EPD Receives $950,000 in Congressionally Directed Spending Spending
The City of Elkins would like to thank Senator Joe Manchin III and Senator Shelley Moore Capito for their efforts in securing $950,000 in Congressionally Directed Spending for the Elkins Police Department. This investment will allow E.P.D. to make significant technology upgrades that will greatly assist us in protecting the lives and property of the citizens of Elkins and our visitors. The most notable portion of this project will be the implementation of a street camera system utilizing license plate reader technology. Systems such as these have proven to be very effective at assisting law enforcement agencies in preventing, detecting, and investigating criminal activity. This system will also provide valuable assistance in non-criminal tasks such as traffic crash investigation, missing persons, and monitoring roadway conditions during inclement weather.
The Elkins Police Department is committed to providing the safest atmosphere possible for our residents, businesses, and guests. We are extremely thankful to receive this funding and look forward to implementing this project in the near future.
Update on Tax Increment Financing Process
Last modified on January 23rd, 2023 at 01:28 pm
Earlier this month, council voted to make application to the West Virginia Department of Economic Development for authority to form a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district in Elkins. (See map at bottom of post.)
TIF is a mechanism created in state law to help cities and counties pay for needed projects when other financing is not available. At the heart of TIF is the concept of reserving future increases in property tax revenues for local use, while avoiding the need to increase property-tax rates. (Read more about TIF here.)
Applying for creation of the TIF district is the only step taken by council to date. Although the application requires enumerating possible projects that may be undertaken, the list of possible projects is amendable. The only projects that may be funded by TIF are those for which no other source of funding can be identified. (Click here for information about potential projects for redeveloping downtown Elkins.)
TIF funds may be accessed by issuing municipal bonds or through a process called pay-as-you-go. Issuing bonds would require separate council approval, along with justification of financial need and anticipated revenue collection.
Next steps in the TIF process:
- The city’s application is being reviewed by WVDED. The city should hear a response by sometime in March.
- If the application proposing to create a TIF district is approved, the city must then approve an ordinance doing so. It is currently estimated that such an ordinance could be finally approved by early April.
- Yet to come: decision about whether to issue bonds or use pay-as-you-go method, and how to most effectively apply revenues to the identified projects.
City Recycling Site Moving Friday
The drop-off location for recycling yard waste and glass is moving from Jones Drive to the grounds of the City of Elkins Street Department, at 1 Baxter Street. The new location will open to receive recyclables on Friday, January 13.
The new location for the containers is behind the Street Department garage. To reach the containers, drive past the garage, turn right on Chestnut Street, and turn right into the gravel lot behind the Street Department garage. Here is a dropped pin showing the precise location of the containers on Google Maps.
Melody Himes, the operations assistant, says the move is the result of a collaboration between the Wastewater Collection Department, which formerly hosted the drop-off site, and the Street Department.
“Over the years, we realized that the Wastewater Collection Department wasn’t the best location for the drop-off site, because it’s a tight spot for both customers and for the trucks that periodically need to empty the containers,” Himes says. “The guys at the Street Department did a phenomenal job setting up the new site, and we think it’s really going to work a lot better for everyone.”
The new site at Baxter Street includes raised wooden platforms to make it easier to dump both yard waste and glass into the containers.
“We think the new location will be even easier for everyone to access and use,” says Himes. “We’re really proud to offer this program and just want to make recycling as simple as possible for the Elkins community.”
EAST Marks Trails Progress in First Year
Beautiful natural settings and outdoor recreation opportunities abound in the Elkins area, but residents and visitors alike have long wished for even more robust trail systems suitable for mountain biking, hiking, and running. Efforts to expand shared-use, bike-optimized trails are now taking off thanks to the work of the Elkins Area Shared Trails (EAST) working group.
The group, which comprises more than 30 member organizations, has a steering committee that includes City of Elkins, Woodlands Development & Lending, Mon Forest Towns, Davis & Elkins College, the Highlands Composite Mountain Bike Team, and the Brad & Alys Smith Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative (OEDC) at WVU.
Although EAST members met for the first time only about one year ago, the group has already been awarded $80,000 in grants from the Appalachian Regional Commission and the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) to fund planning for trails in and around Elkins. The organization is now in the process of becoming a 501(c)3 organization with help from Woodlands Development & Lending.
