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Parkersburg City Council to vote on splash pad contributions

Budget revisions on Tuesday’s agenda

PARKERSBURG — City Council will vote on accepting $55,000 in grants for the splash pad project at City Park and funding a traffic study, along with end-of-the-year budget revisions, when it meets Tuesday.

The second regular May meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in council chambers on the second floor of the Municipal Building. It will be preceded by a meeting of the Urban Renewal Authority at 6:15.

The splash pad contributions come from three entities — Highmark West Virginia ($25,000), Sisters Health Foundation ($20,000) and the Parkersburg Area Community Foundation ($10,000). Parkersburg Development Director Rickie Yeager said the money will go toward the estimated $125,000 cost to add an Aquaflex surface at the splash pad.

“It helps minimize the bumps and bruises and makes it a more enjoyable surface, as opposed to the harsh concrete,” he said.

Mayor Tom Joyce said the contributions reflect the excitement he’s heard from people in the community about the project.

“I think it shows that, by and large, the community supports this endeavor,” he said.

Council will also consider a resolution authorizing a traffic impact study on proposed improvements on Murdoch Avenue, between the Traffic Circle and Lakeview Drive. The study would be done in conjunction with the Wood-Washington-Wirt Interstate Planning Commission, which would cover $40,000 of the study’s $50,000 cost, with the city paying for the rest.

Joyce said the study will look at options including the widening of lanes and adding a traffic light near the Park Shopping Center to alleviate heavy traffic in the Beechwood area. Any work would ultimately be done by the state, he said.

“But they don’t pay for traffic studies, and they won’t do the project without a traffic study,” Joyce said.

Seven resolutions deal with funding revisions. One makes more than 100 revisions ranging from $10 for an updated telephone/communication cost estimate to $200,000 reflecting the expansion of the boundless playground in City Park, for which a grant was not awarded in the current fiscal year.

It’s part of “shoring up line items through the end of the fiscal year,” Finance Director Eric Jiles said.

With three quarters of the annual revenue collected, the adjustments are being proposed to reflect actual amounts versus projections and address areas where expenditures were higher than anticipated.

One of the largest is an increase of $171,000 in the amount budgeted in charges to property owners for demolitions funded by the city. Almost all of that — $155,000 — will be added to the Finance Department’s bad debt line item, reflecting the difficulty in recovering those costs from owners who had not been maintaining their property to the point that demolition was needed, Jiles said.

Two more resolutions reallocate Community Development Block Grant funding, including one that would dedicate $50,000 from 2016 general administration funds to repair a leaking foundation at the Family Crisis Intervention Center.

Two ordinances on first reading reclassify the positions of code technician and Memorial Bridge office manager to better reflect their duties, Joyce said.

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Meeting Notes

* 6:15 p.m.: Council meets as the Urban Renewal Authority to consider applications to purchase URA property at 2610 Vaughan Ave. and 823 14th St. and authorize the demolition of 806 Quincy St.

* 7:30 p.m.: Regular council meeting. The agenda is available online at newsandsentinel.com.

* Both meetings will take place in council chambers on the second floor of the Municipal Building.

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