Bellaire Village Administrator Frank Shaffer explains why Bellaire did not qualify for funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency at the West Bellaire Water Tank Road slip. T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA

BELLAIRE — Village Administrator Frank Schaffer addressed Bellaire Village Council on Thursday evening with an update on a road slip project.

Following April flooding that occurred as a result of days of heavy rain, the Ohio Emergency Management Agency calculated total damages of $33.8 million, well above the $21.7 million federal threshold for public disaster assistance in Ohio.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency disagreed, estimating damages at $17.4 million, which is $4.3 below the threshold.

Shaffer said this also affected the funding available for the Bellaire slip.

“I wanted to talk to you all about the West Bellaire Water Tank Road that we put on the FEMA project. The governor is appealing the FEMA funding right now. It still has not been granted to this area,” Shaffer said.

He said one reason the Bellaire project won’t be funded is that the slip starts from the top of the road and goes down instead of starting from the bottom, which he said would be considered a more legitimate slip.

“Anything that goes from the top of a road and comes down, mostly all they do is give out funding to clear out the debris. If it goes and takes out the integrity of the road and slips to the bottom, that becomes a real slip,” Shaffer said.

Council member Jerry Olack interjected that the top of the slip is actually in Pultney Township, not the village. He said Greenwood Cemetery is outside of Bellaire village limits.

“Now wait a minute, if you go and look at the maps the cemetery is within the city limits. Go look at the maps at the county level if you want to know the facts. Because I’ve looked at the map many times because I was worried about the Greenwood Cemetery Board going under,”

Shaffer said.

Council member Janet Richardson asked Shaffer, “If that’s the truth, how come they don’t pay the village any taxes?”

“Honestly, I do not know that answer. All I did was pull the maps at the county level,” Shaffer responded.

Fiscal Officer Marla Krupnik interrupted, saying that Shaffer is correct that a portion of Greenwood Cemetery does fall in the Bellaire village limits and the village does get gas and oil royalties on a small portion of the cemetery but the whole cemetery is not located inside of the village limits.

“A small part of Greenwood Cemetery is in the village limits,” Olack said.

Shaffer responded that his understanding was that the entire cemetery was inside of the village limits.

“Maybe I’m wrong, but I’ll gladly look again but that’s not here nor there. The issue is the slip and my attempt is to look into if we can apply for emergency funding,” Shaffer said and Olack agreed.

Shaffer said he has reached out to Ohio Public Works Commission Director Linda Bailiff about emergency funding. He suggested that the village should figure out if it is able to apply for emergency funding and if so it should apply sooner rather than later.

Bellaire Village Council was scheduled to meet next on July 4 but canceled the meeting due to it being the Independence Day holiday.

“We also need to remind folks that would get a garbage pickup that day that it will not be happening,” council member Elizabeth Dugmore said.