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As Athens considers adding a bicycle-pedestrian path on Columbus Road, one council member strongly objects

By: David Forster
Posted on: Wednesday, May 14, 2025

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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — The City of Athens wants to create a path along much of Columbus Avenue to make it easier for people to walk or bicycle down the road.

One City Council member says he doesn’t see the point.

“I see this as a path from nowhere to nowhere,” Alan Swank said at Monday night’s council meeting.

Swank said he has heard from several business owners who share his sentiments about the proposal.

“What they said to me, ‘What a tremendous waste of money,’” Swank said. “In fact, they went so far as to say this is one of the reasons the income tax went down, because the city continues to spend money on needless projects.”

He was referring to a proposed increase in the city’s income tax that was soundly defeated in last week’s election.

The proposed path would start near the Hugh White auto dealership, not far from the Highway 33 interchange, and continue to the New-To-You thrift store. From there, people could hop onto a spur that connects to the bike path that tracks around a big swath of the city.

Swank said one of the biggest problems with the path as proposed is it’s not on the side of the road where most of the businesses are that people might want to walk or bicycle to.

“Where are you going to go on that side of the road?” he said. “You going to ride your bike into the title bureau? You going to haul furniture into the storage unit? You going to ride your bike to the insurance company?”

Crossing the street is dangerous, he said. The speed limit for a stretch of Columbus closer to the highway is 45 mph, then drops down to 35.

“It just doesn’t make sense,” he said.

Swank said the money the city would spend on this project could instead be used to do more street repairs.

“I’m going to have a hard time voting on this because the citizens of this town have told us through their vote last Tuesday night we’ve got to quit spending money on things we don’t need,” he said.

About 90 percent of the cost of building the path would be covered by the Ohio Department of Transportation. It has agreed to pay up to just over $1 million for the project.

“That’s a pretty good chunk we would not have an opportunity to get back anytime soon,” said Councilmember Solveig Spjeldnes, who chairs the transportation committee.

The city would contribute up to $350,000, some of which has already been spent on design work.

Mayor Steve Patterson said the city has already made improvements to its other major entrances, including Stimson, Richland and West Union, to enhance pedestrian and bicycle accessibility.

With the opening last year of Marietta Memorial Hospital, he said, the timing is right to do the same on Columbus.

Spjeldnes agreed.

“I think everyone anticipates this will be a high-growth area, especially with the medical facility there,” she said.

The path should encourage more people to patronize businesses along the strip as it continues to develop, she said.

Spjeldnes said she would like to see the path extend farther up the road, closer to residential areas, to make it easier to access. And she wondered if a crosswalk could be added.

“I think that’s a legitimate concern,” she said.

Patterson said this is something the city could look into.

Councilmember Beth Clodfelter said the path would also benefit the people who work at businesses along Columbus.

“I visit a couple of medical professionals on Columbus Road … and both of them told me they wish they could take walks at lunch,” she said. “Just building better infrastructure there might really improve the quality of the workday for a lot of people.”

City Treasurer Josh Thomas acknowledged concerns residents might have that at the same time the city proposed raising taxes to keep up with rising expenses, it’s looking to spend a lot of money on a bicycle-pedestrian path.

The money for the city’s share of the cost would come out of its street fund, he said. This is separate from the general fund, which is used to cover operating expenses of the city’s departments.

Money in the street fund can only be spent on streets, Thomas said. It cannot be used to help cover other expenses.

“For those that are out there, if they think to themselves, ‘Well, if they don’t do these projects they could just put that money into the general fund,’ that’s not how it works,” he said. “We’re not allowed to do that. We cannot legally do that.”

The council at its next meeting will take up an ordinance directing the city to move forward with the path project.