Amid Athens City Council’s discussions about changes in the city’s transportation system and an introduction to the 2012 city budget, further discussion about hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” made an appearance in Monday night’s meeting.
After previous discussions about plants to ban hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, three miles around the city, Athens Law Director Pat Lang addressed some confusion about Council’s legal jurisdiction.
“The city does not have authority to act beyond its borders,” Lang said. “So a plan to ban anything three miles from the city is not within Athens’ jurisdiction.”
Councilwoman Chris Fahl said she believed the city should try to do something in spite of this limitation, citing the state’s actions with Issue 3 on the November ballot. The issue sidestepped federal law in an attempt to prevent the government from requiring citizens to participate in a healthcare system.
“With Issue 3, the state ignored federal law,” Fahl said. “So if the state doesn’t need to follow national laws, we don’t necessarily need to follow state laws.”
Carolyn Conley, Transportation Services Manager of Hocking Athens Perry Community Action, described a new plan to add a new destination to the GoBus itinerary.
The GoBus offers twice daily bus routes from Athens to Cincinnati and Columbus for $10 each way. A potential third route would take Ohio University students and Athens residents to and from Marietta.
In addition to the additional stop, the ordinance would allow Hocking Athens Perry Community Action to manage Athens’ public transit system.
The organization has also applied for a federal grant for assistance with the GoBus transportation system in 2012, Conley said. The grant would provide between one and two million dollars, depending on whether the Marietta line is added. Greyhound, one of the partners of GoBus, would match 50 percent of the grant.
Celebrating its first anniversary in October, the GoBus has exceeded council’s initial expectations.
“I remember when this was first brought to council and I thought it didn’t have a chance at all at working,” said Council President Bill Bias. “But now it’s going well and I have a stellar opinion of what it has done.”
The council also discussed how the city’s 2012 budget currently looks for the coming year. Two of the largest portions of next year’s budget will fund the police and fire departments and improvements to the city’s infrastructure.
“We have included funding that we need for the repairs to the Oxbow Bridge,” said Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl. “We have quite a bit of money invested in our infrastructure projects. We also have to deal with paying off the loans on the fire truck.”
Councilwoman Chris Fahl announced at council that the city’s wards would need to have their borders changed. She said they managed to keep the map close to what they have already had and evened out the populations of the four wards as much as possible.
“This was done in regards to city population distribution and has nothing to do with voting patterns,” Bias said. “This is not gerrymandering.”
