Township building project continues
Work is progressing on the addition to and renovations of the township office building on Ridge Road.
“If you’ve been by the building, you saw that the framing’s gone up this week. The trusses were going up today and it’ll probably be under roof by next week,” township engineer Steve Baluh said at the July 28 East Rockhill Township Board of Supervisors meeting.
The about 1,800 squarefoot addition will give room for a larger township meeting room and move it to the front of the building. The project will also include renovations to increase security and make the building more functional, township officials say. The improvements include adding a projector and screen for presentations at township meetings.
Construction bids totaling $776,524 were previously approved for the work.
The July 28 meeting included approval of a $6,399 change order adding conduits and technological equipment in addition to what had initially been planned.
The additions were recommended by the information technology consultant and electrical contractor, Baluh said.
“We wanted to add some facilities to make sure that we were fully integrated and then we also decided it was beneficial to us to add some additional electrical outlets and things in the renovation area to make it more convenient for the new equipment,” he said.
“Because it’s an open ceiling, most of it has to be underfloor conduit,” Baluh said, “so there was some extra expense because a lot of it’s underfloor.”
During his report, Public Works Director Jeff Scholl said the water line has been connected to the township building, which now is hooked up to both the public water and sewer systems.
The sewer was hooked up earlier this year, he said.
The water and sewer hook ups were done after a neighboring property owner agreed to allow the township to run the lines through the neighboring property, board Chairman David Nyman said.
In order to meet social distancing requirements, the July 28 meeting was held at the Pennridge Regional Police headquarters rather than the East Rockhill municipal building.