Photo by Gage Vota Incoming Bellaire Mayor Robert Dodrill tells residents attending his town hall meeting that he plans to be as transparent as possible during his time as mayor.

Robert Dodrill doesn’t begin his term as Bellaire’s mayor until January, but he’s already getting to work.

Dodrill held a town hall meeting on Thursday evening at Bellaire High School’s cafeteria to formally introduce himself to the community.

He informed the village residents that his top priority as mayor is going to be infrastructure.

“My main thing is I grew up here, graduated from here, and I want to try to update our infrastructure. That’s the big thing,” Dodrill said. “A lot of people have been sending me messages already stating that they want streets paved. And I said, ‘Listen, a lot of those things have been 30 years in the making. I mean, things didn’t get done in other times with previous councils or mayors, but I intend to make the town look like the ‘All American’ town that it should be.”

He added that he also plans to start a beautification project for the village but only after the water lines are updated and the fire hydrants that aren’t currently functionable are fixed.

“It takes having the infrastructure to bring the people in. Because if a new business wants to come in and you’re always having water issues, you’re done, it’s a big snowball effect,” he said.

Dodrill informed the residents that another reason he wanted to hold the town hall meeting was because he plans to be very transparent during his term as mayor.

“People say stuff on social media, but never come to the meetings. So I’m trying to bring people out, and get their hands dirty too, because I’ll be asking for help from all of the people in the village, because I can’t do it on my own,” Dordrill said.

Bellaire resident Kevin Sochor asked if Dodrill would be interested in bringing back a community carnival back to the village. Dodrill replied that the issue that comes with a community festival is the incredibly expensive insurance to cover the village in case of an emergency or a ride malfunction.

“I’ve been in contact with a lot of carnival companies, and been watching all the festivals run, and we’ll have to get a committee to do that,” he said.

Resident Jennifer Griffin then asked Dodrill if he had a plan to bring residents into the village.

“I agree with you 100% we are definitely going to work on getting the business plan put together but also want to put a plan in place to reach the goal of bringing new people here,” Dodrill said.

He then asked Marling, who was in attendance, if he would like to speak to the audience.

Marling said that he believes Dodrill will do his best to ensure the infrastructure gets updated.

He added that the village has been working to correct infrastructure problems and he plans to offer a helping hand to Dodrill for anything that he needs throughout his time as mayor.