Athens City Council and Mayor Patterson discuss Wayne National Forest and a collaboration with the Ohio Organized Crime Investigation Task Force
During Athens city council meeting on Monday night, Mayor Steve Patterson discussed Wayne National Forest’s potential new names and an ordinance authorizing the Service-Safety Director to enter into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) and addendum with the Ohio Organized Crime Task Force #22-09.
The council started the meeting by discussing the move to change Wayne National Forest’s name.
Wayne National Forest is Ohio's only national forest covering roughly 250,000 acres of southeastern Appalachia and surrounds the city of Athens and other neighboring counties. It was established as a National Forest in December of 1992. The forest is named after General Anthony Wayne, a man who served in the Revolutionary War and is one of the United States’ Founding Fathers. Wayne’s legacy is complicated as he led a violent campaign against the Indigenous peoples of Ohio that resulted in many tribes being wiped out or forcibly removed from their homelands.
The council sent a letter as a body to the U.S. Forest Service supporting the name change. This letter also includes Patterson’s signature.
When asked about how he became aware of the history surrounding the name, Mayor Patterson said “I largely learned of it through a former forest supervisor named Lee Stewart who informed us that this was going on and that he wanted our input. So when I started doing research on this individual and what he was associated with I was like, yeah, this has to change.”
Within the letter, the council and the mayor suggested new names such as Ohio National Forest, Pawpaw National Forest and Buckeye National Forest. In addition, nearly 1,200 other suggestions have been submitted and 40 tribes have been consulted. 12 of these tribes are actively participating in the process.
“I personally am in strong support of renaming and naming it to anything other than an individual who was basically involved in ethnic cleansing,” Patterson said on the issue. “And there is no doubt in my mind that the name will be changed.”
The U.S. Forest Service has not yet decided on a name and is expected to come to an agreement by November.
In addition to the discussions surrounding Wayne National Forest, the council had the First Reading of Ordinance 94-23 which authorized the Service-Safety director to enter a MOU and addendum with the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission Task Force #22-09. This means the Athens Police Department (APD) will be able to work closely with neighboring counties such as Morgan County and Monroe County allowing for more officers to work on investigative cases. The ordinance also allows for the APD to do investigative work outside of city limits.
“It’s not at all unusual for our law enforcement to establish mutual aid agreements,” said Councilmember Micah McCarey, who introduced the ordinance. “This task force is an opportunity to collaborate in investigating crimes including murderous activity, money laundering, trafficking, possession of drugs, and so on and so forth.”
In other news:
The council had its third reading of Ordinance 83-23 which allows for the mayor to enter an agreement with the Northeastern Ohio Public Energy Council or NOPEC. This agreement is expected to lower gas prices in Athens.
Ordinance 93-23 was introduced by McCarey to amend the Athens City Code, Title 9 which concerns the control of petroleum liquids. The amendment would update fines associated with fire violations in an attempt to reduce violations.
