WHEELING, W.Va. — Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott says the city is getting stronger by the day.
Elliott laid out reasons why in a review of the past year and an agenda to keep the city moving forward at his 2019 State of the City address Tuesday at Wheeling Island Hotel-Casino-Racetrack.
A couple of the major bullet points of the address included the continuation of downtown economic development and pushing for ways to build a public safety building that may include a city user fee.
A property tax levy for the construction of a $22 million public safety building for city police and fire did not pass in November when it received almost 54 percent of the vote in favor when 60 percent is needed.
“We can’t afford to wait to solve the problems created by deficiencies we have today,” Elliott said. “We must act. We can’t keep asking our first responders to give us 100 percent if we are not willing to even meet them even halfway. Our public safety is too important.”
“What does it mean by we have to act? I see two steps in front of us. First, we must decide on a solution. Do we move forward with the new building that 54 percent of the city voters supported last November or do we instead pursue one of the alternatives solutions we looked at last year?”
While Elliott did not state what one of the alternative solutions would be in his address. He said he will continue to work with Robert Herron, the city manager, to come up with recommendations in the coming weeks.
Whichever route Wheeling may decide, Elliott said an idea to pay for something of that nature would be a city user fee. He said that cities around the state around the same size of Wheeling or larger have city user fees to help with police and fire protection, infrastructure and parking structures. Elliott said the fee being considered would be $1 a week equal to $52 a year as Charleston’s is $3 a week and Huntington’s is $5 a week.
He added that if or when the city considers the fee to finance approved facilities for first responders, it that it will be a thorough debate inside city council and a tough decision will have to be made.
“The main advantages to a user fee are two-fold,” Elliott said in the address. “It spreads the burden of paying for city services more broadly to include non-residents who work within city limits and therefore benefit from such services. Moreover, it exempts and protects our senior citizens who may be living on fixed income.”
In another call to action, Elliott urged citizens to consider the action city council must take move the rehab project of the 12-story former Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Building along. The city has been in talks for more than a year with a developer to make the historic skyscraper downtown a loft full of residential apartments.
“We can choose to let this majestic building continue to sit empty and we can watch it deteriorate in plain sight atop of skyline,” Elliott said. “We can wait until a future city council is bombarded with calls for its demolition and we can envision the gaping hole its demise would create where Wheeling’s only skyscraper once stood.”
He said that moving along with a project like that would help the city in it’s broader goal of downtown economic development. The city is finishing off a $1 million project for 44 paving projects for roads across the city, including downtown, and has been working to remodel the streets downtown. Elliott believes the city’s downtown must be more pedestrian friendly.
The city is also pushing to improve the menu of events at WesBanco Arena, that sits on the riverfront in downtown. The two professional sports teams that play inside that arena, the Wheeling Nailers hockey team and West Virginia RoughRiders arena football team, along with the city having its own symphony ,and the Oglebay Park system is something that almost zero cities Wheeling’s size has to offer, according to Elliott.
“Our goal here is somewhat ambitious,” he said. “We want to restore downtown status as a destination unto itself. As I said here last year, the question for downtown Wheeling is not if this is going to happen but when. We must be willing to fill those missing pieces needed for downtown to be a place where people can live, work and play.”
Thanks to all those who came to today’s State of the @CityofWheeling Address! So many things for us to be thankful for as a community. #wheelingwv
For those interested, the full text of my remarks can be found here:https://t.co/RszRYt8R5L pic.twitter.com/9P57AywwyH
— Mayor Glenn Elliott (@MayorWheeling) February 26, 2019
Neighborhood improvements were also discussed in Elliott’s address as he announced a new partnership between the city and the Greater Wheeling Coalition for the Homeless. Elliott said more details would be coming out soon. He also said the city is continuing to make an effort to improve all playgrounds in the city. The city council approved $400,000 to go towards playgrounds in the past couple of years, and work has been done on more than half of the 22 in the city.
Elected in 2016, Elliott added that the Wheeling 311 online service where residents can express and request non-emergency services in neighborhoods has been a success and more residents should use it. The tool on Wheeling’s city page can be used to get in touch with proper officials and report things from road maintenance needs to issues with trash while being able to track the progress of the report in a timely manner.
2019 marks Wheeling’s 250th anniversary as a city.