notified Chiki by email in early July that she wanted to hold the gem show Uptown, “and then he really didn’t get back to me — he’s really not very great at getting back to me.”
When she followed up with Chiki in September about the request, Quoia said he told her “Well, DORA’s over,” according to Quoia. But the gem show attendees and organizers don’t want to drink in the road, she said; they just want to “have music and get [their] rocks out.”
Quoia said the event will feature live music, vendors and food trucks, and that she just wants to showcase her Uptown business.
Swank said, “We talk about being business friendly and bringing people into the city for various opportunities. And, interestingly enough, this is an event that’s going to take place — and attract people — that doesn’t require alcohol. For families, I think that’s a pleasant change, and I applaud the owner for that.”
Athens Mayor Steve Patterson said that event organizers are supposed to request street closures in January each year.
“[The] policy for 2025 is going to be that you show up to the meetings we have, put that calendar of events together, and if you don’t show for whatever reason — next year, no exceptions will be made,” Patterson said.
Quoia replied, “I think that’s probably what your ordinance suggests — the ordinance about street closures and DORA suggests that every one of those should be approved by council, and yet Andrew Chiki, upon returning from his [paternity] leave in June, approved not one, not two, but three extra road closures this summer — all in front of my shop — that were not approved by council.”
No member of council or city administration responded.
Contacted on Friday morning, Streets Committee chair Solveig Spejldnes, 1st Ward — who missed Monday’s meeting due to travel plans — said that only the council has the power to authorize street closures.
“I found that puzzling,” she told the Independent.
Swank noted that Cool Digs is one of several Union Street businesses affected by construction on the former Follett’s Bookstore at the corner of Union and Court streets.
“I think not only is this gem show something fun and something new for a lot of people,” said Swank, “but it’s a way for the city to recognize that we have a difficult situation here that has had an impact on not only the gem stone business, but also the florist next store who is getting no pickup [orders] or walk-in traffic.
Council suspended the rules to approve two ordinances on first reading to authorize the request.
Other business
Council also heard the first reading of an ordinance authorizing the city to buy the solar panels on the carports at the community center.
Although the ordinance states that the purchase will cost $235,000, Patterson said it would likely be closer to $232,000.
Patterson said the solar panel is currently owned by a “third party” following a series of transactions from the panel builder to another provider, who then sold it to “someone else.”
He said that the city will ultimately reap financial benefits from the purchase because it will acquire the Solar Renewable Energy Certificates that come with the panel by purchasing it.
“We will now acquire those SRECs, which have value on the market for other entities that need to have a way to show that they are using that renewable energy,” he said. “[The energy] may not be going to that entity, but they’re now paying for those SRECs, and that qualifies them to be someone who’s showing, ‘We are operating in the decreased carbon world with decreased carbonization.’”
In other business, council also discussed:
- Annexing a house outside the city of Athens for property tax,
- Approving the Athens-Hocking Solid Waste management plan, and
- Patterson’s trip to Ukraine, among other topics.
Athens City Council’s next regular meeting will be at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 21, in Athens City Hall, Council Chambers, third floor, 8 E. Washington St. Meetings are also available 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.
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