BARNESVILLE — Village Council reversed course Monday and voted 4-2 to tear down two historic buildings on North Chestnut Street to expand downtown parking despite public opposition.

Council members said a few weeks ago that it was their intent to sell the structures to be redeveloped.

A large crowd of concerned residents was in attendance at the scheduled council meeting, but the fate of the buildings was decided before any further discussion on the matter could take place. Councilman Tim McKelvey put a motion before council to begin the process of taking bids to have two of the three village-owned buildings on the west side of North Chestnut Street torn down.

The Victorian home that was formerly the Barnesville Veterinary Clinic was not included in the stated demolition plans and the possibility of selling that property was spoken of by McKelvey.

After the motion was seconded by Councilman Tony Johnson, Councilman Steve Hill interrupted the proceeding to point out that at the Jan. 30 council meeting Mayor Dale Bunting had said that the properties would be put up for bid and that none of the legal procedures required to do so had been undertaken. He added that he still believed that was the best course of action.

The motion did pass, though, with Council President Les Tickhill and Councilman Terry McCort joining Johnson and McKelvey with “yes” votes while Councilmen Brian Yarnall and Hill voted “no.”

After the motion passed, Hill spoke again: “Since it’s been voted to take them down, I feel that we need to give these properties to the (Belmont County) Port Authority to sell to that individual that’s been pushing for this for a dollar. Let him have the expense of taking them down, not the people of Barnesville. Dale came up with a price of $200,000 just to tear them down and then you’re going to spend another $200,000 to put the parking lot in. Why should the people of this town pay for that?”

McKelvey responded that the village paid for streetscaping and for the construction and maintenance of a number of parking lots in town.

Greg Batts is the vice president of the Barnesville State Theatre Company, and his firm prepared a downtown parking study in December that showed less than 40% occupancy. He expressed exasperation with the proceedings and the fact that no further public input was heard before the vote.

After Bunting said that council had “heard” over the course of the last few months, Batts shot back, “We haven’t heard from you. You’ve given no rationale for these decisions. What you’re proposing opens the door to what is potentially an existential threat to the future of downtown Barnesville. We’ve done our homework on this and you have not. We’ve done studies, researched articles, talked to preservationists, architects, realtors and there’s nothing out there that says this is a good idea.”

Luke Johnson, who is on the Board of Architectural Review that must approve construction and demolition projects in the downtown area, expressed his concern that with the buildings on North Chestnut removed, the rear of the buildings along West Main Street would be exposed. He said any architectural plan for the parking lot must take that into account, adding that he would have to vote against any plan that was not historically accurate or didn’t enhance the look of the downtown district.

Concerns also have been voiced about the potential loss of historic district status for the downtown area with the demolition of historic structures. The board and council also recently approved demolition of the former Patrick’s restaurant, which is situated on the corner of Main and Chestnut streets, adjacent to the village-owned structures.

McCort explained his reasoning for voting for the demolition, saying, “If you really look at those buildings and what it would actually cost to (bring) them back with any type of restoration, it would be astronomical. It’s not like we’re going to tear this down and leave a big spot there.”

Hill said there had been someone who had expressed interest in both buildings but had “pulled out” due to hearing different things from different people involved in the process.

Bunting said that now that the decision had been made, that the planning for what the area will look like can begin.