T-L Photo/JENNIFER COMPSTON-STROUGH The village-owned Bohandy Building sits at the corner of Main and Chestnut streets in Barnesville.

BARNESVILLE — Village Council recently voted to advertise the Bohandy Building for public bid.

During a council meeting held Sept. 23, representatives of attorney Michael Shaheen revealed that they had a number of possible tenants interested in setting up shop in the building that sits on the corner of East Main and South Chestnut streets should Shaheen acquire the building.

They said that among these potential businesses were two restaurants and a coffee shop. But since council had tabled taking any further action to sell the building during recent meetings, there was not much more they could do.

Councilman Steve Hill suggested they “put together a meeting” to make a decision on the matter, but Mayor Jake Hershberger encouraged council to go through the sealed bid process.

Hill made a motion to advertise the building for bid, noting that council members would have the option to do what they thought was best with the bids they received.

Hershberger added, “It’s important that we strongly emphasize that it’s not just the price that we’re looking at, but the intent of the use of the building.”

Councilmen Les Tickhill and Brian Yarnall joined Hill with “yes” votes. Council President Tony Johnson voted “no,” while Councilman Terry McCort confirmed that they were voting just to advertise the building for bid before voting “yes” and noting that he was not interested in selling the building for the prices that had been previously discussed. Councilwoman Robyn Misner was absent from the meeting.

In August, council received backlash after backing out of selling the building to local businessman Joel Braido for $75,000 after Shaheen had shown interest in the property and offered $90,000. Shaheen and others said at the time that they thought the village should go through the public bid process to sell property.

On a number of occasions in recent years, village-owned property had been transferred to either the Belmont County Port Authority or Community Improvement Corp. in order to facilitate their sale to a specific entity as a way of bypassing the public bid process requirements contained in Ohio Revised Code.

Meanwhile, Village Administrator Roger Deal announced that the South Chestnut Street storm drain project had been completed, adding that it had been a fairly “troublesome project.”

Deal said they knew there would be surprises when they started and Adam Ackerman, whose construction firm worked on the project, agreed that it was more complicated than what they had anticipated. He offered to sit down with anyone who wanted to go over the records of what had been done.

The project had been approved as an estimated $200,000 “in-house” project with local contractors Ackerman and Roger Morris working with the village to complete the project ahead of the Ohio Department of Transportation’s scheduled paving of that stretch in the next couple of years. Deal had noted at a previous meeting that they would be exceeding the original budget.

Deal also informed council that Barnesville had been chosen by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to be featured in a short film about communities that have implemented Sourcewater Protection Plans.

Deal reported that the water level at the village’s Slope Creek Reservoir was only down about 4 feet despite the extremely dry summer, noting that this was not a lot for a reservoir that size and that crews had been pumping steadily and keeping Reservoir No. 2 full as well.

Deal thanked Braido and everyone involved in the restoration and relocation of the Civil War soldier statue from Southern Cemetery to Veteran’s Plaza at the corner of Main and Arch streets.

Deal also thanked village street department crews for putting up the Pumpkin Festival Parade Marshal banners, saying they had opted to do some of the work at night when there would be less traffic.

Deal thanked WVU Medicine Barnesville Hospital and Woodsfield Savings Bank for purchasing the banners.

In other business, council approved paying bills in the amount of $241,633.12 and approved Hershberger’s appointment of Mike Sulek to the Historical Review Board.