Bellaire Village Council members Mike Doyle, from left, Jerry Olack, Janet Richardson and Solicitor Paul Stecker listen as Police Chief J.J. Watson, right, discusses tearing down dilapidated buildings in Bellaire during Thursday’s council meeting. T-L Photo/KAILEY CARPINO Bellaire council discusses razing dilapidated buildings

BELLAIRE — Police Chief J.J. Watson wants to focus on demolishing dilapidated buildings in Bellaire, including at least one owned by the village itself.

He told Village Council on Thursday that he and Village Administrator Frank Shaffer had driven around the community and noticed many structures that need to be torn down. He noted that one property they looked at is owned by the village.

“We’re writing people up for property violations when we’re not even taking care of our own property,” Watson remarked.

Watson said the Belmont County Land Reutilization Corp. — commonly referred to as the land bank — is working to tear down 40 buildings across the county this year.

“The land bank encompasses all of Belmont County. They cannot come in and take care of all of our problems. We, as a village, have to be the ones who’s going to have to spearhead something to go out here and get some of these properties torn down. We can’t depend on the land bank to do all of our business,” he said.

“If we want to clean up our town, we got to do it ourselves,” he continued. “We can’t depend on an outside agency to take care of the business. If we want to clean it up, we got to take care of the responsibility ourselves and do something.”

Watson said the village has looked into grants in the past to help pay for demolition projects. He said he hopes the village will continue to look for grants so that the issue can be addressed.

In other news, Councilman Bill Schmitt discussed bringing emergency medical services back to Bellaire. He said he had spoken to Zac Thomas of the fire department about the idea.

“He (Thomas) said that they would do it at no cost to the village, but it would be a tax-paying business in the village,” Schmitt said.

Schmitt said having EMS services within the village would cut response times in half.

“It would just be able to give us a little more safety,” he said.

Neffs Fire Department currently provides EMS services to Bellaire.

“The guys at Neffs do a great job, but sometimes we need timely service when it comes to things like this because it could possibly be the life of a resident,” Schmitt said.

Councilman Jerry Olack said the village has looked into getting EMS services in Bellaire in the past, and it has not worked out.

“You had them before, you brought this other company in, kicked Neffs out, brought this other company in and got rid of them and got Neffs back. How many times do you want to screw over Neffs? They don’t charge you a dime,” Olack said.

Mayor Edward Marling said the matter would be discussed further by council and the village’s safety committee.

Meanwhile, Councilwoman Janet Richardson said she and Marla Krupnik, fiscal officer, are working on some oil and gas leases. Richardson said she hopes to get some funding from the leases that will go to the village’s matching grant fund.

“We miss a lot of opportunities for grants because we don’t have the funds to match,” she said.

Richardson also said the finance committee has been looking at the finances of each department individually to make sure that each department is working efficiently. The finance committee will have its next meeting at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the municipal building.

Watson also said the police department’s employee handbook has recently been updated.

“It has everything from use of force to the officer’s personal appearance,” he said.