Wheeling City Council members Tony Assaro, Ben Seidler and Connie Cain, City Manager Robert Herron and Mayor Denny Magruder, from left, attend a budget work session Tuesday night on the proposed 2025-26 fiscal year budget. (Photo by Eric Ayres)

WHEELING – City council is set to vote next week on Wheeling’s 2025-26 fiscal year budget, which has swelled to more than $40 million for operating expenses and revenues.

Members of Wheeling City Council met for their last scheduled budget work session Tuesday night before heading into next week’s council meeting, when the budget must be approved and submitted to the West Virginia Auditor’s Office for review. The next fiscal year begins July 1.

A bulk of Tuesday night’s discussion revisited Councilman Ben Seidler’s concerns about finances related to Centre Market, where expenses far exceed direct revenues from rental fees.

City Manager Robert Herron outlined some omissions, typographical errors and tweaks from the original $39,770,642 draft of the budget that council members discussed last week. A significant correction was made to the revenues from IRP (International Registration Plan) fees for commercial vehicles. The revenue was originally listed as only $60,000 by mistake. Revenue generated by IRP fees are closer to $574,000 annually, Herron noted.

With that correction, along with a few other changes, the new fiscal year budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year clocks in at $40,263,238 for expenses and $40,270,662 for revenues. This represents an increase of about $1.4 million over the current 2024-25 fiscal year budget, which has been running slightly over projections in terms of expenditures through the past few months – particularly for personnel expenses in the public safety departments.

Compared to the current year’s original budget projections, a substantial increase of nearly $1 million has been eyed for the operation of the Wheeling Police Department for next year. The police budget for the current fiscal year was originally listed at around $8,801,752, but the department has been running over budget. This has – at least in part – been attributed to the implementation of 12-hour shifts in the police department. Herron noted that this change has been very successful and that the rewards outweigh the cost.

Next year’s police department budget is expected to top $9,724,370 – an increase totaling more than $922,618.

Returning to a discussion initiated by Seidler during the previous budget work session, the councilman expressed concerns that the expenses for Centre Market are expected to top $283,000 for the next fiscal year, while revenues from renting spaces at the market only generate $85,000 – a number which is actually up from previous years.

“We clearly don’t break even there,” Seidler said, adding that the Artworks Around Town gallery occupies a large portion of the front of the upper market house. “Artworks has a huge amount of space there for pennies on the square foot. I feel that we’re not really utilizing the facility down there as best we could. There’s a lot of room in those two buildings. We’ve got to get rent to at least a reasonable market rate at some point.”

Seidler again questioned the need for the full-time position of market manager.

“Obviously that’s a historic building that we need to take care of, but I’m just struggling with that line item,” he said, suggesting that the funding for the market manager position be utilized for an employee who focused on a broader scope – not only on the operation of Centre Market but also on bringing other businesses to Wheeling. “That’s a $60,000 position there. I’d like to see a whole lot more bang for the buck for that position.”

Herron noted that Kurt Zende – who is now president of the Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce – had been an economic development specialist for the city. When a part-time market manager left, his role evolved into more of a full-time position at Centre Market. When he left, the city hired a full-time market manager.

“We can certainly take a look and evaluate whether or not there’s sufficient work to be done there,” Herron said.

Mayor Denny Magruder said the market manager works with other businesses in the Centre Market area, oversees the operation of the facility and facilitates the festivals that take place there, as well. The mayor noted that the landscape of Center Wheeling is changing, and the coming investment by WVU Medicine at the former Ohio Valley Medical Center site is going to have a huge economic impact on the area.

“I think the market value rates are probably going to improve once the regional cancer center and some of that development goes into the area,” Magruder said. “It’s going to make rentals more attractive for us. But I think at this point given the history that we have, I’m OK with it.”

Councilman Ty Thorngate indicated that much like parks, playgrounds and some recreational facilities operated by the city – expenses at Centre Market may likely exceed the revenue generated there, but that’s not the point.

“The way that I see it – and it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison – but to me, it’s no different than like the Post Office,” Thorngate said. “It’s not made to make money – it’s there as an historical building that we have to upkeep, and it’s there for the greater good of Wheeling. Ultimately, having someone there that’s staffed, that’s overseeing it, that’s bringing in events – to me, you make money on the back end.”

Thorngate said he agreed that rent for spaces at Centre Market is something that can and should be discussed moving forward.

Council members agreed to keep the market’s budget in place as listed for now.

“I hate when government is in the business of being in business,” Seidler said. “I would just like to see – for the amount of money that we have invested down there – that that place is really just absolutely booming. And I’m just not seeing that right now.”

City council is scheduled to meet next Thursday to approve the budget. Council is meeting later in the week instead of during the regularly slated Tuesday night time slot because city leaders are expected to be out of town during the beginning of the week for the annual West Virginia Municipal League conference.

“This is year nine for me going through this process,” Thorngate said of the budget planning session. “Since I’ve been on council, Mr. Herron and the staff that we’ve had have done a wonderful job. We’ve been in the black every year … we’ve done well financially. I’m comfortable with what we have here in front of us.”