WHEELING - The city of Wheeling plans to honor two people from divergent backgrounds and generations, but whose contributions have impacted countless Americans.
During its meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, City Council will vote on whether to designate the area from 11th and Chapline streets to the Chief Mingo statue on Wheeling Hill as "Martin Luther King Jr. Way." They also will decide whether to name the Palomino baseball field at the Patterson Recreational Park after Army Capt. David VanCamp, a 2000 Wheeling Park High School graduate who was killed during a rocket attack in Iraq last year.
The meeting will take place in the second-floor courtroom at the City-County Building, 1500 Chapline St.
Article Photos
File photo by Shelley Hanson
The area shown here would be one end of the new Martin Luther King Jr. Way if Wheeling City Council approves the designation Tuesday.
The proposal to honor King is slightly different from the one council heard last month, which simply called for Stone Boulevard to be renamed Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. City Manager Robert Herron said the change as it will be presented Tuesday not only allows property owners to keep their current addresses, but also encompasses more of an area with significance to the local African-American community.
He compared it to the designation of a stretch of Interstate 70 east of Wheeling as "Doc and Chickie Williams Highway." Though a sign memorializes the late couple for their contributions in the music industry, the highway is still I-70.
Herron said if the new designation passes, signs would be posted at the corner of 11th and Chapline streets and near the intersection of Stone Boulevard and National Road.
Meanwhile, in honoring VanCamp, the city aims to pay tribute to a hero with roots much closer to home.
"It is a fitting tribute to dedicate and memorialize David's 'stomping grounds' ... as hallowed ground - a longlasting reminder to every baseball player, coach and fan that there was once a kid who spent his childhood on the baseball field but gave his life on the battlefield," the resolution states.
In other business, council will hear first reading of an ordinance that would increase residents' monthly fee for garbage collection from the current $13 to $14.50.
If council passes the rate increase at its next meeting on June 19, the hike would be reflected on customer's bills beginning in July. Before that happens, city officials will hold a public hearing on the matter, the ordinance notes.
Other items on Tuesday's agenda include first reading of several traffic rules; and first readings of ordinances authorizing the purchase of two "zero turn" lawn mowers at $25,190; five Dodge Charger police cruisers, at $147,510 to be paid over three years; and $124,469 in 2011-12 Community Development Block Grant funds for Savage Construction of Wheeling to construct sidewalks and steps along Wetzel Street.