Jessica Sutton, the Elkins city clerk, and a founding organizer of the EAST group, says that the group’s membership was inspired to take action in response to growing frustration at the limited recreation opportunities in the area.
“Aside from the Allegheny Highlands Trail, which is a fantastic resource for certain kinds of users, Elkins is really a trail desert,” says Sutton. “We sit at a major regional crossroads and are the largest gateway community to the Mon Forest, but regional trails are surprisingly hard to access from town. That means both residents and visitors must travel elsewhere for recreation opportunities that they really should be able to access right from downtown.”
EAST is currently reviewing bids from design firms to plan bike-optimized shared-use trail systems on three properties (236 acres total) and to design and flag up to 10 miles of bike-optimized trails as a shovel-ready demonstration project, with a construction start date planned for 2023.
Progress on trails isn’t coming a moment too soon for Randolph County members of the West Virginia Interscholastic Cycling League (WVICL), which formed several years ago to facilitate competitive middle and high-school mountain biking.
“There was a lot of interest from area families in participating in this league, but there again, participants from the Elkins area were at a disadvantage,” says Sutton. “There just aren’t that many suitable public trails in the area for mountain bike training. The few trails we did have were too challenging for new riders to learn on, so parents were having to drive their kids to other counties for practice.”
The prospect of new trails is also good news to EAST member Davis & Elkins College, which in 2021 announced that it was planning to form the state’s first collegiate USA Cycling mountain-biking team.
Expanded trail systems don’t just benefit the people who ride, hike, and run on them. They are increasingly recognized as powerful drivers of local economic growth. After the Snowshoe Highlands was designated as a in 2019, thousands of riders and fans visited the area for the Mercedes-Benz UCI Mountain Bike World Cup Final later that year. Now designated a Silver-Level Center, the Snowshoe Highlands attracted similar numbers of participants and attendees to the 2022 Bike World Cup. These events, which are only first steps in leveraging the growing popularity of this sport, have already generated considerable economic activity to the benefit of communities in this area.
Outdoor recreation opportunities are also a prime factor in helping people with disposable income decide where to live. Among other programs, OEDC oversees Ascend WV, a talent attraction and retention program designed to support remote professionals and their families as they relocate to West Virginia in pursuit of high quality of life and an outdoor-driven lifestyle. Elkins was the fourth West Virginia city accepted into the Ascend program, in late 2022, and Sutton says that the fact that the area is moving rapidly toward expanded shared-use trail systems was key.
“OEDC and Ascend see trails as a big driver for the economies of cities like Elkins, with the potential to make our community even more attractive to new residents,” says Sutton. “Our acceptance into that program represents a solid vote of confidence from experts in this field that they recognize our region’s commitment to economic development through outdoor recreation.”
Sutton says that she is now confident that EAST’s efforts will be successful.
“All of the EAST partners are excited to see the results of this planning process,” says Sutton. “With support from the community and various organizations, the future of trail development in the Elkins area looks bright.”
Next Steps for Elkins Redevelopment
A report from a national organization that assists cities in planning for effective economic development says that Elkins is on the right track and offers suggestions for maximizing the city’s already strong potential. Council is already taking steps that may help fund these and other projects.
Smart Growth America (SGA) visited Elkins in October to gather data, hold stakeholder workshops, and collect community input. In addition to city officials, SGA staff met with downtown business leaders, community service organizations, youth service organizations, and community and economic development organizations.
The SGA report (available for download here) finds that “there is strong community support for the redevelopment and adaptive reuse of downtown Elkins.” SGA staff reported hearing that “residents want to see a vibrant, lively downtown that hosts a variety of businesses and people.” The team’s “overarching recommendation” is for Elkins to “develop and implement a strategy to leverage the most important unique asset that Elkins possesses: its historic railyard.” According to SGA, any plans for further development of the railyard “should focus on mixed-use, walkable real estate.”
