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BARNESVILLE -- Village officials recently heard from a business owner and a resident concerning the potential effects of two different village projects.
Home Pizza owner Pam Campbell addressed council on July 31, asking what measures the village was taking to ensure that her business is not disrupted while four nearby buildings are being demolished to make way for a parking lot.
"Nobody has talked to us about what this is going to entail, what this is going to do to our business. Is the electric going to be down for a while? Because if I'm going to be shut down, somebody's paying me to shut down because I have employees I have to take care of," Campbell said. "I just need to know what the plan is."
She also raised concerns about potential drainage issues caused by the buildings being removed.
Councilman Tony Johnson responded, saying a lot of the answers she was seeking will be addressed by the contractor performing the demolition.
"It's going to be a moving target, but by no means are we planning on shutting anybody down," he said.
Johnson said the drainage issue is a primary concern, while Councilman Steve Hill said that one of the village-ordered changes to the demolition contract was to address drainage specifically.
Also discussed was the fact that a number of electrical connections for nearby buildings are mounted to one of the buildings being demolished, and that it would be the responsibility of those businesses to have their electrical service moved prior to the demolition.
"That's traditionally how it is," Johnson said.
Campbell said her service is not attached to the building, but that it does cross over the top which could be a different issue.
Village Administrator Roger Deal said there would be no planned power outage for the businesses, that if one occurs it would only be by accident.
Councilman Tim McKelvey suggested they get together with the business owners and the contractor so that everyone's questions can be answered and that the contractor might come up with answers, while Hill said they should get someone from American Electric Power involved in the discussions as well.
Deal said that once they get a final contract signed he would see about getting everyone together.
Meanwhile, Frank Fowler addressed council concerning recently announced plans to place two ballfields on a 12-acre plot off of Pultney Avenue that was recently donated to the village by CCU Coal and Construction. Fowler said he was concerned about the volume of traffic going to and from the fields since Pultney Avenue is a narrow, dead-end street that very seldom sees two-way traffic since only five residences and the Warren Township Garage are located there.
Fowler said he understood that the fields are intended for practice use and speculated that Pultney Avenue could be traversed 100 times on a day when there were two practices held on each field.
Mayor Dale Bunting and Warren Township Trustee Jim Greer noted that a portion of Pultney Avenue lies outside the village and that the road surface could possibly be widened to the ditch line to better allow cars to pass.
Johnson said that the fields are much needed and that he hopes they will be well used.
"I'm sure we'll be able to work something out," he said. "Our intent is not to make the neighborhood bad."
In another matter, Scott Wolfe addressed council concerning how an incident between his and another dog was handled by a Barnesville police officer. He claimed there was a conflict of interest issue involved since the other dog in the incident was with the officer's wife.
Officials warned Wolfe that he could be removed from the meeting as he continued to raise his voice while trying to make his points. Police Chief Rocky Siranni said that the case was already being decided in Belmont County Western Division Court.
Wolfe eventually stormed out of the meeting after Village Solicitor Adam Myser attempted to counter his arguments with a legal explanation.
Hill brought up a lawsuit that has been brought against the village by Open Government Advocates, asking Myser what it was about.
Myser characterized the group that brought the suit and others like it as "public meeting bounty-hunters," explaining that it has claimed that Barnesville has violated Ohio's Public Meeting Act after "mining" Barnesville's publicly available meeting minutes.
Myser said he immediately answered the claim upon receiving it on July 19 but has received no reply. He added that since it concerns litigation, any further discussion of the matter should take place in executive session.
Barnesville council meets again at 7 p.m. today in the Municipal Building on Arch Street.