Athens City Council voted Monday to repeal a stalled Uptown Improvements bid package and move forward with a separate streetscape beautification project funded largely by a state grant.

Council member Spiones introduced Ordinance 1-29-25 to repeal Project 3-29 after four rounds of bidding produced no responses; the mayor told council that the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) has acknowledged the city complied with its obligations and that the bidding failures were external factors. “ODOT has assured us that they recognize that,” the mayor said.

Council then adopted Ordinance 1-30-25 to authorize engineering and construction of the Athens streetscape beautification Project 3-83. The mayor noted the city received a $6,500,000 award through the Appalachian Community Grant Fund (ACGP), part of state ARPA allocations, and cautioned that the city faces a tight runway to allocate and spend the grant by 2026.

Council members described Project 3-83 as a replacement for the stalled Uptown project and approved the ordinance by voice vote. The administration said it will proceed with engineering and coordinate with grant deadlines; council requested regular updates on schedule and procurement.

The repeal and the streetscape authorization were adopted during third reading with no roll-call tallies recorded in the transcript.