Carroll Valley Borough building breaks ground

(7/19) On July 12, the Carroll Valley Borough Council and Borough staff members announced that the new Borough building has officially broken ground. After years of planning, the new building is finally taking off.

After much public concern, the building being constructed will only encompass 11,440 square feet, as opposed to the original 2015 plan of the Borough Center, which included 12,686 square feet. Of that square footage, 2,878 square feet was to be used for the borough offices; 3,789 square feet for the community center; 3,347 square feet for the police department; and 2,072 square feet for the Adams County Library System.

The building currently under way is smaller which was accomplished by reducing office space set aside for the police department, eliminating one meeting room and one conference room, a smaller library, and overall reduction to room sizes. The reduction in size will save the Borough approximately $300,000 in construction cost. Additionally, other cost reduction measures were considered, including different light fixtures and floor mounted toilet fixtures versus the original wall mounted fixtures. With these additional costs cut, the total savings in approved design is estimated at approximately $400,000.

With these cost reductions taken into consideration, the hopeful acceptance of the $2 million grant, and the value of the land ($560,000), the Borough is looking at spending approximately $1.2 million. The Council still assures the community that they have budgeted for the construction of this new building, and that Carroll Valley citizens would not be seeing a tax increase.

Benedict Dubbs, the project architect from Murray Associates was pleased to say that the project is coming along nicely. By mid August, walls should be up. "Getting out of the ground is the worst part," said Dubbs. "The time spent in ground is the time where unforeseen issues can arise." No expected issues are expected of course. During the week of July 18, geothermal wells were dug. If all goes as planned, the project may be completed by mid February.

Council member, Tyler Pyles motioned to allow the Borough manager to make decisions regarding the building within the monetary limits of $5,000, without having to bring the change order to the Board for approval. The motion was carried unanimously. David Hazlett, Borough Manager mentioned that he hopes he never has to make a decision like that, and doesn’t have any intention of using that granted authority because he feels as though it is important for the Council to hear every change order that may come to the table.

Future updates on the Borough building will follow monthly.