Similar to the Ames fire in October 2017 along the same stretch of road is yet again another highly toxic warehouse fire. I dare to say this one may be worse. They store inventory for Kraton polymers among other things.
Are there any places in or around Athens for nude sunbathing or swimming? Years ago when I was a student at OU, some people knew of a pond where we would go skinny-dipping in the summer after the bars closed. I wasn't the one who drove so I don't know where that was. Also, I didn't know everyone who went, so I assume we had permission, but I don't know if we did or not.
Ideally, I'd like to find a place where I'd have permission. Does anyone know of anything like that? Is there a secret nudist club in the area? I've been to Cedar Trails near Peebles, but I'd like to find some place local if it exists.
I'm looking for a way to supplement my income this summer and would love to do pet sitting through Rover. Has anyone used this app in Athens, and do you get any traffic on it? I just don't want to pay the fee if not many people use it here.
I would prefer a local bank, been working with HVB for over 50 years, but there is something about them about them Venmo just hates. I need to be able to make Venmo payments from my Business profile, and both the debit card and checking acclunt are successfully linked (supposedly). Payments just fail and tell me to try again later. Two calls to Venmo, they just say they dont see any issues on their end, and to call the bank. HVB says call Venmo.
Is anyone successfully using a Venmo Business profile with either HVB or OUCU?
Personal works fine.
Anyone else have a favorite piece of bathroom graffiti from around town? 😂 In or around 2014 this was drawn in the women’s restroom (Public House side).
If you (or someone you know) are responsible:
🤗 that’s all lol. Thanks! Hope you’re all having a good day!
invisalign is profitable or whatever. but why does every dentist in this town act like my slightly crooked bottom tooth is a medical emergency?
went to a place near court street last month for a cleaning. sat down opened my mouth and before the hygienist even started scraping she was like have you ever considered straightening your teeth? ma'am i am here because my gums hurt when i floss. i dont care about my bottom tooth its been like that since high school.
then the dentist comes in and does the same thing. pulls up this simulation on an ipad showing what my smile could look like. i felt like i was at a car dealership.
i just want a regular dentist. someone who looks at my xrays and says hey this filling is cracked or you need to floss more and then lets me leave.
my friend in columbus goes to a place she found through smile partners USA. said theyre pretty no frills. might try them next because im honestly exhausted from saying "no thanks" to invisalign every six months.
anyone got a normal dentist in athens? or is this just how it is here now
Hi yall I've lived down in Athens for about 2 years and I have 6 years of childcare experience (nannying, music teacher, behavioral technician, and now the boys & girls club over at Trimble). I am desperate to start working with families in the area, but folks around here seem to already know people and don't use the big sites like care.com.
For parents or sitters in Athens, where do families usually seek babysitters? ☺️
The Richland and Stimson laundromats both appear to be disused.
Where do people do laundry?
I suppose I could roll by Richland but Google says they’re shut down. And as I recall it that place was only ever half operable.
I have some gear that really needs washing as it has slight mildew.
Hi Athens Budz- Who offers the least expensive oil change in town?
There was some discussion regarding politics in another thread. There was some discussion that we are just a cash starved city due to OU and appalachia in general. (If I am mischaracterizing anyone's opinion please correct me)
With that in mind I got to thinking about the Fire Palace and Steve Patterson's claim that we are facing a budget crisis and we are not going to fix streets, and city employees might be let go.
Posting a few screenshots of two audits, one from 2024 and one from 2021.
https://ohioauditor.gov/Auditsearch/Reports/2023/Athens_County_2021_Athens_FINAL.pdf
https://ohioauditor.gov/auditsearch/Reports/2025/City_of_Athens_2024_Athens_FINAL.pdf
Two data points do not define a trend, and more research is needed (Athens Independent.. are you listening?? ) but here are the screenshots..
I am not an accountant, and the audit documents are long and may not be consistent in terms of categories, but from my quick assessment I see the following.
The city of Athens has 2.5 times the debt in 2024 (25 million) than it had in 2021 (10 million)
How can that be a good thing? I mean it looks good to stand in front of the Fire Palace for a photo shoot for a power point presentation at the global mayor's conference. But that debt has to be serviced over time.
So as a city we may be broke, but we may have gotten here through poor management.
Any candidate or organization looking to make changes should research our debt over time in more detail.
If I have made errors in my summation, and an accountant wants to correct me please reply, if I am egregiously wrong I will edit the post to reflect that rather than leaving the correction in the replies.
