photo by: Eric Ayres

Waller Corporation of Washington, Pa., is wrapping up the renovation of the former medical facility at 2115 Chapline St., which will soon become home to the new Wheeling Police Department Headquarters.

WHEELING — Construction of the new Wheeling Police Department Headquarters is nearly complete, but the last few components needed to wrap up the $6.5 million project will likely push the official opening date into the new year.

Ground was broken on the new police headquarters in September of last year after the city awarded the contract to the low bidder, Waller Corporation of Washington, Pennsylvania. The new police station is being retrofitted into an existing building on the site of the former Ohio Valley Medical Center, which the city acquired after the hospital closed its doors for good. Nearly 30,000 square feet of space in the former medical facility has been transformed into a modern and much more spacious police headquarters since construction began.

Originally, the opening date was expected to be about a year later – at the end of September this year. However, city leaders noted that supply chain issues had contributed to delays in the project’s progress, and the expected completion date was pushed back until late November, and then December.

This month, some of the supply chain issues still remain, but Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron reported to city leaders that the long wait is coming to an end, and the true completion date is coming more clearly into focus.

Unfortunately, the opening of the new police headquarters is not expected to occur before the end of the year as officials had hoped, but city leaders are anticipating a grand opening not too long after the beginning of the new year.

“The police headquarters project is moving along slowly but surely,” Herron said.

“We did receive a little bit of good news – initially, the last report was that the interior doors would not be delivered until sometime in January or February, but that’s been moved up to the end of December. So when the doors do come in, the building will be ready to be occupied.”

Herron noted that the interior doors have been one of the key supply-chain snags for a number of months. Components to the building’s new heating, ventilation and air conditioning or HVAC system have also contributed to delays, he noted.

“Doors are still on schedule for delivery on the site by the end of the month, and it will take some time to install them once they arrive,” he said. “An HVAC control panel was scheduled to be done this week. Assuming the doors arrive, we are looking at some time in January.”

The police department for decades has operated out of limited space inside the City-County Building at 1500 Chapline St. in the city’s downtown area. Since 1959, the police have utilized the 4,500-square-foot space that has no women’s restrooms, no sally port, no lunch rooms, no meeting rooms to accommodate more than four people, a small and insufficient evidence room and other limitations because of the lack of space.

Officials noted that the upgrade, made possible through money generated by the city’s new user fee or city service fee, is long overdue and much needed. City leaders noted that once the contractor is out of the facility and it is ready for occupancy, the officers will be happy to finally move into the new home base.

“The police department is ready to move – which will also take a couple of weeks – as soon as we get the finished building turned over to us,” Herron said. “We have a progress meeting scheduled for next week, which is when formal updates are discussed.”

As part of the project, the new headquarters at 2115 Chapline St. in Center Wheeling will have a large evidence unit, a sally port and rooms for civilian staff such as victims advocates, a large training room and other meeting spaces, work spaces for the police department’s investigations unit and other divisions, administrative offices, a locker room and fitness center, and a new glass lobby highlighted by elements of the Wheeling Police Department’s history.

“We will obviously have a dedication ceremony as well as hopefully a public event so folks can come in and take a look at this wonderful facility,” Herron said. “It’s going to serve the police department very well for many, many years to come.”