T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA Shadyside Village Council member Brandon Parr, center, asks Mayor Robert Newhart if council needed to specify a starting bid while putting a village-owned 2014 Dodge Charger police cruiser up for sale. He is flanked by council members Mike Meintel, left, and Lisa Duvall.

SHADYSIDE — Village Council passed an ordinance to begin accepting bids for a 2014 Dodge Charger police cruiser owned by the village during its regularly scheduled Monday evening meeting.

Bids are open for the next two weeks with the highest bidder being awarded the car.

Council member Brandon Parr asked Mayor Robert Newhart if council needed to specify a minimum bid.

Law Director Kelly Kotur told Parr that any time the village has to put any property out for bid, the property is valued at more than $1,000. She added that if council wants her to, she could make a clause in the ordinance stating that the village will start all bids at $1,000.

Parr replied that as long as the least amount of money the village would be receiving would be $1,000 he was OK with that decision. He added that his worry was that he didn’t want to put a vehicle owned by the village up for bid only to have it sell for a ridiculously small amount of money.

Kotur said that if council would like, she could add to the clause stating that the village has the authority to decline any bid.

Council members all agreed that Kotur should add the clause to the ordinance stating that bids will start at $1,000 and that the village has the authority to decline any bid it doesn’t see fit.

The ordinance passed as read with the understanding that the clause will be added.

Resident Jay Johnson then spoke to council about multiple residents failing to maintain their properties.

“​​It’s football season. We had that football game Thursday against East Palestine. Most of those people, I’m sure, have never been to our community, and I have to tell you that I’m kind of disappointed with the way Central Avenue looks,” Johnson said. “There’s like five, six or seven houses on the north end that’s awful. There’s just no reason for it. I know it’s out of the city limits or out of village limits. I just find it unbelievable. Can we try to talk to this guy and approach him saying, ‘Please, clean your property.’ It’s the first thing that everybody sees when they come into our town.”

Council member Melanie Haswell said she agrees with Johnson about wanting the village to look nice, but the properties he’s referring to are technically outside of the village limits. She added that for that reason, there isn’t really anything the council can do to make the residents maintain their properties.

Johnson asked council if it would consider writing a letter explaining the situation and asking nicely that the residents cut their grass and pick up the trash out of their yards.

“I’m just so sick of looking at that mess, and so is everybody else,” Johnson said. “There’s just no reason for it. There’s no reason we have to look like Appalachia.”

Kotur informed Johnson that if council wants her to she has no issue with writing the residents a letter nicely requesting they maintain their property, but she said there isn’t a way that the village can make the residents do anything due to them living outside of the village limits.

Johnson said he doesn’t believe the letter would actually make the residents clean up the car parts and various items that fill their yards or cut their grass, but he hopes that it will at least make them aware that the village is not happy with the way their yards look.

Kotur said she will write them a letter requesting the residents to clean their yards and even offer the possibility of helping the residents dispose of the unwanted items that are scattered throughout their yards.