Let us pray that we all may work together for the better of our city, respecting each other's perspective, striving for fairness, let us seek wisdom and understanding as we make decisions that will impact all residents.

Let us pray for a city to have compassion and unity for our well-being.

Amen.

We now call the Wheeling City Council meeting of November 4, 2025 to order.

And I would ask the clerk to please call the role.

Mr.

Asaro.

Here.

Ms.

King?

Here.

Mayor McGruder?

Here.

Mr.

Palmer.

Here.

Mr.

Seidler.

Mr.

Slavonakis.

Here.

Mr.

Thorngate.

Corum is present.

Thank you.

That brings us down here to the uh to the minutes.

We have the October 21, 25 minutes before us.

Is there a motion to accept those as submitted?

So moved.

Second.

Any discussion, changes?

Hearing none, I ask all those in favor to signify by saying aye.

Aye.

And those opposed.

And those minutes are approved as received.

Uh now we have the mayor's report, a couple quick comments.

Uh number one, you know, the veterans uh memorial banner program has been an absolute hit in the city.

It's been wonderful.

Uh a dynamic program.

And we have another chance to honor our veterans coming up next Tuesday, November the 11th, Veterans Day, 11 o'clock in the lobby at West Bank Arena.

The American Legion has their Veterans Day ceremony.

And so we would ask as many people as possible to please turn out for that so that we can continue to honor our veterans.

The other thing I want to say this looks like kind of a championship meeting.

Number one today, uh, we have four varsity soccer teams from the city of Wheeling.

The Wheeling Park High School, boys and girls teams, and the Wheeling Central Catholic High School boys and girls teams are all on the way to Beckley to play in the state tournament.

So that's an amazing achievement.

And hopefully we have to make the cheap.

But tonight, we have some real champions have already won our championship here.

So we're going to read a proclamation, guys, and I'm going to ask you if you would to stand up, all right?

If you could.

Here's the proclamation for you.

Whereas the city of Wheeling takes great pride in recognizing the outstanding achievements of our local youth athletes who exemplify dedication, teamwork, and sportsmanship both on and off the field.

And whereas the Wheeling Little Patriots are proud participants in the Ohio Valley Youth Football League, the OBYFL, a competitive league which spans across three states, Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, and it's composed of 12 teams representing both large and small schools from communities ranging all the way from Wheeling to East Liverpool, Oak Glenn, Steubenville, Indian Creek, Cornell, and Quaker Valley.

And whereas the Wheeling Little Patriots demonstrated incredible, incredible perseverance and teamwork through the 2025 season, with all the age groups competing at the highest level.

The varsity team secured a second place finish in a hard-fought 20 to 16 game against Toronto and the junior varsity team finishing strong in third place after they advanced to the semifinals.

And whereas the Banham team, composed of seven and eight-year-old athletes, displayed remarkable resilience and heart by defeating an undefeated Oak Glen team 26 to 18 in the championship game.

A powerful comeback after losing to Oakland earlier in the season and following last year's championship loss in a thrilling six overtime battle against Dubanville.

And whereas under the leadership of head coach Nolby Banks, who has guided the Bannham team now for four consecutive seasons, achieving two first place and two second place finishes, and with the invaluable support of assistant coaches Joey Schau, Noah Littman, Tucker Brown, RJ Siselberger, and Dayson Scott.

And whereas the Banham Championship team includes Maxwell McKinney, Clayton Nice, Schilling Rodocker, Colton Hicksenbaugh, Isaiah Bruce, Cashton Lee, River Rajanis, Tripp Brown, Homer Zitzelberger, Kayan Neal, Ramar Butler, Colt Maynard, Logan Gardil, Jack Porter, Jay Sean Flannery, Axel Doyle, Knowledge Morgan, Shane Nisnik, Matdock Spatt, William Littman, and Keegan Speavogle.

And whereas the Wheeling Little Patriots organization was further honored to receive the league's Commissioner's Cup, awarded the new organization with the most combined wins across all the age groups.

A testament to the strength, unity, and commitment of every player, coach, and family involved.

