T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK Todd Cover, left, president of Belmont Savings Bank, and Branch Manager Courtney Smith, right, make a donation to Bellaire Local Schools District’s football team and Coach Mark Bonar Thursday during a block party celebrating the opening and ribbon cutting of the new branch location on 34th St., Bellaire. They are joined by Bonar’s grandson, Jackson Quirk, and the football team.

BELLAIRE — Belmont Savings Bank has expanded its operations in Bellaire and its commitment to service to the community of the “All-American Town.” On Thursday, the public was invited to a tailgate party and tour of the new location at 426 34th Street.

Bank President Todd Cover presided over the ribbon-cutting. He said this represents an investment in the area.

“We’ve grown in employees, so our former branch is now going to be our corporate office. We’re going to allow people to spread out and have their own office, whereas now, they’re sharing offices. We’ve been fortunate to hire about 15 people the last seven or eight years, so that’s allowed us to grow and we need more space, so when this building became available, it’s obviously very convenient to where we’re at now and it’s going to allow us to better serve our customers in a more friendly atmosphere.

“I think it also shows our investment in the Bellaire community. Bellaire was once known as the All-American Town, and we’re going to do our part to get it back where it once was and thriving,” Cover said.

Alicia Jordan, marketing director at the bank, said the employees are excited for the move.

“It gives them more space to do what they need to do, provide the customers with customer service that we are known for. The employees are thrilled,” she said. “It’s all impressive. We have a training room. We have a nice conference room that we can utilize, we have a lot of meetings here. It’s open, so if civic organizations need a place to meet, we can provide that for them.”

Branch Manager Courtney Smith said his employees had settled into the new location. He said bank customers will notice the change.

“Our block party today is just to be that welcoming celebrating for all of our customers,” he said. “In terms of the building itself, it’s just much easier access than our older building. We are actually going to have four lanes at our drive-through here, and at the branch itself we are able to provide better customer service because we don’t have two separate entryways for our drive-through and our teller line, so it’s much easier for our employees to interact with our customers.”

He said the employees are also better able to interact.

“It’s a much more functional branch than the old building,” Smith said, adding that the bank is taking applications.

“We want everybody to put in a resume no matter what job. If it’s for a loan officer, if it’s for a universal banker, feel free to send us a resume at any time. We’ll review it because we are expanding. We’re growing. We’re a very profitable bank, and we’re a community bank. We’re really involved with everything in our community.”

Smith added the bank also assists high school and middle school students with financial literacy.

“The sooner we can get the younger generation learning about how to handle their finances, the better,” he said. “We really teach them about saving, about credit and how to manage it wisely. The sooner that we can get to them, the better off they are. We can teach them the right financial path to take in life rather than just going out and spending and incurring a lot of debt.”

Cover said the former branch site at 3301 Guernsey St. will see several upgrades before it opens in about two to three months.

“We’ve developed a lot of products over the past several years, and we need some back office support to be able to support those,” he said. “This will allow us to spread out a little bit on the retail side and better serve our customers with a little more privacy and a little more modern facility.”

Cover also presented a donation to the Bellaire Local Schools District’s football team.

Football coach Mark Bonar said the donation would be given to the Mom’s Club, which supports the team. He thanked the bank.

“The support we have from the community is unbelievable,” Bonar said.