Photo by Eric Ayres New signage and freshly painted lines on newly resurfaced sections of 16th Street are shown as part of the Wheeling Downtown Streetscape Project. City council will consider legislation today to authorize an agreement for a state grant intended to improve the connection between the two existing sections of Wheeling Heritage Trail for bikers, runners and walkers venturing between them downtown.

WHEELING – Members of Wheeling City Council will meet today instead of Tuesday in order to meet the state’s deadline for final budget revisions to the current 2025-26 fiscal year.

Council members approved a resolution during their June 2 meeting to move the date and time of this week’s meeting to accommodate the state deadline, which is today. The meeting is scheduled to begin at noon in city council chambers at the City-County Building downtown.

One resolution for a budget revision to the 2025-26 fiscal year budget is scheduled to be considered during the meeting. The current fiscal year ends on June 30.

A number of other new pieces of legislation are slated to be introduced during today’s meeting, as well.

They include a resolution authorizing an agreement for a grant from the West Virginia Division of Highways for the Wheeling Heritage Trail Connector Project. This is a special State Funded Recreational Trails Program project.

According to a request for proposals related to the project, the effort seeks to create safe passage for cyclists riding on the Wheeling Heritage Trail through the city’s downtown. The project aimed to hire a professional consultant to create a plan to connect the two existing sections of Heritage Trail – the section along the Ohio River and the section that extends from East Wheeling to Elm Grove along Wheeling Creek.

Parts of the connecting route were designed to run through downtown and East Wheeling, but painted lines on the streets had faded and signs designating the route had been removed. The recently paved and marked sections of 16th Street as part of the Downtown Streetscape Project installed new signage and painted fresh new lines and bike lane designations along the three improved blocks downtown between Main and Eoff streets.

The 2024 requests for proposals describing the project noted that the project was a partnership between the West Virginia Department of Transportation Division of Highways and the Ohio Valley Trail Partners, with a project budget of $40,000. According to the resolution up for a vote today, the city of Wheeling will provide a local match in the amount of $8,000 for the project.

Also scheduled to be introduced during today’s meeting are several new ordinances for expenditures totaling more than $1.3 million.

One ordinance is to authorize the city manager to spend $999,929 with ESMIL Corp of Mogadore, Ohio, for the procurement of dewatering equipment for the city’s Water Pollution Control Plant to be charged to the 2025 Water Bond. ESMIL Corp. was the low bidder for the contract. By comparison, C2G Engineering Inc. bid $2,412,000 for the same contract.

Another new ordinance would authorize expenditure of $143,590 with Stephenson Equipment Inc. of Harrisburg, Pa., for a JCB backhoe loader for the city’s Operations Department to be charged to the city’s Project Fund.

The purchase of four new 2026 Chevy Trailblazers for the Wheeling Building and Planning Department from Whiteside of St. Clairsville is also up for a first reading. The cost of the purchase is $117,564.

A new ordinance also up for a first reading today is to authorize the transfer of funds in the amount of $65,000 from the Arena Restricted Capital Improvement Project (RCIP) fund to the Greater Wheeling Sports and Entertainment Authority “for use in sports related facilities, projects, analysis and activities within the city of Wheeling.”

Prior to today’s regular city council meeting at noon, members of the Finance Committee of Council are scheduled to meet in council chambers beginning at 11:45 a.m. to discuss the city’s May Financial Report and the proposed fiscal year 2025-26 budget revision.