(Photo by Shelley Hanson) Work on the new Robrecht Park, shown here on Thursday, is underway behind Main Street Bank in Wheeling. The park will also be home to the restored OVGH letters.

WHEELING – Site preparation for the future home of the big old Ohio Valley General Hospital letters is underway in Wheeling.

Mary McKinley, an Ohio Valley General Hospital History Group member and former OVMC nurse administrator, said work on Robrecht Park, located behind Main Street Bank along Heritage Trail, is coming along. The new city park will also be home to the letters that once adorned a tower on the former OVGH building. The original OVGH was later renamed Ohio Valley Medical Center, but the historic letters, which were lit at night with neon, remained on the building.

After McKinley and other former employees learned OVMC was going to be torn down to make way for the new WVU Cancer Institute St. Joseph Regional Cancer Complex, they decided to keep as many artifacts as possible from the old hospital, including the letters that stand about 6 feet tall and 6 feet wide.

Work to restore the letters and relight them is being undertaken by students at Wheeling Park High School. Once the site is ready the letters, when also ready, will be erected in the park.

“The city has been very generous and supportive,” McKinley said Thursday. “Apparently, there were some EPA restrictions on the dirt, so they’re getting that cleaned up.”

She added the same company doing the dirt removal is also doing the ground work for the park.

“That means they’re even going to help set the foundation for the letters,” she said. “We’re very excited about it. It shows the progress of our goal of getting those letters up and lit.”

McKinley said there is no concrete timeline yet for when the project will be completed.

“It’s all pretty exciting stuff. It’s been fun to see all the support from the community, the city and the library, all come together to make this happen. It’s really a community effort,” she said.

The speed at which people were willing to help with the project reflects on the hospital and its legacy, she believes.

“It’s an institution that meant a lot to a lot of people,” McKinley said. “It shows the caring and love people had for the old hospital.”

She added the new park itself is going to be a nice addition to the city of Wheeling’s recreational offerings.