FRANKLIN, Pa. (EYT) – The Venango County Planning Commission gave their conditional approval for the construction of a new building addition at the J&A Tool.

The proposed construction is at J&A Tool, located at 488 Front Street in Sugarcreek Borough. The development will include the construction of a 4,869 sqare foot building addition and will require the removal of two existing buildings prior to the construction of a pre-engineered metal building on existing gravel parking area.

The site for the proposed addition currently consists of compacted gravel yard, existing concrete slab, and existing storage sheds. 806 square feet of existing impervious area will be removed, resulting in an overall increase 4,063 sqare feet of impervious area.

The downspouts will be collected by an 8″ roof drain that outlets to existing lawn/meadow area. A rip rap apron will be installed at the proposed outfall to prevent scour. An infiltration trench will also be constructed in front of the new building to capture stormwater runoff.

The building will have public water and sanitary sewer service connections.

The Venango County Planning Commission gave their conditional approval to the project, contingent upon receipt of a financial security in accordance with the PA Municipalities Planning Code, receipt of a completed Operation and Maintenance Agreement, and receipt of six fully executed plan sets along with the requisite recording fees.

Cornplanter Square Update

According to Venango County Planning Executive Director Jason Ruggiero, the Cornplanter Square project is moving along.

“In all honesty, for a building that old and that large, it’s going pretty well at this point,” Ruggiero said.

Ruggiero noted they did discover an asbestos lined boiler stack in the wall that they weren’t aware of, but knew was in the building somewhere, and are working through the change order on it.

The roofing segment of the project should begin in the near future, as soon as the demolition contractor can get the interior removed that is hiding the roof drain so the new drain can be connected before major work on the roof begins.

The roof will be a Thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) roof, which is a single ply roofing membrane for flat topped buildings. According to Ruggiero, the same product had been used on the roof previously, before the building was acquired by the county, but the primary problem came from the installation.

“The architect, the project manager, and the roofing contractor all agree that what’s on the roof is a good product if properly installed, so that’s where the issue is, not in the product,” Ruggiero noted.

“It’s not even, it’s not sloped, and obviously over time, that’s going to cause problems. So it’s a similar product, but installed properly this time.”

Public Open House for Long Range Transportation Plan

A Public Open House to solicit projects for the Long Range Transportation Plan will be held on Thursday, May 15, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Courthouse Annex.

According to Ruggiero, PennDOT and the Northwest Commission will be listening to ideas and receiving projects for the Long Range Transportation Plan. Anyone unable to attend can contact Ruggario at Venango County Planning to get a copy of the form that needs to be filled out.

Ruggiero noted that this plan is a truly long range plan, looking forward to a laundry list of projects through 2045. However, projects have to be placed on the Long Range Plan before they can make it to the budgeted, more immediate list of projects.

“If you are a municipality and you have a project that you would like placed on the Transportation Improvement Plan, which is the four year plan that we update every two years, those projects are happening. That’s a fiscally constrained plan, in other words there’s nothing on the TIP that isn’t going to be funded, because it’s not a wish list of projects,” Ruggiero explained.

“The Long Range Plan is the wish list, and if it’s not on the Long Range Plan, it can’t go onto the TIP, unless Vince, myself, and a whole lot of other people convince PennDOT that something’s happened in the interim that warrants it, and it has to be something substantial. It’s really hard to skip coming from the Long Range Plan.”