BARNESVILLE — A debate about council members attending meetings of committees to which they are not assigned interrupted last week’s meeting of Barnesville Village Council.

The exchange concerning committees started when Fire Chief Tim Hall requested that a brief Safety Committee meeting be scheduled and Mayor Dale Bunting asked council whether the village would continue to have committees. When Hall expressed his confusion about the mayor’s comment, a brief discussion broke out concerning the legality and propriety of non-committee members who are council members attending committee meetings. The conversation mainly focused on Councilman Jamie Betts’ interest in attending such meetings.

Bunting expressed his opinion that if any council members could attend the meetings there was no sense in having the committees and that he felt it showed a lack of trust in those who are on the committees to do so. Betts said it was his interest in the proceedings that compelled him to want to attend.

Councilman Terry McCort said he felt the use of committees was a matter of convenience for the members, and Councilman Les Tickhill was concerned that the fourth, extra member then constituted a quorum of council, which then changed the status of the meeting.

Betts said he felt that since the committee meetings were already advertised and open to the public with minutes recorded that there should be no issue with non-committee council members attending as they wish.

The committee issue was tabled and the Safety Meeting was scheduled for 5:15 p.m. today.

Meanwhile, Police Chief Rocky Sirianni’s request to hire Lanee Yocum as a part-time dispatcher touched off a debate about cutting or increasing the number of hours the village keeps a dispatcher at the police station.

Council President Brad Hudson said, “We used to have 24-hour dispatchers, then we did away with the night shift since the citizens of Barnesville pay that tax for 911 and that’s part of it. There was concern when we did that, but it hasn’t been an issue. The citizens don’t even know the difference. If they call after midnight, 911 dispatches the police. It seems like our citizens are double-paying for the same service.”

He went on to say he felt that through the day it made sense to have someone there, but he thought that Sunday afternoon shifts could be cut and proposed some other times when he thought the village would be just as well served by letting Belmont County 911 handle things.

Sirianni said there are hardly any “walk-ins” between midnight and 8 a.m., but that it is impossible to know what days and evenings might be busy.

He noted that some Sundays are busier than weekdays, adding that he understood Hudson’s point.

Bunting was skeptical, saying, “Personally, myself, I’d be more comfortable if there was somebody down there (at the police station). There’s stuff that goes on that you guys don’t realize.”

Sirianni agreed.

“It’s comforting, I think, for people to know that they can run into the police department and talk to somebody if they need something,” he said.

Hudson said he was also willing to look at going back to 24/7 dispatching service in the village before the importance of the dispatchers’ clerical duties were briefly discussed.

The issue was tabled for further consideration, and council voted to hire Yoccum as a part-time dispatcher.

In another matter, Village Administrator Roger Deal said he was preparing to advertise for the village’s annual leaf pick-up and reminded council that the community had been working toward no longer allowing plastic bags to be used for the service due to the extra labor and disposal issues at the composting site where they are dumped.

He asked council’s permission to advertise that the village would only accept biodegradable bags for the leaf pick-up. Council granted the request.

Deal also informed council that the Ohio Public Works Commission paving project had been pushed back a few times, but said he had been given a start date of today for the project. He noted that West Main would be the first street paved due to the upcoming Pumpkin Festival at the end of September and it being the bulk of the project.

Deal also informed council that the price of road salt would be $90.31 per ton; last year it was $49.53. He said this would reflect an increase of $18,351 to the village for its yearly commitment and that it was the largest increase he had seen in a number of years.

Community Development Director Bill Knox updated council concerning plans to put a new parking lot serving the downtown business district in the space left by the recent demolition of the old pool hall and the St. Vincent DePaul Thrift Store. He said the plan was for the village to handle the parking lot itself while installation of the sidewalk, a wall and stairs would be bid out with two different specifications to get a better range of prices.

Knox said that no decision was needed at this time but noted he was excited to see the direction the downtown district is headed.

In other business, council approved paying bills in the amount of $59,422.87 and approved a building permit for Amber Batross to install a fence at 160 Warren Ave.