The St. Albans City Council met on August 18, 2026, at the McKinley Grec Center. The meeting opened with an invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance. Mayor Scott James praised city employees for flood mitigation efforts, noting that recent heavy rains caused minimal flooding due to prior creek and culvert cleaning. The council then heard from Delegate Walter Hall, who announced his candidacy for re-election and presented updates on community funding, including a flag project for the St. Albans-Nitro bridge in memory of public works director John Boyd Johnson. The meeting included a tribute to Johnson, who passed away on July 31, 2026, with citations from the West Virginia House of Delegates and Governor, and a state flag flown over the Capitol in his honor. The council approved minutes, referred a pension plan item to finance, approved a financial report, and authorized a collection agency contract. The mayor also declared a vacancy in Ward 5, with nominations set for September 8th and a vote on September 21st.
Alright, if everybody can stand, please. Luke, if you could leave us in the implication, I'd appreciate it. Yes, sir. Well, we love you. Thank you. We praise you for tonight and the opportunity to be here. We thank you for the citizens of this city. We thank you for those that have been here to represent them. God, we pray tonight for those that are suffering in our community and around the county and other places from the flooding and the things that are going on. We thank you for a little reprieve today from the rain. We pray that you would be with those families, that you would get them the resources, the help, and the people they need. We thank you for those that have already shown up and done the work. We thank them for those that have been in emergency services working so hard uh around our area. So we praise you for that. We pray for safety for those that work for the city, watch over us, uh, keep us uh comforted and strong in the middle of our moments. Got to pray for the leadership of our city that you give them wisdom beyond their ears, that you would let them see uh what's coming, not just the next year, but the next 10, the next 20, help them to make good decisions that honor you, honor the citizens, and set us up to be a blessed city. We praise you for tonight and all those here that make it work in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. All right, uh, let's see here. Roger, you want to leave us in uh place, please. Thank you, Mayor. Of the United States of America and to the Republic for which one nation under God with the liberty of justice for all. Alright, we'll call the meeting to order and on City Council, August 17th, uh 2026. Um praise your recognition before I mention any of the others. Uh I want to give our employees a big shout out. The rain that we had this past week, prior to 2017, 2018. Uh I know Mammoth would flood. I know that Monroe would flood. All right, and I I remember asking Alex and John Boyne way back when they can go in and they clean the creeks out from didn't dredge, we didn't dredge, we didn't interfere with any salamander environment. But we cleaned the creeks out, and we cleaned culverts out. And uh as much rain as we've had, and there's been zero flooding on Bummouth, zero flooding on Monroe. We've had a little bit of street flooding behind and in front of the high school, in front of the high school, all that water comes down out of the cemetery. Don't know what the answer is at this time yet, but we continue to work on it, but I want to give them kudos for what they've done. You watching the news, every other community around us has been happy. Our flooding has been, I'm not saying eliminated, but it's been alleviated. Alright, because of the work that we've done in the city. So thank you all very, very much. Don't you call me Will Chamberlain? Yeah, Will Chamberlain, yeah. Seven foot two. Yeah, I was all over the court. But mayor, members of council, thank you for giving me just a couple minutes to uh just tonight to uh let you know that I am a candidate for West Virginia House of Delegates. Uh it's always good to see you. Uh you know that I have represented District 58 as your Republican candidate for the past four years. Uh there's been some question of whether or not I am on the ballot in November on November 3rd for the general election. And uh that was because I was unopposed in the primary, so folks didn't see my score sheet or my name on the television or newspapers. Uh being unopposed, they don't give you that airtime because there's so many candidates across the state. So I just wanted to say that uh I will once again be on the ballot representing District 58. Uh District 58.