WHEELING, W.Va (WTRF) – For the last year, Wheeling has been going through massive construction as a part of the $32 million Streetscape Project.
The project has now entered a phase that is causing some serious issues for downtown businesses.
Several sidewalks and streets are closed or difficult to maneuver both on Main and Market Streets, making access to businesses in downtown Wheeling inconvenient.
Several downtown businesses have spoken with Mayor Elliott regarding the financial impacts they are facing as a direct result of the construction from the Streetscape Project.
Many people have stopped going downtown to grab lunch or shop, which has caused a sharp decrease in revenue for many businesses.
Together with the city manager, Mayor Elliot says they’ve come up with a few options to relieve the burden these local businesses are facing.
“We’ve talked about different ways we can help out. There’s obviously some tax relief we could do in terms of maybe sales tax relief. But there’s also some cash incentives we’re looking at as well for those businesses, if they can show that they’ve lost, you know, X amount of revenues from last year, maybe they can set up a fund where they could tap into that going forward.”
Mayor Glenn Elliot | Wheeling, W.Va
Mayor Elliott reiterated this is not a city project, and they’ve been working diligently with the state to communicate where the project is at and what residents should expect.
He says this is not a time to turn our backs on our small businesses, and we need to make an effort to continue to support them through this challenging time.
Mayor Elliott has a City Council Development meeting scheduled for Tuesday, December at 5:15 p.m. to hopefully come to an agreement on some of these incentives.
Mayor Elliott also made a post on his Facebook page outlining the issue in more detail. View the post by clicking HERE.
