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2 days ago | 
athensindependent.com | Dani Kington
ATHENS, Ohio — Athens City Council on Monday advanced the first reading of an ordinance to appropriate $932,000 to cover the final payment of the new fire station headquarters on Stimson Avenue. Ordinance 0-63-25 approves the final payment to Pepper Construction for its work on the new fire station headquarters. The final payment includes $530,000 moved from the capital improvement fund to the safety services fund — of which $30,000 is new spending.
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2 days ago | 
athensindependent.com | Dani Kington
MARIETTA, Ohio — On May 19, a combination of environmental activists, oil and gas producers, township trustees, water association employees and a state representative crowded into the same room at the Warren Water and Sewer Association in Marietta. The group came together over shared concerns with twin bills moving through the Ohio statehouse, Senate Bill 136 and House Bill 170.
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1 week ago | 
athensindependent.com | Dani Kington
ATHENS, Ohio — The Athens Conservancy and Ohio Department of Natural Resources are working together to protect a plant once deemed extinct, which grows in large numbers at the conservancy’s Baker Preserve. Athens Conservancy co-founder Phil Cantino first found the running buffalo clover (Trifolium stoloniferum) at Baker Preserve in 2015. “Finding a federally endangered [plant] at an Athens Conservancy preserve – it was just great,” Cantino said.
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1 week ago | 
athensindependent.com | Dani Kington
NELSONVILLE, Ohio — A civil case against former Hocking College police officer Cecil Morrison, who shot and killed Nelsonville resident Michael Whitmer in 2021, was terminated Wednesday, May 28, after both parties agreed upon its dismissal, pointing to a likely settlement agreement. The case was dismissed with prejudice. That means the plaintiff, Michael Whitmer’s estate, can never refile the same claim against Morrison. The attorney for Whitmer’s estate declined to give comment for this story.
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2 weeks ago | 
athensindependent.com | Dani Kington
ATHENS, Ohio — Ohio University filed an appeal on Thursday of a State Employee Relations Board decision that had certified a union for its faculty, continuing to fight for an outcome that could hinder labor organizing across the state. “This is very disappointing,” said United Academics of Ohio University organizer Julie White.
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2 weeks ago | 
athensindependent.com | Dani Kington
NELSONVILLE, Ohio — A monthly farmers market will come to Nelsonville starting in June, connecting area residents with fresh local food. The Nelsonville Evening Farmers Market will take place on the first Wednesday of each month from 4–7 p.m., June through October, in the parking lot of the Athens County Community Cares Resource Center, 10 W. Washington St., on the Nelsonville Public Square.
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4 weeks ago | 
athensindependent.com | Dani Kington
ATHENS, Ohio — The State Employee Relations Board on Wednesday officially certified the Ohio University faculty union, dismissing OU’s objections to the recent decision of its faculty. OU has 15 days from the order to appeal the decision. Based upon an investigation by an administrative law judge, the SERB found “insufficient evidence” to justify setting aside the union election results.
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1 month ago | 
athensindependent.com | Dani Kington
NELSONVILLE, Ohio — Logging in the Wayne National Forest could increase substantially under a presidential executive order to boost federal timber production. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday, March 1 expanding domestic timber production by 25%. In accordance with the order, the United States Secretary of Agriculture moved this month to make new timber projects easier on nearly 113,000,000 acres — about 60% of all land managed by the National Forest Service.
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1 month ago | 
athensindependent.com | Dani Kington
ATHENS, Ohio — United Academics of Ohio University argued in an April 14 filing that the university’s objections to the recent faculty union election, if upheld, would unfairly delay faculty unionization and drastically curtail labor organizing throughout the state. The State Employee Relations Board released unofficial election results in March that showed that more than 70% of participating OU faculty members voted to unionize, with UAOU as the employee representative.
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1 month ago | 
athensindependent.com | Dani Kington
ATHENS, Ohio — Last Thursday, April 3, Ohio University filed an objection with the State Employee Relations Board seeking to overturn the results of a recent faculty union election. Over 70% of participating faculty voted in favor of unionization in the election held earlier this year. In its objection, the university said that the union held members-only meetings during the campaign and that the election process was compromised by issues with faculty receiving mail-in ballots.
