Marco

ELKINS — Despite working through some unexpected challenges in 2024, Elkins Mayor Jerry Marco is excited about prospects for the upcoming year.

“I’m very proud of our city council and our employees for their work they did throughout the past year,” Marco told The Inter-Mountain. “We are bringing businesses in and we are making some tough decisions moving forward. Council had to deal with some things like they never had to deal with before, such as City Hall shutting down, but we are making progress everyday.”

The historic building was shut down after a sewage overflow incident on Aug. 31. The building’s basement and first floor, including the Elkins Police Department, suffered extreme damage as a result of the flooding.

“It’s a 108-year-old building and things wear out and happen,” Marco said. “I’m not happy that it happened, but we are taking this opportunity to make some modifications to it to make it better than it actually was to begin with. When you’re given lemons, make lemonade, and that’s what we are trying to do. We want to stay positive and we hope the citizens will continue to be patient during this time.”

The 2024 Mountain State Forest Festival drew a great turnout and ran very smoothly, Marco said.

“We had a huge crowd for the Forest Festival this year and the great weather had a lot to do with that,” Marco said. “It’s a big event for our city and I’m glad we had a lot of visitors come out to this year’s event. I’m also happy that our police officers didn’t have as many calls as they normally do that week. Overall, it was a great event this year.”

Looking ahead, Marco mentioned the opening of the Elkins Corridor H Medical Center, which will be located at the former Teter Motors property on North Randolph Avenue/U.S. Route 219, next to the Division of Motor Vehicles building. The facility, which will be affiliated with the WVU Medicine United Hospital Center, is projected to be completed in the summer or early fall.

“The new hospital is going to be an asset and it will complement the hospital we already have,” Marco said. “I think competition is a good thing and the new facility will fill some voids that we have.”

Marco also mentioned the city’s Task Force on Homelessness and Addiction, saying. “I’m looking forward to the progress they are making. We have some great relationships there with our local partners and we have our new Schools Superintendent (Dr. Shawn Dilly) on board with him putting a Game Changer program in the schools.”

Marco added that he is also excited to see work begin on the new Event Center in 2025. Construction is expected to begin on the 28,000 square foot, $11.6 million facility in January. The facility will be located in proximity to the Elkins Railyard Depot behind the Rotary Amphitheatre. 

“The Event Center is going to be great not only for the people in Elkins, but for the people visiting,” Marco said. “We can host some bigger events there like we haven’t been able to do in the past. It’s going to be a big plus for our community.”

Marco said plans are also moving forward on the construction of the new Davis Avenue Bridge.

“The Department of Highways recently put the proposal out for the bridge and we are hopeful to hear back from them soon so we can see how many people are bidding on it,” Marco said. “We will then be looking into starting the design phase of that bridge, which is going to be a challenge for us because that bridge is a major artery going through our city…

“Hopefully we will be able to re-route traffic with as few delays as possible for our citizens… But at the end of the day we will have a brand-new bridge in place that will be around for a long time.”

Marco said he will continue to work as hard as he can for the City of Elkins to make it a better place for residents to live.

“I’m talking to different businesses all the time, trying to bring them in, trying to get them to invest in our community,” Marco said. “There’s a lot of good things on the horizon.”