It’s a bit different these days during his overnight shifts in the city of Wheeling from what it was when Don Atkinson started driving for Ace Garage in the late 1970s.
Nearly every night back then, Atkinson would wave at people walking downtown Wheeling streets as they were hopping from bar to bar, even while he was towing someone who decided the sidewalk was the best place to park. Fast forward through 40 years, though, and the few folks he sees nowadays during his late-night cruises through Wheeling’s business district have no apparent purpose.
“And some of them have kids in strollers, and you just pray to God they have some place to go. I’ve stopped and asked most of them, and they’ve told me they live in one of the high rises or they have an apartment nearby,” Atkinson said. “And yeah, I’ve prayed they told me the truth.”
Wheeling’s downtown has yet to realize a reclamation of a previously thriving commercial area that served for decades as the center of commerce for the Upper Ohio Valley. Everything from top-end men’s suits to children’s toys could be purchased along Main and Market streets once upon a time ago, but no longer.
Mixed in between those retail locations were countless bars like the San Antone, the Chit Chat, The Office Lounge, Ernie’s Cork & Bottle, and the Club Tower.
“There was a social life in Wheeling that didn’t depend on being on a computer. People were out and about nearly every night of the week. But now, it’s usually like it is tonight. Pretty quiet,” Atkinson said. “It all depends on the temperatures, too, because down at Heritage Port, when it’s warm, it’s packed with people from I don’t know where at all hours of the night.
“I usually see the same people all of the time when I drive around Wheeling because that’s a part of my job, especially at night,” he explained. “I don’t know when a lot of the people I see late at night even sleep, quite honestly. There’s one guy I see almost every morning at 5 a.m., and he’s out here on the streets of downtown Wheeling. It’s just different now, and it’s a little scarier anymore. It’s more unpredictable these days than I’ve ever seen it. There’s a different element involved these days.
“I know everyone says it’s a scary world. But guess what? It’s a scary world.”
Atkinson, a former Wheeling councilman who served Ward 5 for eight years, avoids entering any vehicle he’s been requested to remove because of needles, urine-drenched car seats, and the threat of Fentanyl. His night shift, the same one he’s worked during his entire career at Ace Garage, now consists of interstates and mayhem at the Sheetz at the intersection of National Road and Bethany Pike.
“Sheetz is open 24 hours, the 19th Hole and TJ’s are really popular, and the Hampton Inn is busier than Howard Johnson’s ever was, so that area is busier at all hours of the day than I have ever seen in my life,” he said. “And there are more people walking that stretch of National Road. Places are open later these days if they are not open all night long.
“The problem is anymore is you don’t know who’s good and who’s bad, but you can tell from looking through the windows of the vehicles I have to tow if you want to risk touching the inside of the vehicle. So many of the cars I see anymore are dumpsters,” Atkinson explained. “Pop cans, fast food bags, beer cans, whatever. I try my best not to get into those kinds of cars. Of course, back in the day, you could hop into any car.”
He’s not complaining but instead comparing the two time periods because Atkinson possesses a perspective most do not.
“Well, 40 years ago in this town you could leave your doors unlocked,” he said. “These days, we have a different kind of people. The town has changed, and the businesses have changed, and the vast majority of people in Wheeling are great people. But there is a different atmosphere around here now from the way it was back then because of the gas and oil folks, because of the economy in the Valley these days, and because the whole world has changed during my lifetime. But I love this job, and I hope I can do it for a few more years.
“The good news is we don’t tow as many cars as we used to because there’s not as much illegal parking taking place these days. They used to park on sidewalks, in people’s driveways or wherever they could find enough room as close as possible to the Pirates Cove, the Tin Pan Alley, or wherever, “Atkinson recalled. “It was a different era back then, ya know? It seemed like everything was going good and that we had nothing to worry about. Then, all of a sudden, it was like it hit us like a ton of bricks. It was one after another when it came to the closures of places like the steel mills and the toy factories and a lot of other places. That’s when the stores in downtown started closing up, and when people started to leave the area because they didn’t think they would have a chance around here.”
Atkinson launched a campaign for mayor in 2000 and ran against 11 others before Nick Sparachane won and served two terms in the position. Atkinson, a Fulton native who now lives in Dimmeydale, then ran and won twice in Ward 5.
“And we got some good stuff done like the Health Plan, the Boury Lofts, the (J.B. Chambers) field in East Wheeling, and a lot of other things that did make this town a better place. I just want to see us move forward like everyone else,” he explained. “Downtown is never going to be like it was in its heyday and the sooner everyone realizes that, the better off we’ll all be.
“I’ll always root for the people who serve in those positions because it’s a lot more work than most people know,” Atkinson added. “It’s not just two meetings per month like so many people think. It’s so much more than that, but I hope we see a lot of people who want to get involved because that’s what it takes.”
