T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA Incoming Bellaire Mayor Robert Dodrill tells residents in attendance of his town hall meeting that he plans to be as transparent as possible during his time as Mayor.

BELLAIRE — Robert Dodrill will begin his term as the village’s mayor in January, but is already getting to work.

Dodrill held a town hall meeting on Thursday evening at Bellaire High School’s cafeteria to formally introduce himself to the community.

He informed the village residents that his top priority as mayor is going to be infrastructure.

“My main thing is I grew up here, graduated from here, and I want to try to update our infrastructure. That’s the big thing,” Dodrill said. “A lot of people have been sending me messages already stating that they want streets paved. And I said, ‘Listen, a lot of those things have been 30 years in the making. I mean, things didn’t get done in other times with previous councils or mayors, but I intend to make the town look like the ‘All American’ town that it should be.”

He added that he also plans to start a beautification project for the village but only after the water lines are updated and the fire hydrants that aren’t currently functionable are fixed.

“Our lines in this village, from my understanding, are well over 70-plus years old and my understanding is that there are even some wooden lines from way back when,” Dodrill said. “I keep telling everyone and they laugh but I try to use movie quotes. But just like the movie ‘Field of Dreams’ said, if you build it, they will come.”

He added that the village is unable to bring businesses in without addressing the infrastructure issues.

“It takes having the infrastructure to bring the people in. Because if a new business wants to come in and you’re always having water issues, you’re done, it’s a big snowball effect,” he said.

“If you get the infrastructure done then you start working on the betterment of the village, cleaning it up, getting storefronts better and streets better. But it all starts with down under and building up top, because I do not want to put water lines in and, or not update the water and sewer lines, fix all the breaks, or whatever we need to do, and fix sidewalks first because we’d just have to tear it up again.”

He added that his plan is to start at the bottom, meaning underground with the water and sewer lines and then build his way up to the streets and sidewalks.

Dodrill informed the residents that another reason he wanted to hold the town hall meeting was because he plans to be very transparent during his term as mayor.

He added that his goal is that he wants everybody in the community to understand what’s going on instead of hearing rumors and false statements on social media.

“People say stuff on social media, but never come to the meetings. So I’m trying to bring people out, and get their hands dirty too, because I’ll be asking for help from all of the people in the village, because I can’t do it on my own,” Dordrill said.

He added that he is excited to take over mayoral duties from current Mayor Ed Marling who is Dodrill’s longtime friend.

He then said that he understands that the village does not have a surplus of funds but promised the attendees that he will always do the correct thing and be transparent.

“I’m not going to let you all down,” he said. “I’m gonna do the best with what I have. We’re short-staffed, like everybody is, like fast food restaurants and whatever, but you have to pay the people what they’re worth to keep them. And that’s a tough job too, because once people get all of their qualifications, other cities, towns and villages look in and tell them they’re able to pay them more.”

Dodrill added that he wouldn’t say Bellaire is rock bottom in terms of available monies but it is definitely on the low end as far as other towns, cities, and villages in Belmont County.

Bellaire resident Kevin Sochor asked if Dodrill would be interested in bringing back a community carnival back to the village.

Dodrill replied that the issue that comes with a community is the incredibly expensive insurance to cover the village in case of an emergency or a ride malfunction.

“I’ve been in contact with a lot of carnival companies, and been watching all the festivals run, and we’ll have to get a committee to do that,” he said.

Resident Jennifer Griffin then asked Dodrill if he had a plan to bring residents into the village.

She said that bringing businesses to the community is a positive addition but the village also needs residents to move there as well.

“I agree with you 100% we are definitely going to work on getting the business plan put together but also want to put a plan in place to reach the goal of bringing new people here,” Dodrill said.

He then asked Marling, who was in attendance, if he would like to speak to the audience.

Marling said that he believes Dodrill will do his best to ensure the infrastructure gets updated.

He added that the village has been working towards correcting the infrastructure problems it has and he plans to offer a helping hand to Dodrill for anything that he needs throughout his time as mayor.

Marling added he’s still only a phone call away. He then joked that he won’t be coming in to help at 5 a.m. and Dodrill will have to wait until at least 8 a.m. before he’ll come and help.