WHEELING, W.Va. — During a virtual city council meeting on Tuesday, Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott said it appears a backup plan for hospital beds in the city involving shuttered OVMC will not be needed.
Elliott and US Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) officials toured the closed facility last Monday to see if it could be used if local hospitals run out of beds due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“West Virginia DHHR does not anticipate that OVMC is going to be necessary,” Elliott said. “We will do our best to stay abreast of that. We did show it to the US Army Corps of Engineers about a week and a half ago and they check it out.
“Based on current projections, we don’t think that’ll be necessary.”
In an interview last week with MetroNews, Elliott believed that ACE officials were impressed by the facility that showed “no fatal flaws.” OVMC closed in September after more than 100 years of service, leaving Wheeling Hospital as the only hospital in Ohio County.
The latest update from the DHHR, which came Tuesday at 10 a.m., reported Ohio County with 19 confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Recent modeling by The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which is affiliated with the University of Washington, showed West Virginia will reach peak COVID-19 cases on April 16. That is earlier than the previous report, which was mid-May.
OVMC property
In regards to the OVMC property, the council came out of an executive session to approve a resolution in allowing City Manager Bob Herron to negotiate and enter into a letter of intent with Medical Properties Trust (MTP) with respect to the transfer of the properties constituting the campus minus the Robert C. Byrd Adolescence Center.
Elliott said the city has been in discussions for several months with MTP on acquiring properties. He said MTP has expressed a willingness to transfer all the properties to the city in lieu of outstanding property taxes, legal and brokerage fees and other administrative costs.
Postponement of municipal election
In other meeting matters, council members approved a resolution to postpone the city’s municipal election on May 12 to coincide with the state’s new primary election date of June 9.
The resolution stated, “The postponement of the primary election in this state will necessitate the postponement of municipal elections in this state for a similar period of time to allow voting resources to be efficiently utilized and to ensure that all elections proceed in the safest manner possible during this state of emergency.”
Gov. Jim Justice and Secretary of State Mac Warner announced the postponement of the election last week due to the virus outbreak.
“The governor and secretary of state did give guidance that these elections should be changed from May 12 to June 9. I just want to make sure that all the I’s are dotted and T’s are crossed here. It’s a formality so our election coincides with the state primary,” Elliott said at the meeting.
Voters in Wheeling will have a filled ballot that includes Elliott’s seat of mayor, all city council seats, governor and U.S. president.
Winners of the municipal election will begin terms on July 1.