The Beckley City Council held a regular meeting on May 6, 2026, at 21:23:20 UTC. The meeting began with a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by approval of the minutes from the April 21, 2026 council meeting. Public comments were heard from several residents addressing traffic signals, police conduct, public safety concerns, speed bumps, and employee issues. The council also discussed and approved the distribution of opioid settlement funds to multiple organizations, with a significant debate about funding a startup program at West Virginia Tech, which was ultimately removed from the list. Several other approvals and reappointments were made during the meeting.
Jordan's in the prayer afterwards. I pledge a leaders. And the Republic for which is saves. One nation. Under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Father, we come before you on this beautiful day. We thank you for the sunshine. Thank you for the warmth. And God, we come with grateful hearts. We are grateful for your love and your grace in our lives. And God, I thank you for the men and women that leave our city. And I pray, God, for your hand of favor and protection to rest upon them. I pray, God, that even tonight, as they care for the business for our city, I pray that you will give them wisdom and discernment, God. And I just pray once again that we as a community would always take the time to turn our attention to you. Yes. To give you the thanks that you uh are deserving of as we recognize that all good things come from above. And so God, we ask once again, glorify yourselves in and through us and through our community. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you very much. We will now bring this meeting to order. I just want to say friendly reminder that when you you're speaking, it's your turn to speak. Uh whether you're out here, and you want to come to the podium or even up here, make sure even though you think everybody can hear you when people listen to the computer, we still get a lot of complaints that they can't hear certain people talk. So make sure you speak clearly into the microphone. Uh first item on the agenda is a reading and approval of the minutes for the April 21st, 2026 rigor council meeting. May I have a motion to approve the minutes as presented? So move. So thank you. Second. I think Frank's second. Thank you. Any questions or comments about the minutes? Very well. All those in favor of approval of the minutes say aye. Aye. That's our approved. Thank you, council. Next we'll move to public comments. We've got four that want to speak today. Uh, again, if you're listening by radio or computer and you wish to speak after our four people that are here speak, call my phone, just dial star three to raise your hand. If you're connected by computer, click the hand icon, good timing on your participants panel, and we'll recognize you after the four first four speakers. Uh first up, Mary West. Come on up. Good evening, everyone. Good evening, evening, Mary. I am here this evening to ask you all for help. Now work with the state highway, coming off these city streets, work with them to make the traffic signals the way they supposed to be. Instead of we getting, I mean, I don't know why you have the right hand turn signals that the the right hand turn laws. When you got an arrow over there on the right, it turns green, and you can turn, but when it goes off, the people across trying to make left hand turns and things. Well, if your error is off over there, why you got these right hand laws if they can go ahead and you still got to yield to them.