SHADYSIDE — All six village council seats are up for the taking come November and, in an effort to meet the community, Visions of Shadyside hosted nearly all of those vying for those offices at an event this week.

Current council members — Democrats Samuel Carpino, Robert “Bushwacker” Gorrell, and Lisa Duvall, Republican Melanie Haswell and Independent Brandon Parr — are seeking re-election.

Those challenging for village offices include Republican Dustin Heath and Independents John Longwell, Richard Loew Jr. and write-in candidate Robert Dorris Jr. Loew was not in attendance during the event.

The event was organized by Visions of Shadyside President Jayson Johnson with resident Jay Morgan moderating. Johnson recently posted on Visions of Shadyside’s Facebook account asking for questions to be asked to the candidates during the event.

From the plethora of questions left on the Facebook page, Morgan chose a group with topics ranging from transparency and community engagement to infrastructure.

Carpino was first asked if he would support the investment for pedestrian and bike-friendly design for the village. He answered that he would and said he is willing to help in any way possible.

He was then asked if he would do whatever it takes to pursue grants for the village. Carpino replied that he currently does search on the internet for grant opportunities. He added that he recently helped with securing a grant for the water department for meters that check for underground piping.

Morgan then asked if there were any decisions made by council that he believes eroded public trust with the council. Carpino said that he’s sure everyone is aware of him being the subject of a criminal investigation stemming from the purchase of a tractor owned by a public board.

He said that he currently isn’t able to comment on the situation due to it still being an ongoing matter.

The investigation stems from an allegedly illegal purchase of a tractor from the former Shadyside Water Board in July 2022. That board ceased to exist once Village Administrator Erica Tamburin was hired, eliminating the need for a village water board. Under Ohio law, a village must have either an administrator or a board to handle public affairs such as providing water service.

Dorris was then asked if he would support the investment for pedestrian and bike friendly design for the village. Dorris said that he is strongly in favor of making that a reality.

“I would definitely support that. I think getting people out of their houses and riding bikes or walking or hiking for that matter, is extremely important,” Dorris said. “I’m sure there’s grants out there to do some of this.”

He added that the village has a biking trail down at the youth baseball fields.

“It’s not huge, but it gets you out and walking,” he said.

Morgan then asked Dorris if there were any decisions made by council that he believes eroded public trust with the council. He replied that since he is running to become a council member and isn’t currently one that he couldn’t fully answer that. But from an outsider’s perspective, he continued, he is strongly against the idea that, if residents want to speak during the council meetings’ open public forum, they must sign up ahead of time.

Duvall was asked if she would support investment for pedestrian and bike friendly design for the village. She replied that she and the rest of council have spent nearly 20 months consistently speaking about the need for the design. She believes there needs to be better planning.

“We need planning across the board. There are no plans. If we don’t have plans, we can’t seek grants. If we don’t have plans, we can’t issue appropriate work directives. If we don’t have appropriate planning, we’re not going to be able to attract residents and give them safe recreational opportunities,” Duvall said. “I’ve seen so many young families and children walking, riding, bikes, and running. I think that we absolutely have recreational grants that we could seek because we want to provide safe opportunities. But again, it goes back to planning.”

Gorrell was then asked if he believes the council is being transparent with the community.

“We’re being transparent, but we cannot talk about some issues. When people come to council and they want answers for certain things that we cannot talk about, they get mad at us, but we can’t, sorry,” he said.

Gorrell was then asked to expand on what he meant that council isn’t able to tell the community. He replied that some matters are in litigation and are unable to be publicly spoken about by the council.

Morgan then asked him if he would do whatever it took to secure grants.

“There’s a person who’s supposed to be in charge of getting grants, but we won’t get into that,” Gorrell said.

He was referring to Tamburin who was hired as the village administrator and part of the village administrator’s job is to search for and secure grants.

Haswell was then asked if she would support investment for pedestrian and bike friendly design for the village. She replied that the village does have a biking trail by the youth baseball fields.

“The thing that fears me the most are these electric bikes and electric scooters,” Haswell said. “I’ve watched kids going up the wrong way across the street from me. It worries me that one of us innocent people is going to be driving and we’re going to hit them.”

She believes the village should create an ordinance for anyone under age 16 to be required to wear a helmet on electric scooters and bikes.

“We have to worry about the safety of our youth. A parent may be upset, but we’re just worried about their child and they need to buy a helmet,” Haswell said. “And I definitely promote physical fitness and exercise.”

Heath was asked if he would support a community-led advisory committee to provide the residents a voice. He replied that he believes it’s something that is very important and something that council should be more focused on.He added that he wants to see more youth being involved in the community.

At age 25, Heath is the youngest candidate and said his three main priorities if elected will be improving communication and transparency from the council, bringing youth voices to the table, and having more youth representation in the local government.

He also wants to ensure that everybody’s voice is heard equally, and that everybody has their voice given the attention that it deserves.

Longwell was then asked if he’d be in support of a community-led advisory committee. He said he is absolutely in favor of the committee and said that he’s surprised there isn’t one already.

“There’s a lot of good ideas that come out of many residents; we’re here to represent all those voices,” he said.

Morgan then asked Longwell if he believes any decision made by council has eroded public trust. He said that since he isn’t a current council member, he couldn’t answer that question accurately. He added that, if elected, he will lead the charge in making the residents who refuse to pick up the trash in their yards do so.

“I’m not expecting homeowners to be able to go out and put new siding on their homes or new windows or this or that, but we can be clean,” Longwell said. “We can cut our grass, we can pick the trash up out of the yards. One of my top priorities is to try to get this place cleaned up.”

Parr was asked if he would be in favor of eliminating the village administrator position in favor of going back to a board of public affairs. Parr said that he honestly believes both a village administrator and a board of public affairs has pros and cons.

He said that the advantage of the village administrator is that it can fill a void in absence of a mayor.

“I know whoever the next mayor is not going to be able to be on top of our street and water department 24/7,” Parr said. “The purpose of that position was because Mayor Newhart, regardless of what he does, has a full time job. He’s not able to oversee everything day to day operations.”

He added that he believes it’s ideal to have a village administrator in that situation.

“Having said that, it’s also a much cheaper option to have a Board of Public Affairs. So there are advantages to both. I’m not going to sit here and say which one I think is better. I think there are advantages to both,” he said.