Committee to take pictures of Athens' worst, best areas

by Hillary Copsey
Senior City Writer

Steering committee members should pretend they are working for The National Enquirer when they capture on film Athens’ best and worst areas, said Paul Tecpanecatl, Poggemeyer Design Group Inc. representative, at the committee’s first meeting Friday.

Tecpanecatl and another Poggemeyer representative, Randy Mielnik, passed out disposable cameras and notebooks to each member of the committee working on Athens’ comprehensive plan for the city’s next 10 years. The photographs committee members collect will identify problem areas and serve as a starting point for the planning process.

“We can talk all we want, but graphic images help — not only us, but all of you — to better understand the community,” Mielnik said.

The committee discussed requesting Athens residents to send in photographs of what they believe are Athens’ strongest and weakest attributes. No decision was made, but interested citizens should contact city council members.

The committee also discussed its expectations of Poggemeyer and the final comprehensive plan. Most agreed the final plan would have to be created by a consensus of Athens residents, not just by the steering committee or Poggemeyer.

“Government by itself is not going to solve the problems in our community. Businesses and others can’t solve them alone either,” Mayor Ric Abel said. “It’s going to have to be a community solution.”

Others were concerned with the information gathering process. Councilman Dale Tampke, D-at-large, said he would urge Poggemeyer to conduct phone surveys rather than rely solely on surveys on file in the mayor’s office.

While phone surveys might not happen because of time and costs, Mielnik said Poggemeyer will conduct one-on-one interviews with key people in Athens, including business owners, neighborhood association representatives and Ohio University officials.

Mielnik said he would like to use the city’s Web site to solicit opinions from Athens residents.

Also, many committee members said the comprehensive plan should address meshing university concerns with the city’s.

Abel said the city should work with OU to better acclimate first-year students. If students feel they are part of Athens, they will be better neighbors once they move off-campus, he said.

Housing codes should consolidate “student ghettos,” said John Daft, student senator for city and county legislative affairs. Other committee members agreed the code did need to be revised.

“We need some variance from the 1926 zoning code we have,” said Councilwoman Nancy Bain, D-3^rd ward.

The committee’s next meeting has not been set.