PARKERSBURG – A committee seeking a referendum on Parkersburg City Council’s approval of a sanitation service contract with Waste Management eclipsed the required number of signatures by more than 300.

But city officials still maintain the ordinance in question is not subject to the referendum provision in the municipal charter.

Wood County Clerk Joe Gonzales said Thursday that his office delivered to the Parkersburg city clerk’s office documentation of the verification process of 1,914 signatures turned in by the committee. City Clerk Connie Shaffer said an even 1,000 were determined to be valid signatures of registered voters living in the city.

At the end of February, the group turned in nearly 3,000 signatures, but the county clerk’s office, which keeps the voting records for the county, determined only 2,091 were valid. This left the group 672 short of the 2,763 required for a referendum petition, equal to 15% of the registered voters in the city in the 2024 election.

After a back-and-forth in Wood County Circuit Court resulted in Judge J.D. Beane ordering the city and county to provide the committee with explanations for why 862 signatures were invalidated, the committee began gathering signatures again.

“This historic exercise of democracy in Parkersburg is to be celebrated,” said Edward Escandon, a member of the referendum committee, on Thursday afternoon. “Thousands of voters agreed that an issue as important as sanitation should be thoroughly debated and decided by a majority vote. And now it will be.”

According to the charter, once a petition is determined to be sufficient, if council fails to repeal the ordinance within 30 days, the ordinance is to be submitted to the city’s voters. The agenda for Tuesday’s council meeting is already set, so the earliest any action could take place is at the June 23 meeting.

But City Attorney Blaine Myers earlier this year said he does not believe the ordinance in question is eligible for a referendum because it involves the allocation of funds, a position Mayor Tom Joyce reiterated Thursday.

“I still believe the ordinance isn’t subject to referendum given it is an appropriation,” he said. “My focus has been and will continue to be making sure our residents receive the best service possible, services across the spectrum including not only solid waste collection but streets, parks and public safety.”

The city began looking into contracting out trash and recycling service last year, with officials citing double-digit vacancies among the 27 positions budgeted for the Sanitation Department. Joyce has said efforts to offer incentives failed to attract and retain employees, while residents critical of the move have said the city should have done more, including additional salary increases.

Multiple residents repeatedly spoke against contracting out services at council meetings, but a five-year, almost $15 million contract with Waste Management for trash service was approved on a pair of 6-3 votes in January.

Waste Management has not signed the contract due to the uncertainty surrounding the referendum effort, although city officials announced in May that the company would begin providing trash service on an interim basis on July 1. The number of employees in Sanitation had dwindled to just two, with workers from other departments and temporary employees covering trash routes.

City officials have also said that if the contract is ultimately invalidated, one option would be for individual customers to sign up for their own trash service with eligible providers. But, in announcing the interim measure, Joyce said he believed having one provider and centralized billing is important.

Meanwhile, a subscription-based recycling program with Rumpke started in mid-May. Residents who pay an additional $3 a month receive a 95-gallon cart for pickup of recyclable materials every other week. A lawsuit filed by Parkersburg resident and attorney Walt Auvil seeks a declaratory judgment that the city must reinstate curbside recycling, which was suspended in May 2025 due to the manpower issues, without charging a fee.

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