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Opportunities for service –

Open form of government to include modern methods of communications – posting notices on social media platforms of meetings and agendas; town hall type of meetings 3X a year to gain input from citizens on areas of concern, what they see as priorities for the city government, and to inform the citizens of projects currently underway or being considered within the city. I will maintain the open-door policy.

Strategic planning for city government – shared vision for how we see New Martinsville in 10 years and a workable plan to attain those goals. I am comfortable with the process of strategic planning and have used it within the Wetzel County CVB to establish a working plan. We will include all departments in the planning process and work in unison to accomplish the goals set forth. This includes plans to update/repair/replace storm sewer systems where needed. Too many homes have flooded basements or back-up water. Also included verifying that all storm and sewage systems are separated. And our roads, a comprehensive plan to resurface and then maintain our roads.

Update city ordinances – some new ones are already being planned but we need to look at all and eliminate outdated ordinances and draft new ones where necessary. We also need to look at how the state has changed code over the years and bring ours in line with current state code. The exception is those issues already approved through Home Rule for New Martinsville to adopt their own ordinances. 

Identify gaps in goods and services available to the citizens of New Martinsville and work to attract the appropriate businesses to fill those gaps. Create a prospectus for New Martinsville to use not only in attracting gap-filling business, but to promote what we have to offer to residents considering relocating here. We don’t often consider that people living in large metro areas have better than an hour’s drive to get to their work destination making us an attractive place to live for those coming into this area to work in Wheeling, Parkersburg, Clarksburg, Bridgeport, Washington, PA, Bellaire, etc. We are still a service center for a large area that includes our bordering counties in both WV and Ohio.

Fiscal responsibility – filling gaps in personnel and wage disparity. After attending department head and council meetings for a few years now, I have noticed some departments are understaffed and there is some disparity in actual wages. I will have to take a deeper dive to find out “why” that exists and I think we need to look at the total cost to the city for each employee when we consider wage increases and each employee needs to know that information, also, and how such decisions are made. Cost of living adjustments should be a given. Reserve funds for future planning/needs/projects/emergencies. Talking with Kim and Bev, they made the comment that it will take several years to see what type of average income the city will have with the implementation of the city sales tax. The worst thing we could do is enter into a spending spree in that first year or two. 

Disaster planning – currently the city does not have its own disaster plan in place. When I inquired, I was told that we depend on direction from the OES. We have a beautiful Office of Emergency Services and in the event of a county-wide disaster their resources would be overwhelmed. New Martinsville needs a disaster plan and OES is a resource that can be used to help put such a plan in place. Our area has a history of severe weather incidents with flooding being the most prevalent. Also, we live in an industrial valley with a railroad running through our entire community carrying hazard materials and no local plan in place to deal with an emergency event. Just last year, all the crossings in the downtown area were blocked at the same time the marina was flooding making response from law enforcement, responding to calls, and ambulances, responding to emergencies, problematic.
Standard operating procedures – in talking with City department heads, very few have implemented standard operating procedures. A valuable tool in the case of employee turnover and for training purposes. 

Our current city council is more active than any I have seen for several years and it will be a pleasure working with all within the city to move New Martinsville forward into a bright and prosperous future.