The report offered other short-term, medium-term, and long-term recommendations. Although many of these projects would be costly, the Elkins council recently began the process of applying to establish a Tax Increment Financing district in the city’s downtown. Such a move would provide a means of funding many development projects in Elkins without raising taxes or cutting spending on other services and projects. (A hearing will be held concerning TIF at 7 p.m. on January 5.)
Short-term recommendations include:
- Improve the downtown streetscape (City of Elkins recently contracted with GAI Consultants to prepare a formal downtown streetscape plan)
- Improve wayfinding and signage leading into Elkins (in 2023, the city will be installing attractive new signs at the city’s main ingress routes; improved signage will be included in the above streetscape plan and is also contemplated in the recently completed Elkins Riverfront Plan, also created by GAI Consultants)
Medium-term recommendations include:
- Conduct a downtown parking demand study (from the report: “There are 1,400 off-street parking spots downtown, and yet many people believe there isn’t enough parking.”)
- Engage the community continually and exclusively (the city recently deployed an online agenda center to raise public awareness of council and committee meetings and is actively exploring other software options to make it easier for citizens to interact with the city government)
- Facilitate Augusta Heritage takeover of Wilt Building (the city is currently working with Augusta Heritage and Woodlands Development & Lending to see how this project can be made possible)
Long-term recommendations include:
- Redesign of U.S. Highway 250/Seneca Trail
- Riverfront study area development (again, see the recently completed Elkins Riverfront Plan)
- Encourage additional residential development (the Randolph County Housing Authority and Woodlands Development & Lending recently completed a study of local housing needs in conjunction with WVU and Virginia Tech)
The SGA report, which contains additional information and recommendations, may be downloaded here: https://cityofelkinswv.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Next-Steps-Memo-for-Elkins-with-SGA-recommendations.pdf
For information about current projects and initiatives in Elkins: https://cityofelkinswv.com/government/current-projects-initiatives.
For information about Tax Increment Financing in Elkins: https://cityofelkinswv.com/retaining-local-property-taxes-for-local-projects.
UPDATE: Boil Water Near Ward and Lavalette LIFTED
Last modified on December 29th, 2022 at 10:37 am
Update as of 10:36 a.m., Dec. 29: This Boil Water Notice has been lifted after testing found no contamination.
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Water system personnel have repaired a leak in a water line near the intersection of Ward Avenue and Lavalette Avenue. A Boil Water Notice is now in effect for customers on Ward Avenue, between South Davis and Livingston. Also under the Boil Water Notice are customers south of Ward Avenue on Lavalette Avenue, Green Lane, Taylor Avenue, and Bond Lane. (The Boil Water Notice does not include any customers on South Davis Avenue or Livingston Avenue.)
The approximate area of the Boil Water Notice is marked in red on the map below.
The earliest that laboratory testing can be completed and the notice lifted is Thursday, December 29.
Boil Water Notices are issued out of an abundance of caution because positive pressure has been lost and the possibility of contamination exists, not because contamination has been detected. The presence or absence of contamination must be confirmed by an independent lab through a testing process that requires at least 24 hours after delivery of a sample. Samples cannot be taken until the leak has been repaired and service has been restored. Samples can only be submitted during business hours. For more information about what to do under a Boil Water Notice, click here.
Notification will be sent out when the Boil Water Notice is lifted. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused and appreciate your patience during this time.
To keep up to date on these and similar announcements, please bookmark this blog post and follow these channels:
- Sign up for emergency email and text-message alerts
- Elkins City Hall Facebook page
- Elkins City Hall Twitter account
Monitoring Leak at S. Davis and Ward
Elkins Water System employees are monitoring a leak on a 4-inch line near the intersection of South Davis Avenue and Ward Avenue. At this time, the plan is to allow the leak to flow and delay repairs for the following reasons:
- The leak is flowing directly into a catch basin and is not causing ice to form on the roadway or flooding anyone’s basement or other property.
- Fixing this leak would require closing the valve to this line.
- Given current and projected temperatures, securing the valve could lead to frozen meters for hundreds of customers.
We will continue to monitor this situation and provide updates as warranted.
For information about avoiding frozen pipes, click here.
Elkins Awarded $30,000 for Trail Planning
Like an early Christmas present, City of Elkins was just notified of a Trail Accelerator grant award in the amount of $30,000 from the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA).
