Photo by Eric Ayres Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron and Mayor Denny Magruder, from left, attend a meeting of city council this month on July 1, the first day of the new 2025-26 fiscal year.

WHEELING – The city of Wheeling was able to finish out the 2024-25 fiscal year in the black following months of watchful monitoring of a tighter-than-usual budget over the past year.

The city closed out the last fiscal year with a positive cash balance of more than $350,000 at the end of June. The current 2025-26 fiscal year kicked off on July 1.

City leaders had been keeping a close eye on revenues and expenditures since the beginning of the calendar year, when monthly financial reports revealed a rate of expenditure averaging about 3% over the city budget’s anticipated spending.

Much of the higher expenses had been attributed to overtime being paid to cover shifts in light of vacancies in city departments, particularly for first responders in the police and fire departments. Several open positions have since been filled. For the past several years, the city has had a cash carryover at the end of each fiscal year, but Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron in February reported that the city was “trending towards a very small cash carryover this year” because of the tight budget.

This month, however, Herron reported that the city crossed the finish line at the end of this fiscal year with numbers solidly in the black. The city manager applauded new Wheeling Finance Director Nathan Greene and the Finance Department, including John Carlier – who served as interim finance director before Greene was appointed to the director’s position in late March.

“Our cash balance in the General Fund ended up at $368,000,” Herron said. “I’d like to congratulate Mr. Greene and as well as John Colliar for both of their efforts in working together in the Finance Department and getting us to that point.”

Before Greene was appointed as the city of Wheeling’s finance director, the position had been vacant for years, with Colliar – the assistant director – serving as interim director. The city of Wheeling’s previous finance director, Seth McIntyre, stepped down from the position two years ago for a new job in the private sector.

Herron indicated that overtime again became a necessary expenditure toward the very end of the last fiscal year when city crews responded to the deadly flooding that struck the area on June 14 and its aftermath, only to be hit once again with significant flash flooding in sections of Wheeling on June 26.

“We had a huge payroll for the last payroll of the fiscal year because of the flooding, but we were still able to finish the fiscal year in the black,” Herron said.

The city of Wheeling’s 2024-25 fiscal year budget was more than $38.5 million. This year’s budget is in excess of $40.2 million.

Over the past few years, the city of Wheeling’s fiscal footing had been bolstered not only by strong revenues but also by federal pandemic relief money from the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act and the American Rescue Plan Act. With pandemic relief funds now in the rearview mirror, the city’s spending is expected to be reeled back to more of pre-COVID pace.

No raises for city employees have been included in the new 2025-26 fiscal year budget for the city of Wheeling. However, city officials are expected to review the cash carryover and year-end finances once final figures for June are tallied. Another meeting of the Finance Committee of Wheeling City Council is expected to be held prior to the next council meeting Tuesday, July 15.