Wheeling Councilman Ben Seidler saw for sale an X-Ray machine on Facebook Marketplace allegedly from one of the buildings on the Ohio Valley Medical Center campus.
It was a portable unit, and used, of course, but likely worth at least $10,000. The unit on Marketplace, though, was a few hundred bucks.
“It was right after the City acquired the properties,” the Ward 2 representative recalled. “An X-Ray machine? Unbelievable. And that cheap? No way.
“It had to be stolen and that’s why I immediately called the city manager (Bob Herron) and the police chief (Shawn Schwertfeger) to ask if they knew about it and let’s just say it was addressed quickly,” Seidler said. “I know security has been in place since.”
While the former Ohio Valley Professional Center soon will be re-opened as the new Wheeling Police Department, the other six buildings in the OVMC have been mostly vacant since the City took control of the parcels in June 2020. In October, however, WVU Medicine announced it will construct $80 million regional cancer center on the property once the campus is cleared.
“It’ll be nice to move forward from acting as the keeper of that property to watching something new come to the city of Wheeling,” Seidler said. “I may not have been able to vote in favor of it, but I supported taking possession of the campus, but it’s going to be a huge weight off my shoulders when this is all over.
“It’s taken an extreme amount of money for the maintenance and upkeep of those properties. It’s been at least $80,000 for the utilities during a month like December,” he reported. “Sure, it’s going to be sad to watch for a lot of people who have history at OVMC for whatever reasons, but what replaces it will be a life-changing facility, too, and I’m looking forward to watching it take shape. The legacy of that land will still be saving lives.”
September 4, 2019
Friendships were forged, babies were born, souls were saved, and lives were lost on 20th Street in Center Wheeling for more than 115 years, but the non-profit version of OVMC had exhausted all financial possibilities and both the Center Wheeling complex and East Ohio Regional Hospital were sold to Alecto Healthcare of California.
And Alecto killed them quick, leaving more than 1,200 workers unemployed after only two years of operation.
“It was really, really sad, and there was nothing anyone could do about it,” Seidler remembered. “They just closed, took their stuff, and left. At least the hospital in Martins Ferry reopened, but there really wasn’t any interest in repurposing the OVMC building other than for our new police department.
“Thankfully, WVU Medicine and the City were able to make a good deal for everyone, and that property will be cleared for a very good reason,” he said. “But there’s still a lot of stuff inside the buildings that have to be cleared, and there are people working on that as we speak.”
Employees of a local auction company currently is creating an inventory of what remains inside the nurses’ residence, the East Building and West Tower, the Education and Administration Building, the former home of Hillcrest, and the South Tower.
“There’s a lot of things left inside the OVMC buildings even though Alecto took as much as they could when they closed down,” Seidler reported. “There’s still office equipment and furniture, and there’s still some medical equipment, too. I’m sure there will be a list of everything that will be up for sale.
“When that auction will take place, I don’t know right now, but I’m sure it’ll be scheduled soon because since the announcement about the WVU Medicine cancer center, there’s been a lot of people trying to wrap up as much as possible,” he explained. “What is left in those buildings is just scattered all over the place and I’m sure those folks are getting it all together so the bidding can take place quickly.”
Finally, a Future
Cancer kills and, according to oncologists with WVU Medicine, the state of West Virginia currently has the second-highest cancer mortality rate in the United States. According to the press release, WVU Cancer Institute diagnoses about 1,200 cases of cancer each year in the Wheeling region, and the most common types of cancer include female breast cancer, prostate cancer, lung and bronchus cancer, and colon and rectal cancer.
What the healthcare provider plans to provide, as stated in the official announcement, is 150 positions for “cancer doctors, advanced practice providers, nurses, medical assistants, schedulers, dietitians, social workers, and facility professionals.”
It is estimated that the facility will generate 40,000 patient visits per year once a several-step process is completed over the next five years.
“I know the negotiations for a long-term lease for the property are now taking place and the goal is to get that lease in front of City Council as soon as possible,” Seidler said. “We’ve received great news about the environment reports, too, and that is that there is nothing awful or unexpected inside those buildings, so now I know the people at WVU Medicine are reviewing those results prior to putting out the bid for demolition.
“I know (Herron) just spoke with officials with WVU Medicine and they have communicated to him that they are anxious to get started on the property. They want to get the abatement process completed as soon as possible so they can begin clearing the property,” the councilman added. “I believe those processes will get started in late Spring/early Summer and that’s when we’ll start to see the change take place on that footprint.”
