City Council - Special Meeting

I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. I call to order this special council meeting this evening. Having taken role in having a forum, we will proceed. I don't believe we had anyone sign up on a public forum this evening. You were fine. We know that there are swimming pools in the area. Uh the report of the minutes from the February 12th, 26 meeting have been printed, posted, and circulated. Are there any corrections or additions to those minutes? None. The motus minutes will stand as posted. We have no unfinished business. So, we'll get into the uh new business that we have tonight. This evening's special counsel uh meeting is focused on outside agencies. Uh and we have those agencies that uh we have historically supported with the addition of some new that have come and tonight will be an evening that we will hear from you about what you're doing and what the support from the city of Vienna means. Uh so with no other business to address, let us go ahead and begin. And the first item on the agenda in presentation is the Greater Parksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau.

And if you would each please make sure that you speak into the microphone. All right. Good. Very good. Good job. All right.

We know you're better. Thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening about the efforts of the Convention of Visitors Bureau. Uh just a quick reminder, we are a destination marketing organization financed primarily through lodging tax and we receive 50% of the lodging tax remitted to the city of Vienna. Our mission is to contribute to the economy to the area by bringing tourists and tourism dollars. We attract those tourists through a comprehensive marketing program that includes print, broadcast, social, and digital media. In 2025, we spent over a quarter of a million dollars on direct advertising and marketing. Though the majority of our revenue comes from lodging tax, we're also a partner-based organization and our partners include attractions, hotels, restaurants, unique shops, and fairs and festivals. Our Vienna partners include Grand Central Mall, Hall's Chocolate, Scott's Marketplace, Grand Point, Oasis Salt Cave, and the Friends of Vienna. We've been impressed with the success, excuse me, the success that The Friends of Vienna have had in creating new and exciting events with unique entertainment and a family-friendly focus. Those events are bringing in new visitors from a wide area. They are really knocking it out of the park. Um, we partnered with them this year to capture drone footage of Glow on the O and were able to put together a spectacular video of that event and what a great night that was and Freedom Festival Friends of Vienna is doing a great job. We're happy to partner with them. One of the main resources that we use in our marketing efforts is our visitors guide. The 2026 version has just come out. We've provided you with copies there. Those are distributed at over 50 area locations and at all of the state welcome centers on the interstates. Another way that we impact tourism spending is through the personal interaction with visitors at our welcome center. We continue to set records

regarding visitors to the new center. And I've told you before the old place on the corner of 7th and Avery is a great little building, but it wasn't the right location. We used to see between six and 700 people a year. First year we were there, we saw over 6,000. Next year over seven, next year over eight, and this past year we saw over 9,000 people walk-in visitors to our welcome center. And each one of those visitors represents an opportunity for us to give them personal recommendations about where to go, where to eat, what to see, and how to spend more money in our area. So, we're very happy at our new location. We think it's a great thing for the community and for our area for tourism. It was a good year for tourism. lodging tax revenue was up by about 6% last year, and we're optimistic that this coming year we'll see another increase. We value our partnership with the city of Vienna, the Friends of Vienna, and the unique shops and businesses located here. We look forward to working with you to attract even more visitors in 2026. Every year, we host an annual meeting of our partners in February. This year's meeting is next Wednesday at Grand Point here in Vienna. The event runs from 5:30 to 7. I'd like to personally invite you all to attend. Traditionally, it's been held on Thursday night. We moved the meeting this year so that I could be here tonight and so that you all would have an opportunity to come to our annual meeting for a change. So, I hope you can make it. Please let uh Autumn Hethor know Autumn is here with me from the visitors center. So, we hope to see you there and I'd be happy to entertain any questions.

Smells like a new car. It's got that brand new visitors guide smell. All right. Thank you very much, folks. Have a great

Next, we have the art of the Hello, I'm Doug Hes. I'm the chief operating manager with the Ark of Mid Ohio Valley. I have a little video that I want to uh show you. We are a chapter of the Ark of the United States. Um, and some chapters do direct service to support people living in their homes. Our chapter is advocacy only. And some of you are new. I know some of you. I know uh, Councilman Ditler and Councilman Leech. And appreciate both of you, but I don't know. I don't know very well the rest. Of course, I know the mayor. We were up here for our summer day program. But rather than my try and give you an explanation, I have a very short video that should explain what we do. All right, let's get it to roll. Connecting to the HDMI. There we go. Our journey begins with our youngest members. The West Virginia Birth to Three program serves infants and toddlers under three years old who have developmental delays or are at risk for delays. We provide these crucial early intervention services at no cost to families, giving these little ones the support they need to thrive. We spread holiday cheer through our secret Christmas project, ensuring that adults and teens 13 and older with intellectual and developmental disabilities with financial hardships and limited support systems get to experience the joy of Christmas. Our dedicated volunteers shop for gifts. They create hygiene packs and they wrap presents for over 225 individuals in our community. Our health and wellness program promotes a healthy lifestyle for all through adapted activities instruction. We make health education accessible and engaging, focusing on things like nutrition,

social emotional wellness, fitness, and preventive care. We believe in empowering individuals to speak up for themselves. Our people first self- advocacy group provides a platform for people with disabilities to learn essential advocacy skills, connect with peers, and create a positive change in their lives and communities. We also host the people first of West Virginia conference bringing together self- advocates from across the state to share knowledge, build confidence, and make their voices heard. Our inclusive summer day program is a highlight of the year for students in grades 6 through 12 who utilize special education services. It's packed with exciting activities like swimming, bowling, arts and crafts, learning new skills, and taking field trips. Most importantly, it provides a space for these young people to build friendships, have fun, and experience inclusion alongside other kids their age. We believe that everyone deserves to have a summer filled with fun. We empower adults with disabilities to live more independently through our adult living skills training program. From relationship building and technology, including digital literacy through a grant with AT&T to money management, we cover the skills needed to navigate everyday life with confidence. Our art through shop and Clark does more than offer great deals. It supports our programs and serves as a vital training ground to help students and adults with disabilities gain valuable work experience, develop essential job skills, and build confidence.

We believe that art has the power to transform lives. Our Arts for the Underserved initiative provides individuals with disabilities access to creative expression and social connection, enhancing their overall well-being. Speaking of the arts, the Dela Lions Artistic Opportunity Center showcases and sells the beautiful artwork created by individuals with disabilities in the community, giving them a platform to share their gifts with the community and an opportunity to earn 100% of the proceeds. One of the things that I think is important to mention is that as a nonprofit, we rely on grants, donations, and volunteers. We want to take the time to thank all of those major funders, as well as the people who donate their money, time, talents, and even facilities that help us provide our many programs. Without everyone working together, we would not be able to serve the people in our community with developmental differences, and we thank them very much.

So, that's kind of what we do in a nutshell. And one of those partners was the city of Vienna. A couple of years ago, we raised we uh came and asked for uh some support. We uh raised over $50,000 to buy a new van. And we came to the city because we needed maintenance uh fees and extra things to keep on on hand. And that worked out really well because we found out that the dealership we bought it from and the people that had sold it, that it was new to us, didn't put the right tires on it. So, $600 later, uh, we were able to get, uh, put the right tires on it to transport the the folks that we serve. And so, kind of by the numbers to to support these programs, we served over 1500 people with summer day. Three of those came from the city of Vienna. And, uh, that's not a program we get a lot of funding for. We get some support from the Henry Logan Foundation, but uh we ask some of the folks, the parents if they can to uh provide some funding and if not then we just kind of make up that difference. We don't turn people away. Uh and then four of the folks from Vienna received our secret Christmas and we're always looking for more. So we're not just we're not trying to limit it just to those four. That's just the people that signed up. And then you can see like right now we have had 850 people that are dancers. Actually, when I'm finished with this, I'm going to go to uh one of our dances. Uh this is some of our West Virginia Berta 3 where we uh received over 936 referrals and people refer to us and then we figure out if they are not meeting their milestones of walking, speaking, talking, you know, of the different activities you should be doing by age three. And then if not, we hook them up with service providers doing speech therapy, physical therapy, and things like that. And so we 404 families are getting that ongoing support. Uh people first, this is our self- advocacy across the state. Uh this is our thrift shop. Unfortunately, due

