Not sure if many are aware but Mayor Patterson wants to DOUBLE the fines for meter violations (from $15 to $30). The usual dipshits on council and the illustrious Andy Stone tacitly agree. What do you think?
Maybe let’s give ole Steve a call? (740)592-3338
Hello! I just moved to Athens for school and I'm coming from a major city so it's been a bit of a culture shock so to speak. I'm someone who likes having a big variety of stores, restaurants, etc., all at my convenience and within walking distance haha. What are some things that I can explore here in town or a little outside of it so I'm not so depressed? I want to get out of my house more and I'm not sure what else to do besides the nature trails (which are gorgeous and I'm grateful that we have such nice scenery here). I'm not big on drinking or partying (shocker, I know) but I love music (mainly dance pop/electronic), thrifting, animals, some gaming, and meeting new people. Also, if there's any other hobbies/activities specific to Athens that you recommend I check out, let me know! I'm really trying to appreciate that small town kind of living while I'm here!
My power was supposed to be restored 2 hours ago and it has been out since 3 am… AEP says they still do not know the cause. I’m nosey—anyone know the cause?
So my 7th grade year of school (im 10th grade now) I had this short friend named David it was near the end of the day and school year. My teacher had a movie playing and mid movie someone came and told him to come with him. no one in my grade knew what happened to him until like mid 8th grade year where someone talk to his sister and told use he went into foster care. We asked teacher about him (7th grade one) and they told us lies about him coming back. so anyone in the Athens ohio area of foster care(rather foster parents or siblings) please let me know if you have a short buzz cut kid in the 10th garde. I would love to know he ok or doing good. WE miss him and im not joking when I say we. alot of guys in my grade miss him.
It has happened to me 5+ times in the last 2 years. I thought it was my doing, but then 3 people sent me letters and I never received them.
Is there a place in town that can clean and do a tune-up on a sewing machine? I know there's a place in Chillicothe but I'd rather not travel far to get it looked at.
Thanks
Hi there redditors,
This is a novel, if you don't care, or would rather this sub talked about something else, just block me and move on. I will not be offended. I would add a tldr; but honestly I don't have strong opinions on this. Read the whole thing and make your own opinion, or ignore it, it is all good.
Sooner or later the rain will stop and the humidity will drop and we can go outside again and look at the neighbors dahlias or sit on the lawn at The Ridges and watch and see what GPS tells people to do when they get up into that maze as they detour around Richland. Fact is that this detour is secretly part of the "Keep Athens Funky" movement. But I digress.
Athens City Council meets tomorrow, the interesting item on the agenda in my opinion is the Public Safety Training Facility.
I will summarize the line items as best as I can from the information I have. If I have a substantial error or have misrepresented something let me know and I can adjust. I add that disclaimer because I find parsing the city budget terminology at times to be a little challenging.
The Facility:
This is out by Elliotsville Road, behind the TS Trim facility. You know that place see footnote**.
The Costs:
According to the ordinance in the city council agenda for tomorrow I see the following.
Grants ?
I think these are grants, the capital bill funding could be a loan, but for the purposes of this discussion let's assume it is a grant.
2.5 million capital bill funding.
200K ODOT funding
Expenses:
I am going through the ordinance paragraph by paragraph.
$31,000 streets fund
$5,121,000
The lines below break out the details of the expenditures.
Sum of expenses vs grants
So we are about to spend
$2,421,000 dollars to spend on a public safety training facility
My opinion
Maybe I should start keeping my opinion to myself and just share the information. I do know the following however. Honestly at this late stage of this specific project I am on the fence. Wether or not the project needed to be pursued in the first place, or has to cost 5million? On those points I am skeptical.
Other facts that should be considered.
The Mayor has said we are broke and he may have to downsize the number of city employees in some way.
Our Street maintenance has been curtailed in some way due to us being broke.
Our debt service this year is somewhere in the range of 2million.
Our infrastructure is in need of repair, some basic, some serious. Drive around and take a look at Storm Sewers next rainfall event. End of Grosvenor has storm sewers filled with mud. Richland Avenue becomes a viral livestream opportunity of "street as river" during heavy rains. Pick a brick street and go for a walk. Take a drive down Columbia and count the holes in the street caused by water main break repairs. Note the sandbags on Grosvenor, and Columbia were the street level has sank causing a drainage problem downstream as runoff is now managed by sandbags, instead of actual repairs.
