Bowling alley: gone.
Movie theater: gone.
Mini-golf: Some cheapish plot by the Ridges.

Some years ago when I was living in town my wife and I were at a crossroads about planning to buy a house, start the family, etc.. Then I could make Athens work but she wanted more of the city amenities. Now? Not I chance would I ever consider living there in that situation. If it's all you've ever known, that's one thing. But coming from the outside, I think you'd have to be a very specific kind of person to start raising kids there.

I give credit to Julie for having the foresight with Tim Albin's contract and doing whatever it was to right the football ship. Ultimately, her legacy to me was the department celebrating her serving on committees or winning some honor by a professional society, and not so much raising the profile of the university with winning teams. Had an impression about her since her opening press conference. It's like that scene in Mad Men when Duck takes over after the merger with the British company and Bert Cooper says, "I don't believe I heard the word 'client' (winning) once."

Bingo! Athens is a very small town in the sense of what most people consider a town. It is my home however, been here 46 years and have served on city council for the last four years.

Treading on thin ice here, but we do lack what some people call basic amenities. Part of that is due to the fact of the size of the full time population. When my daughter graduated from Athens High in 2000, there were 235 in her class. The AHS class of 2025 - 180 - with a good number of those families living in district but out side the city limits and a sizable open enrollment contingent.

Couple that with graduation now the last Saturday in April or first Saturday in May and this town is a ghost town for May, June, July and half of Augus (we do have some great activities but you get my poin). With the ability to take and teach classes online, many folks no longer stay here in the summer or even live here. I measure that by parking availability. You can park in the front door of almost any place you want to go during the vast majority of the summer.

When your largest employers are the university, the hospitals, WalMart and Kroger, there just isn't the corporate structure to help build up the budget that you refer to.

One more thing. The scarcity of quality middle class housing is just beyond belief. Two homes in my neighborhood (far east side off of east state street) each around 2000 square feet and over 60 years old went for $450,000 and $425,000 in a school district with the highest property taxes in southeast Ohio.

What's the solution? We've labored over this on Council for the last two years. I'm all ears as to possible first steps and/or solutions.

I would like to know some of the things that she did to move the athletic department forward. How did her coaching hires do? How were revenues raised? What special projects was she able to raise money for? Did she even have a say in the current schedules? When this years schedules were made, we had no idea what type of year we were going to have, that’s for sure.

I don’t know her, I only met her once so I have no idea what she’s like as a boss/leader. I would rate her success here primarily based on some of the answers to my questions above . I’m glad she hired Albin as head coach, but considering the timing, I’m not sure she had a lot of options.

Regardless of what type of job she did, Ohio’s financial situation will make it tough to get out of the “rut” you refer to. Ohio ( and the MAC) would have to raise its financial commitment to athletics to keep up with the evolving reality of today’s D-1 sports. I don’t see that happening regardless of what conference we’re in. We can’t keep making students pay for 70-80%(or whatever it is now) of our costs-can we?

I agree, and I’m actually shocked that this has not gotten out yet. But folks will be excited.

From my experience though its quite common to take on long commutes in Ohio. For example a two income couple living in Columbus mostly working from home one occassionally commuting into Cleveland the other commuting into Dayton. With the jobs in Ohio spread all around the state is like one big suburb. I could see where a couple could live in Lancaster for cheaper with one working in Columbus and the other in Athens without too much difficulty.

This makes the timing of her departure all the more curious.

I'd speculate that it *might* be like the departure of a certain dean years ago that was widely viewed by the rest of campus as a success. This dean's departure on the surface appeared to be voluntary but was in reality forced by the president. The culture that this dean created internally and the way subordinates were treated were the factors that caused the president to act, after input from the ombudsman. Perhaps, something similar might have been at play here. The only inside info I have is about the nature of the work environment and Julie's treatment of subordinates. The rest of this post is total speculation on my part, no additional inside skinny to inform it.

Glad to see our sources are in agreement. It did say that my source was quite reliable, and you are in a position to hear from more people in the know on a regular basis than I am.

BUT, it's still -- Go Navy, Beat Army!

If the fairgrounds was developed high density perhaps we're talking about 200,000 new townhomes and 1,000 a month affordable apartments. Alan defined 425,000 as expensive housing for Athens. I have a property in a city where 525,000 is what they are asking for a new 500 square foot one bedroom with a 500 dollar a month HOA on top. Affordable income restricted apartment there is 2,000 a month. Athens should bring in an outside consultant to identify opportunities and partners for it. It takes being proactive.

All the properties I've checked on realtor.com when I check on their property tax history are showing a similar pattern. Low tax assessment but high property tax. The earned income tax is also certainly a factor but you might have to weight off proximty to job vs. lower cost of living further out from Athens. This is the same as anywhere else in that regard.

Forget the fairgrounds stuff, inquiring minds want to know about the big announcement SBH and BTC were hinting at today. What's the scoop.

I would have the City of Athens commission a market study on income restricted housing to investigate the options. It could be the direction to go in might be more senior housing. That is the debate by the county where I live is making sure not to over load the school district with more kids than what the existing facilities can support. That doesn't seem to be a problem in Athens with the lower enrollment numbers than 20 years ago.

Comparing Fairfax County to Athens County is like comparing a chariot to the Space Shuttle. Looking at your listing of greatest OU events, I'm guessing 1) you were here about 15 years ago and 2) you never once had a beer at Abdella's or visited the Millfield Mine Disaster site. Go ahead, look it up so you can tell us how all knowing you are.

When OCF, oldkatz, Billy and I all tell you the same thing, a group that represents over 150 years in Athens County, you might want to take your lead from folks who know what we have here.

I would say Don Peden was the best, but it's certainly true that Solich and Albin were very good. It's also true that, while it's unclear what went on between Albin and Cromer, he didn't leave for money, as he apparently did not get much, if any raise. What's done is done, however, I will say that if Ohio has a disappointing football season this year or next, her seat would have gotten hot. If the MAC crumbles, and Ohio ends up worse off, that would also pose risks for anyone and everyone.

Making an exit was probably a safer decision for her. Note that I have no opinion on whether her leaving was a good thing or bad for Ohio, only that it was safer for her career.