PRINCETON, W.Va. — Princeton was among six West Virginia municipalities to receive home-rule status Monday from the state Municipal Home Rule Board.
The city of Princeton will now join the 20 municipalities that have already been granted home-rule status, according to a statement released Monday by the home-rule board. The other cities included Beckley, Grafton, and St. Albans. Applications from Oak Hill and Moundsville were approved with amendments.
“Well, Hallelujah,” Mayor Tim Ealy said when hearing the news. “That is great. We’ve been looking forward to this for a long time.”
City Manager Elke Doom informed the council about the city’s new designation. She spoke Monday with the home-rule board in Charleston about Princeton’s plan and was soon told Princeton would be one of the new home-rule cities.
“We were highly praised and complimented by a member of the Associated Press. I did not catch his name,” Doom said. “A lot of the communities have put together their packets and how they published the minutes and how they published the hearings, and he suggested it would be wise to follow the city of Princeton’s lead.”
Princeton was praised for the “clarity” and “transparency” of its home rule proposal, she said. Some cities want to publish their legal notices and other notices online with their websites, but the law still requires such notices to be published in newspapers…
