Photo by Joselyn King Lou Vargo, left, director of the Ohio County Emergency Management Agency; Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron; Ohio County Chief Deputy Kent Lewis; and Ohio County Board of Education member Molly Aderholt take in a breakfast meeting of local business leaders Thursday morning at Oglebay Park’s Wilson Lodge.

WHEELING – There just might be a light indicating the end of Wheeling’s long-term streetscape project, and it looks like it is coming into sight for the fall.

Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron spoke briefly on the project during a breakfast meeting of business and community leaders with U.S. Rep. Riley Moore, R-West Virginia. The gathering took place Thursday at Oglebay Park’s Wilson Lodge.

“The streetscape is moving along – it’s scheduled to be done in October,” Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron told those present.

The project began in October 2022 with an expected cost of $32 million.

Representatives from several governmental bodies offered updates on projects on their radar during Thursday’s meeting with Moore. They posed questions to the freshman congressman as well.

Moore was asked if there were any governmental efforts to entice development in the Northern Panhandle, or was the philosophy “if you build it they will come?”

“It depends,” Moore replied. “You’ll have companies that come to the governor’s office and say I’m thinking about locating here, there or some other place. What can you do for me?

“It’s not always ‘build it and they will come,’ but it is part of it… I think it works better the other way – that we be a place of business and go out and try to find those businesses.”

Herron also spoke of the WVU Regional Cancer Center, a $121 million project to be constructed on the site of the former Ohio Valley Medical Center campus. Demolition has been happening there in preparation for work to begin.

“We expect to start construction this time next year,” Herron said.

Those present noted the project started with a $500,000 federal earmark.

“(U.S. Sen) Rand Paul thinks we should earmark every dollar in government. What do you think of that?” Moore asked. “There would be accountability.”

Both Charlie Reynolds, executive assistant cabinet secretary and deputy secretary for the West Virginia Department of Transportation, and Ohio County Commissioner Zach Abraham spoke of the need for a second interchange at The Highlands development.

“It opens up the property for us, and provides some safety elements for us,” Abraham told Moore.

Moore said now was the time for government leaders to submit their needs and requests to his office as the federal government prepares its budget for the next round of project allocations.

Erik Heinowitz, director of construction for Tipping Point, spoke of the downtown Gateway project which will result in a visitor’s center for downtown Wheeling.

“It is a complement to all the other projects that are happening in the area,” he told Moore. “Specific to the visitor experience, we will introduce them to the region and downtown Wheeling. They will go explore businesses and other organizations in the area.”

Moore noted he and U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., both have introduced bills this session that would increase historic tax credits.

“Obviously, we have the state, but we want federal tax credits,” he said. “These beautiful homes in downtown Wheeling are just amazing.

“A lot of our stuff was built at the turn of the (20th) century – not just here, but all across West Virginia. This would help us rebuild downtowns all over the state of West Virginia.”

Tipping Point is also working on a project to revitalize the 1400 block project in downtown Wheeling. Heinowitz informed those present that the company has just received notification that it is going to get an allocation through the New Markets Tax Credit Program.

“That’s kind of the last piece of financing that we needed,” Heinowitz said. That’s again going to be a big revitalization of downtown Wheeling, and complement everything else that is going on.”

Moundsville Councilman Randy Chamberlain told Moore about the massive fire that occurred in downtown Moundsville on March 7. At least six buildings, including the former Remke Furniture building, were destroyed.

“Having resources to rebuild in that historic district is critical,” he said. “Kudos to all the departments in our area. We had something like 20-something departments respond because we didn’t have enough water to fight the fire.

“Then we needed ladder trucks. That fire was defeated because of four ladder trucks. The city manager (Rick Healy) made the point that we have a ladder truck we need to get refurbished. We’ve committed money to it, and the county has. That truck is critical to our protection,” Chamberlain said.