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For decades, the letters "OVGH" lit up Center Wheeling's night sky, a welcoming sign to the community and also those working at the former Ohio Valley General Hospital to the good work being done there.
Ohio Valley General Hospital and its successor, the Ohio Valley Medical Center, are no more, though. The once-bright neon letters atop the hospital's smokestack have for years now been dark.
WVU Medicine is acquiring the hospital property from the city of Wheeling to construct an $80 million cancer center there. Demolition of the hospital campus is set to begin this summer, and now a group of former OVMC employees is asking WVU Medicine to both preserve and showcase the letters at the new complex.
"We're trying to see what we can do, to see if we can convince someone it needs to stay up there," Peggy Porter, a former OVMC nurse, said. "I was thinking along the lines of the saved pillar from Wheeling High School, beside the new Wheeling Police Department.
"... We want something there with the letters to show how it was an important part of Wheeling, of growing Wheeling and life in Wheeling for so long."
Showcasing the letters at the new cancer center is a big favor to ask of WVU Medicine. Spokesman Anthony Condia told our reporter that WVU Medicine plans to have the lettering preserved during demolition and then given to Porter's group, the Friends of OVMC, for preservation. A special marker noting the site's significance for OVMC and OVGH is expected to be installed on the new campus, he said.
Perhaps there's another option here. As part of the work, WVU Medicine will also demolish the former Center Wheeling Parking Garage across from the hospital. The OVGH letters could be preserved there -- perhaps even mounted on the side of the new City of Wheeling Police Department headquarters. City leaders should start discussions on the matter now.
Preserving OVGH's history is important, and there's an option here that will work for everyone. Those involved should get together and work this out quickly.