Decision on Weirton Transit could come next week
WEIRTON -- A final decision on the future of public transit in Weirton could come as soon as Tuesday.
Weirton Council met in a work session Thursday evening, with an agenda listing discussions on Weirton Transit Corp. and salaries of non-union employees with the city.
While the meeting had been advertised as being open to the public, council voted to go into executive session almost immediately after calling the workshop to order.
Council reconvened into regular session after approximately 80 minutes, offering little detail on the discussions before adjourning the meeting.
"We discussed different contract options with Weirton Transit," City Attorney Vince Gurrera explained.
He noted personnel issues also were discussed during the executive session.
Some members of council, though, indicated legislation concerning the proposed transition of Weirton Transit Corp's operations from its current private, non-profit board to a municipal department will be presented for a vote during council's meeting at 7 p.m., Tuesday.
Following Thursday's work session, Ward 5 Councilwoman Flora Perrone, who also has served as chair of the WTC Board of Trustees for the last year, noted a decision needs to be made, as there is no more funding being made available for the public transit service to operate as it is.
"The state and federal governments have basically said it's not fundable in its current form," she said.
City of Weirton and Weirton Transit officials have been working in recent months with representatives of the West Virginia Department of Transportation and the Brooke-Hancock-Jefferson Metropolitan Planning Commission to plot out a potential future for public transit in the city.
It all follows the discovery in the fall of 2021 of various financial issues for WTC, including approximately $125,000 in unpaid taxes and penalties.
After working for more than a year to establish a payment plan, and with financial support from Weirton Council, those funds were paid to the IRS; however, officials announced Weirton Transit was running low on funds and had to make adjustments to its services in order to continue operating. Those adjustments included the elimination of several routes to avoid having a temporary shutdown in June. That same month, though, facing the possibility of again not having enough funds to operate for a full fiscal year, the board of trustees voted to begin the process of dissolving the private, non-profit organization which has overseen the transit service since it was founded in the late 1980s.
Council also agreed to consider taking over the transit service, in some form, contingent upon the results of a series of studies performed by consultants provided by the WVDOT.
In addition, in September, the WTC board voted to recommend council consider placing a levy on the city's 2024 election ballot in order to help fund any future transit service. A levy was last proposed for the transit service in 2015, failing by small margins in each of two attempts.