Parkersburg City Council President Mike Reynolds listens to discussion during Tuesday’s Urban Renewal Authority meeting. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

PARKERSBURG — The former Economy Inn has been talked about for more than 18 months as the possible site of a new Parkersburg fire station, but city officials said that was not the sole – or even primary – reason for spending nearly $800,000 to acquire and demolish it.

“We, as URA, are obligated to clear slum and blight within our city,” Councilwoman Sharon Kuhl said during Tuesday’s Parkersburg City Council meeting. “I would do it again.”

The Urban Renewal Authority consists of all nine members of City Council. The potential sale of the property at 1954 Seventh St. was a topic during the public forum at the council meeting prior to Tuesday’s URA session.

Parkersburg resident Joseph Smith pointed to past public statements by city officials that the site was being considered as a replacement for the Depression-era fire station 3 at 13th and Liberty streets but acknowledged no decision had been announced. Still, in prepared remarks provided to The Parkersburg News and Sentinel, he questioned spending so much to acquire the property and potentially selling it for less than that.

“Changing horses in the middle of the Rubicon, my friends,” said Smith, who did not get to complete his remarks before his three-minute time limit expired.

Democratic mayoral candidate Sherry Dugan echoed Smith’s concerns.

“How does council and the administration justify that amount of money spent and now is considering selling it for thousands of dollars less?” she said. “Doesn’t seem fiscally responsible to throw that amount of money away.”

During the council forum, Kuhl said the hotel was a site of criminal activity including drug dealing and prostitution and nearby businesses were victims of theft. That was the primary reason for the purchase, she said, adding, “we’re not jumping into any decisions to sell the property.”

Before council, as the URA, voted to direct the Development Department to do additional research and market the property rather than accepting any of the unsolicited offers to purchase it, Councilman Zach Stanley said he felt the amount spent on the hotel was a necessary expense.

“We didn’t want to spend that much money, but it did take that to get this done,” he said.

During the council forum, Kuhl also said that since the hotel was acquired Mayor Tom Joyce and Fire Chief Jason Matthews “have chosen another place” for the new fire station.

Councilwoman Wendy Tuck asked if that location had been voted on, to which Kuhl responded, “we allocated $50,000 to buy a piece of property on Seventh Street for the new fire station.”

Joyce became frustrated and said, “Guys, we went into executive session for a reason on that.”

Joyce declined to comment on the situation Wednesday.

Council’s Finance Committee went into closed, executive session at a June 4 meeting to discuss property acquisition related to the station. Considering matters related to the purchase, sale or lease of real property is an allowable exemption to West Virginia’s open meetings law.

The committee forwarded to the full council a resolution for budget revisions including allocating $210,000 for architectural and engineering services and land acquisition for the new station.

No property has been purchased for a new fire station at this time.

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com