The owner of neighboring iTech is offering the Parkersburg Urban Renewal Authority $3,000 for this lot at 318 Fifth St., with plans to build a $200,000 single-story structure there to expand the company’s business. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

PARKERSBURG — Members of Parkersburg City Council will vote on cable franchise agreements Tuesday before considering two property purchases as the Urban Renewal Authority.

The regular meeting starts at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in council chambers on the second floor of the Municipal Building. The URA, made up of all nine council members, will meet in the same place after the council session adjourns.

The first of the properties on the URA agenda is 318 Fifth St., which the URA voted in 2022 to acquire via eminent domain five months after the city closed Phillips Court Alley beside it due to concerns over falling bricks.

The eminent domain process was completed over a year later, with a fair market value purchase price of $50,000. The structure was demolished in February 2024, a process that, including asbestos abatement, cost $146,000.

Mike Williams, owner of the neighboring iTech business in the renovated former Parkersburg Office Supply Building, is offering the URA $3,000 for the lot, which is less than an acre. His application says his business, D&W Property Development Group, intends to build a one-story brick building on the site to support expansion of iTech’s retail technology services and locksmithing business. The application anticipates a $200,000 investment and the addition of 10 employees over two years.

The owner of neighboring iTech is offering the Parkersburg Urban Renewal Authority $3,000 for this lot at 318 Fifth St., with plans to build a $200,000 single-story structure there to expand the company’s business. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

The next offer before the URA is for 1418 Covert St. Aaron Gaskins is offering $100 for the lot, acquired in 2024, to be used as a yard extension for neighboring property he owns.

The council agenda includes ordinances continuing the cable franchise agreements for CAS Cable and Cebridge Acquisition LLC, as well as council’s receipt of the annual reports for the police and fire pension funds. The pension reports require no action beyond votes to receive and file.

Council in 2017 voted to close the pension funds to new hires, with employees hired after becoming part of a statewide plan. The move allowed the city to change the manner in which it pays toward the pension obligations, resulting in a steep initial jump but eventually reversing the increasing payments each year.

Since then, the unfunded liabilities have begun to decrease, with both now over 50% funded, Finance Director Eric Jiles said.

“That is the estimate of the total liability,” he said. “It’s an actuarial estimate of how much this plan is going to pay out in total until the very last person were to leave the plan.”

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.