The city’s grant award is in support of the Elkins Area Shared Trail Plan. This project, a partnership between Elkins Area Shared Trails, West Virginia University’s Brad and Alys Smith Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative, and the Monongahela National Forest, will examine U.S. Forest Service properties in the western part of the Cheat-Potomac District.
The team will start with large landscape trail planning with the goal of locating a site for 8-10 miles of flagged trail. West Virginia is known for its challenging, natural trails (already a great asset), but this effort will introduce purpose-built, multi-use, and bike-optimized trails to the area, while providing more progressive entry to the sport for new riders, particularly the local NICA team and West Virginia’s only collegiate MTB team.
Additionally, new trails will improve public health, resident recruitment and retention and tourism spending for Elkins and other nearby communities.
The IMBA grant award, which requires a 100-percent local match, comes close on the heels of a $50,000 ARC Power Grant the city was awarded for trail planning in November.
IMBA’s Trail Accelerator grant fund is a competitive grant offering for communities with visions of transformational model trail systems that need extra support to realize that vision. Projects must show strong partnerships between local leaders, government entities, land managers, property owners, community groups and mountain bike or trail organizations such as IMBA Local partners. Grant recipients partner with IMBA Trail Solutions for professional trail planning and consultation—having a professional trail plan can help a community generate more interest and investment for trail projects.
Read more here.
Winter Storm Elliott: Warming Centers and Other Information
Our area is facing severe cold, strong winds, and snow over the next 48 hours. Please review the below information and stay safe.
Warming Centers
Inside Elkins, if you need a warming center, please report to the Elkins Fire Department at 216 4th St. (Map link.)
Outside the city, fire stations will also be used as warming centers. However, because many outlying fire stations are run by volunteer departments, they are not always staffed 24 hours. The Randolph County Office of Emergency Management (OEM) will facilitate activating these and other locations with volunteer assistance as needed.
If you cannot get to the Elkins Fire Department, you can reach OEM at the following number to learn of other options for getting warm: 304-636-2000. (In an emergency, dial 911.)
It is imperative that you call first before reporting to these locations to ensure they are open or to learn of alternatives.
Volunteers Needed
In case of additional need for warming centers, volunteers may be needed to assist at various locations in Elkins and around the county. If you are able to volunteer, especially overnight Friday and Saturday, please call the OEM non-emergency number: 304-636-2000.
Power Outages
Given forecast of high winds, we can expect power outages in our area. OEM will be collecting information about outages to guide response and report to the power company. To notify OEM of an outage, call the 911 center’s non-emergency number: 304-636-2000. Stay well clear of downed power lines.
Check on Neighbors
In the event of a power outage, please remember to check on neighbors who may be medically vulnerable or who might otherwise need assistance.
2022 Holiday Schedule Changes
Last modified on December 22nd, 2022 at 04:29 pm
Here are the holiday-related schedule changes over the next two weeks.
City Hall Hours
During the holidays, city hall will be:
- Closed on Friday, December 23 due to Governor’s declaration of a state of emergency.
- Closed Monday, December 26.
- Open 8:30 a.m.-12 p.m. on Friday, December 30.
- Closed Monday, January 2.
Trash Pickup
Trash will not be collected on Monday, December 26. Trash normally collected Mondays will be collected on Tuesday, December 27.
There are no other changes to the trash schedule. Trash will be collected as usual on Monday, January 2.
Recycling
The city’s glass and yard-waste dropoff site (at 31 Jones Drive, near the Flood Control Road) will be closed on Saturday, December 24 and Saturday, December 31.
Alerts
Starting Jan. 1: No more phone payments
Starting Jan. 1, City of Elkins will no longer accept phone payments for any city bills or services. Learn more.
No Spring Cleanup
Because of the city’s monthly bulk-item pickup program, we will no longer be offering Spring Cleanup. Don’t wait until spring, put your items out each month. Find the schedule for pickups here.
Bulk Pickups Schedule Change
As of the week of October 17, the bulk-item pickup schedule is changing. Find the new schedule here.
Water Issues?
Last modified on May 8th, 2022 at 10:51 am
Got a non-emergency water issue? Report it online by clicking here.
