Community

Bellaire Considers Hiring Company To Create Updated Village Website

Kailey Carpino

BELLAIRE -- Councilman Bill Schmitt is looking into getting a new website for the village.

He said during Thursday's council meeting that he had gotten information from 10T Web Design based in Barnesville. Schmitt said the company has designed websites for the cities of St. Clairsville and Martins Ferry and the Belmont County Sheriff's Office.

Schmitt said the cost of setting up the website and maintaining it for two years would be $6,000. He said the money could come out of the general fund.

Schmitt said 10T Web Design can give village officials access to edit the website themselves, and the process would be simple. He described it as being similar to making a Facebook post.

"We'll be able to update it as well. Just like when the St. Clairsville website says we have a water break, we can go in and edit that ourselves. There'll be some smaller things that we don't really need to get them to do," he said.

Schmitt said the web design company would handle larger pieces of information, such as village ordinances, as well as create a professional-looking layout for the site. Schmitt also said the company proposed shutting down the two old websites that the village owns and creating a new one with the same IP address.

He said all of the information from the old website would be transferred by 10T Web Design to the new site.

Councilwoman Elizabeth Dugmore noted that this means people can click on the link for the old website and automatically be taken to the new one.

Schmitt said 10T Web Design would need 60 to 90 days to get the new website up and running. He said during that time, web users would still be able to access the old website to see village information.

The current website is bellaireoh.com. All of the village ordinances and other information can be found on the site, but many pages on the site are blank and some information is outdated.

Councilman Mike Doyle made the motion to hire 10T Web Design for the two years of service. All members of council voted in favor of the motion.

New Village Administrator Frank Shaffer said it has been "an interesting two weeks" since he took the job. He thanked Marla Krupnik, fiscal officer, for taking the time to explain the budget and village finances to him.

"It's a little different from the township, but I can catch onto that. That's not a problem," he said.

Shaffer also serves as a Pultney Township trustee.

Shaffer said he will try to attend upcoming committee meetings.

"I like to hear what everyone's doing in them committee meetings and keep abreast on that stuff," he said.

Councilwoman Janet Richardson said village officials held a finance meeting Thursday morning.

"It was a really good meeting," she said.

Richardson also thanked Krupnik for explaining the budget in detail.

Richardson said that Belmont County holds a percentage of the money the village makes from vehicle registrations. She added that the village can present a project to the county commissioners to get some of that money back.

"The county is holding the purse, and we have to jump through hoops to get that money," she said.

"That's our money," Krupnik added.

Krupnik said she is working on presenting a paving project to Belmont County commissioners. She said she is still looking into how many streets the commissioners will help pay for. She said she doesn't know how long the process will take.

"It's difficult to get a better understanding of the tax and what it is used for," Richardson said.

Richardson also said she would like to do an initial consultation with the Regional Income Tax Authority to see what the agency can offer the village and how much its services would cost.

She also said the village is looking for a vendor to do a village audit.

"We haven't had an audit in two years," Richardson said.

Richardson said she also would like to review employee wages in the water and service departments.

Shaffer said that other local municipalities such as Martins Ferry, Shadyside, Powhatan Point and Woodsfield pay higher wages, and he is concerned about losing employees to better-paying jobs.

Krupnik said she plans to look into what average wages are in the area for water and service department workers and will address the issue accordingly.

Councilman Jerry Olack said a project to remove dead and diseased trees in Union Park is facing delays. He said LaRoche Tree Service will not complete the work due to power lines that are in the way. Olack said he contacted the power company, but it will not move the power lines until spring.

Village officials plan to cut down and eventually replace the trees on the perimeter of the park.

The village was awarded $13,490 in December by the NatureWorks grant program through the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for the project.

Village officials plan to hold a utility meeting at 10 a.m. Feb. 7. Village officials will also hold a personnel committee meeting at 10 a.m. Jan. 30.