File Photo by Eric Ayres A nearly half-million-dollar project to remove asbestos from the former Clay School Building in East Wheeling was recently completed. The city is expected to put a project to de

WHEELING — The project to remove asbestos from the sprawling former Clay School building in East Wheeling has been completed, and work to demolish the structure is scheduled to go out to bid as early as next week.

Work began around the end of August to remove asbestos from the 75,000-square-foot building that for many years has sat vacant along 15th Street above the J.B. Chambers Memorial Recreation complex football field. In June, Wheeling City Council awarded a contract to Reclaim Company LLC of Fairmont, W.Va., for the abatement work.

A $500,000 Brownfields grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was secured for the asbestos abatement. However, some of these funds were previously spent on consulting services to provide specifications for the contract.

Ultimately, the city kicked in $123,624 from its Restricted Capital Improvement Project (RCIP) fund, and the remainder of the cost for the work was covered by the EPA grant. The winning bid for the contract was in the amount of $498,000, and there were no change orders, officials noted.

“That work is complete,” Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron recently reported to members of city council.

“The asbestos abatement did come in at budget. There were no change orders associated with it, so that project went very well.”

Herron noted that council also hired an engineering firm to evaluate the demolition specifications for the building, including the rear wall of the structure which serves as a retaining wall for the hillside behind the former school. Several residences in the neighborhood are situated behind the school on this hillside.

“I’m happy to report that that engineering report came back, and that wall will be sufficient to serve as a retaining wall in the event that we are able to develop that site,” Herron said. “So that’s good news. That reduces the expense of developing the site dramatically. But we are now ready to bid out the demolition of the Clay School.”

The city remains eligible for potential funding for the demolition work through the West Virginia D-LAP (Reclamation of Abandoned and Dilapidated Properties) grant.

“They’re working through their various funding sources, but we’re confident that we will be awarded a D-LAP grant for this demolition,” Herron said. “It is not finalized yet, but we are confident.

“The demolition is scheduled to be bid the first of December. So that project is moving along nicely.”

The Clay School first opened its doors more than 80 years ago and operated for decades as part of the city of Wheeling’s public school system. Doors to the school in East Wheeling were permanently closed in the 1990s. There were several attempts by private investors to repurpose the massive building, but no ventures to redevelop the property ever came to fruition.

Wheeling City Council assumed ownership of the property in December of 2021. A consultant was hired to perform a comprehensive study into possible future uses of the site, weighing input from people in the community.

Eventually, city leaders agreed that the most prudent path forward for the property would be to demolish the building and seek funds to eventually build a new indoor recreation facility there.