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BELLEFONTE -- As it looks to the future, Bellefonte Borough Council reviewed portions of a proposed Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) plan developed by staff during its work session this week.
Borough Manager David Pribulka noted this was the "inaugural" plan for the borough when explaining the purpose behind the document.
"It's a very useful planning tool to help borough council and staff be able to provide a high level of public services to the community both in the short, medium and long-term horizons," he said Monday night.
Pribulka thanked the leadership, department heads, deputy directors and staff for their work in preparing the CIP plan.
"It's a product of many hours of time and effort, developing requests, getting estimates, being critical in how we align our priorities with achieving your vision for Bellefonte Borough in the years ahead," he said.
Pribulka said he often explains what a CIP plan is and also what it isn't.
"The capital expenditures (in the CIP) are not an official action of borough council to authorize the expenditure of any money," Pribulka said.
The CIP plan instead offers guidelines and suggestions for council to consider when developing budgets and where it may prioritize funding.
Pribulka said through the CIP planning process, staff set the capital expenditure rate as a single item that "has a cost equal to or exceeding $200,500 and has an estimated useful life of at least one year."
He explained this base number can vary from community to community.
"$200,500 is what was agreed to go into the development of this plan. It was a reasonable cap, or rather floor, on items to be included in the CIP," he said.
Monday night's review of the CIP was the first of two to be held for borough council leading up to potential approval of the plan in August.
Pribulka and borough staff from the police department, Office of Community Affairs and general administration spoke about their portions of the CIP plan. A second work session on Aug. 3 will see council review the remaining portion of the plan before it considers approval at the voting session held afterward.
Pribulka noted staffing would also be included in Monday's presentation.
"Staffing is normally not considered a capital need but I think it's recognized that staff is one of the largest cost centers, one of the largest investments as an elected official," he said. He added the proposal only included possible new hires.
In closing his introduction, Pribulka said the Bellefonte Borough Authority will also be asked to review its components of the plan: Water, Wastewater and Wastewater Treatment.
Following his remarks, council heard from the following:
POLICE DEPARTMENT
Bellefonte Borough Police Chief William Witmer highlighted a few of the key points within the police department's section of the CIP plan.
Witmer said the majority of items included in the five-year plan for BPD are to ensure timely rotation of equipment and decrease maintenance costs. This includes big ticket items such as vehicles and technology.
"The major items I'd point to here are, of course, vehicles and technology," he said.
He noted in terms of technology it involves the computers which are integral to police work within the department.
"The officers can't really do their job out in the field without a computer. That's how we get our calls, how we issue citations. Technology is a big budget item that we have to keep up with and maintain so we can do our job on a daily basis," he said.
As for vehicles, Witmer said he would like to begin a rotation when it comes to leasing new vehicles and replacing old ones.
As it stands, the department has five unmarked vehicles, with three of those reaching their life expectancy of 10 years soon.
"What we have right now is getting to the end of their life," Witmer said. "I can't give an exact number of years, I just want to get on some type of rotation so we aren't constantly fixing them. Our maintenance budget is not very large, so I want to stay out of that as much as we can so we aren't fixing vehicles all the time."
He added the vehicles are purchased through lease-to-own and that the department is typically only able to lease new vehicles.
It was noted by Pribulka and Witmer some of the more costly items, like potential replacement of a computer server in 2031, is their preparation for the server to become out-of-date.
"We don't know the life of that, it's a high ticket item at $25,000. I remember a couple of years ago they usually would give us a warning when we're about six months to a year of it going bad," he said. "It's in there, and obviously anything in here if it's working at 100 percent capability we aren't going to replace it."
Pribulka said any items listed in the later years of the CIP plan are "wishlist" items for the most part.
"They're things we know are coming. We're not entirely sure where to program them in. They may go longer than five years, they may not need replacement in that fifth program or fourth program year, but we want to keep them on council's horizon because we understand they're big ticket items," he said. He said his direction to departments was to place these larger expenditures at the far end of the plan so they could be added or removed each year council reviews it.
"The earlier years in the CIP, by contrast, are typically the items we know are really in need of addressing. Whether you defer them or plug them into the budget in their program year is, of course, going to be your decision to make," he said.
OFFICE OF COMMUNITY AFFAIRS
Next to review was the Office of Community Affairs, Planning and Zoning.
Gina Thompson, administrator for the HARB (Historic Architectural Review Board), planning and zoning, spoke about these portions of the CIP plan.
"Mostly what I have requested here, similar to the chief, is some software and some programming and overall comprehensive updates to zoning and planning," Thompson said.
Two of the items included in the plan are the Recreation and Parks Open Space plan (RPOS) and an overhaul of the zoning ordinance.
"That was something that was discussed during our review and update of the SALDO which we're in the middle of doing right now," she said.
In that conversation, Thompson said it was brought up creating a map of the borough that lays out where each portion of the borough falls within the zoning ordinance.
"That is something that townships and municipalities have to direct zoning and planning for future possible land acquisition and land resource and knowing what is available and can be done with those parcels of land in your municipality," she said.