to some competition over the years, when we first started the thrift shop, it was actually given to us a couple of decades ago. We made good revenue to support our programs. Competition, we had to close our Southside store, but we do still have South students and PHS students come in there. Here's some advocacy in action of what we do. We supported uh Karen Corgan. She's the lady standing and then her sister Amy, they like to go shopping. Well, she kind of feels like a trained engineer pulling through. So, they talked to Sam's Club and to Aldi's to get Caroline carts. So, now her sister can go around the store. Uh, so that's some good advocacy and action. And then to give you a little preview of what our folks actually do once we sign people up with the practitioners, Amy is the physical therapist and this is uh little Pierce Cornell who's 2 years 3 months old. He wasn't meeting his milestones, wasn't able to stand on his own. And so she's working with So the idea is by the time he begins to be three years old, he will be at the same level as others. Little worn out

there. So, uh, we're here to just ask for another for $1,000. That's what we asked for before just to support our programs. One of our big concerns is that with the big beautiful bill last year, uh, Congress uh, voted and approved to cut Medicaid funding. And so while birth to three is funded by the state, it's a pass through from Medicaid. And lots of our folks get to live at home instead of in a nursing home or a facility like the old Colon Anderson that was closed in the in the 80s because of Medicaid funding through what's called the title 19 waiver. And they're going to cut some of that money, which means the state's going to have to make it up. when you put that in with it, if the governor gets his 10% tax cut in, that's going to cut funding for our people first in some of our programs. So, we're just here um like say in years past um the money has gone either to our van or summer day, which we appreciate the mayor inviting us up. So, the kids got to come during summer day and come in this room and go to the police and fire station. We went to the to uh the Jackson pool, which they loved. But uh so that's where I'm just here today to uh see if you would uh put us down for another $1,000 this year just to support our general programs. I've got about 30 seconds left. I'm trying to keep that 10 minutes. Uh any questions? Thank you very much for the opportunity.

Appreciate Appreciate you allowing me to come up. Next we have friends of

Good evening, Jack Panthers with the Friends of VM. I'd like to start off with saying thanks to Mark Lewis for the nice comments he paid made. have payment for you here later on. That was nice. But uh anyway, I serve on the board the CBB with Mark's the leader there and really appreciate his solid leadership there. So, thanks. Anyway, friends, what we're here for tonight is to ask for the same amount that we've asked for in previous years. We're going to be put on the Freedom Festival again and we're going to be put on the glow on the O again. I can't really tell you at this point what we're having at the Freedom Festival and the globe. Uh it is larger this year. The Freedom Festival is it's three days Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. We've got a very exciting event planned for Thursday evening that the area has never seen before. So, it's one of the things that we really try to do and the we're really hearing from the people that are our sponsors. you know, you guys bring quality stuff into the area here. We were walking through the glow and yellow last year and I heard people saying, you know, we can't believe this, Vienna, West Virginia. We can't believe that we're getting this stuff in our community. And I think just on what we're providing and what it's bringing into the people that attend the festival that enjoy it, there's a lot of money that we're bringing into this area from people that are attending. You know, one of the fells that work here at the city of Vienna was talking about trout fishing over on the uh it was Williams River and he said, "You know, Jack," he said, "I hate to tell you, but he said, "I ran into two different groups over there." And he said, talking to those groups, I asked where where are you from? He said, "Bana." And they said, "We know that town. We've been coming to a festival you have over there." So, the news of the festival is getting around. Last year

it was a rough week for the Freedom Festival. I mean it was 100 degrees all week, 103 on Thursday down there. But last uh year we had 11 states that reached out to us. People from 11 states that were coming to the Freedom Festival to see Home Free. We're going to have people traveling again this year and coming here. The hotel's full always down here and You know, it's a great festival, a great event. We couldn't do it without you all. Couldn't do it without the city of VM. I mean, it's fun working with the groups. We work, you know, the police department's great to work with down there. It's just what can we do? We need this in the area. What can we do? How can we help you public works, you know, can't mention everything that help that happens there? And you're all support, you know, it's fun. It's it's a fifth year and uh fifth year we've done this. We've kicked around the idea of adding a third event. Um it's a little bit off table right now, but then another event has popped up and that's a great thing about the board that I serve on. There's 24 people on our board and you know we let people expand their imagination at our board meetings and we'll try to bring it out of them. What what would you what would you like to see? What do you want? What you know we we've got a tremendous And uh I'm just I'm really thrilled to be part of the board. I'm tickled to death of what we bring to this town. I'm tickled to death of the dedication of the people and I thank you all for your support. So that's all I've got to say. Got any questions for them? We'll be back in March. I'll be bringing some of my board back in March and we'll present everything to you. But you're going to be surprised. I guarantee you. So anyway, that's that's

what I've done. Thank you. Any questions this evening for Jack? Thank you.

Up next, we have Kids First Program and Family Crisis Intervention Center. Good evening. My name is Natalie Atinson and I'm the director of the Kids First Program. The Kids First program is under the direction of the Family Crisis Intervention Center, a local domestic violence and rape crisis center. Kids First program is located on Market Street and is a free licensed part-time program that allows children to have access to both of their parents without parents having access to each other. Our program provides the children and parents with a neutral, stress-free, child-focused environment, not exposing the children or the public to the hostility or anger that may occur between parents during visitation and exchanges when done on their end. We provide two services out of our program, visitation and exchanges. During visitation, the visiting parent and child stay at our program for the duration of the visit and staff monitors all interactions between them. During exchanges, one parent brings the child and the other parent comes 15 minutes later to pick up that child. That parent takes them for the evening, the weekend, or the week depending on what the court orders. Um the parent, we do require a court order for our families to use our program. We make it a positive environment. It's really a joy to be at our program. While children wait for their parents, we have props for them to do. We chat, play games, or whatever they feel comfortable doing while they wait. The kids love coming to the program, not just to see their parents, but also to see us. Often, we can't get them out the door in the evening. The kids enjoy getting to relax, unwind, do activities, and getting to play while they're at the program. We carry out these services with only two paid staff, myself, and our nighttime advocate, Miranda, an offduty Parkerburg police officer, and a few volunteers. We provide these services three nights a

week on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. Last year we provided 656 child visits and exchanges. We do not charge anything for our services. We've received funding through the Supreme Court of Appeals, DHHR, private donations, and the new wall. There are many reasons why parents are court ordered to use our services, such as going through divorce, having child custody disputes, open allegations of child abuse or neglect, the non-custodial parent having little to no contact with the child, the child having separation issues, and the parent having drug or alcohol problems or a family history of violence. I believe that we make a difference in these children's lives and some of the parents' lives as well. We try to instill in the parents to think of the kids first before they use them as a tug of wardrobe or as a messenger. We have been in the community for over 25 years and want to continue providing these critical services to our community and with your help we can. Does any question?

Thank you. Thank you for sharing.

Wood County Senior Citizens Good evening and thank you for having us here this evening. I am have provided you with our PowerPoint and all the information and you know the business aspects of our organization and I've invited Paul to kind of talk about our heart and soul. Um I you can read that on your own. I have provided some information about um our Vienna specific services so that you can see where your community falls within our structure throughout Wood County. But to just revisit, our mission um is is primarily as the Older Americans Act provider is to serve the neediest of our elderly population by decreasing food insecurity and hunger, encouraging socialization, and promoting health and well-being. So that is our entire mission and we do that through a number of different services that you can see within there but primarily we're known for our nutrition program or more familiarly known as meals on wheels. We also provide um transportation services for seniors going to doctor's appointments, shopping etc etc. And then we also have inhome services and that is where we have staff who go in and help the seniors uh stay independent in their home through life skills and and and basic uh just assistance in the home so that they're able to stay there and stay independent. Um, as I spoke about meals on wheels, um, we have really seen as again most everyone has an increased need as our population is getting older um, and they're working longer, but we have still had this large group of people who are independent, still in their homes. And so our meals meals on

wheels program provides one daily meal uh, every day of the week. So to get into the little bit more specific of how we're serving the city of Vienna, um I provided it's actually page seven of your handout if you'd like to take a look. And basically what you'll see um is that we are serving or the city of Vienna is about 15% of our entire uh budgeted cost in Wood County. So again, as a kind of epicenter, uh Parkersburg of course is the uh primary because of the location and that accessibility of um our seniors coming to the center there on Green Street and then the rest are really just the randomness of out in the county. So I did want to share with that because these are very specific to to Vienna and so you can see who we're actually serving. Um we have seen an increase in meals. So, we're providing about 10,000 meals uh to residents here in Vienna and also providing um a number of hours and trips as well as you'll see there. So, just to see um where y'all fall in there and how we're trying to serve your community in the best way that we can through our services. So, I'm going to stop talking about the business piece of it. I really want you to hear um from Paul is one of our volunteers. He's also going to become a future board member and he's been with us. I'll let him tell his story, but he volunteered to come tonight because what he's doing for us has really uh fed some passion within him. And I'll introduce Paul.

