ebevins@newsandsentinel.com Parkersburg Mayor Tom Joyce, center, speaks with United Bridge Partners President and CEO Doug Witt, left, and Vice President of Business Development Ryan Dolan after a meeting of Parkersburg City Council’s Committee of the Whole on Thursday at the Municipal Building. (Photo by Evan Bevins) United Bridge Partners Vice President of Construction and Operations Ken Szeliga, left, and Vice President of Business Development Ryan Dolan listen to a question from a Parkersburg City Council member during a meeting of the Committee of the Whole on Thursday at the Municipal Building. (Photo by Evan Bevins) United Bridge Partners President and CEO Doug Witt speaks during a presentation about the company’s bid to purchase and rehabilitate the Memorial Bridge during a meeting of Parkersburg City Council’s Committee of the Whole on Thursday at the Municipal Building. (Photo by Evan Bevins)
ebevins@newsandsentinel.com
United Bridge Partners has submitted a bid and proposal to purchase and rehabilitate the Memorial Bridge from the City of Parkersburg. (File Photo)
PARKERSBURG The Memorial Bridge would undergo a nearly two-year rehabilitation project before tolls increase and switch to completely electronic collection under a proposal before Parkersburg City Council.
Colorado-based United Bridge Partners would pay $4 million, take over responsibility for its operations and embark on an approximately 21-month effort to deliver “a fully-rehabilitated bridge … that will be open and operational for a minimum 50-year service life,” according to bid documents.
Council will meet as the Committee of the Whole at 7 p.m. today at the Municipal Building to hear a presentation on the bid. The proposal would have to be approved on two readings by council, likely at its regular meetings in May, before it could be authorized.
ebevins@newsandsentinel.com An SUV stops to pay the toll at the Memorial Bridge in Parkersburg on Friday. (Photo by Evan Bevins) Vehicles travel on the West Virginia side of the Memorial Bridge on Friday. (Photo by Evan Bevins)
An SUV stops to pay the toll at the Memorial Bridge in Parkersburg on Friday. (Photo by Evan Bevins)
PARKERSBURG The city of Parkersburg stands to gain more than $14 million by selling the Memorial Bridge to a private company.
A press release from Parkersburg Mayor Tom Joyce on Friday afternoon identified Colorado-based United Bridge Partners as the bidder to purchase the toll bridge, which opened in 1955 and connects West Virginia 2 to Ohio 7.
Wilda L. Bungard Parkersburg Finance Director Eric Jiles explains a question raised by the West Virginia Auditor’s Office about the carryover estimate for the 2021-22 fiscal year budget during Tuesday’s Parkersburg City Council meeting at the Municipal Building. (Photo by Evan Bevins) Ryan Barber, center, is sworn in as Parkersburg’s development director after Tuesday’s Parkersburg City Council meeting, during which he was confirmed on an 8-0 vote. He is flanked by Mayor Tom Joyce and Personnel Director Sondra Wallace. (Photo by Evan Bevins) Randy Jay Riffle Susan Sheppard Ryan Barber, with the Parkersburg Development Department, speaks during a District 4 town hall meeting Monday at the Memorial Church of the Good Shepherd, as City Councilwoman Wendy Tuck listens. (Photo by Evan Bevins)
ebevins@newsandsentinel.com
PARKERSBURG A proposed budget revision before Parkersburg City Council on Tuesday would boost anticipated revenue from the municipal sales tax to its highest level ever.
Council will meet in regular session at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in its chambers on the second floor of the Municipal Building. That’s a week earlier than the usual fourth Tuesday of the month in order to comply with state code requirements to lay the levy rates for the upcoming fiscal year.
The budget revision for council deals primarily with increasing the estimate for the 1 percent sales tax revenue by $231,974, bringing the projected total for the year to $6,251,971.