Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron, left, and Mayor Denny Magruder attend a meeting of Wheeling City Council on Tuesday night. (Photo by Eric Ayres)

WHEELING – The city of Wheeling is expected to begin formally submitting requests this week for funds through Congressionally Directed Spending for two major projects – a major slip repair on Glenwood Road and restoration of the Hempfield Tunnel on Heritage Trail.

During Tuesday night’s meeting of Wheeling City Council, City Manager Robert Herron noted that U.S. Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va, is accepting requests for Congressionally Directed Spending – or CDS funding – through the end of this week. Sens. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., are expected to accept requests this month, as well.

“The Congressionally Directed Spending season is upon us,” Herron said. “Congressman Riley Moore has set his schedule for consideration of CDS requests.”

Moore’s deadline for appropriations requests for the upcoming fiscal year is this Friday.

“We do plan on submitting the Glenwood Road Slip Project, which is a $4.3 million project,” Herron said. “The CDS request will be for $3,440,000. The local match on that will be $860,000.”

The city has submitted a request for federal funding for needed restoration of the Hempfield Tunnel on Heritage Trail for the past couple of years. Although a number of local projects were approved, the tunnel repairs have yet to be funded.

“It’s a project that we’ve submitted for the last couple of years,” Herron said. “It’s $1.2 million that does not require a local match.

“Those projects will be going in to Congressman Moore’s office this week. I don’t have the schedule for Sens. Justice and Capito yet, but those will be forthcoming here shortly.”

Glenwood Road in Wheeling is the primary access for several homes and neighborhoods in the Fulton-Glenwood area of the city. The hillside roadway stretching from National Road near the Perkin’s exit in Wheeling along the ridge to the hillside above Warwood has for decades been prone to slips. The major slip that is expected to cost more than $4 million will require re-stabilization of the hillside and retaining wall that holds up the road.

The historic Hempfield Tunnel near Tunnel Green on the Heritage Trail had been temporarily closed in recent years because of structural issues that resulted in falling bricks from certain sections of the arched ceiling. The former railroad tunnel was first constructed in 1857 and then rebuilt in 1904. The city has taken action to bring temporary fixes to the problem areas in order to keep the tunnel and this section of the trail open, but a permanent solution through a thorough – and “very expensive” – renovation has been sought.

Each year, federal lawmakers accept requests for Congressionally Directed Spending – formerly known as “earmarks” – in the spring for the next budget cycle. Eventually, CDS line items for projects in communities across the nation that make the cut are included in a budget bill to be approved later in the year.

The city also collaborates with other local agencies – such as the Wheeling Convention and Visitors Bureau and other entities – on other local and regional projects in the community that target CDS funding.

Recent CDS funding awards from this current budget cycle include $2 million for the Wheeling Gateway Center Trail Connector, $2 million for the Northern Parkway Improvement Project, $250,000 for the Wheeling Police Department’s Neighborhood Resource Units, $1.55 million for the Wheeling Fire Department, and $5.6 million for the Wheeling Park Commission’s renovations at Oglebay’s Crispin Center.

In other action during Tuesday night’s meeting of Wheeling City Council, two readings and a final vote were given to a new ordinance to expedite the purchase a new K-9 for the Wheeling Police Department, which mourned the unexpected deaths of two of its four active dogs on the force within the past six months.

Council unanimously approved an ordinance authorizing the expenditure of $19,000 with Merry K-9 Services LLC of Norwich, Ohio for the purchase of a police narcotics canine and for its training.

“The majority of that is a reimbursement from the Stanton K-9 Foundation,” Herron said. “A dog has become available from Europe a couple of weeks early, and training is scheduled to begin on March 17. So we would like to move forward with the purchase of that dog.”

Herron explained that the dogs in this program are often bred in Europe, and specialized training for them is completed in the United States.

City leaders also issued a proclamation commending the Wheeling Park Patriots hockey team on winning the 2026 West Virginia State Hockey Championship as they advance to the national competition.

“They used to call Pittsburgh the ‘city of champs’ – that’s not true. It’s Wheeling,” Mayor Denny Magruder joked, noting the recent success a number of local sports teams have had and the pride they have brought to the city.