I probably better write this down and everything. But yeah, I deliver meals. I pick them up at Green Street at the kitchen there and I come out to Pleasant View Towers and Hill View Terrace. And I'll tell you, when I go to Pleasant View Towers, people are in that lobby waiting for me. They're so excited. They're in wheelchairs, they're walkers, and they just give you the biggest smile. I mean, I really get more out of it. I'm sure they get a lot out of it, but to feel and they help me. They bring a cart out. I put the food on the cart. We go to the community room where I distribute the food. And there's this one lady. She always gets in line. She's like 85 years old, weighs 90 pounds, 4 foot n her meal and her milk, and she gives me the biggest smile and and thank you. I just want to hug that woman. It's just amazing. And we not only give them food, we talk to them. I like to listen to the problems they're having a little bit. And it's just it's just really rewarding. And they really want this service. I can tell because there's people that'll come and say, "Can I get on the can you bring me a meal?" And there's only certain amount we can deliver. But and then up at Hillview, we go door todo. The apartments's there. So I'm seeing people coming out, wheelchairs, walkers. Some of them I go into the apartment because they can't come to the door. And again, they're so happy, the smiles, and they want to tell me their story. And I said, "Well, you know, I I could talk to

you forever, but I gotta move on to the next floor." But I just those people really need it. Some of those people I don't think get out. They might go to a doctor's office, especially at Hillview Terrace, but so they need that interaction besides the meal. And some of the people tell me they'll eat some of the meal one day and then they'll save it for the next day or they'll eat it at night. I usually deliver it lunch. So, they're happy to get two meals taken care of. And um and then when I go back to the senior center, there's a line there. People get meals to take out or eat and the staff there is very friendly to them and and it's only a small part what I do. I mean, we go all over the county. We're going to Belleville, Rockport, Williamstown, and bringing meals to these people. and a smile. That's That's what I like to say. Just a kindness. And we appreciate them as much as they appreciate us. I enjoy it. You know, I'd like to go see some of the people now, but they're probably asleep waiting, you know.

Anyway, thank you. Do you have any questions for Paula or I about the senior center? Uh Paul, what's your last name? L A capital P A N. All right. Thank you. Any questions? Thank you for your money. Who likes that? Thank you so much. Can we get the city building to be one of the daily stops? Would you like that? I would love that. I would love that very, very much. And I can make that happen if you give me a couple. Oh gosh. I'm not a senior yet, but you know. Yeah. And the food's good. The food's good. It's nutritious. We get vegetables. We get fruit. You know, it's not junk food. Good deal.

Thank you guys very much. Thank you so much.

We do not have anybody from the Humane Society this evening.

North Starchild Alley. I've gave you all a packet and u it's got some good information in it so we can keep my time as minimal as possible. But I want to thank you um for allowing me to be here tonight to request financial support to tell you a little bit about the physically sexually abused and severely neglected children we interview and advocate for on behalf of law enforcement and prosecutors and child protective services. I want to first say I'm always humbled to be in a room with a bunch of people is trying to make this valley better and I appreciate what you all are doing. I'd like to read from you some quotes. Uh, I always do it. Some of you have heard me before, but I keep 20 quotes on hand and they're from kids in our interview room. So, these aren't uh from another state. These are these are our kids. Um, and these are things that they have actually said uh during interviews and it gives it gives the most bang for the buck as far as impact on what we're doing. I'd wear tiny shorts or night gowns. Not really much to cover my body because I'm a very sweaty girl. It's kind of my fault because I wouldn't really be wearing anything. When he comes upstairs, I'm hoping he's not going to do it again. What if I didn't do the right thing by telling? What if I was being a brat and they think it was right he punished me? What if he What if he lies his way out of this? What if they don't love me anymore? Mom was perfect before she started using drugs, but now she's the devil. I don't want to die.

I don't want to die, but I also don't want to live like this. Anytime we would have sex, he would put a pillow over my face, and I couldn't breathe. You could see it in his eyes, the hate, like he could kill someone. When he tried to do it again and I told him no, he told me, quote, "Your sister was better anyway." Dad told mom to tie my hands behind my back. I was bruised and really sore after. Mom pushed me down into a chair and made me sit down and used a gun lock to keep me there. He would talk to me, but he would get really close. That's how I knew it was about ready to happen. It's always been like a stabbing, like my body didn't want to accept it. My sister calls him dad. But no, Joe, this is like the 14th man she has called dad since she's been able to say a word. Usually, people cry for being away from their mother, but for me, it's a present. Foster home is better. I don't get treated like a dog. I get treated right. It's heaven. I have school so there won't be bruises on my face. So they leave them on my body. Dad would hit my twin sisters with a belt but they were too young to be hit. They're only six years old. I can take it. I could even take more, but they are just too little to be hit. We would be in the car and he would touch the top of my vagon and tell me. That's the thing the guys would love about me the most. It made me feel helpless. It feels like every time I talk about it, I'm reliving

it again. I just wanted to see someone realize that something was wrong. I was telling the truth. After that happened, he would make me pray with him. I felt guilty, disgusted, and disappointed with myself. A child advocate center, which is a CAC, provides a safe, child-friendly facility where CPS, criminal justice, and child treatment professionals work together to investigate abuse, hold offenders accountable, and help children heal. The only children Northstar interview are referrals from CPS, judges, prosecutors, or law enforcement and are in the advanced investigative stage. Most do not realize we are not a walk-in facility. West Virginia has 21 centers like Northstar. During the 25 fiscal year, West Virginia CAC serve 4,734 kids. One in 10 West Virginia children will experience sexual abuse before they are at the age of 18. Northstar is the largest CAC in West Virginia serving Wood Richie Pleasants and Calhoun counties. Northstar saw over 600 children each calendar year between 2020 and 2023. In 2025 calendar year, we saw 558 children. If you see the difference in numbers in your package, just note that the West Virginia Child Absy Network's numbers are fiscal year, and I've given you the calendar year statistics. Currently, there are nine CAC's in West Virginia that are partially funded by county commissions. Northstar Northstar is not one of them. Four CAC's in West Virginia are funded by municipalities. Northstar has proudly been one of them,

thanks to the city of Vienna. Our staff consists of five forensic interviews, also cross-trained as family advocates, and two and a half administrative staff taking care of the work of the center. The projected VOCA federal grant cut in October 2025 was initially projected to be 74%. VOCA is the victim of crime act that is not taxpayer funded but it rather funded by criminal fines. The state of West Virginia stepped in since the VO issues began in 2021 bringing us up to level funding each year. Last year the state of West Virginia put our network in the budget for the very first time ever. We have we have been a unable to grow with federal or state money over this time as it was frozen at the 2020 rate. Federal money is 32% of our budget. Any expansion in services Northstar has had over the last five years has been because of local foundations, donations, fundraisers, and money provided by the city of Vienna. State grants account for 19% of Northstar's budget and are also never a short thing. We have worked hard over the past five years to bring in our own money with 21% of our budget now funded by donations and statewide training we provide for others. United Way is covering our entire medical program which provides sexual assault examinations for children. One of only a few CACs in the state doing this on site. In the calendar year 2025, 70% of the children we saw from our 5count area were kids from Wood County.

41% were from Parkerburg. 52% were from areas outside any s city limit in Wood County. 6% were from Vienna for a total of 24 children. The National Children's Advocate Center in Huntsville, Alabama stated back in 2006 that a CAC investigation cost a pro approximately $2,92 each. If if all would work, Pleasants, Richie, and County governments would provide us with some funding for each child interviewed, we would ensure as a community that Northstar will be here forever despite any upsets with the state and federal grants. These are our kids, not the state or federal federal government's kids. I believe that the city of Vienna has set the bar for the rest of Wood County and other counties we serve. In closing, this is not merely a feel-good nonprofit. It's quite the opposite really. It's a necessity. We work as a team with law enforcement CPS to give these kids a chance to get fixed so they can be a productive part of our community rather than next generation's problems we have to continue to pay for while trying to fix them. These children did not choose for their lives to go like this. And I'll say that again because it's very important. These children did not choose for their lives to go like this. My goal is to make sure Northstar is here and functioning for our children, helping our law enforcement and CPS workers for the next 100 years by finding this type of sustainable funding. Sustainable funding is what is going to allow us to be here. Tonight, I would humbly and respectfully ask to remain in your next budget in the amount

of 15,000. If the 15,000 is too much, any amount you deem appropriate will be deeply appreciated. Questions? I have a question. Yes, sir. Um, you stated, if I'm if I understood you correctly, that city of Indiana is the only municipality that gave any counties that give No, sir. Have you visited them? Just curious. And they say no. Um they don't actually say no. I just never hear back from them. Well, that's no. Yeah. So, and they expect you to take care of their children. Yes, sir.

