The Athens City Council unanimously declared the old Shoney’s building, located at 1402 U.S. Highway 72 E, an unsafe structure and a public nuisance at its meeting Monday — approving a resolution that orders the abatement of the property. 

“I think it’s time, we’ve been going back and forth on this process for a number of months,” Athens Mayor Ronnie Marks told The News Courier after the March 24 meeting at city hall concluded. “We were not trying to play hard ball in the process, but sometimes you have to draw the line in the sand and I think it’s time to do that. There’s no use in us continuing to kick the can down the road on this issue.”

At a previous meeting on Feb. 24, the City Council held a public hearing on the property in which they opted to grant the building’s owners a 30-day extension to decide a course of action for the building. 

Chief Building Inspector Erik Waddell was in favor of the 30-day delay in action from the council at the previous meeting, but he said that the owners have failed to take any action to repair the storm damage and rot damage within the allotted time frame. 

At the meeting on Monday, Waddell said that the owners have requested an additional 30-day extension, which he did not recommend going forward with. 

“The back end of the building is unsafe, but It’s a beautiful piece of property,” Marks said. “Hopefully we can get something in there. I think it could be a good retail development project, there’s already two hotels constructed there as well.”

Athens City Council President James Lucas explained why he chose not to go forward with another 30-day extension, mentioning how long the building has been empty since it closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“I think we’ve given the owners enough time, and it’s been sitting there for quite a while with no improvements being made,” Lucas said. “I would love to see another Shoney’s go into that site there, or at least another buffet-style restaurant. I’ve always liked Shoney’s, but they’ve shown no interest in making repairs to the building.”

In other business the council:

— Approved a resolution to purchase a 2025 Chevrolet Tahoe from Donohoo Chevrolet at a total cost not to exceed $60,504 from the police department’s existing capital expenditure account. 

— Approved a resolution to purchase five 2025 Police Interceptor SUV vehicles from Woody Anderson Ford at a cost not to exceed $236,945 from the police department’s existing capital expenditure account. 

— Approved a resolution for a final correcting change order in the net amount of $71,951.50 to Vortex Companies for pipe-bursting deteriorated sanitary sewer collection lines.

— Approved a resolution to accept the low bid of $3,377,410 from Virginia Transformer Corporation for two 46-12.47kV substation power transformers for Athens Utilities’ Elm Park and Swancott electric substations. 

— Approved a resolution that allowed Mayor Marks to pay aid to construction costs to Athens Utilities for Sunrise Park Phase I in the amount of $446,419.09 from the 2024 GO Warrant Fund. 

— Approved resolutions to allow City Engineer Michael Griffin to enter into an agreement with the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) to construct a median crossover on U.S. Highway 72 and approve the payment of $1,601 to ALDOT for a portion of the landscaping for the retail development “French Mill” project.