Architect hired for new township building

LOWER POTTSGROVE >> Township commissioners took another fateful step toward building a new $8.2 million municipal building with a unanimous vote on Dec. 2.

The commissioners approved a contract with Alloy 5, the Bethlehem architecture firm that has been designing a new municipal building at the corner of South Pleasantview and East High Street.

Township Solicitor Charles D. Garner Jr. said the contract covers schematic designs, preparing construction documents, bidding and overseeing construction and cannot exceed $396,514.

Once the commissioners settle on the size and design of the building, they have 90 days to vote on moving the project forward.

The money for the project, and the borrowing likely to pay for it, would come from the township “capital fund,” which was instituted 2017.

The 2020 budget calls for a doubling of the tax rate to fund that budget line, from .25 mills to .5 mills.

It accounts for the entirely of the 6.9 percent tax increase contained in the $6.4 million 2020 spending plan that will be the subject of a public hearing on Thursday, Dec. 19, at 7 p.m. in the township building on Buchert Road.

The current township building was built in 1989 and is only 7,500 square feet. The police force has outgrown the space it occupies in the building’s basement, a space Police Chief Michael Foltz says is unsafe for the officers and the public.

By contrast, the building Alloy 5 has sketched out is 16,000-square-foot divided into two connecting wings; one for township administration offices and another larger wing for the police department.

The possibility of constructing the new building has been discussed for more than two years in the board’s infrastructure committee and if the board decides to move forward with the plan, it is estimated it will take 18 months to construct.

Township Manager Ed Wagner has said the capital fund can be put toward uses other than the new municipal building should the commissioners decide against building.

But since discussions began, commissioners have repeatedly cited the need for a new building and moved steadily forward; first with assembling the property parcels, then with razing the buildings there and most recently, with hiring an architect.

This article first appeared as a post in The Digital Notebook blog.

EVAN BRANDT — MEDIANEWS GROUP A rendering of the view of the proposed new Lower Pottsgrove Township building as seen from the corner of East High Street and South Pleasantview Road.

EVAN BRANDT — MEDIANEWS GROUP This aerial rendering shows the location of the proposed new Lower Pottsgrove Township building at the southeast corner of East High Street and South Pleasantview Road.

MEDIANEWS GROUP FILE PHOTO An artist’s rendering of the proposed new Lower Pottsgrove Township building as seen from South Pleasantview Road.