Photo by Evan Bevins Parkersburg resident Andrew Lamb speaks against an ordinance that would required Dumpsters to be fenced or screened from view during Tuesday’s Parkersburg City Council meeting at the Municipal Building. Council voted 8-1 to amend the ordinance to remove that provision and state only that those who utilize Dumpsters and similar large receptacles are responsible for keeping the site clean.

PARKERSBURG — City Council voted Tuesday to throw out most of an ordinance that would have required Dumpsters to be fenced or screened.

The ordinance was on final reading during Tuesday’s meeting, but will return on the agenda for the next meeting after an 8-1 vote significantly changed the proposed legislation.

As approved with a 6-3 vote on first reading March 12, the ordinance required entities using Dumpsters or other large trash containers to fence, screen or surround them to completely conceal them from view. The containers would have also been placed on a solid asphalt or cement surface.

Mayor Tom Joyce, who was absent from Tuesday’s meeting, previously said the proposal was a response to multiple complaints about large trash receptacles overflowing with refuse. Councilman John Reed, who is also director of the Wood County Solid Waste Authority, said fencing could also discourage Dumpster diving and prevent containers from being moved out of place by waste haulers.

Councilman Zach Stanley argued the measure was excessive and unnecessary.

Photo by Evan Bevins Parkersburg City Councilman Zach Stanley laughs as a proposed amendment to an ordinance requiring screens or fencing around Dumpsters is discussed during Tuesday’s council meeting.

“To put this on a majority of the businesses in this community, I think it’s wrong,” he said. “You’re replacing it with another unsightly obstacle.”

Stanley added that at a place he used to work, the fenced-in trash space “attracted nefarious people to this area to congregate.”

Councilman Dave McCrady had a picture of a Dumpster at an apartment complex in his district displayed on the projector screen in council chambers, showing a mattress and tires stacked beside the receptacle. Councilwoman Sharon Kuhl referred back to an issue in her district in which a commercial Dumpster kept getting placed closer and closer to a resident’s driveway after it was emptied.

Stanley noted the latter issue was addressed when Kuhl brought it to the mayor’s attention. Kuhl said Joyce is too busy to address all such matters.

“That’s fine,” Stanley said. “I don’t work for the mayor. And neither do you. We work for our constituents.”

Photo by Evan Bevins Parkersburg City Councilman Dave McCrady, left, speaks about a problem Dumpster in his district during Tuesday’s council meeting at the Municipal Building.

Existing measures need enforced, Stanley said. If a property owner doesn’t take care of their trash, they should be ticketed, he said. If they need to get an additional Dumpster or have a waste hauler come more often, they should do that.

“We hold them to it,” Stanley said.

Reed said Parkersburg has very few laws regarding trash. The section of the proposed ordinance stating the property owner, person, business or other entity using a Dumpster must keep trash in the container and not allow refuse to overflow, escape or be blown away is not replicated elsewhere in code, he said.

The biggest problem comes from second-hand stores that throw out unwanted items, Reed said. Some individuals pull those items from the receptacles, take what they want and leave the rest on the ground. That results in expensive clean-ups and landfill fees for which the public must pay, he said.

Reed proposed an amendment requiring fenced Dumpsters only for businesses that conduct estate sales or resell used items and commercial properties that abut residential property.

Councilman J.R. Carpenter said he had a problem with “pigeonholing” businesses. He asked what percentage of large trash receptacles in the city were used by such establishments.

“We think less than a dozen,” Reed said. “But that’s the ones that are costing the taxpayers thousands and thousands of dollars.”

Reed’s amendment was voted down 7-2, with he and Kuhl supporting it.

Stanley made a motion to eliminate four of the five paragraphs in the ordinance, leaving only the section establishing that keeping the Dumpster area clean was the property owner’s responsibility. Reed was the only council member to vote against it.

The ordinance passed as amended by the same 8-1 margin.

The final reading of the amended ordinance will be on the agenda for council’s next meeting, which is scheduled for Tuesday, a week earlier than usual. Meeting dates of April 2 and 16 were scheduled by a resolution that passed 8-1, with Councilman Jeff Fox opposed.

Also on Tuesday, council unanimously passed a resolution reallocating $3,997.01 in the Community Development Block Grant budget to cover additional refinancing charges on the loan for the Point Park project. The amount was originally estimated to be more than $20,000, based on accrued interest, but Development Director Rickie Yeager said updated figures recently provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development provided the much lower figure.