--EDIT--
A reply noted that perhaps choosing 2021 led to bias as it was an exceptional year due to covid economic stimulus. With that in mind I grabbed the audits from 2010->2024
Instead of pulling data from the numbers, spreadsheet style section which did not seem consistent I pulled the numbers from the summary entry in the text for long term debt. It is worded like this..
"As of Year, the City of Athens had $x in long-term bonds, notes, and loans outstanding with $y due within one year."
Charting those numbers leads to these plots.
I broke out the "payment due in one year" because the scale of the change is lost compared to the total debt value. Pre Patterson we spent a million or less servicing our debt each year, in the
"Late Patterson" era we spend over 2 million servicing our debt. The scale of that change is the important value in my opinion.
Others may have a different analysis, I welcome the discussion. If my choice of data points leads to skew in some way, I will correct it. Living within your means is the basic rule of managing finances, is our spending in line with that rule. If this doubling of debt spending led to some massive benefit in terms of grant dollars, show me the numbers and I will add them to the charts.
Athens is hurting. I am a Democrat and a lifelong supporter of what they stand for, but in this town it has become a joke. The mayor is a DINO. Code enforcement is a neo-liberal hitman squad for the city. I am happy they keep Athens clean and respectable, but the sidewalk issue has me thinking.
They want to punish businesses, fuck the corporate chains of course, for the sidewalks being not up to ADA. I get the ADA requirements I really do, but at the same time this was a city built in 1797 for Christ's sake.
The council is weak and full of folks that were once maybe humble residents of this town, but now have moved to classier neighborhoods and still believe they are the voice of the people.
The landlords and the University run this town, and I get that there would be no town without the university, but they need to be held accountable for what they bring into this town and what they keep out of it.
Industry here is dead, retail dies more so everyday. They rushed through a tax hike on a primary ballot of all places. This is their fault for the fire department fiasco and hiring out of town or even out of state companies to do work here on everything from roads and to buildings. The price balloons over and over again.
Now they're fighting over why it took so long to plan a 4th of July event and why the price skyrocketed all of a sudden.
This town is in for a reckoning if they don't figure out how to get these people out of office. This is incompetence and malpractice if you ask me.
But what the fuck do I know.
The other day (Friday 6/26/26) i was heading to busy day with my partner and what seemed to be a college aged kids in a white 4 door car decided to throw somthing at us. We had all out windows down as did they. It was at night, maybe around 10pm. The passenger mirror on thier car had a device on it, maybe a camera or a spotlight, im not sure. It was enough of a problem that i want to post about it. The shock and distraction that it caused was uncalled for, we could have crashed our car. We are both ok, but be on the look out. And if the person reading this happens to be the one who threw something, just know, i know what your car is, and what mods it has. Ill be watching for you, a police report has been filed.
Good morning neighbors! We've received reports of a young bear (older than a cub, not yet a full adult) spotted midway up 2nd Street this morning (June 26).
Black bears generally avoid humans and are likely in the area trying to find food.
Here are some sensible precautions you may want to take until further notice:
If you see the bear:
If you hear growling/huffing/clacking teeth - it means the bear feels threatened and you're too close!
When you're safe, report your bear sighting to the Ohio DNR:
After that, consider also alerting your neighbors, posting in neighborhood groups, etc.
We only know about this sighting because someone shared about it in a Facebook group. If that hadn't happened, a lot of us wouldn't know there was a bear at all.
Stay safe!
Hello! My family recently moved (back) to Athens. My husband was born and raised here so he knows a handful of folks and has a couple family members here. I only really know the folks he knows.
We’ve been here a couple months and I’m hoping to meet some folks and make some friends. We’ve moved around a lot and I know it takes a lot of time and energy to make friends and build community, but I’m up for it. We have a 3.5 yr old son who would love playmates as well.
Any ideas/suggestions for groups I could join? I love to garden, draw, and be outside. I have a toddler and we have met folks at the library story hour (but I’m an older mom - 40 - and I would also love to meet folks around my age.)
Literally any advice on groups or activities where nice folks gather would be helpful. Thanks.
Hello, does anyone have a good recommendation for a deck contractor? The stairs to our second story deck need some improvements.
Also, looking for recommendations for an insured local company that cleans gutters with guards (guard removal + putting the guards back on) - appreciate any and all recs!
what is the driving test like? do they take you out onto e state street?
I've been pretty curious lately to know if there are bigger cave structures in Athens or the rest of the county than the one we have on our family property
