CLEARFIELD – The final plans are in motion to move several departments in Lawrence Township to a new facility.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the Lawrence Township Supervisors voted to sign and execute the exchange of properties with American Land Holding LLC.
The supervisors will be purchasing the former Butler Chevrolet building. The agreement turns over the present Lawrence Township Supervisors’ office building and street department garage on George Street as part of the agreement.
The former Butler Chevrolet building will be used to house the township offices, the street department garage and the police department.
The purchase of the building will cost about $675,000, minus about $200,000 for the George Street building.
“I’ve had this discussion with a lot of people,” Supervisor Jeremy Ruffner said.
“Yes, we’re going to have to spend some money, but we’re doing this to consolidate a lot of costs and services. This is going to bring all of our people together into one building.”
Ruffner said the township will only have to pay utilities for one building, a building that is more energy efficient. He said they will have room to expand and improve facilities, such as a larger, bigger salt shed, for the street department.
He said they will only need one copy machine and one phone system. Most importantly, the police department will have better, more secure facilities.
“They’ll be out of that building (in Hyde) that was never meant to be used as a police department. They’ll have an interrogation room that’s not out in a shed. They’ll have a secure evidence room and a secure weapons room. They deserve better than that,” Ruffner said.
He said the new building will essentially pay for itself within the first few years, simply by eliminating the duplicates of service.
The supervisors said there is some renovation and remodeling work that will need to be done to the new building, but they are hoping to be able to relocate by late spring or early summer.