LAURA TARANTELLA/THE EXPRESS Lock Haven City Hall is pictured.

LOCK HAVEN — With a roughly $3 million budget and a price tag still being developed to renovate the entirety of its building, Lock Haven City Council is looking into ways to effectively spend its funding while still providing better conditions for its staff at city hall, particularly its police force.

Council is in its early stages of gathering information about potential renovations, after previously holding a work session in early May to strategize how to move forward.

The work session followed council’s split decision in April to not move ahead with a proposed police building.

Prior to the work session, members of council’s recently formed building committee met with Scott Loercher of Buchart Horn Architects. The firm has been working with the city since 2021 debated whether to renovate the current building at 20 E. Church St. or building new.

Committee members Mayor Joel Long, Barbara Masorti and Micah Clausen each spoke about their time with Loercher during both the work session and to The Express. Councilmember Heather Alexander serves on the committee but was unable to attend the meeting with Buchart Horn. Clausen serves as the alternate member.

Long, an outspoken supporter of renovating city hall since talks began, reflected positively on the meeting and work session.

“It’s an exciting time. There’s been a lot of talk over the years and very little has happened,” Long told The Express last week.

He noted the building committee will work with city staff to gather information and bring it to council for a final decision, ensuring their inclusion in the process, and see that movement is made.

He pointed to council’s decision at the work session to have staff move police records from the basement — which is not climate controlled — to a secure location on the second floor as positive momentum. This move should open up space for potential changes in the department’s current space.

City Planner/Interim Manager Abbey Roberts told The Express that staff was working to execute that plan.

“Staff recently met to discuss the relocation of existing police files from the basement to the second-floor storage areas. This was identified as one of the first priorities by city council and will address issues with evidence and file storage in the basement,” Roberts said.

Another point made by Long during the work session involved long-term goals. He told council at the time it needed to make sure whatever it decided in the short-term would contribute to the long-term of the building.

“Whatever we do now, it’s not over. It’s an ongoing thing. We should still have a long-term goal on how we’d like to do this,” he said at the time.

Masorti told The Express, after meeting with Loercher, it reaffirmed her understanding that the city would not be able to make all of the improvements in the original costs for renovation.

“The feasibility study that was completed in November 2021 clearly outlined the limitations and costs to renovate the building,” she said. She added Loercher said those costs would have increased, though that hasn’t been calculated yet.

However, she noted the study did keep the police locker rooms on the basement level, a suggestion she’d made during the work session.

At the work session, she said making adjustments to the configuration of the current space in the basement — moving police files and increasing space for the women’s locker room — along with general repairs that have been neglected wouldn’t require as much and could be done quicker.

Also discussed by council at the time were if locker room renovations were possible, asbestos and lead testing and removal and ADA code compliance.

Clausen told The Express ADA compliance, and a possible exemption for the police showers, was something he was interested in learning more about.

“During the meeting we learned that it is possible to get an ADA exemption on a shower for a police station. This makes sense because any disabled police officer would be working a desk job and wouldn’t need the shower,” he said.

Clausen said if the exemption could be made, there’s the possibility the locker rooms could be moved to the first floor and placed in the rear of the building where the city’s code office is located. This office has three stairs leading into the area and is close to the police officers’ main office space, which houses desks and its clerk.

Roberts told The Express that staff was working to gather information about these items to bring forward to council, giving them the ability to solidify plans.

“The next steps in the renovation process will be formed based on the results of these investigations,” she said.

Moving the police department fully to the first floor is something Long spoke about.

“Ideally we could give the police the first floor. We could get as much room if not more than the new building,” he said.

Meanwhile, Masorti said she’d like to see what information Buchart Horn and city staff bring to the table before making any concrete decisions.

“We expect to get some additional information from Buchart Horn relating to how the basement can be most effectively utilized as a locker room and adding a women’s locker room,” she said. “Once we see what Buchart Horn proposes and the cost of these items, we will be able to discuss how we move forward.”

