BELLAIRE — Bellaire Village Council named Frank Shaffer as the new village administrator Thursday.

The administrator position has been vacant since June 2021, when former administrator Mike Wallace retired. Mayor Edward Marling has been attending to many of the village administrator’s duties in the meantime.

Shaffer also serves as a Pultney Township trustee. He said he did some research and determined he is legally allowed to hold both positions.

Councilwoman Janet Richardson said Shaffer was interviewed by Marling along with a few council members. Marling said he highly recommended Shaffer for the position.

Shaffer said he wanted to offer his help to the village.

“I’m just the type of person that basically likes to help people, and in this situation, I feel the entity needs some help, as did the township when I got involved. I just feel that basically there was some help needed, and I decided to step up to the plate and try to give them some help,” he said.

Shaffer said he wants to learn more about the village and do some research before making any major decisions in his new post.

“It’s going to take me a little while just to dig in and see what’s needed and where I can give assistance to,” he said.

Newly elected Councilman Bill Schmitt welcomed Shaffer on board and joked that it was nice to no longer be the newest village official in the room.

In other news, council voted to elect Councilman Jerry Olack as president pro tem. Schmitt made a motion to elect Councilwoman Janet Richardson for the title, but no one seconded the motion.

Councilman Mike Doyle then made the motion to elect Olack. Councilman Robert “Bubba” Kapral seconded the motion.

Richardson and Schmitt both voted against the motion with Olack abstaining from the vote. Doyle, Councilwoman Elizabeth Dugmore and Kapral voted to make Olack president pro tem.

Also during the meeting, Police Chief J.J. Watson said the police department did active shooter training at Bellaire High School on Dec. 29. He said the Powhatan Point and St. Clairsville police departments assisted with the training. Watson said he wanted to thank Bellaire High School officials for letting the department use the building, noting that Airsoft guns were used during the training.

“It made it feel real with people actually shooting at you,” he said.

Doyle questioned Watson about whether the police department would need any additional equipment now that recreational use marijuana is legal in Ohio. Doyle asked if any device similar to a breathalyzer could be used to determine if a person is under the influence of marijuana during a traffic stop.

Watson said no such equipment existed or was needed. He said the officers are trained to look for physical signs that a person is under the influence of marijuana.

“There are ways that we can tell, and if that’s the case, we will send them off for bloodwork,” he explained.

Richardson discussed updating the village website.

“We have a village website that’s very, very outdated yet contains a lot of information,” she said.

Richardson explained that no village employees currently have access to update the website.

She said she plans to set up a free consultation with 10T Web Design after seeing that the website for the city of St. Clairsville was designed by the same company.

Richardson said she hopes to determine if there is any way to access the current website or if the village will have to shut it down and create a new one. She said she would like to keep the current website if possible.

“I think that that site is so important because as soon as you type in ‘village of Bellaire,’ it takes you right there,” she said.

Dugmore said she would like to extend her “deepest sympathies” to Solicitor Paul Stecker, whose wife died Sunday.

“They’re a young couple, and we’d like to send our most heartfelt condolences,” she said.

Stecker was not present at the meeting but plans to return for the next meeting on Jan. 18.

Clerk Mary Haglioizou said she is still working on creating the handbook for village employees. Doyle stressed the need for the handbook, saying that the village needs to create official and consistent guidelines for village workers instead of relying on verbal instructions from the mayor or other village officials.

During Thursday’s meeting, all members of council voted to transfer the liquor license from the former Sakura Family Restaurant to the All American Family Restaurant that recently opened in Bellaire in the same building, located at 3293 Belmont St., Bellaire. The restaurant opened its doors at the beginning of December.