File Photo by Eric Ayres For the first time since October, members of Wheeling City Council will hold its regular meeting back in council chambers tonight as major renovations to the first floor of the City-County Building.

WHEELING – Members of Wheeling City Council are scheduled to meet back in council chambers tonight for the first time in five months as offices move back into recently renovated first-floor spaces in the City-County Building.

City Council is slated to hold its second regular meeting of the month at 5:30 p.m. today. It will mark the long-awaited return to council chambers for the first time since early October.

Council chambers, along with several other first-floor office spaces – including the city Finance Department, were the latest offices in the county and county that were temporarily displaced as major renovations to the building made their way to the main section of the first floor.

The building, which is owned and operated by Ohio County, has been a construction site for the past couple of years as a $12 million, floor-by-floor renovation has been taking place since 2022. For the most part, the work started around the top of the facility and has made its way down the six-story building one level at a time.

Renovations have included the updating of the building’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. Work has also been done to reconfigure some of the work spaces in the building, to add new lighting and new ceilings and to do some masonry improvements, as well as some other needed upgrades.

The city of Wheeling is a major tenant of the building, and both city and county offices have continued to operate in the facility in “swing spaces” and in temporary homes at times during construction. Wheeling City Council had to hold its meetings in the second floor courtroom since mid-October.

City leaders will be met with a full slate of legislation tonight when they return to council’s home base. Officials are set to vote on resolutions to approve the city’s 2026-27 fiscal year General Fund Budget and Coal Severance Budget. The proposed General Fund Budget for the next fiscal year beginning July 1 represents a balanced operating budget of projected revenues and expenses for the city topping $42.3 million.

The Coal Severance Budget allocates $100,000 in Coal Severance Tax income, with $30,000 going to the Wheeling Symphony Society, $20,000 to the Ohio County Health Department and $50,000 to general government expenses.

Expenses for the proposed budget for the next fiscal year include a 2-percent pay raise for full-time employees of the City of Wheeling.

A handful of ordinances for vehicle purchases are also up for a second reading and final vote.

Also on tap during tonight’s meeting, officials are slated to hear a final reading and vote on an ordinance to enter into a contract with Raze International of Shadyside to demolish the former Clay School in East Wheeling. The contract, in the amount of $459,300, will be funded through a $319,440 grant from the West Virginia DLAP (Dilapidated Properties Program) and $139,860 from the city’s Project Fund.

A number of new ordinances are also scheduled to be introduced during tonight’s meeting. They include an expenditure in the amount of $85,050 with Metron of Boulder, Colorado, for new cellular registers for water meters, a $19,221 expenditure with TS Elliott LLC Contracting of Wellsburg for a carport enclosure for a screw press dewatering machine to be charged to the city’s Water Pollution Control Division, a $38,500 expenditure with ICR Equipment of Bellaire for telehandler (telescopic forklift) for Water Pollution Control to be charged to the WPCD vehicle replacement fund, and a $76,563 expenditure with Arnold Fire Equipment LLC of Honey Brook, Pennsylvania, for fire protection gear to be charged to the city’s Public Safety fund.

Prior to tonight’s regular council meeting, members of the Development Committee of Wheeling City Council are scheduled to meet at 5 p.m. in executive session to discuss property acquisition. At 5:15 p.m., members of the Finance Committee of Council are slated to review the city’s February finance report and to discuss any potential last-minute tweaks to the fiscal year 2026-27 budget before it is approved.