PARKERSBURG – An increased discount for paying police, fire and sanitation fees in full for the year will be on the Parkersburg City Council agenda Tuesday.

The first regular meeting in July is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in council chambers on the second floor of the Municipal Building.

City code offers a 1.5% discount to parties paying all 12 months of their fire, police and sanitation fees in advance by July 20. A pair of ordinances on first reading Tuesday would increase that to 5% and give people until Aug. 20 to pay it this year, since the ordinance could not receive final approval until July 28 at the earliest.

“Anybody who did pay the full year by July 20, we’ll retroactively apply it and give them an additional credit,” Finance Director Eric Jiles said.

The increased discount would also apply to the city’s new subscription-based recycling program through Rumpke, he said.

The first ordinance applies to police and fire fees, while the second addresses the sanitation fee. It would also allow residents to obtain a second trash cart while the city is operating under a temporary contract with Waste Management. The charge to rent the cart, which would be owned by the city, is $5 a month, payable in three-month increments. A stolen cart can be replaced once at no charge with the presentation of a police report.

The city is operating under a temporary contract with Waste Management while the five-year contract approved by council in January is being challenged. People opposed to the contract collected enough signatures of registered voters to force a referendum on the ordinance; however, City Attorney Blaine Myers said it was his interpretation that the ordinance was not subject to referendum because it involves the allocation of funds.

Council voted to reject an appeal of the city clerk’s finding that the petition was insufficient, based on Myers’ ruling, but the petitioners are challenging the matter in court.

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