BARNESVILLE — Village officials learned recently that the pool at Memorial Park was experiencing a number of issues ahead of its planned opening for the season.

Village Administrator Roger Deal informed council of the issues during a meeting held May 19, saying that despite a new panel being installed it was still leaking after it was filled, that the caulking needed to be replaced again, and that there was an unspecified “pump issue” as well.

Deal elaborated that they had originally been told that the caulking would need to be redone every three to five years, but that it had been required nearly every year since it was refurbished.

The pool at Barnesville Memorial Park went through an extensive rebuild as part of a $900,000 Park Improvement Project made possible by a donation of over $750,000 from the estate of Lucille Wittmer in 2017, but issues with leaks began soon after the pool reopened during the summer of 2018.

Deal gave credit to Astro Pools, saying it is always responsive when called by Park Director Rich Wells, adding: “We’re way out of warranty and Astro keeps doing it for free. We never get a bill, it’s just the aggravation.”

The traditional opening of the pool on Memorial Day Weekend was delayed this year due to the cool weather.

Meanwhile, Councilman Tim McKelvey asked council members along with Police Chief Rocky Sirianni to consider replacing the stop sign where the road exiting the park meets Chestnut Street with a yield sign.

“If you’ve ever been there when there’s a big crowd at the park, everybody stops at that sign and it just starts backing up. There’s hardly ever traffic coming down Chestnut there.”

Sirianni said he would take a look at it.

Mayor Jake Hershberger said he had secured multiple sponsorships to increase the budget of this year’s Independence Day fireworks show, which is scheduled for Saturday, July 5, and asked council if it would be willing to match those sponsorships as it did last year.

After some confusion over the amounts was cleared up, council voted in favor of adding $4,000 from the village to match the $4,000 in sponsorships, bringing the total fireworks show budget to $17,100. Another $9,100 had originally been budgeted for the event.

It was noted that last year organizers had not collected donations at the gate to offset the cost of the fireworks, but they still solicited donations through the mail.

Meanwhile, Fire Chief Tim Hall, who also acts as one of the village’s designated building code enforcers, updated council on a number of property issues that had been brought up by Dr. Pratap Souri during the May 5 meeting.

Hall said the only issue with a property on Locust Drive was a window, and that if the owner either put in a window or boarded it up it would no longer be in violation. He added that another property on Main Street across from the Dairy Queen was in pretty bad shape, but that the owner had stated his intention to have an auction to empty the house before possibly selling the property.

Hall added that he had a “big list” of other properties that needed to be addressed and that he would continue to work through the process.

Hall also informed council about what he suspected was a collapsed drain or old catch basin that was causing the ground to drop and holes to open up on the upper side of the fire station property. All officials agreed that Deal could assist with exploring to determine for sure what is causing the issue and come up with possible solutions.

Council also agreed with Sirianni’s assertion that they should look into amending the village’s ordinance concerning the use of utility vehicles and golf carts on village roadways to bring it in line with the state’s statute after Sirianni said he had received a number of requests from residents to loosen the restrictions that the village put in place when the state changed the laws concerning “low-speed vehicles” in 2017.

Council also approved Sirianni’s request to hire Brian Horn as a full-time officer.

In other business, council again discussed the details of a contract resolution for CTI Engineering to update the design of a wastewater treatment plant upgrade, opting to table the third reading as they seek to remove all construction related costs from that contract before entering into it.

Village Solicitor Richard Myser presented an updated lease agreement concerning the B&O Depot property with Hershberger saying any input was welcome and that the proposal still had to be looked over by the B&O Depot Committee before any further action could be taken.

Council also approved paying bills in the amount of $117,325.37 and approved a building permit for Todd Skinner to demolish a house at 294 Dewey Ave.

Hershberger announced that the bid opening for the B&O Depot roof replacement would be at 2 p.m. today in council chambers.