It is going to be long and one level with enough bays for all of the engines, ladder trucks, and the equipment currently scattered around the city, and Wheeling Fire Chief Larry Helms is pleased with the location in East Wheeling.
The exact location, the chief said, for the $8 million Wheeling Fire Department headquarters should be finalized in the near future, and construction should begin this summer.
“The location will put us close to W.Va. Route 2 and Interstate 70, and it also will put us right in the middle of the area where this station needs to be,” Helms explained. “Plus, all of our research on the area indicates that it was residential in the past, and that’s it. It’s all moving way too slowly for me, but that’s only because I have been anxious for a while to get this accomplished for the future of the department.
“The nuts and bolts of this project at this location are the negotiations for the property because the city does not own it,” he continued. “But we have been making progress, and I am happy for the future of the fire department because we have a great design that will be very productive and functional for many years.”
A Long-Time Need for Wheeling Fire Department
Mayor Glenn Elliott joined Police Chief Shawn Schwertfeger and Chief Helms to instigate a citywide conversation about the need to replace the locations of both the police department and fire headquarters. The police department has operated out of a small space on the first floor of the Ohio County Courthouse since the late 1950s, and the fire headquarters has been located on the bottom level of the Center Wheeling Parking Garage since 1976.
Initially, the mayor proposed a public safety building for both departments on the corner of 10th and Market streets with an increase in property taxes as the funding source, but that option was denied by voters in November 2018. Mayor Elliott and City Council members then developed a $2-per-week User Fee for all employees working within the city limits, and once approved, plans moved forward for a consolidated building along 19th Street in East Wheeling.
That idea faded, however, once the city acquired the former Ohio Valley Medical Center Campus because the Valley Professional Center was deemed perfect for the new police headquarters.
“We’ve been lucky because the last few councils and mayors have listened to our concerns and have wanted to do something about it,” Helms said. “But anyone who has worked for either department over the last 25 years has known the need for new, larger spaces because both departments have grown through the years.”
As for the Wheeling Fire Department, Helms recalls conversations with former Chief Cliff Sligar more than 20 years ago.
“I know placing the headquarters here in Centre Market was the best solution city officials had at the time it moved here in the mid-1970s,” Helms said. “Chief (Cliff) Sligar was happy to move into here at the time because he was getting a new facility, but he also knew that it was going to become a burden over time.
“Cliff made his concerns known, and I know Chief (Steve) Johnson really wanted a new headquarters at the 10th Street location,” he said. “But right now, we are looking at a very good area in East Wheeling that will be a good location to deploy our units and will give us better coverage on the interstates. That location likely will be a topic of conversation very soon so we can move forward.”
For the Future
Helms has worked tirelessly on the design and development of the new fire headquarters although he will never work a day as the fire chief inside the structure.
Helms is scheduled to retire from the Wheeling Fire Department this summer, but he remains hopeful he will be on duty at the time of the official groundbreaking in East Wheeling.
“When the conversation really got going about the public safety building on 10th Street, I thought there might be a chance it would be finished in time for me to be the chief for a little longer,” Helms said. “But that’s not how it all worked out, and that’s OK, too. So much has changed as far as being a firefighter since I first started with the department in 1986, so a headquarters like this one is long overdue.
“The biggest thing is that our current headquarters is located on the bottom level of a parking garage, and we have experienced a lot of leaks that have caused a lot of issues through the years. During the winter when cars have parked above with a lot of snow and ice on them, that moisture always ended up in our headquarters,” he explained. “So, we are all anxious now, and once everything is put into line and approved by our Council, the actual construction may take just eight months. It’s a pre-fab, concrete design, so once they break ground it should take place very quickly.”