Now, therefore, I, Denny McGruder, mayor of the city of Wheeling, do hereby proclaim and recognize the Wheeling Little Patriots football team for their outstanding achievements and their representation representation of Wheeling with pride and excellence.

And witness thereof, I have here to set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Wheeling to be affixed on this fourth day of November 2025.

Gentlemen, let's give them a round of applause.

And I'll just tell you guys when I was reading those names.

It sounds like some names that won't be hearing down the road in high school and college, and maybe even someday the Cleveland Browns.

And with that, we're gonna ask you to turn around.

I'm gonna ask the council, we want to get our picture with you guys.

Would you help us do that?

Can we just wait?

Squeeze in.

Let's see.

Coach, uh, we're gonna have you hold if you would the proclamation.

All right.

Ready?

And one, two, three.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Rodge.

John That does conclude the mayor's report at this time.

We'll have the clerk's report.

There is notice of annual reports of the police and fire pension and relief funds.

I would move to accept the reports as received.

I second.

Any comments or questions?

Hearing none, I'd ask everybody.

Oh Bob, would you come in, please?

Very quickly.

Um I did want to bring to the council's attention that the uh the fire department pension fund, which was closed out in 2014.

This is the uh old pension fund, new hires go into the state pension fund.

But the fire department uh the fire pension fund is fully funded as a result of a uh pension uh bond that was issued by the city uh about four years ago.

At any rate, the fire department's uh value and their pension uh fund is 74,269,000.

And again, the police department pension is fully funded, and the value on it at the end of June uh was 51,993.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Uh if not all those in favor, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Those opposed, and that motion's approved.

Unfinished business.

An ordinance authorizing the city manager to expend funds an amount of 27,000 with centrists of Kenosha, Wisconsin for purchase of rental services for centrifuge should be charged to water pollution control.

I'll move to adopt the ordinance.

Second.

Any discussion?

If not, I'd ask all of those please to record your vote.

Should be big enough.

That motion is approved.

An ordinance of the council of the city of Wheeling to create a three-way stop intersection on Hawthorne Court and Emerson Road.

I would move to adopt the ordinance.

I second.

Do we have any discussion?

If not, again, I'd ask you to please record your votes.

That motion is approved.

An ordinance of the council of the city of Wheeling to create a no-parking zone on Fridays from 4 a.m.

to 8 a.m.

on the north end of lane B.

Second.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing none, I'd ask you to please record your vote.

And that motion is also approved.

And that concludes unfinished business.

Thank you.

I just wanted to note that looks a little awkward tonight.

Uh, our electronic system in council chambers uh is is in place.

This is a temporary system, so we're this is the first time we use it.

We're learning with you all tonight.

Thank you.

Uh we have before us minutes of the Board of Zoning Appeals from September 18, 2025 that have been held over.

Is there a motion to accept those?

All motions of uh accept the hell over it succeeded.

Second.

Any questions?

Hearing none, I would ask all those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Those opposed.

And those minutes are approved.

This is accepted.

At this time we have remarks of city council members, and tonight we'll start with Vice Mayor Jerry Skalovanakis.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'll be brief.

I see that we have a lot of people here today.

One Halloween I thought was great this year because the extra half an hour made it seem like people were not rushed.

So I think maybe if we had a four of them, we might want to consider keeping it at an hour and a half.

The other thing I'd like to talk about is the capital music hall.

I don't know if a lot of people here were able to see Robert play it, but it was probably one of the best shows I've ever seen anywhere.

It was tremendous.

I had a very unique opportunity to meet with him and some of his uh staff afterwards, and they all said the same thing over and over again.

Not only did they love the city in the Capitol, but they were very appreciative of Kelly Tucker and the people who are running the Capitol Music Hall.

And one of the major reasons why they came is because of the hard work of the people at the Capitol Music Hall.

Kelly and her staff.

So I wanted to Kelly Tucker and her staff a shout out for bringing Robert Plant to the milling.

As a former director, I'd like to second that.

They've got an outstanding job.

