Weatherly working out police dept. design

A new municipal complex is under construction in Weatherly Borough, but borough council is still tweaking the design for the building in order to accommodate its police department.

The $2 million complex — which includes a municipal building, police station and magistrate’s office — was downsized from the original plans because of budget concerns.

Shortly before construction was set to begin, Chief Brian Markovchick of the Weatherly Police Department told council that the building they approved was too small for his department.

On Monday, council approved changes to the design for the inside of the building for the police. They also approved changing the site layout to make room for a garage which the police department has requested, without having to tear up the parking lot for the municipal complex.

“What you don’t want to do is to build what we have now and then have to rip it up later. This is the time you have to make a decision to accommodate for this,” said Borough Manager Harold Pudliner Jr.

Council hasn’t said whether it will definitely build the garage, but cost estimates are being sought.

The borough’s engineers estimated that the garage will cost $915,000. Pudliner said the contractor building the municipal complex said they recently completed a comparable project for $300,000.

“Based on what I’m seeing on these numbers — you’re probably going to be $289,000-350,000 for a new garage,” Pudliner said.

The project was first proposed five years ago as a police station and office for the local magisterial district judge. The borough received $600,000 in gaming money, and $475,000 through the county for the magistrate’s office.

The borough then applied for a $1 million state grant to add a municipal building to the project. The borough had to wait three years, but received the grant.

The original plans called for a garage for police.

In late 2017, council solicited bids for the project. They came in over budget. A second round of bidding also came in over budget.

After the second time, rather than spending money from the borough’s general fund, council asked the borough’s engineer to downsize the building. Council said they wanted to complete the project with the $2 million in grant funding the borough received for the project. When they downsized the project, the garage was eliminated. Markovchick said that council never asked

In August, Markovchick said that the downsized building did not function properly for the police. He said council never asked the department before they changed the plans.

Markovchick said the department needs secure evidence storage and a garage to save wear and tear on the police cruisers. Council agreed to make changes to the interior of the building and to look into building a garage.