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Barnesville agrees to sell water to Antero — again

BARNESVILLE — Village Council voted Monday to resume selling water to Antero Resources for use in local fracking operations a year after the company allowed its previous contract with the village to expire.

The unanimous vote was taken after a short executive session to discuss contract negotiations, and Village Administrator Roger Deal summed up the new agreement.

“We have decided to come to terms with Antero for $6.50 per 1,000 gallons of raw water taken from the Slope Creek Reservoir. The guidelines set by Hall and Associates, who did the study as to how much water can be withdrawn daily and how much the water level can be dropped in the reservoir, will be adhered to,” he said.

He added that Antero had paid for the study five years ago as part of its first deal to buy water from the village.

Deal also said he would personally be monitoring the water level at the 98-acre reservoir, located 5 miles south of the village. Mayor Dale Bunting said he would see to it that the marks indicating critical levels be placed so they can be easily seen by all parties.

Deal also said the agreement would expire at the end of 2021.

Meanwhile, Deal said he was aware there were some complaints about tall grass in some of the cemeteries over Memorial Day weekend and apologized, saying that while Crestview Cemetery had been mowed and looked good, the persistent rainy weather had prevented cemetery crews from mowing the other two village-owned cemeteries ahead of the holiday observances.

Deal also presented an ordinance to eliminate the Cemetery Board of Trustees, explaining that Crestview Cemetery had once been privately owned and that when it was given to the village there had been a three-member board that was responsible for its operation and finances.

Deal said the village administrator, the mayor and council had assumed those responsibilities and there had never been a meeting of the Cemetery Board in his 27 years with the village. He said the proposed ordinance would allow the mayor to appoint a board should it be deemed necessary. Council then suspended the rules requiring that ordinances be read three times in order to adopt the ordinance as proposed.

Deal also reminded those present that a scheduled water and sewer rate increase would be taking effect on the July billings for June’s usage , adding that this was the last scheduled increase for the sewer rates and that next year would be the last year for a scheduled water rate increase.

He said having the incremental yearly increases had been effective and suggested council consider continuing the practice going forward.

Deal said only one bid had been received on the village’s 2008 F-350 and that the $1,500 offer was considerably less than he expected considering that the truck had under 44,000 miles and had a stainless steel salt spreader and snow plow installed.

Councilman Terry McCort said he thought the accessories were worth at least $1,500 and Bunting suggested selling the plow and spreader separate from the truck. Deal said he could reach out to neighboring communities to see if any were interested.

In the end McCort made a motion to reject the $1,500 bid and authorize Deal to look into selling the spreader and plow or start over with the bidding process if necessary.

In his update, Fire Chief Tim Hall expressed his pride and appreciation for his EMS crew, saying they consistently went “above and beyond” while out on calls despite the difficulties presented by the COVID-19 outbreak and that they would continue to take it “a day at a time.”

In response to concerns raised by Councilmen McCort and Steve Hill, Police Chief Rocky Sirianni said he would look to see what could be done about what was described as “a slew” of cats on Hunts Avenue, Broadway, and by the McDonald’s on East Main Street.

Concerning the upcoming Fourth of July holiday, Bunting assured everyone there will be a celebration.

“We will have fireworks in the village of Barnesville,” he said, going on to say the location is yet to be determined and adding that there couldn’t be a gathering due to the need to allow for safe social distancing.

He added that since some communities were canceling their fireworks, there was a chance officials could get Barnesville’s display moved to either July 3 or 4. Due to scheduling conflicts, Barnesville originally had scheduled its fireworks display for July 5.

As a father of a 2020 Barnesville High School graduate, Councilman Tony Johnson expressed his appreciation to the school district and the village as a whole for the “effort amongst everybody to make something really worthwhile” for this year’s graduates.

“Just like Barnesville,” he said. “Another fine example of all of us doing what we need to do.”

In other business, council approved a resolution in support of Belmont County’s Multi Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan, approved paying bills in the amount of $111,370.73, and approved building permits for Bill Deal to install a new metal roof at 212 Prospect St., for Ted Hanlon to install a metal roof at 311 N. Broadway, and for Lewis Bussa to install a wooden fence at 517 Park Street.

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