Nicki and Chris Duplaga
Chris and Nicki Duplaga are amazed by the extraordinary changes they’ve seen in the Wheeling community during their lifetimes, especially recently. The couple owns Top Notch Landscaping, Fulton Storage LLC and a few other local businesses. This family knows firsthand that if business is good, then the local economy is doing well.
That progress is seen throughout the community, but the transformational changes happening at Oglebay are leading the way. Chris, a fourth-generation Wheelingite, shares, “Oglebay feels like this incredible gem that was hidden in plain sight until now.”
Growing up in Morningside (the area adjacent to WVU Hospital Wheeling), Chris Duplaga remembers hanging out at Wheeling Park’s pool all summer long and, of course, the Wheeling Park teen dances throughout the ‘80s.
Many have shared that there was a time Oglebay felt, to some locals, like it was focused on the tourist trade, while Wheeling Park was a public park. “The park’s leadership team has done a phenomenal job bringing the local flavor back to Oglebay,” Chris said.
Live music performances “bring families to the park.” Incredible restaurants like the Garden Bistro, Route 88 Burgers and Brew, Hickman Lounge — “can you believe there are five-plus dining options in the park now? I can hardly wait for Trace Chophouse to open [Chris was interviewed on July 2]. There’s always an event or an invitation to come to the park and get involved. The park feels like it’s widening the welcome. The younger generation has never been involved more than they are today,” he said.
Chris and Nicki leverage their social network to share what they see happening in the parks. These cheerleaders can’t say enough about all there is to do here. “Just going up for ice cream feels special,” Nicki shares.
They support the park with corporate in-kind gifts of labor and materials. Once a contract has been awarded to Top Notch, Chris looks for opportunities to add some extras that he feels are “an investment in the parks.”
Top Notch has done work planning, planting and removing trees in the J. Sumner Jones Pinetum within Oglebay’s Wigginton Arboretum. They’ve also done landscaping around the new Stifel Playground at Wheeling Park, including the natural landscaping, fence surround and shrubs. “We try to give back to the community through work, balancing jobs and opportunity with giving back,” Chris said. Landscaping was provided by Top Notch at the entrance of Lodge Drive from W.Va. 88 as well as around the porte-cochere entrance to Wilson Lodge.
All this community success has created the opportunity for the couple’s two grown children to come home and raise their families here. Three granddaughters keep the Duplagas in the park, and, with a fourth grandchild on the way, the family’s roots here are getting stronger and stronger.
One of the ways Oglebay sold the Duplaga children on coming home was a wedding reception held for their oldest at the Pine Room. Top Notch had done the patio and landscaping around the Crispin Center entrance. For the wedding, Chris and Nicki transformed the interior of the Pine Room into a garden with trees, flowers and mulch beds that created garden paths leading to the dance floor — a magical transformation.