19th Street Demolition on Wheeling City Council Agenda
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WHEELING -- City council will soon decide whether to spend nearly half a million dollars to knock down the former warehouses on 19th Street.
The first reading of the ordinance authorizing that move will come at the council's first meeting of March at noon Tuesday. That also will be the first meeting in months held in person at the City-County Building on Chapline Street. The COVID-19 pandemic sent prior meetings to the virtual realm, as health and safety concerns prompted city officials to conduct business online.
With local COVID numbers trending downward, city officials have said business would likely soon return to in-person meetings once health officials deemed it safe to do so.
The new legislation being introduced Tuesday authorizes City Manager Robert Herron to spend $449,888 with Reclaim Co. of Fairmont for asbestos abatement and demolition of 58-19th St. in Wheeling. The city bought that industrial site of dilapidated warehouse structures last year for $150,000.
City leaders plan to clean up the site and remove the old buildings there, which have been considered an eyesore that greet travelers entering Wheeling's downtown from the south via W.Va. 2. Once cleared, the property would then be marketed back to the private sector for potential commercial use in a growing part of the city.
According to the new ordinance, Reclaim Co. submitted the lowest bid for the asbestos removal and demolition work. Other bids were received for $674,999.50 from LM&R Excavating and $725,000 from Raze International.
The city applied for funding assistance for the project through the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection's Brownfield Revolving Loan Fund, seeking to participate in a voluntary environmental cleanup at the site. Confidence that the city could secure this funding was viewed as somewhat of a selling point for the city to acquire the property.
Herron said last week that the city's application was just submitted on Thursday.
"It reflects these bid costs, plus previously determined remediation costs," Herron noted.
Other legislation set to be introduced Tuesday include a proposed lane abandonment between 19th Street and Lane 16 to accommodate Northwood Health System's ongoing expansion of its facility to offer behavioral health services there.
Also slated for first reading Tuesday is an ordinance authorizing the expenditure of $22,767 with Stephens Auto Center of Danville to buy a new Dodge pickup truck for the city's Water Pollution Control Division.