PARKERSBURG — Parkersburg City Council President Sharon Kuhl will announce appointments to council committees during Tuesday’s meeting.
Slated for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in council chambers on the second floor of the Municipal Building, the meeting will be followed by an Urban Renewal Authority session to consider the acquisition of four pieces of property.
Elected at the Jan. 10 meeting on a 5-4 vote, Kuhl said she sorted council members into the different committees based off of multiple factors. She sent an email to members asking to which committee they would prefer to be assigned and got six responses.
“(Council Vice President) Chris (Rexroad) and I met, we went down all of the committees,” Kuhl said. “It took us two hours; we really put due diligence in this, matching which ones we felt would do best on the committees, which had not served on the committees before. We matched them with who we felt would do the best job and we came up with the committee assignments.”
Council has three primary committees — Finance, Personnel and Public Works — as well as a stormwater committee. Kuhl will also appoint a chairman of the Urban Renewal Authority and council representatives to other bodies, including the Municipal Planning Commission.
Also at Tuesday’s meeting, council members will vote on the final reading to vacate an alley behind Discovery World on Market, an interactive children’s museum that is expected to bring visitors and revenue to Parkersburg. Museum officials requested the alley be vacated for the safety of children visiting the museum on field trips, as they would have to cross the alley from the parking areas behind the building.
Acting as the Urban Renewal Authority, council members will consider the proposed donation of 1711 Lawrence St. as well as the requested purchase, at fair market value, of three other properties, including 1415 Covert St. and 507 Pike St.
The third is an item tabled at the Dec. 28 meeting for 1127 19th St., 1129 19th St. and 1907 Dudley Ave. The combined fair market value of these properties is $129,000, with estimated demolition costs of $117,240.
“We do not always worry about the price,” Kuhl said. “We worry about what is best for our community.”
Kuhl said the ceiling on one of the buildings is falling in and homeless people have started to use it as a place of residence.
“If you saw pictures of the inside of those buildings, you would not believe how bad it is,” Kuhl said. “Our motive is what will help the community most and, in this situation, the best way to help is to demolish those buildings.”
In the paperwork for the purchase, the city’s Planning Division notes the owner of the property owes the city $5,382.82 in fees and a judgment. The staff recommends that amount be deducted from the purchase price, if approved.
Clara Noelle can be reached at intern@newsandsentinel.com
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