Okay. Actually, the percentage, the reason I know the percentages of areas within Wood County, when I presented to the Wood County Commission, the question was levied to me by a commissioner and he said, "During the presentation, what percentage of the kids are you seeing that are Wood County children?" Didn't make any difference to me at the time. They were they were they were children that need needed seen. So I had to implement a a a system another system within our our uh numbers that would give you the exact percentage for the next presentation which is going to be shortly I hope. And as you can see in your packets those percentages are broke down because of that that question. And um this year Wood or Parkersburg was higher in 24. Uh but this year Wood County uh we saw 198 kids from Wood County and 156 from Parkerburg. So that's why that chart's in there now because as you know u there is always a we don't want to take care of somebody else's children effect that I I face from time to time and that's why that number was needed so I could put percentage on it but what we do is not a percentage thing.

And you visit these areas every year. Yes sir. So 198 Wood County, 156 from Parkerburg means actually 352 for Wood County. Well, we have Vienn in Parkersburg and Wood. Yeah, we have Vienna 24 in Williamstown. I mean, the commission needs to understand. Oh, yes, sir. Parkersburg is in Wood.

Yeah, I'm sorry, sir. Yes, it's it was readily apparent to me, but apparently that didn't resonate somewhere. These are our kids and these are the kids that are in our school hallways. We pass them in Walmart. They're just they're just everywhere and you wouldn't know a lot of them, but it's pretty evil. I can tell you it's it's u it's really evil at times. Well, we definitely appreciate everything that you do within our community. They know that it takes really special people to deal with the horrors that individuals can inflict. We appreciate it. Thank you, sir.

And we look forward to coming back and doing another visit again. Yes, sir. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you.

Next up, we have Artsbridge. Hello, I'm Lindsay Dennis, executive executive director of Artsbridge. I appreciate always being invited and included into your budget process. Um, Artsbridge is celebrating 40 years this year. We were incorporated or Artsbridge became Artsbridge in 1986 and so we have a whole plan of fun things to spend celebrating the year and celebrate turning 40. I am not yet 40, but it is a fun celebration for the organization. You can sit down now. We reach Somebody draw a line for that.

I just wanted to make that, you know, clear. Um, we reach over 25,000 individuals each year and we run with a staff of four. So, we rely heavily on the gals in the office and our volunteers and our board of directors and we serve six counties um in those 25,000 people. So, arts is kind of multiaceted. We focus in three areas. Arts education, community outreach, and fundraising. Um, anybody everybody in this room through through nonprofit work knows how important fundraising is. Uh, grants and foundations make up about 53% of the income of our budget. And the rest of that is made up to bridge that gap. We look for donations and sponsorships. And the city of Vienna is one of two cities that supports ArtsBridge and has for many years. And it's that sustainable funding that helps us get through when we face state funding cuts like we did this year. So, we're fortunate that we have a multistream of income that we're able to reallocate some funds and move some things around. We've made really good partnerships in the communities to help make up the difference. And like I said, the city of Vienna is one of those consistent funding streams that we receive and we are so grateful for that allows us to do everything that we're able to do. So part of what we do are 14 programs year round and I want to highlight two of those because one is getting ready to wrap up. We're doing our music in the mall series and so we have one more performance thanks to the snow we had to tack on some extra dates. So we will be there this Sunday from 2 to 3 with high school band and from 3:30 to 4:30 with the Wood County Christians Choir. So if you have a Sunday afternoon available and would like to come hang out with us and listen to some great young talent, we will be there. That is our last state. And then we are getting ready to set up our mall art displays. And so we run that from this coming Monday until May 1st. Every two weeks we rotate out a new school set of art. And they actually gave us a storefront this year at the mall. So we will have the

whole corner of where the I think it was called Trade Shows. It's a store that just went out, but it's across from Lids. So when you're visiting the mall and doing your shopping, you'll be able to check out some local school art from these young artists in our area. We're so fortunate to have the arts in our area that we do. There's so much talent here. Um, we also run our online calendar and I never like to hear somebody say that there's nothing to do this in this area because we are rich with activities in this area. And so we run that online calendar and we go on daybreak every week and talk about what's coming up and we highlight all of our cities and areas uh events and activities arts and non uh to try to get people to come together and collaborate and and do all the fun things that we offer in this area. So, I will take any questions now if you have them. And again, I just want to express our thanks for your support. It's been unwavering for many years. Yes, sir.

You said six counties. What are the six counties outside of wood? We have Wood and Washington. Those are our two biggest counties. And then we have Richie, Pleasants, Jackson. I'd have to look at my diagram. I want to say Tyler. So, Vienna's one of the two. Who's the other city that contributes? uh Parkersburg. So, of all those other cities, you guys have been a great support and and consistent in that support. Any other questions? Thank you very much. Thank you so much.

The Boys and Girls Club of Parkersburg. I'm over the 40. So when I get up, my back, you know, does a thing. I wake up in the morning and wonder if somebody beat me as I slept. You know, yeah, the wonderful process of being It kicked in about age 50. So Well, good evening. You young people don't know what pain is, I tell you.

Well, I'm glad there's more to come. Thank you. Uh, good evening, council members. I'm Darling Murphy. I'm the new CEO at the Boys and Girls Club of Parkerburg and uh, we're a nonprofit serving youth. Our mission is to enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, and responsible adults. Um it they changed their mission to the kids that need us the most because it used to be like people would think of it as like the like juvenile delinquents that need to go to the club, but we're there for anyone who needs to go to the club. So if kids need just a place to go with their parents work, if they need academic support, if they just need a caring adult, if they need a meal, so we're really there for any kids who want to go to the club. And uh we're funded uh through grants, individual and corporate donors, some rentals that when we rent out the building, foundations, and some other um government entities. The city of Vienna has um sponsored some of our transportation this year to get our Vienna kids to our main clubhouse. And the city of Parkersburg has sponsored us um as well. And uh yeah, so we get some city money as well. Um, we also do some advocacy at the city, county, state, and national level. I just spent the day Monday with our um, delegates and senators with some of our kids from the club. Just letting them know how important the work that we do at the Boys and Girls Club. A lot of our surrounding states have alliances, bless you, that um that fund their Boys and Girls Clubs in their states. Uh, we are one of the states where we get no funding from the state to run. So, we're always just out asking for money to take care of our kids. Um, and one thing I wanted to note, I'm also a a counselor, and while Greg was speaking about the work he does, it it brought to mind during my child therapy classes about how one of the main um one of the the

biggest factors in changing the tra trajectory of a child's life as a consistent, caring adult. And so that is what we do at the Boys and Girls Club. We have adults and a lot of our staff have been there over a year which is really unheard of when you're talking about out of school time. So we do try to create an environment that our adults like to be there because we want to have consistent caring adults for our kids. And then we're also open during hours when abuse and juvenile delinquency take place which is usually between the hours of 3 to 7. We're open till 7:30. We did that so that we could also serve our um like shift workers, people that work at the hospital and the plans and work 7 to 7. So we extended our hours last year until 7:30 and then we're open most non-school days so kids have a safe place to go. They can get a meal there. Um and it's really a minimal cost to our family. So, we charge $30 a year for our elementary school kids and we are going to charge $30 for the whole summer and our teens attend for free because we really want our teens to have somewhere to go um without worrying about paying a cost. And I've been there since 2023. I was the director before I became the CEO. And uh when I first started there, we saw about 14 teens a day and we're seeing about 40 teens a day now. And uh when I started we also saw about 86 kids a day. We're seeing about 227 kids a day. So our growth in just two years has been um amazing. But it's one of those things where we're not a business. So we don't you know I wish I could get a bonus for the the number of kids I've increased, but really all that means is we need more money to take care of all of the kids. So it's a good problem to have. Overall, we've grown from 400 members in 2023 to 811 members in 2025, and we still continue to grow. Um, what's been really exciting is through a 21st century learning grant, we were able to open a school-based site to

