Belington Sheetz To Close Permanently

By Marija Ilic

On Monday night, Facebook timelines of local residents lit up with the news that Belington Sheetz was closing. On Tuesday morning, this news was confirmed by Nick Ruffner, a PR manager for Sheetz. The statement read: “Sheetz has made the difficult decision to permanently close its store located on North Crim Avenue in Belington, West Virginia. It is expected that this store will close on November 18. All employees at this store location will be offered employment at other Sheetz locations in the region. We thank our customers for their years of support and look forward to serving them at our other locations in the region.”

At the time of the press release, City Hall at the City of Belington did not receive any official notification from the corporation about the closing.

In the last few months, Sheetz has closed several locations across the country, including Pennsylvania locations in Emporium, Youngwood, and Cameron County. Parsons location closed in 2018. Meanwhile, the corporation has been expanding its operations to Virginia and Michigan, and upgrading other West Virginia locations, including the ones in Buckhannon and Weston. Belington location was deemed too expensive to remodel.

The residents and the officials in Belington are hoping that another gas station will come in, since now the city was left without any, and the closest ones are in Norton and Philippi.

Belington Sheetz is now third business to close in the county in as many months, with Station 1 and Grumpy’z restaurant also closing their doors.