Wheeling City Council Eyes New, $6.4 Million Fire Department Headquarters
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WHEELING -- City officials are looking at options for the location of a new Wheeling Fire Department headquarters, and a new ordinance being introduced at tonight's city council meeting will initiate action to purchase a city block's worth of property on 17th Street for that purpose.
The legislation will authorize Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron to carry out the terms of an option agreement for several parcels of property located at the intersection of 17th and Wood streets. The street addresses of the parcels included 164-188 17th Street.
According to the ordinance, the option agreement for the property purchase will be between the city and Gregory R. Gantzer of A.E. Pelley Plumbing and Heating.
"We've been looking at property within this geographical area," Herron said on Monday, noting that the 17th Street property is ideal for a new central fire station. "The size of this property is perfect for our needs, there's one owner, there's easy access in all directions, and it backs up to a state right of way.
"It's a very good location for a fire department headquarters."
Herron said the site has a decent elevation and available space for parking as well. Purchase price of the property would be $250,000, with an estimated cost of construction at around $6.4 million, although Herron said the figures are very preliminary.
"It is still within budget as originally planned, and it's still less expensive than the original Public Safety Building," he said, noting that estimates for a newly constructed, combined fire and police Public Safety Building had totaled $14.5 million.
Wheeling City Council had previously hired M&G Architects to do the initial design work for both the fire department headquarters and the new police department headquarters. The new police headquarters will be housed in the Valley Professional Building on the former Ohio Valley Medical Center campus. However, the preliminary planning for the fire department headquarters had gotten underway over the past several months without a specific location nailed down.
"We've got a footprint and an elevation," Herron said, "but we've done architectural design and specifications for it yet."
If the city moves forward with plans to build the new fire department headquarters on 17th Street, the new building would likely be a 26,000-square-foot, single-story structure. A.E. Pelley Plumbing and Heating would relocate its business, officials indicated.
City leaders had considered using sites on the former OVMC campus for its fire department headquarters, Herron said. A parking lot behind the former Robert C. Byrd Child & Adolescent Behavioral Health Center was eyed, but that was one building on the OVMC campus that was not sold to the city by the former owners, who wanted to keep the parking lot with the Byrd building. Herron said city leaders had also considered the former Nurses Residence building on the OVMC campus.
"That was cost prohibitive," he said, noting that the cost to demolish that structure, combined with elevation issues at that site, did not make it a logical choice.
Last year, the city implemented its $2 per week municipal service fee or user fee to people who work within the city limits. The fee was intended to generate money for the construction of a new Public Safety Building to house a new headquarters for the city's police and fire departments. From every $2 per week collected from the user fee, $1 was to be directed toward the Public Safety Building and the other $1 was to generate funds for various infrastructure projects.
While city leaders were exploring options for a new combined Public Safety Building, they were offered the opportunity to take ownership of buildings on the OVMC campus, which led to the decision to plan separate fire and police locations.
"Specs for the renovation for the Valley Professional Center are 95% complete," Herron said of the new police headquarters site. "Our goal is to have those completed by May 17. If city council approves acquisition of this property (on 17th Street), it should only be four or five months before bid specifications are developed."
Herron noted that a lot of groundwork on the plans for the fire station have already been done.
If the new fire house is constructed on 17th Street, the existing fire department headquarters in the lower level of the Center Wheeling Parking Garage would likely be used for police and fire storage, Herron indicated.
Wheeling City Council will meet in person at 5:30 p.m. today in council chambers at the City-County Building on Chapline Street. The Public Safety Committee of Council is expected to meet beforehand beginning at 5 p.m. to discuss a Rental Inspection Program.