(Meeting Updates - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

PARKERSBURG — Members of Parkersburg City Council have scheduled three meetings for next week – weather permitting.

In addition to Tuesday’s regular session, council plans to meet at 6 p.m. Monday in the executive conference room on the second floor of the Municipal Building and resolve into the Committee of the Whole to discuss priorities for the upcoming fiscal year.

“It’s on for now but (we) will evaluate based on what Mother Nature brings,” council President Andrew Borkowski said Friday, with a winter storm warning in effect from Saturday to Monday morning and National Weather Service forecasts calling for 6-12 inches of snow.

The priority planning meetings have been held for several years, usually in the format of each council member saying what issues and topics they would like to see addressed in the coming year. No action is anticipated on the agenda except for the committee, which consists of all nine council members, to “rise and report” to council and for the members, as council, to vote on accepting that report.

The second regular meeting of the month is slated for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in council chambers. The sole item on the agenda is a resolution authorizing the special levy election for the city’s portion of the Mid-Ohio Valley Transit Authority levy supporting bus service. Council approved a resolution for the election on Jan. 13, but an amendment is needed to make a change in some wording and the approximate total amount the levy would raise – $3,623,311.54 instead of $3,606,723.84 – between Parkersburg and Vienna.

After the council meeting, members will convene as the Urban Renewal Authority to consider two applications to purchase property.

Robert Schaffer is offering $8,088.88 for 1301 Avery St., the former site of a church that stood for nearly 120 years before the authority voted in 2024 to acquire the dilapidated structure via eminent domain for $25,000. According to the memo with Tuesday’s agenda, the city spent $114,000 to have the building demolished.

According to his application, Schaffer plans to have the four parcels rezoned for business, combine the lots and market the property for a business.

The other agenda item is an offer from Jason Cottrille to purchase a vacant lot at 1107 Pike St. for $500. The property was donated to the authority in 2023, and $5,240 was spent on demolition. Cottrille proposes clearing brush and dead trees and using the property as a yard extension.

None of the agendas include the proposed recycling contract with Rumpke, as council voted to table it until the Feb. 10 meeting.

That ordinance is separate from the solid waste disposal contract with Waste Management approved on a 6-3 vote at council’s Jan. 13 meeting.

Some residents are circulating a petition to “rescind” that ordinance, according to an event posted on Facebook to collect signatures Tuesday at Das Rookhaus. The city charter allows for referendum petitions that, if certified, would require council to reconsider an ordinance. If it is not repealed, the matter would go before the city voters.

Such petitions require the signatures of 15% of the number of qualified voters registered to vote in the last regular city election, which would be approximately 2,784. Petitions must be submitted within 30 days of the adoption of the ordinance.

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com