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Parkersburg City Council discusses one item on the agenda during regular meeting Tuesday. (Photo provided by the City of Parkersburg)

PARKERSBURG – Residents of Parkersburg criticized city council’s agenda for having only one resolution item during the regular meeting on Tuesday evening.

The agenda for the Parkersburg City Council meeting also included no unfinished business. The resolution was to reappoint Tom Farrah onto the Utility Board for a four-year term to expire June 23, 2030.

The Parkersburg Utility Board works on improving and maintaining water and sanitary sewer systems for the city, according to its website.

Council approved the resolution in a unanimous vote with Councilmen Mike Reynolds and Andrew Borkowski absent.

A handful of individuals spoke during the public forum, with some speaking about the recent trash referendum petition and some questioning why there was only one item on the agenda.

Parkersburg resident Caci Petrehn said, “this is a micro reflection of a macro problem,” regarding the only item on the agenda.

“If somebody looked at tonight’s agenda with no knowledge of our city, they would assume that Parkersburg has no pressing issues left to address, which we all know could not be further from the truth,” said Petrehn. “They would have no idea what residents are concerned about.”

Petrehn said there are economic, infrastructure, and transparency issues that need to be addressed.

Councilman Rob Moore said in his 11 months on council he rarely hears any of the public comments talking about positivity in the community.

“For the past 11 months there’s hardly been any positive comments,” he said. “It’s like every week, eight or nine people, it’s all negative.”

Moore said there’s lots of good events happening in the community that are being overlooked.

“We have a lot of other ideas, but stuff takes a while through the city to get done … it takes a while to get stuff moving,” he said.

Regarding comments made by the public about the trash referendum, he said the contract with Waste Management is the best option.

“If you want your trash picked up, Waste Management’s the way to go right now,” said Moore.

The next council meeting will be 7:30 p.m. June 23, on the second floor of the municipal building in council chambers.

Amber Phipps can be reached at aphipps@newsandsentinel.com