Wheeling City Leaders Reflect on 2020, Look Ahead to New Year
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WHEELING -- Despite all the challenges the COVID-19 pandemic presented this year, officials in the city of Wheeling were counting their blessings as 2020 comes to a close, with great optimism for the future.
City leaders this past week highlighted the many accomplishments and the continued progress made with projects throughout Wheeling in the face of the pandemic. With a new regime of city council finishing its first six months in office, the Friendly City is ready to close the chapter on this unprecedented year and kick off 2021 by hitting the ground running.
According to Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott, the year is ending on a high note already. The approved COVID-19 vaccines already are being distributed across the nation and are being given to local health care workers already.
"I want to thank all of the healthcare workers out there," the mayor said this past week. "I think about them and what they've been going through each and every day. I know they're working very, very hard. For all of the frontline workers and all of the first responders, this has been a very trying time, but hopefully we're going to be turning the corner here soon."
Councilwoman Rosemary Ketchum agreed.
"It's very exciting that we've made such quick progress, and of course we're not out of the woods yet," Ketchum said.
With Christmas right around the corner, the mayor encouraged last-minute shoppers to try to spend some money locally in an effort to help keep struggling small businesses afloat in the wake of this extremely tough year.
Wheeling City Council held its final meeting of the calendar year this past week, and officials reflected on the historic year it has been. Three new council members — including Ketchum and Councilmen Ben Seidler and Jerry Sklavounakis, joined Elliott and other returning Councilmen Chad Thalman, Ty Thorngate and Dave Palmer in starting a new chapter for city council
"Thinking back on it, it's been a heck of a six months," Elliott said. "I've enjoyed getting to work with and getting to know the three new council members. I think they've all brought a fresh energy and some new focus areas to city council, and I do thank them for really getting up to speed very quickly given that they had a shorter period of time from election until they got sworn in this year because of the pandemic."
The mayor also thanked the returning council members.
"I've really gotten to know you guys over the last now four and a half years, and I'm looking forward to continuing the rest of this term with you," he said. "We've done a lot together, and we have a lot more standing in front of us here."
Elliott said looking back at what the city has accomplished since the pandemic began, he believed Wheeling has withstood the storm fairly well. Through federal money provided through the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act, the city has been able to bolster its financial safety net through a period that has otherwise remained solid in terms of revenues and expenditures.
"I'm very encouraged about where we are," Elliott said. "It's certainly been a difficult year for a lot of us in and outside of government. I do want to commend our staff for managing our finances over the last year. The fact that we are in better fiscal shape now than we were a year ago is a good sign. Of course, some of that is because of CARES Act funding, but a lot of that is due really to strong financial stewardship."
Through 2020, many major projects by the city, the state and private entities continued to move forward, city leaders noted.
"A lot of projects are still happening, particularly on the infrastructure side of the equation," Elliott said. "The long overdue I-70 bridge project is in full swing right now with about half of it done. That's very encouraging."
The mayor noted that the long-awaited Downtown Streetscape Project has been funded and is set to begin early next year. Last week, engineering was finalized on the project, which is expected to go out to bid in the near future.
Officials also highlighted the large amount of street paving the city was able to complete recently.
"I think this council and the prior council combined have spent about $4 million on paving," Elliott said. "A lot of those streets hadn't been paved in more than a decade or so."
Sklavounakis applauded the progress made on infrastructure upgrades as well as the many resurfacing projects, noting that neighborhood capital improvements need to continue full force into 2021.
City cleanup is making big strides, officials noted. Seidler had campaigned on cleaning up neglected areas of the city, and officials have noted that progress is being made on many fronts, including an increased number of demolition initiatives to rid dilapidated properties from neighborhood throughout the community.
"I think if you look at this year's budget allocation (for demolitions) and last year's, it's almost $900,000," Elliott said. "That's a lot of demolition projects when you consider that for years and years council would do only about $100,000 to $200,000 in demolition projects per year."
Ketchum noted that volunteer efforts are also making a big difference in the community. She said the group Volunteer Wheeling has worked diligently throughout the pandemic to clean up and beautify the city's neighborhoods. Just recently, the group met in Elm Grove and gathered tires, a mattress and 30 bags of trash.
"That's really good work, and during a pandemic nonetheless," said Ketchum, who also thanked Assistant City Manager Bill Lanham and council members for continued efforts to bring improvements to the city's indoor recreation facility, the Nelson Jordan Center.
One of the biggest moves for the city in 2020 was the acquisition of the former Ohio Valley Medical Center campus, and efforts continue to move ahead toward the marketing of buildings from the former hospital campus to the private sector.
"We're moving forward and have identified the site for a new police headquarters," Elliott said, noting that the former Valley Professional Center building on the OVMC campus will become the new headquarters for the Wheeling Police Department in the future. "We've got the design work ordered, and we hope to see work start on that next year. We're close to picking a location for a new fire department headquarters here down the road.."
Millions of dollars in water and sewer upgrades will soon come to the downtown, and work is already underway with the Bedillion Lane sewer improvement project in the Woodsdale and Edgwood neighborhoods.
"That's a $2.1 million dollar project which is part of the city's six-phase, 20-year sewer improvement program," Elliott said of the Bedillion Lane project.
The mayor also noted that new housing projects are being developed in the downtown and in South Wheeling, and entities like West Virginia Northern Community College are also making great investments into improvement projects.
"As I look forward into 2021, obviously the pandemic is going to take a while to ease its grips, but I do look forward to reopening this economy, seeing events taking place again, seeing WesBanco Arena filled up and seeing the Capitol Music Hall once again filled up," the mayor said. "So just stay tuned, and hopefully we'll all get through this together."