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WHEELING -- City officials are excited and optimistic about a proposed location for the Wheeling Fire Department's new headquarters, which is expected to be built from the ground up in the coming months.
Wheeling City Council will likely cast a final vote next Tuesday to approve an option agreement to purchase several land parcels along 17th Street near Wood Street in East Wheeling from Gregory R. Gantzer of A.E. Pelley Plumbing and Heating.
City leaders noted that work has been ongoing for years to bring a new fire department headquarters to the city. Officials said it was great to finally narrow down to a centrally located site ideal for construction of a new central station, an expected 26,000-square-foot facility.
"Everyone at the Wheeling Fire Department is excited to be moving forward with this much-needed project," Fire Chief Larry Helms said, noting that this step in the process comes after years of discussion and thoughtful consideration. "The location being chosen is a large enough footprint to meet the needs of the fire department, has nearby access to U.S. 250, Interstate 70 and Interstate 470, and is somewhat centrally located to be within a reasonable response time for service."
The current fire department headquarters is in the lower level of the Center Wheeling Parking Garage. Once a new headquarters is built and operational, the current facility will likely be used for storage by both the city fire and police departments.
Construction of the new headquarters -- as well as the renovation of the Valley Professional Center on the former campus of Ohio Valley Medical Center to create a new police headquarters -- is being funded through the new city service fee, or user fee, implemented last year. People working within the city limits are charged $2 per week as a user fee.
"This project has really been a long time coming, going back to the prior city council -- really going back to when the prior city council was first elected," Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott said. "We all accepted invitations from Chief Helms and (Police) Chief (Shawn) Schwertfeger to view the police and fire facilities at that time."
With the exception of Councilman Dave Palmer -- who in the past had worked for both the city fire and police departments, the tours in 2016 likely were the first time Elliott and most of the other new council members at that time got a first-hand view of the state of those two vital city departments. After seeing those cramped and outdated posts, city leaders have been working to create new police and fire headquarters with up-to-date facilities, adequate space and modern accommodations.
"It really created a strong impetus on our end to solve that and get the new facilities," Elliott said. "Of course, it was a long and winding road to get to where we are today, but I think the good news is we originally proposed a Public Safety Building that was going to be around $20 million, and now we have two separate facilities with a cost of maybe a little bit more than half of that."
The proposed purchase price for the parcels on 17th Street is $250,000, and the preliminary cost of construction of the new fire station is estimated to be around $6.4 million. M&G Architects have already begun planning for the new facility and its needs while site selection is being finalized.
Assuming council approves the purchase of the 17th Street property, Elliott noted this will be yet another important addition to this growing section of East Wheeling.
The city had looked at the former warehouse complex on 19th Street as a potential location for the Public Safety Building when the plan was still to house the police and fire headquarters in the same facility. With OVMC eyed for the police station, city leaders still moved ahead with the purchase of the 19th Street property to clean it up with the help of state funding, clear the site and market it to the private sector.
According to Elliott, the 19th Street property is larger than what is needed for the fire department headquarters and is better suited for private development.
"Because it's nearly a 4-acre parcel of flat land located very close to downtown Wheeling, we have seen some interest in the private sector in that property," the mayor said.
Plenty of work has been done to reach this point in the process of getting the new fire department headquarters ready for construction, Elliott said.
"Those were two important needs that were identified years ago, and it's taken a while for us to get there," Elliott said of the new fire and police headquarters. "I can't wait to see ribbon cuttings for these two facilities. It's going to be a nice testament to the city."