May 13, 2021
Public offices can be hard to fill these dayss, but the village of Belmont recently had no problem filling two public service positions.
Village Council welcomed two new members this month following the resignations of councilmen Dan Scott and Shaun Bruce. Scott stepped down after serving several years in his post, and Bruce is moving out of the community and will no longer be eligible to serve.
Filling two council vacancies is no small task in a community of just 346 people, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. Such a small population means the pool of potential applicants is quite small, yet two residents Zachary Kalo and John Rigoli were ready to step up and serve.
For The Times Leader
BELMONT Village Council on Thursday welcomed two new members following the resignations of councilmen Dan Scott and Shaun Bruce.
Mayor Ron Woods announced that Scott had submitted his letter of resignation in late April and that two residents had submitted letters of interest to fill the vacant seat.
Councilwoman Lorie Grob spoke in praise of Scott and his service to Belmont, “Dan’s done a really good job for us, and we’re going to miss him. He really cared a lot about this town.”
Village Solicitor T.J. Schultz pointed out that Scott had been the only member of council who did not resign when former mayor the late Stan Sobel was elected in 2015. Scott’s term expired on Dec. 31 of that year and he did not seek re-election. However, he did attend the first meeting of 2016 and agreed to be appointed to council after all other members and the fiscal officer quit.
Mother’s Day is a bittersweet time for me.
My mom, the late Grace Compston, was never one to make too big of a fuss over most holidays and birthdays. Christmas was always a big deal, of course, but for Mother’s Day just about anything we did for her was good enough.
Sometimes, my Mother’s Day gifts to her weren’t really gifts at all. Instead of buying her some perfume or a fancy trinket, I would simply scrub the front porch or perform some other chore I knew she either dreaded or simply couldn’t complete on her own.
For The Times Leader
BELMONT Village Council decided to discard an ordinance aimed at abatement of hazardous buildings in the village, opting instead to use the Ohio Revised Code to go after property owners who allow structures to deteriorate and become unsafe.
At the request of Mayor Ron Woods and council, Village Solicitor T.J. Schultz had drafted the ordinance. He used as a guide one that has been successful in the nearby village of Barnesville to abate dangerous structures while giving the village the means of recovering money spent to do so through tax liens.
While the first two readings of the ordinance took place during the February and March council meetings, it was revealed April 1 that Fire Chief Bob Mills, who would be responsible for determining which structures met the criteria outlined in the ordinance, was uncomfortable with the legislation due to liability concerns. During that council meeting, Mayor Woods said officials had since learned there already are provis
Managing Editor
Things don’t always turn out the way we expect, and that’s something we should keep in mind as we enter 2021.
It occurred to me as 2020 was winding down that I had started something during the initial pandemic-related lockdowns that I neglected to complete. Way back in March (a little more than nine months ago) I started making a daily social media post to encourage my friends to maintain a positive attitude while staying at home as much as possible.
Right around March 17, when Gov. Mike DeWine and the Ohio Department of Health ordered polling places closed for safety reasons on what would have been Election Day, they also ordered “non-essential businesses” closed and urged anyone who could work from home to do so.