City Council met in committees Monday to discuss shortfalls in the court personnel budget and heard from Athens High School and ORCA Bailey’s Trail speakers.
The meeting started with the Finance and Personnel Committee hearing from the auditor on possible municipal tax updates and shortfalls within the court personnel system. Athens City Auditor Kathy Hecht shared disparities between grant funding for diversion programs within the court system and the amount of money Athens can contribute to filling the funding for these programs.
More specifically, in the form of working off convictions as opposed to paid enrollment in classes to rehabilitate offenders.
“It appears more and more people are working with our offices and we give them credit for hours at an hourly rate, that’s not revenue for us,” Hecht said. “Sometimes we have the carryover to make it up for the next grant year but we don’t this year”
Hecht said if the City of Athens wants to continue to have these diversion programs, they will have to be supported by the city’s general fund.
Solveig Spjeldnes, D-1st Ward, said when she was a professor at Ohio University, she specialized in fields like diversion programs and strongly believes in them, but is stunned by the lack of information the Athens courts have provided the city council.
“It’s a slap in the face to ignore the entity that funds the rest of the city,” Spjeldnes said. “We deserve the courtesy of hearing and seeing the documentation to show that it (diversion programs) has been helpful.”
Spjeldnes said the quality of diversion programs varies from program to program, so having information on how effective Athens’ program is important to secure grant funding.
The Transportation Committee proposed an amendment to the city code that would allow overnight weekend parking on streets.
Michael Wood, D-3rd Ward, introduced the amendment in hopes of discouraging driving while under the influence.
“We should let people park overnight again to sort of decrease chances that people would make poor decisions based on their facing a $40 ticket,” Wood said.
Mayor Steve Patterson chimed in against Wood’s amendment, stating that his administration’s priority on keeping the street cleaner has improved the perception of Uptown Athens and has also improved the economy.
“A lot of it is for our uptown economy, to make sure that if the uptown looks attractive, people are going to come,” Patterson said. “So, I feel strongly about this that this is not the right move to make.”
Students Raquel De Abreu, Malia Howell and Emma Ulbrich from Athens High School’s Andrew Jackson Davison Club presented some history of Athens in lieu of the renaming of Davison Court, a street in West Athens.
Ulbrich said her membership in the club has taught her to be passionate and allowed her to be passionate about something, enjoying school more.
Patterson became emotional at the passion of the young students after just returning to his trip to Ukraine and learning about their communities and history. Patterson said it made his heart sing to listen to the student's passion.
Executive Director of the Outdoor Recreation Council of Appalachia, or ORCA, Jessie Powers gave a presentation on the improvements the Bailey’s Trial System has made in the past few years.
“Upon completion, the Bailey’s trail system will be the longest continuous mountain bike optimized trail system of the highest quality east of the Mississippi River,” Powers said. “I looked it up today and that’s 26 states out of 50.”
