MARTINS FERRY — A longtime councilman has announced he is stepping down at the end of September. Bruce Shrodes, who has served several consecutive terms recently and in prior years, provided a letter to the council when city leaders met Thursday.

Kristine Davis, president of council, read the letter.

“I have decided to resign my position as Second Ward councilman for the City of Martins Ferry. My last day of work will be Sept. 30, 2023. I want to take this opportunity to thank you and all the members of council and the administration for the support during my time on council. It has been an honor working with you. I will be here to assist in the transition process in any way I can.”

Davis said Shrodes’ leadership will be missed.

“I sincerely hate to hear Mr. Shrodes’ resignation. Experienced council people are such a value to me, an asset to council, however that’s his decision to make,” she said. “We wish him well.”

Davis said Shrodes will be present next week, but could not attend Thursday’s meeting due to a prior commitment.

Afterward, Davis said Shrodes did not give a reason for his resignation. She added Shrodes has been the chairman of service over the city’s Enterprise funds and has been active in areas of service.

“Especially the water department. He’s served on there, and he’s chairman of our ordinance committee. That’s his two major committees, and he’s done an awful lot of work on there. That makes him responsible for preparing and working with the law director on every local ordinance and resolution that we pass,” Davis said.

“His personal focus has been the cleanup of the city as far as trash collection. He was instrumental in clarifying our trash collection ordinance, and also he’s particularly been vital to us about following up on vacant properties, high weeds, high grass, Bruce has really been big about having us getting compliance,” she said.

“Martins Ferry’s going through a very difficult time right now, and he’s been with us a good while, as have most of the members here now, and there’s experience that you can’t replace,” she said.

Shrodes’ term would have ended Dec. 31.

This matter will be referred to the Belmont County Republican central committee. They will have up to 45 days to fill Shrodes’ seat for the remainder of his term.

In other matters related to water service, council heard from Mayor John Davies and Service Director Andy Sutak, who reported on the state of water service following a major water line break about a month ago.

“That was devastating to the city and businesses,” Davies said.

Davies said the total cost of repairing and upgrading the entire system would be about $6 million, with individual items such as an upgraded supervisory control and data acquisition computer program to run the pumps.

“If that goes down, we cannot pump water. That runs the entire operation,” he said. “It’s obsolete. The gentleman that designed that has since retired, and so every time something goes wrong, we struggle to get it up and running again.”

Other options include installing “soft start” pumps that should save money and allow the pumps to start gradually instead of abruptly starting and stopping.

Council approved the first stage, the purchase of a valve-turning device to exercise valves at a cost of $90,635. Davies said the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has mandated the valves be exercised.

In other matters, a town hall meeting was scheduled for 6 p.m. Oct. 17 at the Veterans Memorial Recreation Center, 401 S 4th St. The purpose is to discuss a proposed 1% income tax increase before placing it on the upcoming Nov. 7 ballot.