serve the families of Vienna in Vienna rather than blessing them to the Merry Street location. And so, we opened that site with about 10 kids at the beginning of the school year, October, when we opened. And we're already we're already up to 45 kids at that location. So, we're excited about the growth in Vienna. So, um, Mayor Em and I have had a lot of conversations about how we can continue to serve the kids um, in Vienna, the families in Vienna, and some of the outcomes that come from kids attending our program. I've already mentioned they get a safe, positive environment. And I included in your um, packets our NYOI outcomes, which is our national youth outcomes initiative survey that we give every year. We're compared against national and our previous years. And you can see that we're typically above the national average for safe and positive environment, fun, and belonging. Um, feeling like they can make a difference in their community. And part of the uh the reason I was in Charleston uh Monday and Tuesday, we did the advocacy day, but then we also had the youth of the year competition where um youngsters from our club competed in the state to be named the youth of the year, which is like the premier recognition program for the club. They get scholarship money. ours didn't win the state competition, but he did get a laptop. And the crazy thing about it is he'd been working on his speech and he just kept saying, "I wish I had a laptop. It would make it a lot easier without knowing he would be getting a laptop." And uh and that kid was amazing. He's 14. He comes from a home where mom was addicted to drugs when he was born. And uh just the night before our local youth of the year competition, his case worker forgot to pick him up. So he was out in the cold for two hours and he walked to the Boys and Girls Club because he knew he'd be warm there. So that's kind of what we do. Um and that's I could tell probably a hundred of those stories. We also serve meals. We usually partner with Wood County Schools for that, but on days that they don't provide meals, that does just come out of our budget. We do a breakfast, lunch, and a snack every

day. Um so the reason I'm here tonight, I hope I still have time today. Okay. So there's no buzzer.

Okay. All right. So, I've I've been working closely with Mayor Emery to design what a summer program could look like in Vienna. And uh so we kind of landed on a a recreation program that would be based here in the city of Vienna. And so um that parents who don't necessarily need child care, but but really just want to have a recreation program for their kids would have a program that's that's well known, well trusted, well established um to be here in the city of Vienna. So, what that would look like is 9 to 2 here at the in the city of Vienna. Likely Jackson Park is what we're kind of working on. Um, and so parents would drop their kids off at 9:00. We would do programming with them. Um, we usually throw a field trip in there once a week. We try to as long as we find the funding. Um, we provide meals. We provide the national evidence-based programming from the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. And just another shout out for for clubs when I was taking my trauma class, my trauma textbook actually stated that out of school time and wreck programs don't usually make a big difference on juvenile delinquency except for programs like the National Boys and Girls Club because of our evidence-based program. So I was like, "Oh, that's in my textbook. That's amazing." Um, so those are the kind of programs we would be running in our summer program. Um, for our summer, our our uh theme is blockbuster summer. So each week the staff has kind of picked a kids movie and they'll be planning fun activities for the kids to do based along different characters, themes, whatever of of some well-known kids movies. And uh so I just wanted to end by thanking you all for hearing us tonight, inviting you to come check out our site at Vienna Elementary. Miss Crystal's here. She's our director there. She does a phenomenal job. We have a Facebook page if you want to see the kind of things that she's doing. Um, or you can come to our Merry Street location.

And our ask might be the biggest one of the night, but it takes a lot to run these programs. So, I'm asking for $40,000 over a 10-week program. If we saw 40 kids a day, that's about $100 a kid a week. So, that's less than what anyone would pay in a summer program. I know, um, when I had my own summer program, we charged about 130 a week. And then um in other places you'll pay of course the 200 for a specialized program like that that's in the city that that you're in. So what questions do you have for me?

So before there's any questions I want to kind of expand on your presentation because you're here and part of our conversation. Uh part of the responsibility I have or a big responsibility I have within the city is to listen uh to the wants, needs, and desires of our con constituents, but also to listen to the direction that I get from other council members. Uh Jim has been a huge advocate for uh children's and youth programming and as well as as Tony and and Tammy have been huge advocates for drug intervention and prevention

in pulling all of these things together. Uh that's what started the conversation with how do we uh reach and how do we provide these u in our last conversation um you know we have we have a a target um number of I asked for 50

that we would hit that program would run Monday through Friday 9 to two um and in conversations with uh Chuck Nolinger and looking for locations that this would be based out of the the rec center simply because there's no activities that go on during those time frames and was had a huge level of excitement about that. Uh we do a lot of services for uh other age brackets in in our community, but we don't really do anything strong for our youth. U again as as Jim has been a huge advocate for that as well. So I'm excited about this potential program and that we'll be able to be providing for the youth of Vienna and to be able to provide such services. So

I did want to add one piece I forgot about that we had talked about. Um for those parents who do work and need um care beyond 2 PM, we would bus those kids to the the Mary Street location so that um the parents that live in Vienna could drop off at either location. But if they just, you know, wanted Rick or one of their kids to stay here in Vienna, you would have that site here, but we can also bus them to our Mary Street location. Any questions for me? The conflict of interest. I was I was on the board from uh 1979 for about 10 years when Frank Seagull was the director. Were you born then?

I I was I was born in 1974 and my brother actually attended the club and when I give tours I talk about how we didn't let girls in until 1996 and I'm still pretty salty about it because my brother got to go swimming, shoot BB guns, bow and arrow. He said he got shot with his first arrow at the Boys and Girls Club. That's probably why we don't do that stuff anymore. But he had a great time there. I'm just so glad that you're here in Vienna now, too. Yeah, we are, too. And they're running a very successful program out of the Vienna school um after the the school year, but that will stop once the the school year stops. Correct.

Yeah. So, our grant only covers uh during the school year. And uh another piece with that is since we are funded through a grant, there is no charge for the Vienna families. And I think that's kind of what um Mayor Emery and I had talked about is just kind of keeping that going and letting those families still come. We can look at do we need to charge a rate whatever whatever that looks like. But and did you say the age bracket that we had discussed? Um kindergarten through fifth grade. Correct. Any other questions? Any other questions?

Okay. Thank you all for listening and hopefully you'll stop by and get a tour something. Mid Ohio Valley Health Department. Anyone here? Discover world. I don't see Wendy. She had an accident. Oh no. I'll reach out to her. Is she okay? Yeah, I believe so.

We do have a representative from Lro Street. Good evening. Um, I'm the new person on the block, I believe. Um, looks like everyone else kind of already knows each other. Um, my name is Michelle. I am the, um, new executive director to the Lro Street Mission, which is now going to be called the Latro Mission. Um, I'll give you a little bit of background. I have, um, worked with homeless on a personal level for the last 25 years. Um, u, before the care ever existed, I was, um, taking moms and kids off the street. Um, putting them in hotels and walking with them. Sometimes it would be for a six-month period, sometimes up to two years. I would help the mom get um into housing, help them I helped several get into colleges, um help them get jobs and um become successful in their lives. And they went on to um do that and raise their kids well and I still have contact with a lot of those. So anyway, um I was about a year ago just minding my own business and I got a phone call from a friend who asked me if I would come to LRO and part-time case manage. And I said, "Okay, sure. I'll come just help out a little bit for a little while." Well, that turned into two months ago um them asking me if I would step in as executive director. And so here I am. Um the Lich Trobe mission um as it has been through a lot of things as everyone knows over the years um but as of now we are trying to revamp the whole mission and when I say revamp

the mission start starting with it being a faith-based mission that's what it was started out to be um and that is a ministry in itself so we're changing the name to Lurve mission instead of Lur Street because We don't want it to be a place, you know, a location of Lurb Street. We want it to be Lurb mission. And that is what we do as a homeless uh shelter. We believe that every individual is a child of God that deserves to be treated with love, dignity, respect, and compassion when they walk through the doors. One of the things that I have found is that there's a lot of stigma about homeless people and that they they're all here from um other areas. They're drug addicts. Um you know that we can't help them. There's a lot of things that are said about homeless people, but I can tell you at the drug mission that is not the case. About a quarter of the people that come in our doors, they they're addicts. And if they are addicts and they are actively using, we will immediately get with them um and to see if they want to go to recovery. If they don't if they don't want to go to recovery, there's not a whole lot we can do except for give them a warm bed, a hot meal, and give them a little bit of time to stay at the mission. If they do want to go to recovery, we immediately start calling resources in the area and get them into one of the the local recoveries. The other three4s of the people that are homeless are either situational homeless is due to mental illness illness or developmentally delayed situations. They're elderly or they're veterans. examples. We've had several veterans that have come into the mission that were living