Another item on the CIP plan for her office is listed is the installation of wayfinding signage throughout the borough.
Thompson said the design and creation of signage took place with Downtown Bellefonte, Inc. (DBI) in 2020.
"That program was successful. Phase one was completed at the end of 2020... as a consequence of that is we have all of the planning and design work done but then the implementation piece to that kind of fell off with DBI's leadership change and then priorities changing at the borough," she said.
Thompson added there is grant funding that could often help the cost of this project. She told council the intention is to place welcome signs at the various entry points of the borough as well as markers to direct visitors to key points of interest such as the Centre County Courthouse and the historic district.
Councilmember Joanne Tosti-Vasey, who was part of the planning and design process of the signs, said the Department of Community and Economic Development will pay up to $50,000 for wayfinding signage, though there is a percentage match.
Councilmember Jon Eaton asked Thomspon about the logistics behind the proposed creation of a map for the borough. He asked how it would be done and if it would require a GIS professional.
Thompson said some of the prices, though only estimates at this time, are where they are because the borough would need to hire an outside firm for various parts of the planning and implementation of a map.
However, she added the borough works closely with Centre County's GIS Department and could potentially utilize their services in the creation of a map.
"I don't have an answer for you completely but I think we could certainly lean on resources we have available and also that the proposed cost would factor in getting the GIS expertise that we would need for that official map," she said.
Pribulka noted the map or RPOS aren't required but could assist in future land development within the borough.
"As Gina pointed out, the appropriation on the CIP is for a consultant to help draft the map, do the GIS work, lead the public engagement sessions and work with council on the development of the plan," he said. "But the reason it's in that tailing year is because there's a lot to do that I think might be a higher priority and whether council would like to pursue that or not remains to be decided."
He also noted the implementation of an update to the Zoning Ordinance is a common occurrence amongst municipalities who have not done an overhaul of it and only issued amendments over the years.
"It's useful every once in a great while to have somebody look at it in a comprehensive lens to make sure things aren't conflicting," he said.
He added there are always grant opportunities for these a number of other potential projects included in the CIP plan.
GENERAL ADMINISTRATION
Pribulka and Assistant to the Borough Manager Alyssa Doherty provided a breakdown of the general administration section.
Doherty said the CIP plan includes updating the borough's website which is reaching the end of its 10-year life. She said she's met with three different companies to look into website design and include ADA compliance components that have to be implemented by 2028.
"We need to start looking at our options (as) it usually takes about a year to have the website up and running on the back end and live for everyone's viewing," she said.
Another major item on the CIP plan is a server replacement.
"Our IT company that we use contacted us to let us know that one of our servers will need to be replaced. It will no longer be supported in 2027," Doherty said. "It is a large cost but it is something that needs to be done, because it hosts our applications for the administrative office."
Pribulka noted the lifecycle for servers is often five to seven years, and the borough's main server is longer than that or extremely close to its end of life.
"The other driving piece of when to replace a server is the support and the licensing of the main box, the hardware itself. So because this particular server and the operating system it's running on is no longer going to be supported starting next year, there's a security problem that could be introduced because we won't get patches, enhancements any kind of trouble shooting if we have an issue," he said.
Pribulka said the goal is to have the server replaced, and some of the various applications used within its servers combined, to create a more streamlined operation.
"A lot of our systems are siloed. There's double data entry, there's limitations on how we can export data and reports to council, the public and to others in meaningful ways," he said. "Having one system sort of governs all of our operations or supports. It would do a lot to improve transparency and usefulness and also streamline some of our processes."
Pribulka said the server would need to be replaced at the start of 2027.
STAFFING REQUESTS
Council learned briefly about the staffing requests included in the plan.
Pribulka said the borough is looking at potential transition of its Community and Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HARB coordinator from part-time to full-time in 2027.
He noted the proposed salary for this and all others was based on guidance from the Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs, which does an annual salary survey.
"We looked at similarly situated boroughs, in our case, with populations of 4,000 to 8,000," he said. "We aligned with the median salaries for those data points."
The figures also included an estimate on benefits as well. Though these figures could change.
"It's going to be dependent on when we identify the need, when we program it and the candidate we recruit in this and other positions," he said.
Another new position listed is a full-time parks employee.
Pribulka said the current maintenance staff is made up of part-time seasonal workers and may not be sustainable in the future.
"We'll still want the part time seasonal work but a full-time position would give us the ability to do some work in the parks' off season and also be able to plan for improvements, landscaping and maintenance related to our parks system," he said.
No job description has been created for the position, though Pribulka stated this employee could also pick up work within its streets department when needed as well.
In the police department, the CIP plan includes the potential hire of a part-time or full-time police officer in 2029.
Witmer noted this would be the 11th officer added to the compliment.
The final position featured is a part-time employee within the Office of Community Affairs.
Pribulka said this position, if council chose to create it in 2031, could potentially be shared with DBI which would include the sharing of expenses.