WOODSTOCK – There could be a few new faces on Village Council in 2016 after two residents expressed interest in vacant and soon-to-be open seats during council’s meeting on Monday.

Village residents Kyle Travis and Jody Riegler were in attendance to express their interest in joining council, which has been operating a member short since June when Melissa Thompson resigned from her seat after moving out of the village.

After hearing from Travis and Riegler, council addressed the need to also fill another seat after Council member Tony Groves announced he is moving out of the village after the first of the year.

Mayor Jackie Hayes informed the two candidates that if after sitting through the council meeting they were still interested in a seat, they would be considered for appointment at the first of the year.

Also during the meeting, Administrator Bradley Herron updated council on the status of the village’s pending acquisition of the vacant lot next to the municipal building at 106 W. Bennett St.

In September, council passed a motion authorizing the purchase of the roughly one-10th-acre property from village residents Steven and Harley Nott at a cost of $6,500.

Herron said while the village is expected to close on the property soon, a new issue has been brought to his attention.

“The county engineer will not allow the transfer and recording of the property without it being resurveyed, because it is going to a government entity,” he said.

Following this development, council passed a motion allowing Herron to hire a surveyor to complete the requested work.

“We can go ahead with the acquisition (of the property). We just won’t be able to record the deed until the survey is done,” Herron said.

In other business:

• Riegler informed council she had difficultly finding the village’s new website while searching the Internet for it back in October.

“I had a really hard time finding it,” she said. “The search part of it is not coming up the way it should be.”

Fiscal Officer Tom Hallinan reminded residents the website can be found at www.woodstockohio.org.

“I think as time goes on, more search engines will hit it, and I need to read up on how to make it more visible, too,” he said.

• Hayes reported leaf pickup within the village is done for the year, and she thanked village maintenance work Ron Moore for handling the task this year.

“I don’t think there is a leaf left in town,” she said.

• Groves asked council if it would like to consider a pay increase for Moore, whose last raise came in January 2013. Currently, Moore makes $15.45 an hour.

“I do think it is something we need to address,” Hayes said. “Ronnie does a lot of work for us. I don’t know anybody who will do what Ronnie does.”

After discussing Moore’s current hourly wage, council decided to table a decision on a possible pay raise until the Jan. 11 meeting.

Council passed a motion to give Moore a $100 Christmas bonus.