Doug Wayt, left, president of Ohio Valley Trail Partners; David Weaver, associate vice president of AECOM; and Tim Birch, director of operations for the city of Wheeling; look over maps prepared by AECOM showing how accessibility can be improved in the city. AECOM hosted the open house to discuss accessibility ideas at West Virginia Northern Community College.

WHEELING — Better walking and bike paths leading to Kroger and Centre Market are being proposed to increase accessibility to food and other services in Wheeling.

The AECOM engineering firm of Morgantown hosted an open house Thursday at West Virginia Northern Community College to discuss their ideas for improving mobility for those who do not live close to healthy food sources in the city, and who do not have cars to drive to food suppliers.

The AECOM study cost $199,000, and all ut $19,000 of the price was paid for through a “Local Food, Local Places” grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The grant request was written by Grow Ohio Valley, and received by the city of Wheeling.

The same grant also assisted Grow Ohio Valley with starting its public market store, which opened this week at the Robert C. Byrd Intermodal Transportation Center in downtown Wheeling.

One proposal from AECOM includes developing an existing “informal path” along National Road connecting to Wheeling’s Heritage Trail that already is being used by pedestrians and cyclists. AECOM suggests widening and paving the path to provide better access for non-motorists seeking to get to Kroger, and to access other services in Woodsdale and Elm Grove.

Another idea would include opening up the area between WVNCC and Centre Market, and expanding sidewalks, crosswalks and streets to create a comfortable shared pathway between pedestrians, bikers and vehicles.

The public was invited to give their opinions on AECOM’s plans Thursday by placing post-it notes on maps of the city. Attendees were instructed to write on the notes what they liked about the ideas, what they didn’t like, and what was missing.

Wheeling Parks and Recreation Director Jesse Mestrovic was a member of the steering committee who assisted with the plans for accessibility.

“We are being very progressive in trying to get our city where we need to be,” he said. “We’re festival-friendly, and are trying to connect people with our neighborhoods and connect them to our trail.

“The purpose of the grant is to get people to food and to the trail and food as safely as possible. Anything we can do to promote the health of our city is fantastic.”

Wheeling Operations Director Tim Birch expressed some skepticism with the plan, believing some past ideas were overlooked.

These plans were suggested by Wheeling Heritage Trail supporters Robert “Scat” Scatterday and Ben Stout, now both deceased.

“They had a really neat idea to put a trail down around the outside (Wheeling University) along the creek,” Birch said.

Another idea of the pair would have taken the path across a bridge at 20th Street and back into East Wheeling, he said.

Birch offered to take Peter Voorhees, project manager for AECOM, on a drive of some seemingly overlooked areas in Wheeling.