If the acrimony that surrounded Bellaire Village Council and Mayor Robert Dodrill late last week and earlier this week is what led to the conciliatory tones that group ultimately took with each other, then the earlier chaos might have been worth it.

Dodrill shocked his constituents last week by announcing he would resign as mayor just three months after taking the oath of office, following former village fiscal officer Ginny Favede out the door. Among the reasons he offered were concerns over the village’s finances with the previous administration, as well as a feeling that other council members ­– which he declined to name –were pushing back and undermining him.

Dodrill, however, reversed course just days later, holding a press conference to announce he was rescinding his resignation. That itself could have come with its own problems.

How would Bellaire’s council ­­– after Dodrill had claimed at least some of the members were impeding his work as mayor — respond to his return? Would council members make his claims reality by throwing up more roadblocks? Or would they welcome Dodrill back with the hopes of moving the village forward?

For the village’s sake, it was the latter.

At a special meeting earlier this week, council members told Dodrill they wanted to put the past in the past and coalesce to make their community a better place.

“We want to be full disclosure on everything that’s happened so that we can finally get to a stage where there’s a clean slate,” Council member Janet Richardson said. “Our goal is to stabilize the village. … Our goals need to be the same. We have the opportunity, for the first time in almost two decades, to have the council and the administration working together with the same goals, the same benefits to our village.”

If Richardson’s claim is true, that council and administration have spent years at odds, that’s an absolute shame. That type of rancor only holds municipalities back, which is the exact opposite of why people are elected to office in the first place. It’s good to see that, even after sides clash as they have in Bellaire, cooler heads can prevail.

Now those words need transformed into actions. There were a lot of great things said between council and Dodrill in that special meeting. But the two sides can’t revert to old, bad habits. They must work especially hard for the betterment of the village. Their residents will be watching.