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PARKERSBURG — Members of Parkersburg City Council will begin reviewing the 2026-27 municipal budget proposed by Mayor Tom Joyce today.

Council will resolve into the Committee of the Whole for a trio of budget hearings scheduled for 6:30 p.m. today and 5:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. A public hearing on the budget is part of the agenda for the regular council meeting at 7:30 p.m.

All those meetings will be held in council chambers on the second floor of the Municipal Building.

Although the council vice president traditionally runs Committee of the Whole meetings and particularly the budget sessions, council President Andrew Borkowski plans to oversee these meetings. He said that role isn’t specified for the vice president in the charter, so he let council members know before the vote for president in December he planned to do that “just for synergy, just to keep things consistent.”

Revenue

The budget allocates $36,035,649 in spending for the general fund, for which the two largest sources of revenue are the business and occupation and municipal sales taxes.

B&O revenue is projected at $9,555,000 for the fiscal year beginning July 1, up $300,000 from the current fiscal year’s estimate. The 1% municipal sales tax is projected to generate $7.6 million, $200,000 more than this year’s estimate.

Those totals are often revised as the year goes on, depending on actual collections.

“I budget conservatively, meaning don’t budget a number I’m not certain we can realize,” Finance Director Eric Jiles said.

The user fee, assessed at $2.50 a week on everyone who works within the city limits, is projected to take in $2,150,000, a decrease of $50,000 from this fiscal year. Of that, $1.15 million will be transferred to the general fund – $575,000 each to supplement the police and fire departments – with $1 million going to the streets fund.

The streets fund budgets $1.3 million for street paving and preservation, and Joyce said he will ask council to allocate 100% of the carryover from fiscal year 2026 to street improvements. That amount will not be determined until October, Jiles said.

Sanitation

The general fund will receive an additional $50,000 from the Sanitation Fund in the form of a management fee to offset a portion of the expenses the city would incur from collecting payments and handling calls from residents for services that will be provided under contracts approved with Waste Management for trash and Rumpke for recycling.

“That management fee covers a portion of, and not even a proportional portion, of the billings and collections that the Finance Department does,” Jiles said.

Residents collected signatures for a referendum petition to force City Council to reconsider the ordinance approving the Waste Management contract. While the signatures are still being verified by the Wood County Clerk’s Office, Parkersburg City Attorney Blaine Myers has recommended that City Clerk Connie Shaffer not certify the petitions because the ordinance involves the appropriation of funds, making it ineligible for the referendum. A member of the petition committee disagreed and said he expects the issue to go to court.

Jiles said two positions will be absorbed from sanitation into other departments – a foreman in Parks and a grounds/maintenance technician in Floodwall. One mechanic slot that has been vacant for months will be eliminated, he said, noting two mechanics had been dedicated to covering sanitation vehicles, another expense for which the sanitation management fee, which had been $100,000, was intended to pay.

Salaries

The budget includes an across-the-board 4.2% salary increase for all full-time city employees, excluding elected officials. It’s the ninth consecutive year the administration has included a cost-of-living adjustment in the budget.

Joyce said he will only include such increases in the budget when he is confident the city can afford them “this year, next year and into perpetuity.”

In addition, the salaries of employees making less than $15 an hour would be brought up to that minimum, which Joyce said will cost an additional $24,000 to implement.

Capital Reserve

The proposed budget directs $963,685 to the Capital Reserve fund, which has a fund balance of just over $1.2 million. Allocations include:

* $298,000 for four new police cruisers and equipment, including dash cameras.

* $245,000 for parks and recreation improvements, including $100,000 for paving in City Park and $100,000 for paving sidewalks in the veterans memorial area, plus $45,000 for improvements to the Parkersburg Ohio River Trail.

* $205,000 for stormwater, with $150,000 for stormwater system construction and $55,000 for a camera to inspect storm sewer lines.

* $105,000 for floodwall improvements.

* $80,000 for four self-contained breathing apparatus devices and cylinders for the Fire Department and a new fire inspector vehicle.

* $60,000 for new mowers for the Parks Department.

* $35,000 to upgrade the audio system in council chambers.

Additional allocations toward future equipment purchases include:

* $600,000 toward a fire truck.

* $250,000 toward a street sweeper

* $50,000 toward a dump truck/spreader.

“We’re paying as we go for equipment; we’re paying as we go for capital improvements,” Joyce said. “To me, it’s basics; it’s fiscally prudent; it’s living within your means.”

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

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This Week’s Parkersburg City Council Beetings

Monday

* 6 p.m. – Finance Committee, Meeks Conference Room (budget revision to provide an additional $20,000 from the opioid settlement fund line item to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Parkersburg for intervention programming and $15,000 to First Choice Services to provide crisis intervention training to local agencies)

* 6:30 p.m. – Budget hearing, council chambers; (revenue estimate, civil service, mayor, council, finance, city clerk, municipal judge parking fund, city attorney, development, personnel, transfers to other funds, minor operating budgets, discretionary agency funding, capital budget, coal severance fund, opioid settlement fund)

Tuesday

* 5:30 p.m. – Budget hearing, council chambers (police, fire, engineering, code administration, Municipal Building, public works administration, floodwall, streets, street lighting, central garage, street cleaning, stormwater management, parks and recreation, parks and recreation fund, sanitation fund, demolition fund, parks and recreation capital projects, bond financial capital projects, street infrastructure capital projects)

* 7:30 p.m. – City Council, council chambers (budget revision from Finance, if referred Monday; resolutions appointing Tyler Koreski and reappointing Andrew Woofter III as administrative law judges; first reading of an ordinance amending and reenacting the city’s personnel manual to classify new positions of land surveyor, budget and grant analyst and events and marketing coordinator; first readings of ordinances updating salary classification tables to reflect minimum $15-an-hour salaries and new positions)

Wednesday

* 5:30 p.m. – Budget hearing (amendments and adoption)