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Parkersburg resident Brian Hayden, left, speaks during the public forum at Tuesday's Parkersburg City Council meeting. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

PARKERSBURG – Members of City Council approved the first increase in municipal pool rates since 2019 on Tuesday, but most discussion at the meeting focused on other topics, including the ongoing sanitation stalemate.

The first reading of an ordinance setting the rates for the pools at City and Southwood parks, along with the splash pad and water slide, respectively, passed on a 7-2 vote, with Councilwoman Wendy Tuck and Councilman Zak Huffman opposed. Approval on final reading is required before the rates would go into effect.

Under the ordinance, daily admission to a city pool would cost $6 for kids age 3-17, seniors 55 and older and veterans; and $8 for other adults. Season passes for residents would be $90 for children 3-17, seniors 55 and older and veterans; and $110 for other adults. There would be an additional $15 charge for non-residents.

Family passes, for up to four members, would be $215 for residents and $240 for non-residents, with a charge of $40 for each additional member for residents and $65 for non-residents.

Private rentals would range from $305 to $625 depending on the length of time and whether concessions are included.

Parkersburg City Councilman Dave McCrady, left, responds to a comment in the public forum about pay for sanitation workers as Councilwoman Sharon Kuhl listens during Tuesday's council meeting. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

There was no discussion about the ordinance prior to the vote. After the meeting, Mayor Tom Joyce noted that the annual management costs for the pools have increased by $58,275, or 42%, since 2019, while chemical prices have risen 63%.

During the public forum, speakers focused on the debate over municipal trash service and the discourse from officials and the public at previous council meetings.

Parkersburg resident Julia Monroe said the salaries for two positions the city is looking to hire – including an events and marketing coordinator – and raises proposed but not passed for the mayor and council in 2024 could have funded an additional $1.81 an hour in pay for workers in the Sanitation Department.

“This council really needs to learn the difference between needs and wants,” Monroe said.

Councilman Dave McCrady said increasing pay for workers in sanitation would require raises for 29 other employees also classified as medium equipment operators.

Councilman Mike Reynolds said the administration has been trying to recruit people to that department since 2019.

“It just became almost an impossible task,” he said.

Manpower issues have been cited by the administration in recommending the city contract out its trash service to Waste Management. The department had double-digit vacancies among its 27 budgeted employees last year. As council moved toward a contract with a private hauler, those vacancy numbers rose, with only two employees remaining in the department in mid-April.

Opponents of the change have said the city should have paid workers more. A referendum petition has been filed to get council to repeal the ordinance or put it on a ballot, and Waste Management has not signed the five-year contract while that process plays out.

Reynolds said sanitation employees must hold commercial driver’s licenses and some companies pay $30 an hour to people with such licenses. If the city paid those wages, the monthly sanitation fee would likely be doubled from its $21 rate, he said.

“And then instead of having 20 people down here telling us how stupid we are, we’d have two or three hundred,” he said.

Bible Baptist Church Pastor Dan Stevens thanked council for the work they’ve done and said that while he believes residents have a right to air their grievances, he believes the tone has gone beyond that with constant complaints and insults and no civil discourse.

“Could we please take it down a notch?” he said.

Tuck said that needed to go both ways, saying she understood residents’ frustrations after council changed its rules last year to prohibit discussion in the public forum on items that weren’t on the agenda, something she opposed.

“We have a lot to do ourselves,” she said.

Council lifted the prohibition on discussing non-agenda items earlier this year.

Parkersburg resident Brian Hayden said some members of council at the April 20 meeting seemed to be threatening to abandon the city’s responsibility to provide trash service, which he described as “a petulant response to people exercising their right to redress.”

In response to another speaker Tuesday, McCrady said he was referring to people having to sign up for trash service on their own if the referendum process invalidated the Waste Management contract.

Hayden also took issue with Joyce listing the administration’s accomplishments over the last nine-and-a-half years at the April 20 meeting and said the city government had violated people’s constitutional rights, citing lawsuits over the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer before meetings and a 2022 federal jury verdict that found the city violated a property owner’s rights when attempting to inspect a downtown building.

“The people have seen the records of accomplishment and failures, and frankly, we are not impressed,” he said.

Joyce said he believes the city was right to oppose the lawsuit over saying the prayer, adding he believes it is beneficial. In response to Hayden saying the city prioritized “vanity projects” over essential services, Joyce said he does not ask for his name to be placed on plaques marking improvements to city facilities and he believes improvements can be made while addressing needs.

“Just because we have other priorities … can’t we have nice things?” he said.

Council approved the first readings of three other ordinances, including two that set the pay range for a training officer in the Fire Department. Fire Chief Jason Matthews said council approved a change that allowed the job to be filled by a firefighter or civilian two years ago, but the salary range had not been set.

It does not create a new position, as previously reported.

Council also voted 8-0, with Tuck abstaining, to approve pay increases for civil service employees in the police and fire departments and part-time workers, reflecting the 4.2% cost-of-living adjustment authorized in the upcoming budget. While other employees’ pay can be adjusted administratively within approved ranges, those workers’ salaries must be changed by ordinance.

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