BARNESVILLE — Two members of Barnesville Village Council resigned following the council’s meeting Monday night, citing frustrations with the way council has operated.

Steven Hill and Brian Yarnall submitted their resignation letters to Barnesville Mayor Jacob Hershberger after the meeting. The resignation date was as of Tuesday.

Hershberger said the reasons for the resignations didn’t have anything to do with Monday’s meeting. There were frustrations over the past two to three years with council leading up to the day.

“It seemed that council was divided on many topics,” Hershberger said, “and that they just had a lot of frustrations, that both of them did, so both of them decided to resign.”

Yarnall’s resignation letter read, “In my three years on council, I always made my decisions for the best of the village and its residents, not my personal agenda. It has come to the point that I can’t any longer work with this present administration. Effective as of January 28, 2025, I am resigning my position of a village council member. I hope that my replacement can bring Barnesville forward where I failed.”

Hill’s resignation letter read, “I would like to inform you that I’m resigning from my position as Barnesville Village councilman due to an unworkable environment. Effective January 28, 2025. Thank you for the opportunity as councilman, and I wish all good luck.”

Both Yarnall and Hill declined to comment.

Hershberger said he was aware of the council members’ frustrations and talked to them multiple times about how their position can be frustrating and not an easy one, but they are the ones the people of Barnesville voted for to be their voice and to keep fighting.

“Even if it’s not something that you feel like, if the wrong decision was made, you still wake up and keep fighting,” Hershberger said. “And I just kept encouraging them on that part.”

He added that, in the little over a year he has served as mayor, he saw the frustration council faced and felt they were checked out or disengaged in their last month or so as a council member, so he was somewhat expected that something might happen at the beginning of the year.

Hershberger said the frustration for the departed councilmen dated back to fall 2023. At that time, the council began discussing building demolitions in downtown Barnesville. Hill and Yarnall were on one side of decisions and the rest of council was on the other side, Hershberger said, so the two felt there wasn’t much collaboration and weren’t able to talk about it much.

Hershberger noted he is trying to stay neutral and represent both sides and that there are different perspectives on the situation. He added there were smaller incidents throughout 2024 on different topics that caused frustration.

Hershberger wants village residents to know day-to-day operations will continue as normal and not be affected.

According to the Ohio Revised Code and Barnesville’s legal recommendation, council has 30 days to appoint two new members to the positions, and they have to be residents of the Village of Barnesville for the last 12 months, Hershberger said, so council is currently working to appoint the members. If council fails to do so within 30 days, the Ohio Revised Code would empower the mayor to appoint them.

“I’m very confident that we’ll be able to find a replacement for these two positions,” he said, “and that we won’t necessarily halt any business and that I’m committed 100% to continue doing what I need to do to serve our village in our community.”