photo by: Eric Ayres

Councilwoman Connie Cain, right, speaks while Councilman Ben Seidler listens during Thursday’s meeting of Wheeling City Council.

WHEELING – Members of Wheeling City Council cast a majority vote Tuesday night to support a recommendation to City Manager Robert Herron to close the city’s homeless camp effective Dec. 1.

Councilwoman Connie Cain made a motion to support the move, which can be done at the discretion of the city manager without a vote from council. However, city leaders voted to show their collective support for the measure. Councilman Ty Thorngate cast the only dissenting vote.

Cain said she believed there are enough beds in the city to accommodate the number of unhoused individuals who last winter chose to continue staying outdoors in the camp. Thorngate said he voted against supporting the recommendation because he was not certain that there are actually places for homeless individuals to go if the camp is closed.

The city of Wheeling in recent years passed a camping ban on public property, but the ordinance allows for an exemption to the ban at the discretion of the city manager. The exempted property has been located on Industrial Drive south of the entrance to the Peninsula Cemetery near the Interstate 70 overpass over Wheeling Creek.

Council members supporting the recommendation stated that the exempted homeless camp was never intended to be a permanent housing option, describing the encampment as “hellish” and stating that the time has come to close it.

“In my opinion, the exempted camp has been a failure,” Mayor Denny Magruder said. “We’re more than two years in. I think it’s been a failure not only for the camp residents but for neighborhood citizens, as well.”

Return to theintelligencer.net later for more on this developing story.