And then the acoustics, everything about it was off-notch.

And it that was not lost on Robert Plant and his saving grace the bandy admitted.

Okay.

Councilor Farngate.

Yeah, just uh quick housekeeping mayor.

It's a reminder to everybody for uh the sign up for the second annual wheeling turkey trial.

It's uh little fun day of activities on Thanksgiving morning.

8 30 a.m.

The kids' fun run, 9 a.m.

5K walk.

Uh it starts and ends at Wheeling University.

You can sign up at Wheeling W V.gov slash Turkey Tribe.

Thank you.

Counselor Palmer.

Counselor Sarrow.

Uh just that uh word one.

The next um uh card watch meeting will be next Wednesday at 7 p.m.

on the 12th.

Thank you, Councillor Silver.

No, Councilor King.

Uh that concludes our reports of council members.

Uh at this time we have reported committees.

We do have the finance committee minutes from October 21, 2025.

Is there a motion to accept those as received?

I'll move accept those as received.

I second.

Are there any uh any discussion, changes, additions?

Hearing none, I'd ask all those in favor to signify by saying aye.

Aye those opposed, and those minutes are approved as received.

Uh, at this time we have the report of the city manager, Mr.

Heron.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, the only item I have tonight is I wanted to give a brief update on the Washington Avenue uh bridge closure uh project.

Um it was initially uh thought that the project would begin in October.

Uh there have been some delays as a result of utility relocations.

Uh and I can tell you that uh AEP uh now has all the easements necessary for poll relocation.

Um they are scheduling that read that uh poll relocation and electric line relocation, and right after that, Frontier will have to uh relocate their fiber optic lines.

But I can tell you the DOH is pushing to get this project started.

The city of Wheeling does have uh uh some sewer work that needs to be done in front of the bridge, which will begin the closure, which will take us a few days.

But I would anticipate closure of the bridge sometime during the month of November, uh, according to DOH.

And I don't want to speak for them, but uh that's the information that they've given us, and they will give uh notice.

And as soon as we receive notice, we'll post it as well.

But uh work is progressing uh and they are trying to get this project um be begun as under construction as quickly as they possibly can.

I would anticipate closure probably through August or September of next year.

And is it the full closure?

It is a full closure.

Yes, Mr.

Haran, are they giving any updates on any of the uh streetlight projects that are out or the two major interstate um street lights that are out above uh you know right outside the tunnels?

Yes, I I spoke with uh DOH last week on um the uh interstate uh high uh lights that are out uh near the Perkins exit, and they don't have a very good explanation on that other than their back uh backlogged.

Their crews are supposed to be the ones doing that, and they have it on their list, they just haven't done did they give any explanation on why those are out?

Uh the uh district engineer that I spoke with didn't know why they were out and what was the other question?

The uh street lights that are out you know throughout the neighborhoods and uh in that big bright light in the well um the big the the light that was uh subject of complaint uh being uh being too bright in North Wheeling, uh AP representative rec uh represented to me that I think the mayor was there as well that she had gotten an email that it was okay now, so they didn't have an issue with it.

I don't know if that's still the case or not, but that's the response that we received.

Okay, well, thanks.

And then they are continuing to convert um high pressure sodium to LED lights, uh, and they are focused on the island and in full.

Thank you.

That's my report, Mayor.

Thank you.

Any other questions of the city manager?

Uh hearing none, we'll move on.

Report of other officers.

There are none.

Petitions of redress or grievance.

There are none.

Petitions of all their kinds.

There are none.

Original propositions, please.

An ordinance authorizing the city manager to expend funds in the amount of forty thousand five hundred dollars with in-sync systems of mobile, Alabama for a police department license management system to be charged to the police department, an ordinance authorizing the city manager to expend funds in the amount of seventeen thousand eight hundred and nineteen dollars and fifty cents with FPG Company of Noblesville, Indiana for replacement of a meter at Brook Park place to be charged to the water department.

And that concludes original propositions.

Thank you.

Uh the weather order of business will we're down to the point where we'll hear from folks who've signed up to speak.