The population of Wellsburg has been declining since the 1930's. Older residents, and hard economic times had Wellsburg city officials looking for ideas.

So they turned to West Virginia University.

"We wanted to get an outside view of the city of Wellsburg," Norm Schwertfeger, a WVU Extension agent, said. "Strengths and weaknesses and how they might be able to moblize on the strengths."

A community design team selected Wellsburg out of all of the other city's in the state. They spent three days studying the area to come up with ideas to help economic development.

"The community design team came up with some recommendations of the city of Wellsburg on this," Schwertfeger said. "They talked about developing a niche market in downtown."

Devolping something you can't find anywhere else in the city was one idea, others were building a wharf area to beautify the city. More lodging, and focusing on the historic side of the riverfront city were also recommended.

The community development team even suggesting moving WVDOT to free up prime real estate

"I think Wellsburg has a lot of history, it's the second oldest settlement on the ohio river," Carol Churchman, a Wellsburg resident, said.

Of course projects like these cost money. The city may turn to the state and federal government to get grants to fund the projects. Resident's say, they're needed.

"If you don't do something, if you don't have something in the works, your dead," John Ford, an area resident said.