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WHEELING -- A resolution to declare the Wheeling Inn a public nuisance and to shut it down immediately was stalled after members of Wheeling City Council voted to table the legislation Tuesday night.
A total of seven members of the public appeared before council to speak on the measure, which came to the floor toward the end of Tuesday evening's regular council meeting. Mayor Glenn Elliott Jr. moved to exit the regular order of business to allow those wishing to speak on this topic a chance to be heard before council members took a vote.
In the end, four council members voted to table the matter until the next meeting. Elliott abstained from the vote, noting his "longstanding friendship with the hotel operator" would prevent him from being impartial. Councilmen Ben Seidler and Dave Palmer were not in attendance Tuesday night.
Owners of the Bridge Tavern, which is located across the street from the Wheeling Inn, spoke in favor of the public nuisance action.
Anand Patel, manager of the Wheeling Inn speaking on behalf of the hotel's ownership Nalini LLC, spoke passionately against the action, as did some advocates of the local homeless community and organizations that serve them.
On Friday, Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron issued a memorandum to the mayor and council members advising them of the proposed resolution, which came following a report from Police Chief Shawn Schwertfeger that detailed a review of criminal activities and other calls to service that have taken place at and around the Wheeling Inn on Main Street in recent years.
Herron had recommended that the property be declared a public nuisance and that a public hearing on the action be set at the next meeting on May 3. He also recommended that the property not be occupied while the proceedings were pending.
Patel on Monday responded by sending an email to the mayor and members of city council, which he read during Tuesday night's meeting. He issued an emotional protest against the proposed measure and sharply criticized the police chief for issuing what he described as an "inflated and embellished" report on the activity at the Wheeling Inn.
"On the Friday and Saturday before Easter, I had to inform over 14 people that by Tuesday night, they may not have a place to live," Patel said, noting that the Wheeling Inn works with many local social service organizations to provide transitional housing for people in need. "Should this vote pass in the affirmative, you would be voting to make people homeless. Should this vote pass in the affirmative, you would be voting to eliminate the only emergency housing option available to our most vulnerable population."
Patel said hotel management has worked with police investigations in the past in order to help curtail the criminal activity that has taken place around the property. He said he has reached out to the police chief to sit down and talk with him about these issues, and asked for the opportunity to speak individually with members of city council.
"As a person who has worked extensively with people experiencing homelessness, mental illness and addiction, I can say that a hotel is not the best solution," said Nic Cochran, who has worked with Youth Services System and the local homeless population. "Unfortunately right now, it is our only solution, and I ask that you accept Mr. Patel's request and perhaps consider offering a time period for improvement or something reasonable."
Kate Marshall, a homeless advocate who has worked with several local social service organizations, said her Easter weekend took a complete turn after reading in the newspaper about the city's proposal to close the Wheeling Inn and declare it a public nuisance.
"The Wheeling Inn has been part of the fabric of transitional housing and housing those in crisis situations for nearly a decade," Marshall said, noting that it is the only hotel that has worked with the homeless programs.
Receipts for emergency vouchers to the Wheeling Inn have been allowed to be used as proof of homelessness to open up federal funding pathways to get people in need into permanent housing, Marshall explained.
Doug Carl and attorney Sumner Riddick, co-owners of the Bridge Tavern and Grill, were the first to speak before council on this matter, and they spoke in favor of the Wheeling Inn's closure.
"In 2019, our family began an extensive $5 million renovation on the building at 950 Main St.," Carl said. "It's the former Hotel Wheeling, it's historic - dating back to the 1920s - and it's also home to the Bridge Tavern.
"Our building is directly across the street from the Wheeling Inn, and it's given me a sad but true birds-eye view of the activities coming out of and going into the Wheeling Inn."
Carl said he has witnessed suspected drug dealings, prostitution, panhandling, emergency service call responses, trash and littering - including hypodermic needles and drug paraphernalia - at the property that sits basically at the city of Wheeling's main entrance.
"While I understand that there is a need in this community for emergency housing and shelter, I believe people in those situations need safe and clean places to stay," Carl said, urging council to support the public nuisance declaration.
"Those folks would be better on the streets than they would be in the Wheeling Inn," Riddick said of the reported use of the hotel as an option to serve the homeless, adding that organizations are doing the homeless a disservice if they are placing them there. "It is dangerous there. To put them in a situation where they are exposed to prostitution and drugs and violence is reprehensible."
With the resolution tabled, the matter is expected to appear once again on the next city council agenda for the May 3 meeting. If it is approved in any form on that night, a public hearing would not be expected to take place until the following meeting two weeks later.