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By EMMA GOSALVEZ
egosalvez@lockhaven.com
BELLEFONTE -- Members of Bellefonte Borough Council and the Centre County Board of Commissioners held their second ever joint town hall Thursday night to discuss topics of importance to the local community.
These topics included the Bellefonte to Milesburg bike trail, historic preservation and the Centre County Heroin and Opioid Prevention and Education (HOPE) initiative.
A dream of Mayor Tom Wilson and Bellefonte resident Jack Schuster, both avid bicyclists and hikers, a 2.5-mile bike trail that will connect Bellefonte to Milesburg, now has a feasibility study in progress.
The study is expected to be completed by next January, and the hope is to break ground on the trail in 2020, according to Commissioner Mark Higgins. The feasibility study is funded by a $70,500 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development and a local donation match of $15,300. The study is being led by Pashek & MTR, a Pittsburgh-based engineering firm.
The trail will not only bring more recreation to the area, but it will also further economic development.
'If you look around the country, you will find that recreation is a very large part of the economy of a lot of locations and we hope that Bellefonte will add that aspect in a creative way," Wilson said.
Another project in the works is the rehabilitation and preservation of the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial and the Curtin Monument in front of the Centre County Courthouse.
The memorial and monument were installed more than 100 years ago, in 1906.
"They have seen some wear and tear for those 100 years," Hannegan said. "There are some conditions related to the granite that must be addressed."
Work on restoring the two will begin on June 19. One of the first things to be done will be the cleaning of the sculpture and the plaques, along with addressing the mortar, Hannegan said.
Doing the work for the project will be APArchitects, LLC, from Lemont, along with a New Orleans-based conservator, who previously did work on the statue and monument, Hannegan noted. The total cost of the project is $104,191, which is being funded by $49,475 from the state and a county match of $54,716.
It will be a two-phase project, with the first phase done this year and the second phase starting next year, Hannegan said. The project is anticipated to be completed before mid-June, as to not hinder any community events, such as the Bellefonte Cruise.
Another topic discussed during the town hall was the work of Centre County HOPE initiative in combating the heroin and opiate crisis.
The epidemic has not excluded Centre County and particularly the Bellefonte area, said Commissioner Steve Dershem. The county is on track to have more than 20 overdose deaths this year.
But a lot has been done over the past year that HOPE has been in existence. There has been the addition of prescription drug drop-off boxes throughout the county, in which the Bellefonte Borough Police Department was one of the first to provide one.
Those drop-off boxes have been used heavily, Dershem said.
"A lot of the prescription opiates that would normally be on the street or flushed into the environment, are now being disposed of properly. So that's one big win for Centre County."
Another big win is that most of the area police departments, including Bellefonte Borough and Spring Township, are either under consideration to use, or are currently using, Narcan, Dershem said. Narcan is a medication that is used to block the effects of opioids, especially in overdose situations.
In addition, the county is entering the first phase of its new drug court this fall, Dershem said. The drug court program, which includes biweekly visits before a judge and intensive supervision by probation and parole, will help reduce relapses and help former drug users become productive members of society.