photo by: Emma Delk

Moundsville City Manager Rick Healy gives council members an overview of the city’s accomplishments in 2024 during his year-end report during Tuesday’s council meeting.

Moundsville City Manager Rick Healy reviewed the highs and lows of the city for 2024 as well as what to look forward to in 2025 in his year-end report.

Healy presented the highlights of the more-than-30-page report to council members during their last meeting Tuesday. The report covered city finances for the Fiscal Year 2024-25, the city’s accomplishments for 2024, Healy’s past year as city manager and the city’s future moving into 2025 and beyond.

Healy began by discussing the city’s financial outlook after 2024. He said the city’s new revenue for the current fiscal year is 1.5% ahead of the previous year. The leading source of revenue for the city is the business & occupation tax, which is budgeted at $2.75 million and accounts for about 27.5% of the city’s new revenue.

The municipal sales tax is budgeted at $2.3 million. Healy outlined other major revenue sources, including the levy tax distribution, which increased to $1 million; utility tax revenue, which “steadily increased” to $400,000 and sanitation fees, which remained “constant” at $1.4 million.

Healy noted the business and occupation tax received from extraordinary projects is deposited into the capital improvement account. He said the number fluctuates yearly based on projects in the city, with the number being the highest in recent years for the 2023-24 fiscal year at more than $500,000. The number was reported to be $358,000 for the 2024-25 fiscal year.

Healy said the municipal sales tax collections in the city were “down slightly” from $2.2 million in 2023 to $2.1 million in 2024. He noted the foresight of council members to implement the 1% sales tax had “totally changed” the financial picture of the city.

“The implementation of the 1% sales tax has allowed for much-needed upgrades and improvements without affecting the day-to-day expenses,” Healy said. “In 2024, we funded many large projects using the 1% receipts that we otherwise would maybe have not been able to do.”

Healy’s report touched on construction of the city’s new municipal building. Since the morning of March 22, 2024, when city officials found the former contractor &build had filed for bankruptcy, Healy said the rest of the year was spent working with attorneys and contractors to get the project back up and running.

The new contractor for the project, Great Lakes Restoration, LLC, was announced in October 2024. The tentative completion for the project is set for October 2025.

“The project is back up and running now, so we’re just going to let that go,” Healy said.

Regarding new developments in the city, Healy said 11 projects started in 2024 that involved newer redevelopment in the city with contract values of $100,000 or more. The cumulative total of these projects was almost $7 million.

Regarding the removal of dilapidated structures in the city, Healy said 16 structures were demolished in 2024. Seven demolitions were performed privately, one was done by the city and the rest were performed through grant funding.

“Since 2022, over $480,000 has been awarded to rid the city of these unsafe properties that reduce property values and destroy neighborhood stability,” Healy said.

Healy also discussed the city’s large strides in street paving, which he noted continues to be a “high priority” for council members. Since 2019, council has approved over $3.8 million in paving improvements, and Healy said the city underwent a full-scale concrete replacement project in 2024.

A less positive note in the report was the number of water line leaks reported in the city hit a high for 2024. Healy said reported water line leaks were nearly double their average amount of 24 to 45 leaks reported in 2024. Healy attributed this increase in leaks to aging infrastructure. Healy added that the Water Department completed numerous projects in 2024, including replacing water lines on Eighth and Ninth streets.

Overall, Healy said the city “continues to move forward” to improve residents’ lives and sees “new developments in progress” for 2025.

“Based on January of 2025 so far, I think this current year is going to be even better” than 2024, Healy noted. “Let’s keep the success going, and together, we can watch Moundsvlile keep moving forward.”