in a shed in their brother's backyard. Brother got mad, said, "I don't want you to live here anymore. They're homeless." There have been veterans that have mental illness that end up on the streets, in the tents, under the bridges. The one thing great about veterans for us is if they come through our doors, there are many many veteran services that quickly as soon you know if I make that phone call within two weeks that veteran has housing, a case manager and things that are for you know that will help them to sustain their life and live a normal life. Mental health um counselors get with them everybody coordinates together. So veterans are actually is wonderful when they come through our doors because we know that we have the resources out there to help them and help them very quickly. Um, a mom of three in an abusive situation, domestic violence, um, her and her husband, you know, have a situation, she ends up coming to our shelter to escape that. We've had a mom of three this past year kicked out of her own mother's house. Grandma decided she didn't want the mom and kids living there anymore. We've had um multiple 12 to be exact kids under the age of 21 who were kicked out of their homes. Most of them have a autism or developmental delays to the point that there's no way that they could even live independently. We had a 18-year-old, for example, that had had his capacity taken and he was dropped off to us by Sharp Institute at our front doors and he was had a mentality of an 8-year-old. We have 77y old seniors that one for instance that was dropped out dropped

off at our door because she was evicted because she wasn't physically able to clean her apartment anymore. Those are mo most of the type of people that we that come into our mission and that we have um to to work with and to try to get them into housing. Again, so what do we do when someone comes in the door? One of the first things we do is find out if they have a birth certificate or social security card. More than half of them do not. You can't do anything to move forward in life if you don't have an ID. So, we start right there where they're at with trying to get them a birth certific so that they could get an ID. Once they get an ID or once we get through that process, then we sign them up for SNAP benefits, Medicaid, HUD, mental health services. We connect them with physicians if they need that. We also connect them with um any kind of uh senior senior assistance that they need or if they have children, we will also connect them with the school system. The next thing we do is help them find employment or decide are they a senior that isn't signed up for social security yet. We've had those situations. Do they need disability because they have no way of being able to work? And we will walk them through those processes. And as you know, disability is about a year and a half long process. Um, and then lastly, we will try to get them into housing. Um, once we get them into housing, we then also will help them furnish their apartment and get them anything that they need, you know, as far as dishes, washcloths, silverware. So, that's our process. I'm going through it quickly, but it can be it take a long time sometimes. This past year as a case manager, I was able to get 3 uh two people into housing. Doesn't sound like a lot, but it really

that was a very big success for the mission. Um I've heard comments that I did more in the last year than had been done the entire time the mission's been open. That was a great compliment to hear. Um what do we have planned for 2026? One of the things another thing that we've been doing um since I have stepped into executive director is working with a program there's one program called Mach 1. It's a um program that works with disabled folks and they need places to come and do training um for the disabled um younger adults that they have. Um, and so one of the they called and asked, they said, "Would you be willing to let them come and do some training there, get some social skills in, see if there's anything that they could be capable of doing?" I said, "Sure, let's give it a try." And so we now are on our fourth person and we have had um every individual come in there um has been it's been a successful program where they've went in our kitchen, they learned how to cook, they learned how to bake or they did some organization, they did some cleaning and those kind of things. And one of the girls uh who's there now doing still continuing her training has asked if we would um allow her to do like 10 hours a week when she gets done with the training. And so we're trying to figure that into our budgeting and how we do that. Um, but from that came in my mind that's where we're missing something here because at LRO we don't want to just enable homelessness. Actually, we want no part of enabling homelessness. We want to fix the homelessness so that's no longer a problem for them. We want to give them all the tools that we can so that they can sustain on their own. And what has happened in the past, I feel like in the

homeless community is that it's all about like let's get them an apartment, let's get them an apartment, but we get them in the apartment and then we never give them the tools along the way to see to learn how to sustain that apartment. And so you will see people like end up homeless again. Um, so this year what we're going to what we're doing is we're going to offer life skill classes at Lur Street Mission Mission. Um, and it's not just for our guests that stay at the mission. It will actually be open to the public or any other agency that needs to use those. But we are going to offer classes um like budgeting, banking, uh cooking, cleaning, communication classes, um emotional regulation classes, how to deal with stressful situations, um socializing them, um and how to talk to, you know, on the phone to a banker or how to talk to on the phone, make an appointment. There's a lot of these skills they don't have. they've never been taught. And so we feel like that's going to build uh their success in once they're housed in being able to operate in those functions that most of us take for granted. Um and that that will help them to be able to be housed permanently and sustain that. So that's one of our biggest projects I'm super excited about. Also at Litro Mission, we are going to be getting um kind of a revamp not just of the program, but a revamp of the looks of the mission. We are getting the inside of our building painted. We're getting the outside of our building painted. We are also getting new signs put up. Um we are uniting with all kinds of other agencies um to bring all the resources together because we can't do this alone. We are a nonprofit and we have lost $75,000 in

funding this year um from one of our grants. It was not reinstated. The grants are drying up. We do not get help from any other local agency except for Vienna. Um just so you know that because I've heard others. Um Parkersburg does not help us in any way. We have had the mayor of Parker on site and that resulted in nothing um from that site visit. Um we feed over another thing that we do um for the community is we feed over 50,000 meals a year. Um we our dinner alone we have 100 people show up for and that's not the residents that's people coming from the community. um and that but we are open uh seven days a week, three meals a day to anyone that wants to join, you know, for dinner or any meal. Um we are getting a new roof put on um this year over our kitchen and our our day room. We are going to have an ADA ramp installed that goes straight into our day room so that anyone that in the community that um is in a wheelchair or um needs that access will be able to get it. All of these things I've mentioned um some of them are 100% they're happening. The the ADA ramp, we don't have that yet, but we are praying and knowing that it's going to come somehow to us. Um so that's 2026. what we have planned um 2027. We um have new dorms that were built in 2025 and our old dorms are now being used at a warming station. But what our plans are for those is that we can take those old dorms and turn them into transitional living, which is another um thing that is needed very much in our

area. Housing is very difficult to find. Um and that will an actual turn into an income source that will pour back into the mission. So, we're really hopeful that we can get the grant funding for that. Not asking that from you all. Just letting you know what our plans are for the future. If we can come up with ways, we've found that we can come up with ways that we can generate income that's going to suit us better as we move into the future. Um, from the way that it looks like grants are going to be more difficult to get. So, um, as far as the amount of money, I'm asking for 5,000, but anything that you all would like to help us with would be amazing.

Any questions? Yes. Yeah. You said five, but it says 2500 on here. Was that a typo? No, I just didn't get that. Okay, no problem. We had a late phone call. and you stand in a park doesn't wood county contribute any no sir you need to ask other cities no comment you done a great job the evolution of the street missions mission whatever you're actually addressing the problem which wasn't done before

yes and I don't want challenge in or anything, but the Ditler Foundation gave $7,000 in December. Yes, they did. And it was very, very much appreciated. We got talked out of it by John 6. Very much appreciated. Um, but we truly are, you know, we're we are a for profit and so every I mean it's we go by grants and donations and um I'm going to be actually hitting a lot of places um starting next month. I just had to get some foundational things fixed. It should fit within the definition of the opioid settlement funds. Not that I know it it should

it very much should I have been um I don't know if anyone else has I have been on multiple occasions in certain meals at the tro mission. Um well in really Harry supportive uh John 6 and all the the great work that he does uh down there but in in all the times that I've been down there everyone has those that are eating those that are serving they've been respectful they've been courteous they've been kind yes they've never taken more than what they they should and they have always shown a great level of gratitude for what they for what they get.

Absolutely. Um and again, just time and time again have always had a a good experience when when dealing with those that reside there and those that come in and eat. Um so, thank you for what you're doing. Um and thank you for what you're going to continue to do. Yes. Within our communities. I'm very excited. I mean, I'm there's Yeah, there's great things coming. I mean, truly, there are. And um I'm thankful that you all gave me the opportunity to speak. And I also want to say if y'all would like to volunteer to come serve one night at the mission or bring families to do it, we have open availability if you'd like to do that at any time.

I usually mean the dessert counter. No need for anybody to comment. I'm just curious, what's the average length of stay?

Average length of stay? I mean, I'd have to do it. We are considered a 90-day temporary shelter. That is what we are, you know, supposed to be. There are those that come in and I mean, they're we can get we can help them depending upon when they come in, you know, they could be out in a month. Um, and but then others, you know, if they've come in and I mean, they don't have any, you know, ID, you know, birth certificate. I mean, sometimes it could take us it could take us a month to get a birth certificate in and then it just slows that process down. I would have to look that up to give you a correct number of the average length, but um it is supposed to be for 90 days. We definitely do have people that are there longer than that though um because it just takes that long to get them through. So, housing, I mean, that's a big one, too.

