Wheeling Mayor Denny Magruder speaks as Vice Mayor Jerry Sklavounakis listens during a meeting of city council on Tuesday night. (Photo by Eric Ayres)

WHEELING – Members of Wheeling City Council moved forward Tuesday night with the demolition of the former Clay School building in East Wheeling and the approval of a new PODA district in portions of downtown and Center Wheeling, allowing patrons to carry alcoholic beverages between businesses.

City leaders met Tuesday night and voted unanimously to approve both measures – items that both had been in the works for several months before coming to a head this week with council support. Councilman Ben Seidler was not in attendance during Tuesday night’s first regular council meeting of February, but all other council members were present and voted in favor of both pieces of legislation.

Council members on hand voted to approve a resolution authorizing the city administration to proceed with the demolition of the former Clay School building with the ultimate goal of construction of a new community recreation center in the East Wheeling neighborhood.

“This is a big day for the city of Wheeling,” Mayor Denny Magruder said. “This discussion has been ongoing for a very long time. I think this leads to a very exciting time for East Wheeling.”

Discussions about the future of the sprawling former school building had been ongoing for the past few years since the city acquired the property in late 2021. The 80-plus-year-old building has sat virtually vacant since it ceased operating as a public school facility in the 1990s. The city hired consultant Tipping Point to perform studies and gather community input on the properties future, which eventually led council to opt toward demolition and reconstruction of a new indoor community and recreation facility at the site.

Work on the job to remove asbestos from the building is currently beginning at the site along 15th Street by Environmental Standards, Inc. The city has secured a Brownfields grant through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for remediation at the former school site.

“We want to systematically move through the remediation right into demolition,” City Manager Robert Herron noted, explaining that a timetable for the project will come into clearer view once the contractor completes an assessment of the scope of the remediation work ahead.

Funds through the West Virginia Environmental Protection Agency’s D-LAP (Reclamation of Abandoned and Dilapidated Properties) program are available to the city for the demolition. Officials indicated that bids for the demolition work will likely go out in the coming weeks, and it is hoped that the work to raze the old school building could be completed by the end of the year.

Also Tuesday night, a public hearing was held on the proposal to create a new PODA district or Private Outdoor Designated Area. No one came to speak on the matter, although some business owners were in attendance to show support of the initiative – including members of the Carl family, which owns and operates The Bridge Tavern.

Council unanimously supported the measure, which had been in discussions at length over the past year in Development Committee and Rules Committee meetings.

Ward 5 Councilman Ty Thorngate, who brought the proposal for the PODA district forward, said the reason behind the measure is simple.

Councilman Ty Thorngate speaks during a meeting of Wheeling City Council on Tuesday night. (Photo by Eric Ayres)

“That’s to help our small businesses, especially in our downtown,” Thorngate said. “It’s no secret that they’ve been fighting. We had to go through COVID, and we went through the Streetscape. I think it’s our job as counselors to look around the state and see if there are other programs or other things that cities are doing that are beneficial to small businesses.”

One thing that city leaders have seen first-hand during visits to other West Virginia cities has been PODA districts – where patrons of participating restaurants and bars that are licensed to sell alcoholic beverages can purchase a drink to go in a designated cup and carry that beverage outside and to other participating establishments.

“Is it going to change the world? It’s not. But I think it’s another tool to give our small businesses to help generate revenue, to generate foot traffic in downtown overall to just create a better vibe for our city,” Thorngate said, thanking fellow city Councilmen Jerry Sklavounakis and Dave Palmer for helping to bring this legislation to fruition forward.

An updated map of the new PODA district was also shared by city leaders on Tuesday night. The district stems from 10th Street downtown to 23rd Street in Center Wheeling in the Centre Market area. The district also encompasses Heritage Port and the future Robrecht Park site, stretching along the riverfront to the west and to Market Street in the downtown, in addition to an eastward stretch to Chapline Street between the alleys of Lane 7 and 15th Place.

An updated map provided by the city of Wheeling shows the designated area where the PODA (Private Outdoor Designated Area) district will operate when the program is up and running later this year – most likely during the first week of May. (Photo Provided)

Operating times – updated from the original draft of the ordinance – will be from 4-111 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The city will need to post signage to mark the parameters of the district and purchase designated disposable to-go cups to use in the PODA, which is expected to become operational around the first week of May this year.

Thorngate said he has met with a number of business owners in the district and expects that around 15 local restaurants and bars, in addition to the Capitol Theatre and WesBanco Arena, will participate.

During the portion of Tuesday’s meeting when council welcomes those wishing to be heard for three minutes, Fulton resident Carlee Dittmar spoke and raised concerns about the condition of the city’s exempted homeless encampment along Wheeling Creek. Dittmar shared several photographs displaying campsites strewn with large amounts of clutter and trash despite the availability of several dumpsters nearby. She also presented pictures that showed evidence of a fire that had occurred in one portion of the camp last week and expressed concerns that if an ice jam caused this section of the creek to flood, the debris from the camp could wash into residential neighborhoods.

In other action Tuesday night, council approved the nominations by the mayor of Spencer Porter and Melissa Marshall to the Arts and Cultural Commission for six year terms expiring June 30, 2031. Council also approved the recommendations to appoint Jesse Blount to the Board of Zoning Appeals for a three-year term expiring Jan. 31, 2028.