BARNESVILLE — Village Council recently took the first steps to seek funding for a project to extend Barnesville water to the communities of Hendrysburg and Fairview.

Two resolutions were passed at a meeting held Feb. 10 with a quorum of only three members present due to the recent resignations of Steven Hill and Brian Yarnall and the absence of Councilman Terry McCort. Hill and Yarnall have since been replaced by former councilmen Tim McKelvey and Brad Hudson, who were appointed to the vacant seats on Monday.

Council on Feb. 10 approved a resolution to select Hunt Engineering of Tarlton, Ohio, to design the project, which has been dubbed The Barnesville North Water Extension Project.

Mayor Jake Hershberger said the request for quote, or RFQ, process had been completed and qualifications submitted before Councilman Les Tickhill, Councilwoman Robin Misner, Brian Street from the Belmont County Water & Sewer District and Village Public Works Director Collin Seever met to score the applicants.

Hunt Engineering is acquainted with the project in part because it has been working with officials from Fairview for a number of years as they sought a way to supply the community’s 40 households with water.

Second was a resolution authorizing Hershberger to file the application and sign the necessary contracts moving forward.

Hershberger asked about having a budget approved for incidental costs that he anticipates incurring ahead of any actual funding being secured, mentioning a required income survey he was aware of as one example.

Council President Tony Johnson asked about using Village Administrator Roger Deal’s ability to spend up to $25,000 at his discretion without prior approval to handle such expenses, with all agreeing that was acceptable.

“I don’t think that’s a big deal for the day-to-day expenses, as long as we know,” Johnson said.

During the Jan. 27 council meeting, Pam Ewing of the Rural Community Assistance Partnership had explained to village officials that the long-desired project to extend a waterline north from Barnesville to Hendrysburg and then west to Fairview as well as completion of “The Mt. Olivett Loop” could possibly be funded through a variety of grant and loan forgiveness programs through the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and that the OEPA was interested in seeing the project done.

The estimated cost of the project was given as $5.5 million at that meeting, with the inference made that the village would see very little if any cost at all while it stood to gain an estimated additional 184 water hookups.

Meanwhile, Deal informed council that he was again seeking seasonal help for the spring and summer, noting that getting a mowing crew hired for the early part of spring had been a real challenge in recent years.

He also informed council that he had secured July 5 for the Independence Day fireworks display at a cost of $9,100, adding that Hershberger planned to seek sponsors to increase that budget in order to have a better show.

Council approved Deal’s request to sell a recently decommissioned 2003 Chevy pickup truck to an employee for $800 by a 2-1 vote, bypassing the public bid requirements since the amount was less than $1,000.

Tickhill and Misner voted “yes” while Johnson voted “no,” arguing that despite its issues he felt the truck should go through the public bid process since comparable trucks usually go for upwards of $2,000.

Hershberger informed council that the Historical Review Board and Barnesville VFW Post 2792 had both approved a design by Barn Artist Scott Hagan to replace the deteriorating mural on the VFW building.

Herhsberger said Hagan would paint the mural for $4,000, which is a fraction of what he would normally charge for such a project. Council approved matching a Belmont County Tourism “GAP” grant of $2,000 to get the mural done.

Fire Chief Tim Hall gave run totals for the month of January, saying the EMS answered 111 calls while performing five patient transports for WVU Medicine Barnesville Hospital, and that the fire department was dispatched 13 times.

Hershberger announced Mayor’s Court figures for January, saying the village received $1,805.50, the state had received $594.50, and the county $22.50 for a total of $2,422.50.

Warren Township Trustee Jim Greer announced that the J.B. Green Team Barnesville Community Cleanup will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 3.

Greer said that they needed and would appreciate any volunteers to help out.

The cleanup is traditionally held at the B&O Depot property, and Deal pointed out that work would begin on the Rails to Trails and Tunnel Project around that time so they might have to hold the cleanup at a different location since the depot building will be used as an office once that work is underway.