Any other questions? Thank you. Thank you. Good job. Delete that. Next up is the ML Fellowship home. That's going to be the sound, Henry, that they're going to use right there. Hello. Is this good enough? Yeah, that's good.

Okay. Hi, I'm Brandy Blat. I'm the ED of the Meadow High Valley Fellowship Home. Um, and this is Gabby, our family unit house manager, and she is brand new to us, but not really. And we'll get into that in just a minute. Um, I see some faces I don't recognize, so I'll just let you know who we are. We are Sober Living in Parkersburg, and we have served the Mid Ohio Valley for 55 years this year in April. So, we are grounded and we are stable. We are also the second oldest home in the state that offers the service. Sober living is continuum of care, which means after prison, jail, rehab, need to get back up on your feet and have some practice that living life on life's terms with a whole lot of support. That's what we offer. Um, we are staffed 247 and we have an incredible good neighbor policy and I take a lot of pride in that because, um, it's important. It's really important. So with that being said, this year is a really big year for the fellowship home. We are expanding our services and usually we treat women, women with children, men and men with children. This year we're expanding to whole family units. So we have purchased a twounit home that will serve two family units, meaning you don't have to leave mom or dad at home and bring your kids. your whole family can come to this um facility and get better six months to a year. It's designed for a year. It could be for more if you're having a lot of barriers getting back on your feet. And in to my knowledge, we will be the first one in West Virginia to offer this type of service. Um, it's a vision that I had thinking about my own recovery and what that looked like and what I didn't give myself the opportunity to have. And that was I was accepted into Genesis program, a very well-known women's program, but I didn't take that offer. I needed that

offer. Um, but I would have to have left my husband at home and I had an 18-month-old. bringing my 18th month with me to sober living, taking him away from dad who is such an important factor in our home life still is, thank goodness, but thinking about that and what's outside the box type of thinking and how can we improve families. Um, one summer day I was sitting outside fellowship home. and I work on a laptop and adjacent from us is Gabby's children playing. Um, Gabby is an alumni, a graduate of our program and I'm thinking about her and what would have made life a little bit easier and I'm thinking about myself and what would make life a little bit easier. and this vision came to fruit and I took it to the West Virginia First Foundation and they gave us a grant um to get this program started um and thinking about what I would come here and ask. I do want you to know that coming here um feels like a holiday in a strange way because I get to see people that I don't see all year and it feels homey to me um to be in in this meeting with you guys. I don't know why. You're very welcoming. I've had not so welcoming interactions um with previous um but I'm mending those relationships right now with our own city very slowly but surely inviting some in and having parties and trying to um get everybody on board. Um we are the good guys in this field. We are tried and true. Um and I take a lot of pride in that. Um the fellowship home is bigger than anybody who runs it and that's very important to me. Um I was raised in this neighborhood that we are expanding into and um I feel it's my personal responsibility to come back and

help it heal as I would have loved that opportunity as an adult and um as a kid too. I would have loved my parents to have had that ability and I don't know if they would have taken it but it would have been nice if it had been there. Um so I want to um tell you that I'm asking for the same amount last year. And when I'm writing grants and thinking of things, grants don't support transportation as far as a vehicle. They'll support leasing a vehicle. Um, we need help with a vehicle. That's my mission this year is to find funding for a vehicle. Right now, we have two vans. They're six passenger. We serve up to 36 members, but we're expanding by 10. Um that's assuming if we have two kids on the bottom unit and four on the top. Um and right now we share a women's van and that's not fun. So when we really open and we've got a whole family unit coming in and well we can't help transport you because we are in court with another and the men's van is out. Um so my year is going to be getting this up and running and um trying to make uh it better. And so it's for vehicles. So, I'll be searching for other resources um to match at. I have one match already. So, we're just Yeah, that's all. I don't have anything else, but I would like you to hear from Gabby because she is a graduate and she's come back to work for us and I think that's important to show too.

Welcome, Gabby. Hi. Thank you. So, like she said, thank you for having me over here crying again. So, my name's Gabby. Um I was a resident at the Fellowship Home in 2019. It's when I started my journey there. Um, I had uh been in a relationship for four years um with the father of my youngest two daughters. I'm a mom of six. I had an open CPS case. Um it had been open for a little over a year when I became a resident at the fellowship home. Um my boyfriend, my kid's father, he uh he's what we call a normie. So he doesn't have these same issues that I struggle with. And this what was that term you use? Annor me.

Ignore me.

I don't even like it really, but he is. So, um, so, uh, my active addiction created a lot of trauma and turmoil in our relationship. Um, coming into recovery, uh, I learned a lot of things on my own. Um, but he doesn't get to work a program like I do. So, this has really been a learning process for the both of us. Um, like I said, I came in in 2019. I had an open CPS case and we couldn't work on a relationship. Like, I can say I'm sorry all I want and I can stay here and I can do the right thing for me. Um, but how do I bring you along with me if you're secluded from what's happening? If you're secluded from the growth. Um so in like I said 2019 I was there had an open CPS case while I was living at the fellowship home um I was able to regain custody of all six of my children back. So

congratulations.

Thank you. Um um at the time the fellowship home was equipped to take like one or two if that were the case but six was kind of a big deal and it happened overnight. So, um, I get the call. How many kids can you accommodate? I'm asking the house manager, "How many kids can you accommodate?" All of them, she said. Okay, great. So, by the next day, we had two sets of bunk beds, a baby bed, a crib, um, new toys, um, an ABC uh, mat where they could learn the ABCs, and a race car mat that the boys could play with their little cars on, but I haven't had them for a year and a half. Um, COVID hit and we got really good quality time together while we were quarantined. Um, I graduated there after 10 months staying there. Uh, again, the relationship with um, my kid's father was still strained, but we still wanted to work on things. Um, like I said, I'm sorry, only go so far. And I'm trying to teach him these things, but that as I'm learning, but I'm still learning, too. I'm still growing, too. So like this vision and that Brandy has started has really it means a lot to me to be because I could learn that I didn't know that there was family therapy out there that could help us. You know I didn't know about Alanon for um people that don't struggle but you know that in the relationships people that don't struggle with substance abuse or alcohol. Um, I didn't know about any of this stuff until I was out there on my own learning it. Um, there was nobody there to help guide me, to kind of hold my hand. Um, so the way that this is outlined, we get to pick another family that's in recovery that have been through these things and our current family residents will kind of partner with them and

they'll walk them through these um different resources and we'll help guide them with the different resources that we know that are available throughout our community. Um, and they get to do it as a whole family. So recovery is not just about one person, it's about the whole family. And I like that we are able to grasp on to that and um be able to offer offer that right here at home. So that's what happened. Uh Gabby. Yes. First of all, thank you for sharing your story. Yes. I appreciate that. You're welcome. And am I allowed to ask your last name so I can get it? Gregory. G R E G O R Y. Yes. Okay. Thank you.

Yeah. um we are just not taking um couples. One has to have a SUD, the other doesn't. So that is what is so new to the state is we will be able to offer services for the parent that's not just like her boyfriend who didn't have a disorder but also suffered from being away and didn't have resources and kind of like a treatment plan outline to help him too with this. Any questions? Was it was it your group? Was it last year and the year before you were having floor repairs done? Yes, that's us. How was your facility overall?

Over. Okay. So, overall, we do live in older buildings and slowly but surely are getting those really, it's just not that bad. They're they're in pretty good shape. and we get an expert here or there that comes through and says, "Hey, I can fix this for you." Um, so right now it's more about making it feel like home, not like a facility, just personal touches here and there matter. The color of the walls like psychology colors matters. And um, just warming things up as we turn the tide away from this is a facility to we're in this together. Like the other day I was holding a three-month baby, three-month old baby and doing a grant report. Um because we're so hands on there, we are so active that we're just kind of now in the works of making it feel homeier.

Um separate from your request, I would always suggest if there's situations you find yourself in, you're looking for something, you need something, reach out to me. Um, and you know, one of the great things about my office is that I can utilize it to to help uh organizations and people in need, uh, and there are many people that other organizations that ask quite often, is there any needs within our community, not just Vienna, but the community as a whole, is they're looking for ways that they want to help. Uh, so some of that stuff can be put on our radar, not necessarily that the city of Vienna would do it. Uh, I would I would very much like to be able to help resource some of those things as you go through that. Thank you so much.

