BELMONT — Village officials recently learned that the date for the official groundbreaking on the construction of a new firehouse has been set.

At a council meeting held July 2, Fire Chief Bob Mills announced that the groundbreaking will be held at 1 p.m. Tuesday, July 15, at the construction site on Barrister Street.

“We are off and running now,” Mills said, adding that the actual construction would begin by the end of the month and is to be completed within a year.

Mills thanked village Fiscal Officer Ricky Burkhead for “going way above and beyond to make this happen.”

In May, the firehouse project seemed in real jeopardy after it was learned that the U.S. Department of Agriculture, through which the village was set to receive $3.4 million in federal funding toward the construction, was asking that the village show the ability to pay for up to $405,000 in projected cost overruns.

At the June council meeting, Burkhead confirmed that he had been able to secure a letter of credit through Woodsfield Savings Bank to satisfy the USDA’s requirements.

In response to the praise from Mills, Burkhead said that village Solicitor T.J. Schultz, who was not at last week’s meeting, had aided him in securing the credit and added that having a bank where the decision to approve the letter of credit could be made locally had been an important factor in their success.

Council applauded the announcement, with council President Derrick Cain commenting, “It’s going to be quite a spectacle.”

Fire Lt. Kaye Hall said that they were expecting the Ohio Director of the USDA to be at the groundbreaking and that it was possible that other luminaries would attend as well.

Meanwhile, council voted to place a 3-mill continuing levy on November’s ballot that will replace the current police levy if passed.

Council had been debating whether to keep the old levy and ask voters to approve a 2-mill levy in addition or to ask for the 3-mill levy, with the village set to net around $21,000 in either case.

Cain said he knew that many residents want police presence in the village, while Councilwoman Sarah Scott stressed the importance of informing people about the process and what it will cost them.

Burkhead said he estimated that the 3-mill levy would cost property owners roughly $105 per $100,000 of valuation each year.

Council voted in May to idle its police department due to lack of funding after residents voted down a levy last November that council planned to use to fund the police department as well as to help pay for cemetery upkeep.

A 1.5-mill cemetery maintenance levy was narrowly approved by voters this May.

Board of Public Affairs President Ken Davis informed council that village wells had produced 75% of the water used in the village in June.

He also said crews had been working on issues with the pump at well No. 4 and that they would have to have an issue with the drain on the water tank fixed in the near future.

Davis also thanked the village crew for all their hard work, and council approved Davis’s request to increase the pay of their part-time seasonal employee from $12.50 to $13 per hour.

In other business, council approved spending up to $2,500 to reseal and reline the basketball courts on the former Belmont school grounds and to pay $1,200 to clear coat the gymnasium floor.

Mayor Ron Woods informed council that Belmont County Commissioner J.P. Dutton had told him that grant funding had been approved to widen the intersection where Ohio 149 enters the village from the west.

This led to a discussion about the possibility of moving the village Christmas tree, which is currently planted near that intersection, with Councilwomen Scott, Peggy Patterson and Bev Yoe agreeing that having all holiday season festivities in and near the gym would be a good idea.

Burkhead suggested they look into grants to develop the land where the Belmont school once stood for community events.

Those present remembered former Councilman Shaun Bruce, who died June 28, and Cain remarked that he had been a valued member of council and a good friend for many years.

Cain suggested they find a way to memorialize Bruce, and after a brief discussion they decided to pursue placing a bench in his memory at the playground near the Belmont gym and village offices that he and former Mayor Stan Sobel, who also is deceased, had worked so hard to make a reality while Bruce was council president.

Belmont Village Council meets at 6 p.m. on the first Wednesday of each month in the Stanley Sobel Village Offices on Brown Street.