Elliott files for reelection as Wheeling mayor, looks back on first term

WHEELING, W.Va. — Mayor Glenn Elliott admits the past four years in office have flown by but he says that is alright because it means work has been done.

Elliott, who was elected as Mayor of Wheeling in 2016, is hoping for another four years in office. He filed 2020 reelection paperwork on Wednesday afternoon with the Wheeling City Clerk Brenda Delbert at the City-County Building.

“It was a little bit surreal filing for a position when I do remember so vividly from 2016 the whole campaign process,” Elliott told MetroNews.

Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott

“It makes you realize that four years can go by pretty quickly when you are spending each and every day doing what you like and really not taking time to step back and reflect.”

When reflecting on his first term as mayor, Elliott said one of his proudest moments came in the first few months in the position. In December 2016, Wheeling City Council passed an LGBTQ ordinance, 7-0, with overwhelming public support.

Elliott said previous city leadership refused to take up such an ordinance. He was also hopeful that the state would move forward with the non-discrimination bill it has looked at.

“When we got elected we made it a priority,” Elliott said of the ordinance. “We had a big public hearing with around 400 people showing up, 45 people speaking with 38 in support. To this day, it’s one of the proudest moments I have had as a member of city government, just seeing that turnout.

“The city council passed the ordinance 7-0. All the doomsday predictions that people were saying never came true. The lights are still on here in the City of Wheeling.”

Moving forward the needle on economic development in downtown Wheeling was a priority when running for mayor and Elliott said they have accomplished that. He said it will continue to be at the front of his agenda if reelected.

The rehabilitation of the vacant 144,000 square foot, 12 story Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel building in downtown is something Elliott continues to press on. He said a developer out of Canton, Ohio is working on a project to convert the building into housing and first floor retail.

Elliott hopes the project will finally get started in the Spring, when more funding gets secured.

“It will be a great and next step forward four our downtown, getting people living in some of the vacant space we have, which in turn we hope to generate most first-floor retail activity,” he said.

“Downtown Wheeling used to be defined by big-box retail stores and those have all moved out to the malls and shopping centers. Downtowns have to be vibrant to compete.”

Elliott said he is proud of his administration’s work on the quality of life enhancements in the city. More than two-thirds of the city’s three dozen playgrounds have been remodeled and Elliott said there are plans in place to get them all done by 2021.

He added that if reelected, his administration with Vice Mayor Chad Thalman will continue to be more accessible and transparent. He has extended office hours for the public while the city council has regular meetings and the city has worked on investing in communication mediums such as its Facebook and own website.

The past four years have also come with hot topics and controversies in Wheeling, with arguably none bigger than the debate of the city user fee to fund a new public service building.

The city originally tried to finance the building with a $22 million property tax levy, which failed in the November 2018 election. The levy received 54-percent of the vote, which required 60-percent for passage.

Since the failure, the city council approved a $2 user fee to fund the building and infrastructure projects in the city, which went into effect at the beginning of the year.

“After the vote came back, we had a couple of options,” Elliott said. “We could do nothing and leave the first responders to continue working in subpar conditions. We could try to find a more affordable option and be more responsive to those who voted yes and no.

“Instead of a property tax levy, we have moved forward with a city user fee which used by all the other major cities in the state of West Virginia. That has left some people angry and I certainly understand the source of that anger. In one sense, our property tax levy vote failed but in another sense, we had to get this project done in some capacity.”

Elliott said the city has shaved $6 million off the cost of the building, which would house the city’s police and fire departments, while having a site picked and a financing plan in place for the building with the user fee. The city is waiting on environmental cleanup estimates and grants filed with the EPA to move forward with the project.

The debate of two-way streets in downtown, whether to keep the historic Suspension Bridge open and Ohio Valley Medical Center closing made statewide headlines during Elliott’s first term as well.

He said he has learned from those three moments, through his work with state officials in what to do and what not to do.

“I certainly learned that when you’re dealing with state bureaucracies like the Division of Highways, you have to operate on multi-levels because you’re dealing with different folks in different organizations in different departments who don’t always talk to each other at the same time. So I have certainly learned how to navigate that system better,” Elliott said.

“I have made some great connections with other mayors and councilmembers across the state including folks in the state government as well. So I think another four years would help me get some of these projects done and move them forward.”

Elliott certainly hopes that he gets another crack at four more years.

“Four years in I think we have made a lot of progress but more work needs to be done,” he said. “We need to focus on challenges like homelessness, the opioid epidemic, and dilapidated properties. These are still challenges for the city.

“If they were easy solutions, cities across the country would have already figured them out by now. We are still trying to move the conversation forward in those regards.”





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