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WELLSBURG -- The Brooke County Commission has hit a snag with the construction of a new ambulance station near the intersection of Pleasant Avenue and state Route 2.
Commission President A.J. Thomas confirmed Tuesday that while performing ground work for the structure, crews discovered two underground tanks.
Thomas said the Waller Corp., the contractor for the project, has brought in another company to remove the tanks, determine their contents and whether soil around them has been contaminated and scan the remainder of the lot with specialized radar equipment.
He said the new subcontractor had been certified by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and if any cleanup is necessary, it will be done in compliance with that agency's regulations.
Thomas said the tanks may have belonged to a gasoline station that operated there in the 1950s. He noted Pleasant Avenue had been part of a major avenue between Wellsburg and Follansbee before state Route 2 was built.
Thomas said the tanks appear to be in good condition and estimated each is about 4 feet wide and 20 feet long.
He said they weren't detected when samples of the land were taken by Thrasher Engineering, architect for the structure, but the purpose of the core drilling was mainly to determine the stability of the adjacent embankment.
On Tuesday, the commission accepted a bid of about $31,000 from Timber Pro Tree Service of Wellsurg for the removal of many trees lining the bank between the lot and Route 2 to make ambulances entering the highway more visible to motorists approaching the intersection from the highway.
The bid was the lowest of three submitted for the work,
A small house and a mobile home had been located on the lot when the commission purchased the property for about $26,500 from Anthony and Roseanna Filberto in 2020.
The commission demolished the two structures to make room for a new headquarters for the county's ambulance service, which is to replace stations near state Route 67 in the Bethany area and along state Route 2 at the north end of Follansbee.
Ground was broken for the $2.1 million project in June.