For all three committee members, there are hopes for solid plans in the future of the building while still offering steps that showcase their dedication.

“We want to take action as quickly as we can in a responsible manner. It’s time to get to work,” Long said.

Masorti said she’d like to see firm plans in place, voted on and approved by council before the end of 2026. She noted this would be important to avoid any back sliding, which has taken place over the years as the make up of council has changed.

“As you know, three members of council and the mayor are up for reelection next year. As we’ve seen in the past, a new council can mean new priorities and new directions,” she said. “I think the police department, city staff and city residents have been patient in waiting for something to be accomplished. I hope that we can honor that patience with a project that starts moving forward as soon as possible.”

She further noted her goal is to ensure the most and best updates and improvements to the current building while remaining in budget. She added about $400,000 in the city’s 2021 borrowed funds — amounting to about $2.1 million — was spent in planning and developing the proposed police building.

“Those funds will not be able to be recovered,” she said. “As a group, we will be trying to meet as many of the goals that we set back in 2021 as possible, focusing first on the police department and then moving on to other areas of the building.”

Clausen, much like his fellow committee members, would also like to see work begin as soon as possible.

“Our police need improvements to their working conditions. Their locker rooms are in poor condition. We plan to either remodel and expand the space that they are currently in or move them to a different place in the building and make it brand new,” he said. “I believe we can give this to our police by the end of 2026.”

He further noted the city staff have already been directed to make minor improvements during this planning phase.

“We’ve asked to have an asphalt hump installed behind city hall to keep water from running into the basement as well as cleaning out storm drains,” he said.

Ultimately, Clausen said the building can be improved with the funding it currently has.

“I believe that we can give our police and city staff everything they need and make our building the pride of our city. We have no final plans yet but we are working on it. There are 100 ways that we can do this right,” he said.

FEDERAL FUNDING

During its work session, Roberts told council the previous uncertainty of a $1 million USDA grant awarded in 2023 by former Sen. Bob Casey, could still be used for the renovations.

When council voted down the contracts for construction of a new police building, Roberts said at the time she wasn’t sure if the grant could transfer, as it was awarded for new construction.

Councilmember Jeff Brinker told The Express he reached out to Congressman Glenn GT Thompson’s office to see if the federal funds would still be viable.

After staff there said it was a possibility, he said he handed this information over to Roberts.

“We’re very excited to be able to utilize this taxpayer funding,” Brinker said.

Roberts told The Express said Brinker told her the conversation about retaining the $1 million was promising and asked her to reach out to the office as well.

“I connected with Cindy Kunes (Thompson’s local representative) and discussed the revision of funding to fit the scope of renovations, especially related to federally appropriated funding. Ms. Kunes urged me to request the change directly with USDA and I took those steps with our project contacts,” she said. “In a meeting with the USDA team working on the city’s project, I learned we could revise the grant to fund renovations through a new application. The Planning Department aims to take those steps over the course of the next month when a clear scope of work is identified.”

Caroline Leach, a spokesperson for Thompson’s office, said the congressman was supportive of the work the city is looking to do.

“Congressman Thompson is supportive of the City of Lock Haven’s renovation efforts, and his office stands ready to provide further assistance as needed,” she said.

Though the federal funding is likely to be secured, Roberts said the $500,000 awarded through a state Local Share Account, was unfortunately not recovered.

“Unfortunately, the city is not permitted to revise this grant to fund renovations,” she said she learned after speaking with the Department of Community and Economic Development.

Though that news was a bit disappointing, Roberts said the combination of the federal funding with previously borrowed funds will be a major help in the renovations.

“Being able to use any portion of grant funding awarded for the construction of a new police facility for the renovations of city hall was certainly unexpected but is a tremendous benefit for the City of Lock Haven. We were able to grow the renovation budget to about $3 million, a third of that being grant funding,” she said.

With direction from the council at its work session, Roberts said staff is working towards providing information in the future.

“City staff has been working diligently to address council’s questions, connect with architects and professionals, and implement the beginning stages of renovations,” she said.