Parkersburg resident Trish Pritchard speaks at the podium during the public forum portion of Tuesday’s City Council meeting. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

PARKERSBURG — Members of Parkersburg City Council approved the final reading of an ordinance authorizing a contract for curbside recycling service, and lifted restrictions on the public forum at their meeting Tuesday.

The votes came on the same night Mayor Tom Joyce presented his proposed 2026-27 budget to council.

Council voted 7-1, with Councilman Roger Brown opposed and Councilman Mike Reynolds absent, to approve a resolution allowing any topic to be addressed during the public forum, not just items on the agenda. It reverses a change made in March 2025, and also restores the council forum eliminated in January of that year.

The final reading of the ordinance approving the recycling contract with Rumpke of Ohio passed 5-3, with Councilmen Zak Huffman and Chris Rexroad and Councilwoman Wendy Tuck opposed.

Under the recycling contract, Rumpke will initially bill the city $15.25 a month per participating residence in the first year of the three-year contract. But the city plans to cover that cost by charging all residents a $1.50-a-month recycling surcharge and those who choose to recycle an additional $3 a month.

A sign saying “Please do not feed the animals” hangs on the belt barrier marking the line people are not supposed to pass during Tuesday’s Parkersburg City Council meeting. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

Those rates are reflected in another ordinance on final reading, amending municipal code to reflect the new sanitation and recycling contracts. The monthly sanitation fee would be reduced from $22 to $21, including the recycling surcharge, under the ordinance, which was also approved on a 5-3 vote.

Some people had asked council to table the ordinance until a citizen referendum petition to nullify the sanitation contract with Waste Management approved in January could be assessed.

The shift from city-provided sanitation to contracted services is reflected in the budget proposal, which projects just over $3 million in combined revenue. According to information provided by Joyce earlier, that breaks down to $2,761,200 from the base $19.50 sanitation fee and $212,400 from the $1.50 recycling surcharge all customers will pay. An additional $47,880 is anticipated from the $3-a-month subscription fee to be paid by those who want to participate in recycling.

“Any surpluses would be at council’s discretion (but could be used) to offset rate increases,” Joyce said in the earlier interview.

The sanitation budget also includes residual building costs, primarily utilities, for the Municipal Facility, which Joyce has said will be closed as recycling service shifts to Rumpke. A $100,000 management fee — which Finance Director Eric Jiles said did not cover the cost of services other departments provided to sanitation, including billing and vehicle parts and maintenance — has been reduced to $50,000. The city will continue to bill residents for sanitation and provide other services like fielding complaint calls.

Parkersburg Mayor Tom Joyce, left, describes the proposed 2026-27 municipal budget and Councilman Dave McCrady, center, and Councilwoman Sharon Kuhl listen. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

The budget includes a 4.2% cost-of-living adjustment for all city employees, excluding elected officials. On top of that, Joyce is proposing to raise the pay of 14 workers so that no one employed by the city makes less than $15 an hour.

That’s something council Vice President Sharon Kuhl suggested at a January Committee of the Whole meeting where council members discussed priorities for the upcoming budget.

Joyce said he was never opposed to the suggestion.

“I was confident that we (had) less than 20 people” below that amount, he said.

Joyce said the increase is still within the pay ranges of the affected workers and will not require council action beyond budgeting the funds. However, he said that in order to maintain the pay equity the city has built over the last nine years, those ranges need to be adjusted.

Joyce proposed increasing the ranges by 5% in the summer of 2024, but it failed on a 5-4 vote. He said this week he hopes council will support making adjustments so that workers’ pay reflects the time they’ve served the city.

Among capital expenditures in the budget proposal is $298,000 for four new police cruisers. Included in the equipment for those vehicles are dash cameras.

Some council members at the January Committee of the Whole meeting expressed an interest in obtaining body cameras for police officers. Councilman Rob Moore suggested dash cameras as an option.

“We are still waiting on some quotes for body camming up the entire department, but make no mistake, we cannot do that in one year,” Joyce said, adding that he supports including dash cams in all new cruisers going forward.

Council will consider the proposed budget in a series of Committee of the Whole hearings before voting to amend and eventually adopt it. Those had not been scheduled as of Tuesday evening.

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