Athens City Council discusses new landscaping regulations, passes energy agreement with AEP
*Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story misspelled Director of Marketing at the Sustainable Ohio Public Energy Council Mat Roberts’ first name. This story has been updated with the correct spelling.
Athens City Council discussed an ordinance that would amend the portion of city code about landscaping regulations at Monday night’s virtual meeting.
Councilmember Chris Fahl introduced the ordinance, which was read for the first time Monday night. It would require native plants be planted over invasive or noxious plants, in addition to creating a tree bank and celebration tree program.
“(The ordinance will be) creating a tree bank for the city, so that we have the ability to have off-site mitigation for companies or commercial landscaping plants that cannot put in as many trees as are required to,” Fahl said. “Then we will have a celebration tree program where you can celebrate whatever sort of celebration you want by buying a tree for the city.”
This ordinance was followed by a series of three environmentally-focused ordinances, all introduced by Fahl. The ordinances will be voted on after being read two more times during regular body meetings.
City Council also passed an ordinance that will allow Mayor Steve Patterson to enter a 2019 purchase agreement with AEP Energy. The ordinance was passed on its first reading after Council suspended rules that require an ordinance to be heard three times prior to voting.
“This ordinance is to, as mentioned, lock in the rate with AEP Energy, offered at 0.04758 cents per kilowatt hour,” Councilmember Sam Crowl said.
The ordinance includes two agreements — one that would run for 24 months, and one that would run for 25 months.
“They have split the municipal properties in Athens,” Crowl said. “One of the agreements has 41 service locations or properties listed and the other one has 37. The important thing is both are for that price of 0.04758.”
After Crowl introduced the ordinance, Fahl questioned whether or not renewable energy was included in this ordinance. Mat Roberts, Director of Marketing at the Sustainable Ohio Public Energy Council (SOPEC), explained that the electricity supplied will not be considered renewable and that the city will enact a $2 per megawatt per hour carbon fee.
“We had avoided that (renewable energy) in service to the City of Athens because those prices have been increasing exponentially over the last year,” Roberts said. “So what was done instead, and this was discussed in committee, was the City of Athens is going to impose a carbon fee onto this rate.”
In other business:
Council President Chris Knisely said the city will be installing water mains at various points and at various intersections across Stimson Avenue due to the ongoing Stimson Avenue Project.
Athens City Council discussed an ordinance affirming the disposal of unneeded fire department equipment, which comes after Fire Chief Robert Rymer disposed of equipment without Council approval
