A large group of citizens attended Monday night’s Athens City Council meeting to voice their displeasure over a plan to put housing where the old memorial hospital stood.
The group used the Citizens’ Comments portion of the agenda to argue that the property on Lindsey Lane where the hospital used to be should be turned into a park.
“If we sell off parks and we don’t develop new parks, we’ll have children playing in the street,” said speaker Michael Burton.
Several people spoke passionately and eloquently about the long years the hospital was allowed to deteriorate in the middle of the neighborhood.
In all, nine individuals spoke before the council, two others called City Hall to have remarks read into the record and a letter from a third citizen was read, all against housing on the property.
Because the issue was not actually on the agenda, council members could not answer any of the speakers and no action was taken.