BARNESVILLE — Village officials on Monday set the process by which they will fill two council seats that were vacated when Steven Hill and Brian Yarnall resigned two weeks ago.

Village Solicitor Richard Myser spoke to the uniqueness of the situation Barnesville’s governing body was left in due to the resignation of Hill and Yarnall and laid out some guidelines for choosing their replacements.

Both Yarnall and Hill cited frustration that had been building for some time in their resignation letters. Yarnall wrote that he could no longer “work with this present administration,” while Hill termed the situation an “unworkable environment.”

Councilman Terry McCort was absent from Monday’s meeting, and Myser noted that they did have a quorum to proceed with the meeting and take action with only three members present. He said the council is currently comprised four members after the exit of the other two and that the remaining four council members had until February 28 — 30 days from the official date of the resignations — to “elect,” by majority vote, new members to fill the vacancies. He noted that it would be up to Mayor Jake Hershberger to appoint the new members if council is unable to do so by that date.

Myser went on to say that the only qualification requirement is that the new members must have lived within the corporation for a year prior to the date they are elected, adding that there is no requirement to advertise the open positions.

Councilman Les Tickhill said he thought it would be best to advertise the openings, and council President Tony Johnson agreed that they should do so to see who is interested and make every effort to have the election at the next council meeting.

Hershberger said officials would want to publicly post the open seats on the village website, barnesvilleohio.com, as well as on social media platforms. A motion was eventually passed that they would have a deadline of 4 p.m. Feb. 19 for candidates to submit their letters of interest so that they could be included when the council packets are prepared for the Feb. 24 meeting.

Council later voted to change the start of that Feb. 24 meeting to 6 p.m. with the intent being to go into a closed-door session as soon as the meeting convenes so that the candidates can be interviewed individually. Council members plan to then hold the election to select the new members as soon as the meeting’s open session begins.

Hershberger said that those interested should submit their letters of interest at the Municipal Building on Arch Street or by email to Mayor@BarnesvilleOhio.com.