Parkersburg City Council Finance Committee refers budget revisions | News, Sports, Jobs

Parkersburg City Councilman Andrew Borkowski, left, makes a motion to refer a budget revision resolution to the full council during Thursday’s Finance Committee meeting at the Municipal Building. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

PARKERSBURG — Members of Parkersburg City Council’s Finance Committee referred to the full body a series of end-of-the-fiscal-year budget revisions Thursday.

Among the items in the resolution, which will appear on the agenda of Tuesday’s council meeting, is $130,000 in federal grant funding to purchase license plate reading devices for the Police Department and the removal of $240,000 for resurfacing the splash pad at City Park.

Finance Director Eric Jiles said this would be the last major revision of the fiscal year, which ends June 30.

“All of this is just to try and shore everything up to what I think will be our final (amounts) for the year,” he said.

Police Chief Matthew Board said the $130,000 Homeland Security grant is intended to buy two license plate readers to be affixed to local bridges. The locations have not been finalized.

Parkersburg Police Chief Matthew Board, right, discusses the department’s plans to purchase license plate readers with federal funds during a Parkersburg City Council Finance Committee meeting Thursday as Public Works Director Everett Shears listens. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

Board said the devices could be used to search for vehicles driven by wanted subjects or related to missing person cases, as well as to reconstruct timelines involving suspect vehicles in investigations.

“It’s a force multiplier,” he said. “It is eyes where we cannot have eyes or have eyes all the time.”

The grant funds have to be spent by August, Board said.

Another change would remove $240,000 originally allocated to purchase a new surfacing material for the splash pad. Mayor Tom Joyce said the original estimate received included a miscalculation and the price would have been about twice the amount anticipated.

As a result, the rubber surfacing material that had reached the end of its useful life was removed, leaving a concrete surface as originally planned for the splash pad, city Engineer Adam Stout said after the meeting. The surface was repainted by city employees, with a traction aid added to it to make it less slippery, he said.

Parkersburg Finance Director Eric Jiles, left, goes over proposed budget revisions as Mayor Tom Joyce listens during a Finance Committee meeting Thursday at the Municipal Building. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

If the revision is approved by the full council, the money would go toward any possible overages for replacing the sidewalk near the pond at Southwood Park. If not needed for that, it could be reallocated later, Jiles said.

Other revisions included increases of $125,000 each to the revenue line items for the municipal sales tax and supplemental and prior year property taxes to better reflect receipts, Jiles said. Supplemental and prior year taxes are related to collections on delinquent accounts.

A number of smaller revisions were made to line items in various departments to reflect actual expenses.

Money was moved from the salary line items for vacant positions to overtime in the police, fire and sanitation departments. Jiles noted that is a standard practice but acknowledged the transfer of $90,000 in sanitation was higher than in years past.

Joyce announced last week that the city was suspending its recycling pickup until further notice, citing staff shortages and call-offs. Medium equipment operators in the department and others holding commercial driver’s licenses were given a $2-an-hour pay increase for the upcoming fiscal year, including the 4.2% raise approved for all employees, but the pay of sanitation workers has remained a topic of discussion at council meetings.

The resolution was referred to council on a 4-0 vote. The usually five-member committee had only four people listed on the agenda.

After the meeting, Councilman Chris Rexroad said he had resigned from the committee, and declined to elaborate. Council President Mike Reynolds appointed him in April after removing Councilwoman Wendy Tuck from the committee.

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com