T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK and Photo Provided “Squashcarver” Gus Smithhisler, of Pataskala, Ohio demonstrates his carving talents on a donated gourd at The 57th Annual Barnesville Pumpkin Festival. The 800-pound pumpkin was donated by area grower Dan Stephens. The finished carving below was auctioned off for $200 to Bruce and Cindy McGee and their daughter, Kari McGee of Barnesville, who originally sponsored Smithhisler’s return to the festival. The festival was discussed by Barnesville Village Council on Monday evening.

BARNESVILLE — Village officials expressed appreciation Monday to all who contributed to the success of the 2021 Barnesville Pumpkin Festival after the 2020 event was called off due to concerns surrounding the cronovirus pandemic.

Mayor Dale Bunting opened a scheduled council meeting by praising the Barnesville community, saying, “We’ve got a lot of great people here that do amazing things.”

Bunting went on to thank resident Scott Baker, who worked to bring the Eyes of Freedom military service memorial to Barnesville, where it was displayed at the middle school over the weekend. Bunting noted the contributions of many who helped Baker in his efforts.

Bunting also thanked Police Chief Rocky Sirianni and Fire Chief Tim Hall for all they did over the weekend and for helping to coordinate the large motorcade that escorted the Eyes of Freedom into town last Wednesday evening.

“The Pumpkin Festival Committee works their hearts out to bring people into our town, and our town steps up,” Bunting added before thanking village employees for helping with the cleanup after the festivities concluded.

Baker spoke next, thanking his wife, Lisa, for encouraging him in his efforts to bring the Eyes of Freedom to Barnesville. He cited the outpouring of support from the many visitors who came to experience the memorial in person and thanked the Barnesville Shamrocks football team and coaches for helping to take down and load the memorial on Sunday.

Village Administrator Roger Deal thanked the village employees as well, noting that the water department, cemetery and park crews all aided the street department with the post-festival cleanup.

Sirianni said, “I’d like to give a shout out to my officers for doing their jobs and doing them extremely well.”

The chief said he was pleased with the way his officers handled the handful of incidents that required their intervention over the weekend.

Councilman Tim McKelvey praised the police department as well, saying, “When I was downtown a couple of times I noticed two police officers walking through the crowd together. I think that is a great way to police. It makes people in crowds feel comfortable, and it also makes some people behave when maybe they wouldn’t.”

Clay Bethel of Bethel Insurance Agency was at Monday’s meeting to discuss with council the village’s property and liability insurance policies. Bethel explained that Westfield Insurance, which through his agency had been the carrier of choice for the village for roughly 55 years, is transitioning out of the public entity insurance market. He has been doing a market search in order to find the best options to replace the municipality’s coverage.

Bethel presented two proposals, one being Zurich Insurance Group and the other being The Public Entity Program of Ohio. Bethel said Zurich is a large, international company with $440 billion in holdings that “has an appetite for public entity insurance” that only recently became available for him to offer. He said the Public Entity Program of Ohio is a risk-sharing insurance pool.

Bethel explained that the village will realize a significant savings versus what it was paying through Westfield regardless of which coverage is chosen, but he strongly recommended Zurich. Bethel said that while Zurich is more expensive than PEP, the annual premium is still $25,000 less than what the village had been paying for its Westfield policy.

He went on to say that he has reservations about insurance pools.

“They’re nearly impossible to get out of. You have to be in them so long and pay money for future claims you haven’t even incurred to leave the program,” he said.

He added that with a standard insurance carrier like Zurich or Westfield there are regulations and protections through the Ohio Department of Insurance.

After a short discussion, Councilman Les Tickhill made a motion to go with Zurich based on Bethel’s recommendation. The rest of council voted in agreement.

Meanwhile, McKelvey brought up a proposal he had made at a previous meeting for the fire department to purchase a specialized air compressor so it would no longer have to take air tanks for self-contained breathing apparatuses to Bethesda or St. Clairsville to be refilled. After a short discussion the matter was again tabled after Councilmen Tony Johnson and Scott Gallagher said they wanted to make sure the department had an acceptable plan for housing the equipment, as far as safety and noise are concerned.

In other business, council authorized paying bills in the amount of $94,681.56, passed an ordinance authorizing the recodification of village ordinances, and approved a building permit for Dennis Shawn Thompson to demolish a garage at 208 W. Main Street.

Due to the Columbus Day holiday, Barnesville Village Council’s next meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Oct. 12 — a Tuesday instead of the usual Monday — in the Municipal Building on Arch Street.