Let me know. Yeah, thank you. The the worst I can say is I ain't got nothing, but it never hurts to ask. I really appreciate it. Any other questions or comments? Thank you very much. Thank you. I don't see Jill. There's no one from the chamber. No. the public library.

Hi, my name is Brena Kiggins, which feels weird because I got married a week and a half ago. So, I'm introducing myself sometimes for like the first time in front of people. I was formerly Brena Call. So, um, same person if you see it in writing. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Um, we hope.

Yes. Yeah. He's wonderful. Um, it's it's it's a blessing. So, um, I I first want to say that I'm really humbled to be in the presence of so many people that work in the community um doing wonderful things, necessary things. Um I I just I can't imagine and it feels really great to work in a community where I know that there are these agencies out there um helping helping people who need need the help the most. So I I think um some of the people that have given presentations are gone now care about people. So let me just say that um I am going to give a lot of statistics. So um hopefully there's some questions and things at the end or or maybe not. Maybe maybe I've covered it all, but the Vienna Public Library is an independent municipal library located at 2300 River Road in Vienna. It's owned by a five member board of trustees under the opices of the city board of education. The Vienna Public Library provides its own staff, finances, collections, and building. It was established in 1955, so we're having a 50-y year anniversary this year, which is exciting, by the Vienna Women's Club and it was run by volunteers until 1967 when it became an independent nonprofit corporation operate operating under ordinances of the city of Vienna article 135. The library is a designate library operating under the administrative rules of the West Virginia Library Section. That's been kind of wild since they disbanded the library commission a couple years ago and then it fell under culture um the c culture center and now we are under the board of tourism which feels a little strange for libraries but um it's a learning experience as they re um re uh organize things at the state level with any resident of West Virginia or Washington County, Ohio able who obtain a library card free of charge. Uh we

currently have 11,575 registered patrons. Um 62% of which are adults over the age of 18. Uh 9% juvenile um under the age of 18 and 29% uh seniors over the age of 60. Our budget for the fiscal year uh 2026 is approximately 600 uh $657,38. Um, and according to a state library funding law passed in 1987 requiring payment of a portion of the local property taxes to libraries in Wood County, the city of Vienna acted as a pass through for those funds which provided for operating budget. The Wood County Commission provided 85,450 13% of our budget and the Wood County Board of Education funded us 60,000 which is 9% of the budget. The state of West Virginia gives a grant in aid based on population, the amount determined by the legislature. This grant was five uh $56,57 which accounts for about 9% of our budget. The remainder of our funds, 4% of the total budget, come from library funds and fees, donations and memorial gifts, local grants, and the friends of the library fundraising efforts. We do have an active Friends of the Library group that holds two used book sales each year, as well as other fundraisers donating all proceeds to the library. With the funding that we receive, we're able to maintain an adequately paid and appropriately qualified staff of seven full-time and five part-time employees. We provide books for uh for patrons of all ages from board books to large type materials, ebooks, and digital audio books, uh DVDs, video games, music CDs, and audio books on CD. We currently own a materials collection of approximately 45,000 items. uh most of those being books. Um but we also have all the other items like DVDs. We have some non-traditional items um such as birding backpacks that people can check out to and take to local parks to um explore birding in the area or other wildlife

watching in the area. We have baking um materials, some tools. Uh we we have we're expanding on the non-traditional items um at our library at this time. So there look look look for new and exciting opportunities to borrow things other than the traditional items from the library. The original library was built in 1975. The library board did an expansion fund drive beginning in 2003 with the expansion being completed in 2006. This expansion added 46,000 square feet feet to make the library just over 11,000 square feet in size providing adequate space for community meetings and comfortable patron engagement. With the funding that we received, we are able to buy furniture and equipment, providing eight computers with internet access for the public to use and public Wi-Fi that's available inside or outside of the building 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Um, last year we had almost 6,000 loginins to our patron computers and Wi-Fi um that was recorded in the previous year. We saw nearly 42,000 people coming into our building last year. Many of whom visit us for personal business services such as computer use and help with faxes, copies, notoriization of documents, lamination services. Some people come in looking for prosay forms. Um since the closure of some of the office stores downtown, um we see a lot more business personal business um services being offered. Uh patrons also have access to color and black and white printers and photocopers. have a large meeting room equipped with a laptop, digital projector, and TVDB combo open to use by nonprofit groups. It's occupied uh about 20 times per month on average to the public and community groups um meeting in our library. We strive to provide the highest quality story hours and edutainment programming employing early literacy techniques scientifically known to prepare young brains for later learning once they arrive at school. 1,347 Wood County children attended story hours, programs, and school tours in the last year at the library. We also work hard each summer to welcome children and their families to the

library to engage in entertaining educational programming and reading challenges to help mitigate the effects of summer learning loss that happen while children are on summer break away from the classroom. We were able to engage with 302 participants last summer during our annual summer reading challenge, which takes place every week in June and July each summer. Because the most effective influence determining if a child will become a reader is that of seeing their caregivers as readers. We also offer classes and lectures for adults with over a thousand in attendance last year as well as encouraging family literacy by offering adult summer reading challenges as well. The funds we receive allow us to offer up to four programs a week, one for each age group during the summer. A total of 6,238 hours were read and recorded by our summer reading participants over June and July in 2025. The mission of the Vienna Public Library is to improve the quality of life for all citizens of our community by providing in the most efficient manner possible resources that enhance and contribute to individual knowledge, enlightenment, and enjoyment. In an effort to utilize our funds most effect efficiently, the library board has a finance committee to help the board with long-term planning regarding finances, investments, and savings. The board is grateful for the city of Vienna's continued support of the Vienna Public Library and it's respectful of the money that is granted to us by local property taxes coming in through the city of Vienna. We take the utmost care to always spend those funds wisely and we thank the city council members for their continued support. So, so we are a little bit different because um the city of Vienna is a pass through for that that state money that comes through. Um, it's uh funded locally through the through through property taxes. Um, so we're not really asking for a set amount. It's just the amount that that is determined by that law in the legislature.

Does anybody have any questions? Yes, I do. Do you spell your last name? Yes. K I G G A Ns. Okay. And that's Br. Okay. Thank you. As I said recently, I learned that you guys had the mobile uh

Yes, we have the novel branch um which the last three years we have had novel branch is a is a book vending machine um that you use your library card to check out books that holds about 140 items. Um it has currently been living at the Grand Central Mall. Um but that location really isn't working for us as well as we would have liked. Um and and so I met with Mayor Emer um a couple weeks ago um just to see if there was another better location we could partner with the city and he suggested that um a poss a possible partnership with WBUP's um innovation center.

So um that's very exciting. So we're it's we're at the very beginning stages of moving that machine um uh to a different location that might serve um some patrons better. and and I appreciate that suggestion from Mary Rick. And that will that's going to be located in the dorm area. Awesome. That's awesome. Yes. Any other questions? Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Oh, let me just say I we just partnered with the Boys and Girls Club and your teens came to our teen program today and I am so excited by that partnership. I am hoping that we can partner more on a regular basis. Your kids work great. Isaiah's wonderful and so excited. So boys of the Boys and Girls Club. Yes. Yes, we are. Thank you guys. Thank you. Uh do we have anybody from the Triple W? Nope.

All right. That concludes the presentations that we have. Do we have any council member that has any reports, standing boards, or committee updates? Any council comments or announcements? You want to talk about the skate party this week? There's a skate party that'll be going on skate country. Yeah. Next Saturday.

That's right. No, appreciate you bringing that up. So, uh, actually this Saturday, the 21st, the Wood County Prevention Coalition is hosting a skating party over, um, on Southside Skate Country. Uh, it starts at 5:00 p.m., goes until 700 p.m. Um, completely free for all school age kids. We're encouraging people to get registered online. I think last I heard, my wife said there was something like 250 There's today one I talked to was like three or 400.

There's a lot of there's a lot of kids coming out to have some uh free food and free skating and we're going to have a good time. So, uh if you're interested, if Boys and Girls Club would like to bring some kids, uh check out um I think the there's a flyer on Facebook. You can get on the Wood County um Wood County Prevention Coalition's website. There's uh signups and stuff. Everything's online, so check it out. Yeah, it's Saturday. this Saturday, uh, 5:00 p. p.m. to 7:00 p.m. registration still open. I think we can hold 700 there before starting people out. So, awesome. Thank you for reminding me there. You're very welcome,

Henry. The state of West Virginia is holding it high swim championships at Park today and tomorrow. So, they have three limbs in the morning, finals in the afternoon. So, we got a lot of good kids on there. Anyone else? There are no other comments. This meeting stands ajourned.