If you placed a bet that the best place to run into the mayor of Athens is at City Hall, you might be right. But students can also find this mayor at fests, football games and fraternity and sorority fundraisers.
Paul Wiehl is mayor of the city of Athens, working to service Ohio University students and Athens’ year-round residents alike.
“I make $72,000 as a mayor. I break it down to minutes and I get about 58 cents a minute,” he said on live, national television. He was being interviewed by former CNBC anchor Erin Burnett in 2010. “I relate it to what I buy in the grocery store. A pound of bananas is 59 cents. … Am I worth a pound of bananas a minute?”
Wiehl, who was first elected to office in 2008 and is currently serving his second four-year term that will expire in 2016, said his job directly affects OU student life.
Some components might be as commonplace as city utility services providing shower water to the dorms, but others — such as the city’s nuisance party ordinance — could be the difference between a pleasant experience in Athens and an unpleasant one.
Though Athens is a college town, Wiehl said there isn’t much tension between OU students and year-round residents.
“Everybody who is in Athens adds a flavor to this city,” Wiehl said. “We do it all at different levels.”
With about 20,000 OU students converging upon Athens every fall, Wiehl said he depends upon student input to do his job.
“My door is always open,” Wiehl said. “You can email me and say, ‘What about this?’ I may get back to you.”
sh33531@ohiou.edu
