Trending
PARKERSBURG -- A fund to help pay for future capital projects will be considered by Parkersburg City Council's Finance Committee.
The meeting is slated for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the executive conference room on the second floor of the Municipal Building, an hour before council's first regular meeting of December.
The resolution before the Finance Committee would move the remaining $10,183,324 in the Memorial Bridge Fund, in the form of cash and securities, to a newly created debt reserve fund.
"All of the moneys that are left in the bridge fund, we're proposing we move it to a debt reserve fund for possible future debt obligations on capital projects," Finance Director Eric Jiles said.
Jiles deferred to Mayor Tom Joyce, who was not available for comment Friday, when asked for what potential projects the money might be used.
The bridge assets are primarily the remaining maintenance and demolition funds accumulated before the city sold the toll bridge to Parkersburg Bridge Partners in 2022. The company also paid the city $4 million before embarking on a $50 million rehabilitation project for the bridge, which reopened Aug. 31.
The 2023-24 municipal budget moved $4 million in bridge funds to a street infrastructure fund to bolster efforts to maintain city roadways.
If the Finance Committee votes to refer the resolution Tuesday, it could appear on council's Dec. 19 agenda.
As for Tuesday's regular meeting, the agenda includes the final reading of an ordinance vacating multiple alleys between 24th and 26th streets west of Keever Street. This would accommodate the relocation of the Parkersburg Police Department shooting range. That's needed so the Parkersburg Utility Board can construct a facility to house filtration equipment to remove C8 and related chemicals from its water.
A second ordinance on final reading would vacate a 60-by-140-foot unimproved portion of Agnes Street off Staunton Avenue.
Resolutions on the agenda would revise the budget to allow the purchase of three copies for $11,700 and reappoint Tom Farrah, Sean Smith and John Padden II to the Municipal Building Commission for five-year terms.
Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.