photo by: Gage Vota

Newly elected Shadyside Mayor Mike Meintel, left, is sworn in Tuesday as his wife, Janie Meintel, holds the Bible.

Both Shadyside and Bellaire held swearing-in ceremonies for their new mayors Tuesday evening.

Shadyside Solicitor Kelly Kotur swore in Mayor Mike Meintel and former Bellaire Mayor Ed Marling swore in Robert Dodrill.

Meintel said that he is excited to roll up his sleeves and get to work.

Dodrill said that his main goal is to beautify the village in hopes to attract new business to the community. He added that his plan is to fix the sidewalks, streets and light posts on mainstreet as well as make the village more handicap accessible.

Meintel said his biggest goal is to restore professionalism to the village’s government.

In addition to Meintel being sworn in by Kotur, incoming council member John Longwell and reelected council members Melanie Haswell, Brandon Parr, Lisa Duvall and Robert “Bushwacker” Gorrell were also sworn in.

Write-in candidate Robert Dorris was absent from the swearing-in due to him having a pre-existing commitment.

“I think they’re going to be a rockstar council,” Meintel said.

He added that each council member has their own strengths and he plans to utilize all of them to better the village.

Longwell and Meintel both said that council’s biggest goal in 2026 will be to clean up the village.

“It’s a new dawn in Shadyside, and the thing is, people want this town cleaned up, and I will be putting out [a plan] in the next week or so. We’re going to attack that to clean up Shadyside … ,” Meintel said. “People are going to be held accountable.”

Longwell added that many of the people that voted for him as well as many people who didn’t want to see the village cleaned up and get properties looking like they used to.

“That’s one of the most important things for me at this moment,” Longwell said.

Newly-elected Bellaire Mayor Robert Dodrill is sworn in Tuesday by former Mayor Ed Marling. (Photo Provided)

Dodrill said he is looking forward to implementing change in Bellaire.

“There’s going to be a lot of change. We’re going to try to get back to the basics and start from there and revamp a lot of stuff,” he said. “There’s going to be an awful lot of policy changes and upgrades to things that may not have worked very well in the past.”

That includes improvement to Bellaire’s infrastructure.

“We have to have the infrastructure, we have to fix the water lines, the fire hydrants and all of that stuff. It takes having the infrastructure to bring the people in,” Dodrill said during a recent town hall meeting. “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 added that he would like to thank his wife Dena Dodrill, Wheeling Mayor Denny Magruder and former Bellaire Mayor Ed Marling for being in attendance for his swearing-in.

“I’d like to thank Mayor [Ed] Marling for swearing me in, which was awesome. I love him dearly. He’s a great man and was a great leader in the village,” Dodrill said. “He’s always been a great friend of mine. I also want to thank [Wheeling Mayor] Denny Magruder for coming over and supporting me as well as my wife.”

He added that several of his friends were in attendance.

“I just want to thank the people for giving me the chance to be the mayor of the All-American town,” Dodrill said.