City Moving on Center Wheeling Parking Garage Demolition
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WHEELING -- Officials in the city of Wheeling are moving forward with demolishing the Center Wheeling Parking Garage.
A new ordinance is scheduled to be introduced during tonight's meeting of Wheeling City Council, authorizing City Manager Robert Herron to spend approximately $115,000 with M&G Architects & Engineers of Wheeling for engineering services associated with the demolition of the garage.
Funds from the city's 2022 Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Bond are expected to be used for the project.
The garage is located adjacent to the new Wheeling Police Department Headquarters on Chapline Street across the street from the main campus of the former Ohio Valley Medical Center.
There have been structural concerns in the decades-old parking structure to the point where the facility was closed to the public in April of 2022.
Plans for the renovation of the Valley Professional Building on the former OVMC campus for the new police headquarters were originally developed with the adjacent parking garage in mind. The new home base for the Wheeling Police Department has doors and access points to upper levels of the garage, and a sally port had been designed for an area in the rear of the structure.
However, much has developed since renovations took place on the police headquarters. It was announced last year that WVU Medicine plans to build a new state-of-the-art regional cancer center on the former OVMC site, where the majority of the existing buildings will be razed and removed. The Center Wheeling Parking Garage is expected to be razed after the Wheeling Fire Department headquarters moves out of the lower level of the garage and into its new $9 million headquarters being constructed on 17th Street in East Wheeling. Construction of the new fire headquarters is expected to continue through the end of the year.
Early cost estimates for the parking garage demolition were in the range of $2 million to 2.5 million.
Wheeling City Council is scheduled to meet tonight at 5:30 p.m. in the City-County Building in Chapline Street downtown. Prior to the regular council meeting, members of the Finance Committee of Council are scheduled to meet at 5:15 p.m. to review the city's April 2023 financial statement and any other business deemed necessary.
Also on the regular council agenda tonight, new legislation is slated for a first reading on the creation of a new steel archway for Heritage Port. An ordinance is scheduled to be introduced authorizing the city manager to spend $79,000 with Cattrell Companies Inc. of Toronto, Ohio, for a new archway to be installed at the end of 12th Street at Heritage Port.
"It will be a custom sign at the top of the steps at Heritage Port," Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott explained, noting that city officials have been working on efforts to have a sign designating the downtown destination - which currently has no official marking with its name on it. Elliott said city leaders had asked for quotes on a decorative metal sign suspended in an archway anchored by a brick foundation.
Another new ordinance set to be introduced tonight will authorize the city manager to spend $26,000 with CT Consultants of Mentor, Ohio, for professional engineering services for the Clator, 36th Street and Elm Terrace Playgrounds. Cost of the work will be charged to the city's American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Second readings and final votes on a number of ordinances are also scheduled to take place this evening. Council is expected to vote on a $405,600 contract with O'Brien's Rent All & Sales Inc. of Wheeling for a 23rd Street Storm Sewer Reconstruction project to be charged to the Water Pollution Control Bond Fund.