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Members of Wheeling City Council are scheduled to hold their first meeting of the month this evening, when several new pieces of legislation are scheduled to be introduced.
Tonight’s council meeting is slated to begin at 5:30 p.m. in council chambers at the City-County Building on Chapline Street downtown.
Among the new ordinances being introduced for a first reading tonight is one to spend $240,255 with the Regional Economic Development Partnership (RED) of Wheeling to install solar panels on the roof of the Stone Center in the Plaza on Market. This purchase would be charged to the city’s 2022 Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District bonds.
"This is part of the TIF Project Plan for the redevelopment and restoration of the Stone Center that incentivizes the expansion of Williams Lea in the Stone Center," Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron explained. "It involves the installation of 281 solar panels on the roof of the Stone Center. The panels will connect to the meter serving the leased space and will allow for the bypass of the electric to conduct business using solar power."
Another new ordinance would authorize the city manager to spend $112,200 with Aster Oilfield Services of Bellaire for the next round of asbestos abatement and demolition of more than a dozen dilapidated houses throughout the city. This contract for Aster Oilfield Services, the lowest bidder for the job, will be the fourth contract so far in the city’s ambitious effort to raze abandoned and neglected eyesores from neighborhoods. An unprecedented $1 million was allocated to the demolition work for this current fiscal year, and officials have elected to break the work up into separate contracts to help expedite the process.
Funding for this round of demolitions will come from the city’s federal pandemic relief funding through the American Rescue Plan Act.
An ordinance authorizing an agreement with the firm Tipping Point to provide a conceptual redevelopment plan for the Clay School in the amount of $27,100 to be charged to the city’s general fund.
Tonight, council members will hear a second reading and are expected to vote on an ordinance to amend city codes pertaining to the Human Rights Commission, adding language that will - in essence - adopt the CROWN (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair) Act. The measure would deem it illegal to discriminate against a person - in the workplace, at school or in any setting otherwise - because of their hair, particularly culturally embraced or race-based hairstyles, hair textures or headwear.
The proposed amendment provides an enhanced definition of racial discrimination, expanding it to include "discrimination based on hair textures and protective hairstyles historically associated with a particular race." The definition of "protective hairstyles" includes, but is not limited to, hairstyles such as "braids, locks and twists," according to the language in the proposed amendment.
A second and final reading is scheduled for an ordinance to authorize the city manager to spend $20,094 with Dell Technologies of Round Rock, Texas, for police department mobile data terminals and drone personal computer to be charged to the City Service Fee and reimbursed by the fiscal year 2022 COPS Technology Program.
A final vote is also slated for an ordinance to extend for an additional 12 months the city’s contract with CT Consultants, which will provide flow monitoring, data management, equipment operations and maintenance in accordance with wastewater system improvements.
Also, members of Wheeling City Council are expected to vote on two resolutions being introduced tonight. One piece of legislation would be to execute all necessary documents as required by the State Historic Preservation Office to complete necessary work to nominate the Warwood Historic District to the National Register of Historic Places.
Additional professional surveying services are required for this effort, and Warwood is a particularly large neighborhood compared to other historic districts. The resolution states that the necessary gap funding would be provided in the amount of approximately $70,000 to secure this nomination.
Another resolution would provide Wheeling Heritage a $20,000 grant through the city’s Outdoor Dining Program for the Wheeling Artisan Center at 1400 Main St. Outdoor dining expansion is part of a much larger plan by Wheeling Heritage to reconfigure the facility, altering the dining area of River City and bringing to Artisan Center Shop from the second level to the ground floor level, among other improvements and modifications.
First readings on a couple of traffic ordinances are also on tap for tonight. One ordinance being introduced aims at establishing combat wounded parking zones at selected meters on Chapline Street, Water Street and 16th Street.