Two members of Barnesville Village Council resigned following the council’s meeting this week, 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 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, council has 30 days to appoint new members to the positions. If council fails to do so within that time frame, the law empowers the mayor to make the appointments.

Appointees must have been a village resident for at least a year.