BROOKSIDE — Though the village is making progress toward construction of its new firehouse and municipal bundling, there have been a few snags along the way.

Brookside Fire Chief Allan Ketzell III spoke about the project during a Brookside Village Council meeting Monday, when he informed members of some of those “hiccups.”

He said a “major hiccup” is a sewer line on National Road that needs to be moved no more than 10 feet from its current location.

“Everything got mapped except for the sewer lines and the waterlines, and we hit a sewer line. The sewer line has been repaired, it’s flowing but it has to be moved because that’s where the foundation is going to go,” he said, adding that they cannot do any further construction work until the line is relocated.

However, the area where the village plans to move the line is also where the state intends to perform work.

Mayor Rich Kurner said he is waiting to hear back from the engineer to confirm if they can move forward with the line replacement.

Ketzell noted that the project continues to move along. The new building is being built on a village-owned property located at Patterson and National roads.

Ketzell, who is also the village health inspector, said he is looking to submit six dilapidated properties to the Belmont County Land Reutilization Corp., or land bank, for demolition.

In other matters, Councilman Roger Stewart gave a report on the Eastern Ohio Regional Wastewater Authority. He said the authority is working on a new project to email customers their invoices. He said the program could be implemented in March.

“Customers will be able to receive a paper bill, an emailed bill or both if the customer signs up with the website,” he said.

Also, council passed appropriations for 2023 as an emergency, waiving the requirement for three public readings of the legislation.

Councilman Paul West was nominated as council president but declined. Councilman Dennis Kennedy was then nominated and accepted the role.

Kurner brought up a concern regarding trucks driving onto village sidewalks, breaking or bending the metal caps on the storm drains.

“We need to figure out a way to keep the trucks off the sidewalks,” he said, adding that it costs $1,000 to replace each cap.

Ketzell said there were previously posts in front of the caps but trucks kept running them over, so the posts were removed due to destroying the concrete.

Councilwoman Sara Mudrick suggested purchasing cameras to mount on a nearby building or telephone pole in order to fine the companies responsible for any damage, to which other council members agreed.

It was also suggested to fill a pole with concrete to stop the trucks from going onto the curbs where the drain caps are situated.

“We have to do something because we can’t keep replacing those down there. It’s too much money. The last one I took out, he tried to straighten it – he has a machine down there to try and straighten it out – it was bent so bad they just couldn’t do it,” Kurner said.

Council will next meet at 6 p.m. Feb. 13 in council chambers, located at 875 National Road.