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Parkersburg City Council advances recycling changes, sends food truck ordinance back

By Evan Bevins 5 min read

PARKERSBURG - Members of Parkersburg City Council approved the first reading of an ordinance designed to comply with a judge's order about the municipal recycling program - after amending it to reflect suggestions from the plaintiff in a lawsuit that prompted the ruling - and voted to send an ordinance regulating food trucks back to the Municipal Planning Commission.

The ordinance regarding recycling was proposed after Wood County Circuit Court Judge J.D. Beane ruled earlier this month that the subscription-based recycling program implemented by the city in May did not comply with state code requiring cities with populations of 10,000 or more to implement a curbside recycling program.

While the ruling was a declaratory judgment that did not mandate any action, city officials said they would comply with it.

A key point in the ruling was that the city's new program charges an additional $3 to residents who opt to recycle, on top of a $1.50 surcharge that is part of the $21-a-month sanitation fee for everyone. To address that, the new ordinance charges everyone $3 a month for recycling, whether they have a recycling cart from Rumpke Waste and Recycling or not.

That is intended to cover the $15.25 a month per recycling container Rumpke charges under its contract with the city, based on an estimated 1,000 more customers opting in. But Councilman Rob Moore noted that if more people participate, the cost will increase.

Residents in his district "do not want to pay more money if they don't recycle," he said.

Councilwoman Wendy Tuck made a motion to send the ordinance to the Committee of the Whole, consisting of all nine council members, for further consideration, citing in part proposed amendments emailed to council members earlier in the day.

"What is it going to cost us, and then let's base that $3 fee ... on something real," she said. "This doesn't give me anything to tell my constituents (about) what's this going to cost?"

City Attorney Blaine Myers called the cost a "moving target" based on a "reasonable estimate" of how many people beyond the 1,400 participating now would request carts from Rumpke because they are paying for the service anyway.

"We could have a lot of meetings, and we'd never get any more certainty," he said.

One amendment removed the language saying non-residential entities had to make arrangements to recycle through their own service provider and language establishing a penalty of $50 a month for those who violate the code. Myers said those changes were suggested by Walt Auvil, the city resident and attorney who asked Beane to rule on the new program as part of his lawsuit against the city over its suspension of curbside recycling last year.

Tuck said the removal of the $50 penalty provision leaves the amended ordinance subject to the existing penalty of up to $500 in that section of the code.

"How many people are you going to have to fine $500 to make sure that everybody complies?" she said.

Myers and Mayor Tom Joyce said the penalty provision in state code has not been enforced in West Virginia and the administration does not plan to do so.

"My intention is not to go out and write people $500 tickets for not recycling," Joyce said.

Tuck said they should be encouraging people to recycle.

"We do a lot to encourage recycling," Joyce said, noting Rumpke accepts more material than the city did under its sanitation program. "Quite frankly, the more people recycle, the more it's going to go up. ... If you're worried about the ... roughly 75, 80% who don't recycle, we need to stop encouraging people to recycle."

Several people in the chamber began speaking after that, causing council President Andrew Borkowski to call for order. Tuck called for the vote and the motion to refer the ordinance to committee failed 6-3, with only Tuck, Councilman Zak Huffman and Councilman Chris Rexroad in favor.

The proposed amendments passed by the same margin, with Tuck, Huffman and Rexroad opposed, as did the first reading of the ordinance.

The ordinance affecting food trucks and other mobile vending operations was referred back to the Municipal Planning Commission on a 7-2 vote, with Borkowski and Councilman Dave McCrady opposed. Councilwoman Sharon Kuhl made the motion after Huffman proposed an amendment removing four provisions from the ordinance: limiting hours of operation to between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m., creating a buffer zone of 200 feet from special events or existing businesses and requiring inverted generators, which Huffman said are more expensive than what many food truck owners use.

"I think those are crazy," he said.

Jimmy Avocado's owner Jimmy Carrano said during the public forum that he was not opposed to some regulation but had concerns about portions of the ordinance.

"I feel that there's a significant lack of input from the food trucks in the area," he said.

In other business, council approved the final reading of an ordinance rezoning property at 709 Rayon Drive from a residential to a business zone on a 6-3 vote, with Huffman and Councilman Roger Brown and Rob Moore opposed.

A resolution allocating $10,000 for a new business grant program was rejected in a 5-4 vote.

The final reading of an ordinance authorizing the design and construction of a system to filter PFAS and forever chemicals at the Parkersburg Utility Board's water treatment plant, as did the second reading of an ordinance authorizing a portion of funding for the nearly $25 million project, which will not require a rate increase. Unlike most municipal ordinances, it requires three readings.

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

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