LORDSTOWN — With the increased number of businesses in the village, fire Chief Travis Eastham asked council Monday to consider creating a full-time assistant fire chief position to handle fire inspections.

Councilman Howard Sheely, chairman of the safety committee, said there was a meeting with Eastham where discussion about the position took place. Eastham said the assistant fire chief position is needed to assist him with inspections of businesses and also fill in when the chief is off for vacation or illness.

Eastham said other area departments have full-time fire inspectors. He said the state is now requiring additional training for people to be fire inspectors, which can take six months.

Eastham said he is concerned that when he is off, no one in the department can do all his administrative duties, so he ends up working and checking emails while on vacation.

“If something were to happen to me, we need someone to do payroll and other administrative work,” Eastham said.

He said buildings are required to get inspected by the fire department for safety and fire code compliance. The safety committee plans to meet and review the request and bring it back to council for action at a future meeting.

Sheely said the committee will look at job description and pay.

In other business, Mayor Jackie Woodward said she attended an Ohio Municipal League meeting in Columbus for updates on legislation, marijuana issues and village-related issues. Woodward said there is a house bill dealing with villages being dissolved if they are not able to operate effectively and meet criteria.

She said Lordstown is okay and would meet the criteria because it has fire, emergency medical and police services, parks, sewers and water.

“We will pass the test since we meet the criteria. People pay to have services that we are able to provide. We have the tax base to provide services,” she said.

Also, Councilwoman Jessica Blank said the village is considering having mosquito spraying since it has not done this for many years.

Councilman Robert Bond said because of all the rain this spring, there are more mosquitoes.

“The mosquitoes are bad this year. I can see the need for the sprayings.” Bond said, noting he thinks the last spraying was 12 years ago.

Blank said officials will review how often to spray. She said people with crops and bees will not be harmed by the spraying but such properties can be avoided if prior notification is made when spray dates are determined.