ATHENS, Ala. — Athens's residents are making one request from the city. "Put it on the agenda, make it an official agenda item, give some concrete talk about this particular subject, bring some compromise to the table, try to help the people out," Pastor Eugene English shares. " I deliberately went out there and just drenching rain on a Friday. It was raining really hard and I went out there to see. I took videos and that kind of thing, and I saw all of the drainage issues that they were talking about."
Residents are fed up with the way the city of Athens is handling their concerns about sewage infrastructure. "Water was coming down from one of the subdivisions, coming straight down in a property," English shares. "I talked to some of those few. these were elderly people, 80, 70 years old, poor people. you know, they don't have much of anything. and that water was piling up all in their backyards."
Along with the help of the Limestone NAACP, residents gave the council till the end of January to address their concerns, however, the city explains why this item hasn’t made the agenda. "We have several department heads, the mayor's office and other people who are working to find the best solution that will be one that is both amenable to the budget of the city and also to provide the best solution for the community is being worked on," Councilmember Dana Henry shares. "And when we do find the solution that we think will work best, we will go forward with it."
Diane Steele with the NAACP call this a distraction. "We have given you every possible opportunity to come to the urgent needs of this community rather, you have chosen to deny this community basic city services by not coming up with an infrastructure plan and if you have come up with one you haven't chosen to share it with this community," Steele shares. "You have come up with nonsense ways to prolong and deny use and senseless and intimidating door to door surveys despite well documented conditions in this community."
Response from Holly Hollman with City of Athens:
Mayor Marks, Councilman James Lucas and myself conducted surveys on Luke Street. As a result of those surveys:
- A brush pile on Luke Street that residents reported created a habitat for rats, etc. has been removed. City worked with the property owner to address this.
- Public Works cleaned driveway culverts out on Luke Street, did some ditch grading, and contacted ALDOT about runoff from I-65.
- Public Works reviewed potential street light locations, and additional lights were installed.
·The City signed an agreement with Communities Unlimited to conduct surveys regarding sewer issues in the East Strain Road area. Communities Unlimited has started that process but has completed the surveys and has not turned in a final report. Public Works is going to the East Strain Road area to look at potential drainage issues conveyed to Council by residents.
Information from the surveys on both sides of Strain Road will be utilized to develop the best plans to provide sewer to each side, and to establish budgets and means to fund both projects, such as a grant, SRF loan, bond market, etc. When those plans are and funding streams are finalized, they will go before the City Council for approval.