STEUBENVILLE — City officials are planning to tweak their spring bulk pickup schedule so that instead of kicking off the weeks-long event, crews will finish up in the Labelle and Pleasant Heights neighborhoods.

Councilwoman Heather Hoover said it’s a commonsense way to keep college students moving out of rental properties at the end of the school year from piling their discarded household items at the curb and driving away.

“It used to be Labelle and the Pleasant Heights area was the last pickup, then some time ago it got changed to where it was the first pickup,” she said, pointing out the free bulk pickups are offered twice a year–in spring and again in fall–to households with activity utility accounts. “If we’re offering that service, those students who live in those houses pay water bills all year long – they should have (those services) available.”

Hoover showed council a picture of a stack of household goods students had left in the alley behind Oregon Avenue on moving day, pointing out, “All this furniture is sitting on city property.” She said it’s only an issue in spring, when college students leave town.

“If you drive through the alleyways on Labelle right now, because the college year has ended and everybody moved out, the alley is filled with (household items),” she said. “I’m glad they piled it up neatly and didn’t just throw it over the hillside.”

“These are college educated kids who throw things away rather than call someone to come pick them up,” City Manager Jim Mavromatis said. While he agreed to adjust the pickup dates, “I’ve been here 10 years, I don’t think that’s going to solve your problem.”

Hoover, meanwhile, also voiced displeasure with high grass and weeds at the “Welcome to Steubenville” sign at the base of Washington Street as well as the “Steubenville–home of Dean Martin and the Steubenville Nutcracker Village” at the southern corporation limits on state Route 7. Councilman Dave Albaugh chimed in with complaints about high grass and weeds on city owned properties throughout the downtown.

“We can’t hold these people accountable if we don’t follow our own rules,” Albaugh said. “We can’t say ‘you cut your grass’ if we don’t cut our own.”

Mayor Jerry Barilla had asked council to “reallocate $6,675 back to the Juneteenth celebration” but after much discussion, council opted to cover the $2,800 Juneteenth planners had gone overbudget. Barilla pointed out that last year the planning committee spent a little more than $3,000 of the $10,000 that had been allotted for the celebration, and at the end of the year the rest was returned to the general fund.

“With my budget, I don’t get back what I didn’t spend last year,” Hoover said, voicing concern that it would set a precedent.

Funding for Juneteenth and other celebrations goes into the mayor’s account. In addition to $10,000 set aside for Juneteenth, last year $5,000 was budgeted to Steubenville Cultural Trust to assist with advertising Nutcracker Village; $5,000 to Steubenville Visitor Center/Historic Fort Steuben; and $25,000 for the Fourth of July fireworks. Barilla said that with Finance Director Dave Lewis’s approval, he’d given the $5,000 council earmarked for the fort to SCT.

Hoover made it clear she wasn’t willing to give the committee the full $6,675, saying the mayor should have given the $5,000 to Juneteenth instead of SCT, “but that’s not what happened.”

“I don’t think that we should set the precedent where somebody didn’t spend all the money they were budgeted can come back and (ask for it later),” she said, bristling when Councilman Royal Mayo asked “if somebody else can talk.”

“She says she had the floor, but it’s been 10 minutes,” he complained.

“You have the floor all the time, sir, but when you have something that you want to speak about you constantly interrupt,” Hoover replied.

When he got the floor Mayo pointed out he’d been told the unspent funds could be rolled over to 2025 and said when he asked where the rest of the money was he was told, “It’s still there.”

Mayo also pointed out that several months ago “nobody had to think about it” when the wastewater department moved $3.2 million earmarked for a wastewater upgrade into another account after they got a grant to cover the costs.

“Once we got the grant that $3.2 million, that money should have come back to us to discuss and not just be allocated there,” he said. “So we’re talking about less than $7,000 (with Juneteenth) but with this $3.2 million (from wastewater), nobody said a dang word.”

Barilla said he thinks it’s “only fair” that the committee gets the money back, calling it a “national holiday issue”, but the majority felt it would set a bad precedent because the full $6,700 would be a 50 percent increase to the Juneteenth budget.