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Parkersburg City Council finalizes 2021-22 budget

Barber confirmed as development director

By Evan Bevins 3 min read

PARKERSBURG -- Parkersburg City Council on Tuesday finalized the 2021-22 municipal budget and approved a revision to this year's estimate of municipal sales tax revenue.

Council voted 8-0, with Councilman Mike Reynolds absent, to accept the West Virginia Auditor's Office's approval of the levy estimate and lay the levy rates. No one spoke at a public hearing to consider objections to the estimate.

Councilman Bob Mercer asked about a question from the auditor's office about the budgeted carryover into the new fiscal year.

Finance Director Eric Jiles explained that it was due to the unexpected infusion of federal C.A.R.E.S. Act money toward the end of fiscal year 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic hit shortly after the fiscal 2020-21 budget was approved and the C.A.R.E.S. Act reimbursements were received but not allocated before the city's financial year ended on June 30, 2020.

"We had to revise that $500,000 carryover estimate (for fiscal 2021) to $3.7 million," Jiles said.

Because of that, the auditor's office questioned the $600,000 carryover estimate in the new budget, but granted the estimate conditional approval.

Council also voted 8-0 to approve a budget revision to account for projected record revenue from the 1 percent municipal sales tax. Based on receipts from the first three quarters of the fiscal year, Jiles proposed raising the figure for the year by $231,974, making it $6,251,971.

The resolution allocates $120,000 of the additional revenue to emergency demolitions, $50,000 to the city's sidewalk repair effort and $40,000 to the Fire Department's overtime line item. It also moves $65,000 from vacant police patrolman positions to the central garage budget for repairs and maintenance, much of it on police vehicles, performed by outside entities.

In other business, council voted 8-0 to confirm Mayor Tom Joyce's appointment of Development Projects Administrator Ryan Barber as the city's new development director. Barber, who has been with the city for six years, replaces Rickie Yeager, who left earlier this year for a post in Morgantown.

Joyce said one of Barber's first orders of business will be to get the Schools to Pools program up and running for the summer. The program, which provides free pool passes to students who qualify for free and reduced school lunch, was not offered last year because of pool occupancy restrictions enacted due to the pandemic.

Joyce said a new executive order announced this week by West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice made the resumption of the program possible. Among the effects of the order is the removal of limits on outdoor gatherings.

Council voted 7-0 to approve the first of three readings of an ordinance authorizing the Parkersburg Utility Board to refinance revenue bonds issued in 2005 to fund improvements to the wastewater treatment plant. Council President Zach Stanley recused himself and turned the meeting over to Vice President Sharon Kuhl because he is an employee of United Bank, which had bid on the refinancing.

The refinancing at a lower interest rate is expected to save the utility more than $400,000.

Council approved 8-0 the first reading of an ordinance establishing a street superintendent position to oversee both the Streets and Street Cleaning departments, which Joyce said should increase efficiency while having a nominal impact on the budget.

Council resolved into the Committee of the Whole for a meeting on April 29 to discuss a proposal by a private entity to purchase the Memorial Bridge.

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