T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA Shadyside resident Clyde Yates visits the village council meeting Monday to ask council to make a solicitor stop their activities in the community.

SHADYSIDE — Residents in the village of Shadyside have been receiving pamphlets on their doorsteps for the past few weeks.

Resident Clyde Yates visited the village council meeting Monday evening to ask council to make the solicitor stop. Yates said that for the past two weeks, the individuals distributing the pamphlets are going door-to-door between 4 and 7 a.m. and leaving them on porches, in mailboxes and on the ground. He added that this week he received what is believed to be the third edition of the pamphlet, and he wants it to stop.

The pamphlet causing a stir is called “The Voice,” and it contains multiple write-ups claiming that a particular resident was “swindled” out of his “estate” on Highland Avenue.

Assistant Police Chief Jeff Loeffler said that the property went up for auction by the Belmont County Sheriff’s Department due to the owner being delinquent on property tax payments. Another Shadyside resident purchased the property at auction in 2022.

Loeffler said the pamphlets are being created and distributed by the resident who lost his property for past due taxes.

“It’s his material, he’s behind it. Now, whether he denies it or not, that’s immaterial, but he has people passing it out. This lady had a Bellaire address, and from my understanding, she is renting a place in Shadyside. She was the one that was caught soliciting by one of our officers, where she was on somebody’s property, leaving this material, handing it out on this property. That is the part that is under investigation,” Loeffler said. “The pamphlets are being delivered to residents’ doorsteps unprovoked in the middle of the night.

“So these little pamphlets that they’re calling a newspaper, which is not, it’s made up by a person in town that’s been, as you could say, aggravating the village in other ways, and now he’s found making these pamphlets,” Loeffler added.

One section of “The Voice” claims that the new property owner, the Shadyside Police Department, and the Belmont County Sheriff’s Department targeted the resident Loeffler said was delinquent on tax payments because he was running for mayor against incumbent Robert Newhart.

The article also names Yates, claiming he was involved in the conspiracy.

Another article claims that a different resident is involved in an auto theft ring with the resident who purchased the property. It further alleges bribes were paid to an off-duty Shadyside police officer.

The pamphlet also includes several pictures of the new property owner as well as other unnamed residents it alleges are involved in the conspiracy.

Yates attended the meeting in hopes that council would provide a solution to stop what he believes is slander and solicitation.

Loeffler said the Shadyside Police Department is currently investigating the soliciting, but the alleged slander would need to be addressed as a civil matter. He added that officers also will investigate whether the pamphlets are being put into residents’ mailboxes, which is illegal.

“The U.S. Postal Service would like to warn people that only authorized U.S. Postal Service delivery personnel are allowed to place items in a mailbox. By law, a mailbox is intended only for receipt of postage-paid U.S. Mail,” the U.S. Postal Service’s website states.

“Handing it out in the middle of the night, four o’clock in the morning, five in the morning, putting something on the porch or mailbox is just unacceptable,” Loeffler said.