WHEELING – The speaker at the meeting of the Ohio County Master Gardeners on Tuesday, June 9, will be Gabe Hays, landscape architect with The Mannik and Smith Group (MSG).

In 1997 he started Hays Landscape Architecture Studio in Belmont County, a business which he sold to Wallace Pancher Group in 2016. The business sold again to MSG in 2024.

The Ohio County Master Gardeners meeting will be held 6:30 p.m. at Vance Memorial Church, 905 National Road. Hays will talk about landscape architecture, local projects and bioswales with questions welcomed.

Hays began his work in Wheeling in 1998 by working with officials at Oglebay and Wheeling Park regarding facility improvements. His other projects include work at Wheeling’s Heritage Port and other venues throughout the Upper Ohio Valley.

In 2004-05, Hays worked on the final phase of the Heritage Port project, which included new restrooms and adjustments to the Heritage Trail along the Ohio River. Initial renovations to Wheeling’s Market Plaza followed.

In 2015, Hays worked to design the site for the new headquarters of The Health Plan then designed the new entry signs, green space and parking lots for West Virginia Northern Community College.

From 2017 through 2021 his most significant venture in Wheeling was the multi-million-dollar Streetscape project for the downtown. Starting in 2023, Wallace Pancer Group and MSG were two of the 19 planners selected by the Ohio Department of Development and assigned community projects to design throughout the 32 Appalachian counties of Ohio in preparation of the Appalachian Community Grant Program grant. Hays’ projects brought in over $20 million in grant monies from several sources. Construction on those projects, which include the Adena Streetscape in Jefferson County and Appalachian Ecotone in Monroe County, will be completed this fall.

For more information regarding the Master Gardener Program, contact the Ohio County Extension Office by emailing OhioCountyExtension@mail.wvu.edu, by calling 304-234-3673 or by visiting online at https://extension.wvu.edu/lawn-gardening-pests/master-gardener-program.