Our total budget per year is somewhere around 50million. So this is 4 percent of our budget.(warning this assumes I am reading this document correctly) https://www.ci.athens.oh.us/DocumentCenter/View/12585/2025-Estimated-Expense-Budget and there is a non-zero chance I am misreading it. I pulled the 50million from the total on last page.
A caveat, I do understand that funding for X can not be easily exchanged for funding for Y. So arguing against the Training facility will be met with an argument that we are getting basically twice the value per dollar spent. So one thing I am not saying is that this project should be nixed. I am thinking we should ponder why it was pursued in the first place over basic maintenance.
**Footnote on TS Trim, My recollection of the story is something like this. TS Trim gets tax breaks comes to Athens in or around 1988 and has a facility that employs a decent number of people. I am guessing the tax breaks expired in 1998. On or around 2002 or 2003 TS trim moves production to Canal Winchester in exchange I assume for tax breaks there. Our local facility is downgraded to a warehouse employing very few people. Sort of an lesson for municipalities competing with each other that seems to have NOT been learned.
Yours in (somewhat Controlled) Curmudgeonry
--
Boomer_with_dementia
Hello all. I’m coming back to Athens soon for school and am excited to get back out in the surrounding nature. Last year I looked desperately (to no avail) for some predators and am looking for some tips from locals on where and when to look. Specifically im looking for coyotes, foxes, opossums, raccoons, badgers, mink, weasel, fisher, skunk, otter, bobcats, and bears (last two are a long shot ik). Sorry if this is an odd question but it was kinda hyper specific so I didn’t know where else to ask. The closest I got last year was someone’s house cat on the bikeway. And don’t get me wrong I love the deer, squirrels, and groundhogs you see everywhere but I’m looking for something new. Any help is appreciated! Thanks!
Edit: should say I’m limited by transportation (I have none other than my legs) and am trying to photograph these animals.
My girlfriend just moved to our first apartment in athens to go to OU and i’m wondering if there is any jobs within an hour of athens that pay more than 20 dollars an hour?
i’m currently living and working near cleveland making $25 an hour working 50 hours a week at a machine shop.
every similar job ive seen listed has been very low pay but that was all on sites like indeed and zip-recruiter, everything similar to what i was doing with similar pay is near Columbus and id like to avoid driving 2+ hours every day if possible.
i plan on moving down there as soon as i can but right now its not looking like a possibility, I’ve heard that the job market is very tough out there but i hadn’t thought it was this bad.
i have 3+ years of metal fabrication experience as-well as some leadership experience.
just wondering if there’s something i’m missing or is my best bet to just make the commute to Columbus..
any advice would be very appreciated, thank you!!
Hello! Im currently kind of scrambling to find any places that have open parking to rent or lease and since its so close to the semester starting, most of my tries are falling flat. Does anyone know of any places that might still have any openings? Im not a student, so it doesn't need to be near campus or anything. Any and all help is greatly appreciated!! :)
Hello y’all, I was hoping someone on this forum might be able to point my girlfriend and I in the right direction. Just a little bit ago she rescued an injured bird and we were wondering if anyone knew of any animal sanctuaries around here or vets that may be willing to help a bird in need. Thank you kindly!
hello! i’ll be moving to athens next month. i’ve been taking barre for a few months and i was wondering if there are any recs for barre or even mat pilates near campus? i’m also willing to drive a bit too if there are any recs that are further away.
thanks!
So, tomorrow I am trying to travel to Morgan County. I live near Chillicothe, would traveling route 50 be mostly safe and avoiding flood water in the area? thanks in advance:)
I used to get all of my home brewing supplies at the Farmacy, but can't seem to find anywhere around that sells anymore. I checked Kindred, and all the E. State places I thought might have it. I was looking to buy Powdered Malt Extract, if anyone knows where I could pick that up other than Columbus I'd be grateful.
There seems to be an okay way to walk, but cycling while there is active construction seems near impossible.
It's something I've been wanting to get more into and have the resources and time to flesh out. Also wondering if there's any gunsmiths in general in Athens County.