sept-2017

200 201 WEIRTON, WEIRTON, WEST VIRGINIA SUCCESS IN UNITY WEST VIRGINIA I ncorporated in 1947,Weirton’s roots date all the way back to the mid-1700s; to a fron- tier settlement in a valley where Harmon Creek empties into the Ohio River, one of the country’s most navigable waterways.Weirton is divided between Brooke and Hancock Counties and is the only city in the United States that sits in one state while its borders touch two others. Travis L. Blosser has been Weirton’s City Manager for two years, and works closely with the Mayor who was newly elected in 2015. Blosser reports, “The city was built around Weirton Steel, one of the largest producers in the country with about 13,000 employees in its heyday.We still finish a lot of steel here for different industries, but we don’t produce it anymore.When I started as City Manager, one of the things we immediately had to focus on TRAVIS BLOSSER AT A GLANCE WEIRTON, WEST VIRGINIA WHAT: Former steel city in the midst of reinvention; population 19,700 WHERE: Located in Brook and Hancock Counties, northern West Virginia WEBSITE: www.cityofweirton.co