Mid-Ohio Valley Foundations – Community: Parkersburg capital improvement plan full of projects
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PARKERSBURG -- The Southwood Park pool, the Parkersburg Ohio River Trail and renovation of Bennett Stump Field in City Park were all highlighted as completed projects among the most recent capital improvement plan Mayor Tom Joyce distributed to Parkersburg City Council.
Now, officials are looking ahead to a new community building and replacing a third fire station and the central garage.
"For a lot of years we just added stuff" to the capital plan, a document outlining potential projects to be addressed over a five-year period, Joyce said. "We never took anything off for completion."
A 2.6-mile extension of the P.O.R.T. trail from the Pond Run outfall to the city limits just south of Grand Central Mall opened in September. The $1,536,646.32 extension was paid for mostly with a West Virginia Department of Transportation/Division of Highways grant.
"Now it's our obligation and responsibility to keep it as aesthetically pleasing, safe and usable as we can," he said.
Council will consider a budget revision that would allocate $150,000 for lighting along the trail.
While the P.O.R.T. trail was a multi-year effort that predates Joyce's election as mayor in 2016, the pool and baseball field projects were made possible largely because of one-time infusions of federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.
"Those don't happen without ARPA," Joyce said.
The legislation in response to the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic allowed cities to claim up to $10 million as lost revenue. That let Parkersburg officials allocate $3,784,227 for the approximately $4.9 million project to reconstruct the Southwood pool and add a zero-depth entry area, new water features, a new concrete pool deck, new lighting and audio, a speed slide and expanded kids' pool area and shaded spaces. They also put $1,750,000 toward Bennett Stump Field for improvements including Astroturf for the infield, a building for equipment and new lights, fencing and dugouts.
The Southwood pool is on track to open this summer, with contractors on-site to test equipment and fill the pool in April, Joyce said. The Bennett Stump Field work is finished, although the budget revision council was considering this week included $42,824 for improvements at the press box.
That revision also includes $650,000 toward a planned $13 million activity and recreation center in City Park. That would push the total money allocated to the project referred to in the capital plan as the Parkersburg Community Building over $5 million.
The proposed facility will be built at the site of the park's nearly 100-year-old pavilion, which would be demolished. A feasibility study the city commissioned identified that as the best site out of five considered.
Some residents have expressed concern the facility would negatively impact the park. Joyce has previously said it would eliminate less than 2% of the green space there. Others expressed concern over parking. Representatives of architectural firm Pickering Associates said in November that there are about 400 spaces in the park now and the design could add about 30 more. More spaces could be added once the impact on parking is determined, they said.
Also on the horizon for the city is the replacement of Fire Station 3, one of three built during the Great Depression and the only one that hasn't been replaced. The capital plan notes the building is in "poor" condition, and Joyce said it needs to move in an easterly direction to improve Fire Department response times.
The Central Garage and Street Department property on Camden Avenue is in disrepair, and city officials have been talking about replacing and possibly moving those facilities for a couple of years. Joyce said so far there have been no red flags raised by environmental studies and council will soon have to determine whether to sell the site or build new facilities there.
Last year, council and the administration established a debt service fund with $10 million that had been allocated for maintenance and eventual demolition of the Memorial Bridge but was freed up after the city sold the toll bridge. Joyce said the plan is to fund the new fire station, garage and a portion of the community building with bonds and allocate annual payments from that debt service fund.
The city has been able to complete major projects and look toward others without raising taxes, Joyce said. Police and fire fees were raised in 2017 to address rising pension obligations, but some business and occupation taxes have been reduced in recent years.
Joyce attributed that success to the implementation of the 1% sales tax back in 2015, as well as progress made in pension obligations, the elimination of vehicle and equipment leases in 2018, good budgeting and a cooperative City Council over his two terms as mayor.
Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com