WHEELING, W.Va. — The next mayor of Wheeling will be tasked with combatting issues of homelessness, public safety, infrastructure, economic development and more when he or she assumes office July 1.
The race for Wheeling mayor is non-partisan and is decided on Primary Election Day, May 14.
There are six candidates running for that office including Carl Carpenter, Beth Hinebaugh, Rosemary Ketchum, Denny Magruder, Chad Thalman and J.T. Thomas.
Thalman currently serves as Vice Mayor in Wheeling. He told MetroNews he wants to continue building on what the city has accomplished in the last eight years under Mayor Glenn Elliott’s leadership.
“We’ve taken steps to improve quality of life to focus on public safety, to focus on our neighborhoods, to focus on bringing more investment into the city and more housing into the city. That’s what I would continue to do,” Thalman said.
Elliott is running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate this year against Marine Corps veteran Zach Shrewsbury and ex-coal boss Don Blankenship.
Some candidates like Thomas have never entered politics until now. Thomas was the coordinator of Sports Physical Therapy for 26 years at Wheeling Hospital and now serves as a commercial insurance agent. His father is late Wheeling Central High School football coach Jim Thomas.
“I’ve chosen to get off the sidelines and into the game,” Thomas said. “I want to be the quarterback that leads Wheeling to victory.”
He said his dad, who died 20 years ago, has fueled his desire to lead the city of Wheeling.
“As we stood at his funeral, the line was three blocks long to get in. People would come up to pay their respects and tell us that they wouldn’t be where they are in this community today if it weren’t for his guidance and that resonated with me. It was super impactful,” Thomas said.
Magruder, a former executive director of the Greater Wheeling Sports and Entertainment Authority who oversaw operations of WesBanco Arena and the Capitol Theatre, has also never been involved with politics but said this is a critical moment in Wheeling’s history to step up to the plate especially when it comes to road construction issues.
“I think we need to have a seat at the table with the Department of Highways. That’s extremely important. I think our relationship with those various groups have been fractured a bit and we need to repair them,” he said.
The ongoing Downtown Streetscape Project has caused headaches for downtown Wheeling business owners, but many candidates say completion, which isn’t expected until summer 2025, will help beautify roads and draw in more businesses.
Hinebaugh is a business owner and former law enforcement officer. She said Wheeling is in a prime location for economic growth, situated on the border of Ohio and Pennsylvania.
“We have a lot of entreuprenuers in our area who have small businesses. We need to be supporting all of them like offer incentives, offer ways for them to try and grow their businesses and then we also need to be recruiting other businesses to our community,” she said.
One of the most pressing issues that Ketchum wants to address as mayor is homelessness. She currently serves on Wheeling City Council but said it’s time to step into more of a leadership role to take care of the city’s most vulnerable population.
“We need policies that don’t demonize but support our people. We need public safety, not just for the folks that are housed, but for the folks that are unhoused, and we also need funding,” Ketchum said.
Ketchum was elected in 2020 as the first openly transgender member of Wheeling City Council. She told MetroNews while it would be great to make history as the first transgender mayor in the city, she wants to focus her campaign on improving even more lives beyond her district.
“My hope is that during those interviews we’re able to pivot and talk about West Virginia and exactly why bold, excited and diverse leadership is not just possible in places like West Virginia, but is necessary in places like West Virginia,” Ketchum said.
A new exempted homeless site owned by the city has been labeled a “temporary fix” by Catholic Charities West Virginia. While the city has provided portable toilets and dumpsters for the site, Ketchum said there needs to be year-round services to help people get back on their feet.
“We need to be talking with our elected officials at the state and federal level about additional funding particularly geared toward mental health services,” she said.
Magruder said homelessness often leads to other crimes in the city.
“When you have spin-off crime and you have garbage at on-site situations existing, that becomes a problem. That’s something I’d want to focus on immediately,” he said.
Thalman said he voted for the latest public camping ban which allows the city to designate one or more managed camps within city limits for homeless individuals.
“I just happen to disagree with the idea that anybody should be able to camp anywhere at any time, for any reason, without permission and without rules,” he said. “I want to be compassionate, and I want to help people, but sometimes I think we go too far. We enable people and enabling is the opposite of helping.”
During a mayoral debate last month organized by The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register and WTRF-TV, Carpenter said he was the “unknown, unconnected and unfunded” candidate of the six running for mayor.
The 10-day early voting period in West Virginia runs through May 11.