photo by: Eric Ayres

Renovations continue at the City-County Building on Chapline Street in Wheeling. The $12 million project will soon impact offices and meeting space on the building’s ground floor.

WHEELING — Ongoing construction at the City-County Building will soon make its way down to occupied areas of the first floor, which are expected to be temporarily relocated through the end of the year.

The $12 million renovation project has been taking place space-by-space and floor-by-floor since last year. The Ohio County project is updating the facility’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems throughout the building.

Work is also being done to configure some of the workspaces in the facility, and some new lighting, new ceilings and masonry improvements have also been part of the upgrades.

Catrell Companies of Toronto was hired by the county to serve as the general contractor on the project, which entails replacement of the boiler system and chiller system on the roof of the building with a water-source heat pump system. The more efficient HVAC upgrades will include each office having its own zoned heating and cooling controls.

City of Wheeling officials are currently bracing for another temporary move as the construction will soon be in full swing on the first floor, where municipal departments are located.

“It could occur as early as mid-October, in which case the Finance Department and the Water Department will be relocated to the first floor former police department area where the city administrative offices were for several months,” City Manager Robert Herron said.

Earlier this year, a number of city offices in the building had to be relocated when renovations were made to the third floor. The City Manager’s Office, Human Resources Office, Community Development and Planning Department, Building and Zoning, Engineering, Legal Department and City Clerk’s Office were among the city’s third-floor tenants that were temporarily displaced during the renovation.

Both city and county offices that are temporarily located when the construction reaches any given floor have been able to utilize “swing space” in the building, which include the former Wheeling Police Department space on the first floor and the former law library on the fourth floor.

When construction reaches the bulk of the first floor, City Council Chambers will have to be temporarily relocated, as well.

“City Council Chambers will be closed, and city council meetings will be held on either the second or the fifth floor courtroom,” Herron noted, noting that a similar temporary move occurred recently when the chambers underwent its most recent remodel.

“When this room was being renovated into a council chambers, council at the time did meet in those courtrooms, and it went fine,” Herron noted. “We’re anticipating mid-October, but based on construction and how things go, and how this project has gone thus far, it could be anywhere from mid-October to sometime in December.”

This summer, Ohio County offices located on the second floor of the City-County Building were able to move back into renovated space after temporarily relocating to the former police department and law library space.

City and county employees have made note of the daunting task of relocating offices during the necessary process, which involves temporarily moving computers, paperwork, filing cabinets, furniture and other items while continuing to operate and keeping things organized.

Herron noted that when city offices on the first floor are moved, the temporary relocation may be for an extended period of time.

“At some point in time, this room (council chambers) will be closed, and the Finance Department and Water Department will be relocated,” he said. The Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department offices are also expected to be temporarily moved. “We do anticipate that relocation and closure will last three to five months. The good news is that the former police department area is completed. The Finance Department and Water Department will be moving into an area that is not under construction and has been completed, so that is something to look forward to.”

The city of Wheeling leases space for municipal offices from Ohio County, which owns and operates the City-County Building. In order to contribute to the costs associated with the major renovation project, the city in 2022 approved terms of a revised lease with the county.

“There was a revised lease right before the project started that includes our normal, pre-project lease, and then 40 percent of the annual debt service on the project,” Herron explained. “It is a 60-40 split.”

The city’s previous lease amount for space at the City-County Building was $192,496 annually.