Wheeling Mayoral Candidates Participate in Final Forum
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WHEELING - Six candidates in the race to become Wheeling’s next mayor participated in what will likely be the final mayoral forum Tuesday night at the White Palace in Wheeling Park.
The event, sponsored by the Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce, was free for chamber members to attend, and all of the candidates in the race took part in the event. The newly renovated space on the second floor of the White Palace offered more than enough room for the scores of people in attendance who gathered for one last opportunity to hear from all of the mayoral prospects at once - just two weeks before the municipal election on May 14.
Those participating in the chamber’s Wheeling Mayoral Forum were commercial insurance agent and former Wheeling Hospital sports physical therapy coordinator J.T. Thomas, former WesBanco Arena and Capitol Theatre Executive Director Denny Magruder, local business owner Beth Hinebaugh, Councilwoman Rosemary Ketchum, Vice Mayor Chad Thalman and former industrial factory worker and union president Carl Carpenter.
The winner of the race will take office for a four-year term beginning on July 1. They will take over the position after current Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott completes his second term. Because of term limits, Elliott cannot run for re-election, and he is presently seeking the Democratic nomination in the U.S. Senate race representing West Virginia.
During Tuesday night’s forum, candidates got a chance to reiterate their platforms and answer a series of questions about issues pertinent to Wheeling’s future and the challenges the city faces.
The Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce hosted a Wheeling Mayoral Forum on Tuesday night at Wheeling Park’s newly renovated White Palace. All six candidates vying to be the city’s next mayor participated in the event. From left are candidates J.T. Thomas, Denny Magruder, Beth Hinebaugh, Rosemary Ketchum, Chad Thalman and Carl Carpenter. (Photo by Eric Ayres)
Issues ranged from how candidates, if elected, would help Wheeling grow, how they would address the future of the Wheeling Suspension Bridge, if they would continue the city’s homeless liaison position and how they would address Wheeling’s situation with homelessness. They were asked how they would help promote development, if the city had sufficient affordable housing, and how they would help small businesses recover from losses in the wake of the sprawling Streetscape construction that has kept some commuters away from the downtown area.
Many of the candidates agreed on several topics - from the need for more housing to the prioritization of economic growth and development. But most differed in their approach on how to achieve their goals.
"I don’t consider myself a politician, but my wife does call me windy," Carpenter said. "If I’m elected mayor of Wheeling - I won’t look at you and say ‘what else can we get out of them?’ I want the city of Wheeling to serve the people, and not the other way around.
"I think the city ought to go out of its way to be an easygoing place to live and to do business."
Carpenter said he disagreed with Wheeling’s User Fee and the creation of a "big city police department" for a small town that should stop trying to operate like the much bigger city it was many decades ago.
"The most important role of the mayor is to be an ambassador for the city - a champion for the city," said Thomas. "Someone who recruits and retains our population and our businesses. Someone who will make sure that we’re not investing our tax paying dollars unwisely and with a little more risk than I would like to see.
"I, for one, know who I’m going to vote for," he added.
The Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce hosted a Wheeling Mayoral Forum on Tuesday night at Wheeling Park’s newly renovated White Palace. All six candidates vying to be the city’s next mayor participated in the event. From left are candidates J.T. Thomas, Denny Magruder, Beth Hinebaugh, Rosemary Ketchum, Chad Thalman and Carl Carpenter. (Photo by Eric Ayres)
Ketchum said she’s focused the last four years on issues that motivated voters to elect her to council in the first place - issues that matter, including infrastructure, economic development, small business, homelessness, housing, youth retention and population retention.
"I’m one of only two candidates on this stage with governing experience, and the only candidate who has represented the city of Wheeling on a national level," Ketchum said.
"I’ve never considered myself a politician ... but I’ve always been a cheerleader for Wheeling," Magruder said. "I have the time, the passion and I believe I have the experience. I would love to have the chance to be your chief cheerleader and to work with you all."
Magruder thanked the other candidates, who he described as good people with a lot of good ideas, and he said he hoped everyone joined together after the election to make Wheeling a better city.
"Wheeling is poised and ready for change, and if you’re ready for change, then I’m your candidate," Hinebaugh said. "We need to work together and to create a partnership to get our city to where we would like it to be."
Hinebaugh added that she has created a lot of connections at the state and federal levels while championing the need for affordable child care in the Ohio Valley, and she said those connections will be very valuable if she is elected mayor.
"I’m the only person running for mayor who has been endorsed by some of the members of the current city council, including the current mayor," Thalman said. "These are the people who know better than anybody what it takes to continue to move this city forward and what it takes to be mayor."
Thalman said the city is on the right path, and his experience and unique position of being in his eighth year as vice mayor can - with the public’s support - continue Wheeling’s comeback.
The Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce hosted a Wheeling Mayoral Forum on Tuesday night at Wheeling Park’s newly renovated White Palace. All six candidates vying to be the city’s next mayor participated in the event. From left are candidates J.T. Thomas, Denny Magruder, Beth Hinebaugh, Rosemary Ketchum, Chad Thalman and Carl Carpenter. (Photo by Eric Ayres)