Bluefield State College is located at the very bottom of the state of West Virginia approximately 285 miles away from the former campus of the Ohio Valley Medical Center.
In fact, if a baseball player competing at Bowen Field, a minor-league park used by Bluefield State, hits a home run to left field the baseball lands in the state of Virginia.
And yet, the president of the Mercer County college – Robin Capehart – has proposed a branch on the former OVMC campus, and the city of Wheeling has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the institution. The agreement, however, has led to two weeks of who-said-what-and-when between Capehart, the presidents of West Liberty University, Wheeling University, and West Virginia Northern Community College, and officials of the Friendly City.
“We do have an active memorandum of understanding with Bluefield State College and they are continuing to do their due diligence,” explained Wheeling City Manager Bob Herron. “Other than that, what Bluefield State or the other institutions do with the Higher Education Policy Council is something the city is not involved with. We have continued to provide them with the information they have requested, and they continue to do what they need to do to make a proposal to the city at some point.
“This memorandum of understanding has been in the news a lot the past couple of weeks, but nothing is binding and there is a process that will take place before any decisions can be made,” he said. “If it works out, then it works out, but if it doesn’t, the city has other plans for the Education and Administration Building.”
Space and More Space
There are six structures on the campus along 22nd Street in Center Wheeling, and interest has been communicated for each of them. Other than the former Valley Professional Center, a three-story structure located across Chapline Street from the campus that soon will be transitioned into a new headquarters for the city’s police department, the goal is to return the rest to the private sector.
One of the buildings is the former hospital. Another is the original Ohio Valley General Hospital. The Hillcrest building was constructed in the 1970s, the Nurse’s Residence has been targeted for demolition, and the Education and Administration Building is the most recently constructed structure that rests in the middle of it all.
“I have only met with the people from Bluefield State only a couple of times because their people have had more interaction with Kurt Zende, who is in charge of managing the OVMC campus for the city, and with the Assistant City Manager Bill Lanham, but I do understand they are most interested in the Education and Administration Building,” Herron reported. “If that were to expand to another structure for residential is something the city does not know at this time.
“For the engineering program they are interested in bringing to the city of Wheeling, most of it has been focused on the Education and Administration Building,” he continued. “There is also an auditorium inside that building that seats 200 people, and it’s proven to be a valuable asset since we acquired the property because we have had some meetings there, and several trainings for city employees and also the police department.”
Office Relocation
The city of Wheeling already has moved some departments to the OVMC campus, including economic developments, parks and recreation, and code enforcement, but Herron did reveal a move of the water department could take place in the future.
That plan, however, will remain on hold until a final decision is made concerning Bluefield State College’s engineering program.
“We have considered moving more of our employees to the OVMC campus, and we are prepared to move the water department there, but we have held off on doing that for a couple of reasons,” Herron said. “The main reason is because there is interest in that space from Bluefield State College, so we’ll wait to how that all works out.
“If the water department does eventually move to the first floor of the Education and Administration Building, then we would move some of the operations employees down to where the water department is today,” he explained. “Our goal, though, is to fill up as much of the OVMC campus as we can, and the ultimate goal is to turn the entire campus over to the private sector.”
Herron, Lanham, and Zende are well on their way to accomplishing that goal, although the manager is unable to explain completely.
“We have four MOUs in place right now, and they are all non-binding,” Herron said. “But there are confidentiality agreements that prevent me from identifying them,” Herron said. “The campus, though, has attracted a lot of attention and that’s been a big positive. There are several entities that are kicking the tires right now, and as times goes on, those entities will determine what upgrades and improvements they want to make to the property.
“There is a total of 800,000 square feet, so it is a massive piece of property,” he said. “But if you think about it, there were people working in most of the areas except for the Nurse’s Residence. Our goal if for that to be the case again.”
