VENANGO CO., Pa. (EYT) — Venango County is in the process of getting a concrete cost estimate for the Cornplanter Square Building in Oil City it purchased last year.

After Oil City Mayor William Moon stated at the Oil City council meeting last week that he was hearing renovations were going to cost more than the county anticipated, Venango County Planning Commission Executive Director Jason Ruggiero said that wasn’t necessarily the case.

“It’s not fair to say it is going to cost more than what we thought,” Ruggiero said. “That is why we hired a design firm. We wanted to determine what it was going to cost. We had a very rough estimate, and we wanted a more concrete estimate.”

According to Ruggiero, the county is still in the process of getting that cost estimate, although some projects that need to be completed are replacing the roof and doing some environmental abatement and demolition inside the building.

Both of those projects could end up being paid for by grant money — with grant money already secured through a RACP (Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program) grant through the Commonwealth for the abatement and demolition work and the county applying for a PHMC (Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission) grant for the roof work.

“The roof was repaired a few years ago (before the county bought the building), and it is good material that wasn’t installed correctly,” Ruggiero said.

Ruggiero estimates the cost of the roof replacement, which he called “very comprehensive” would be about $300,000.00.

“That includes some work on systems to carry water off the roof and putting insulation under the roof,” Ruggiero said.

Ruggiero said once the abatement and demolition work is done inside the building, then the county will look at doing the renovations to the inside of the structure with plans to house a brewpub in the first two floors and a business incubator program run by the county on the other three.

`The estimate is that it could take two to four months to replace the roof if the PHMC grant is awarded and six to eight months to do the abatement and demolition work, according to Ruggiero.

“We can do the inside work while we wait for the roof grant,” Ruggiero said. “I could see that going out for mid by mid- to late-April. “There should be work being done this summer.”

The Venango County Commissioners at their regular meeting on Tuesday approved the deed transfer on the building and also approved a letter to the Oil City Council concerning Oil City Northside Revitalization, which also includes the PennDOT multimodal hub.

Ruggiero told the commissioners at Tuesday morning’s work session that the county is still waiting on the O&M from PennDOT on the hub.

He also informed the commissioners that a contract amendment was approved for the project and that an initial job conference was scheduled to take place Tuesday afternoon.

Along those lines, Terra Works, Inc. was hired for general construction work on the multimodal facility Phase I and IE Power, LLC was hired for electrical work on Phase I.

PENNDOT TO STORE BRIDGE AT AIRPORT

The commissioners approved a memorandum of understanding with PennDOT to have PennDOT store the old Dotter Road Bridge at the airport for a period of up to 10 years.

During that time, the bridge can be stored outside and PennDOT will try to sell the bridge. If the bridge isn’t sold within 10 years, it can be scrapped. Storing the historic bridge won’t cost the county anything. PennDOT incurs all the costs of transporting and reassembling the bridge.

VENANGO COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY NAMED LEAD ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AGENCY

The commissioners named the new Venango County Economic Development Authority as the lead economic development agency.

FLOCKERZI WILL BE MISSED

The Commissioners administrative assistant Abby Flockerzi, who also served the county’s election coordinator, unexpectedly passed away on Friday.

All three commissioners — Tim Brooks, Vincent Witherup, and Albert “Chip” Abramovic — expressed great sadness about her passing and noted how much good she had done for the county.

Flockerzi was a Venango County native and a 1983 graduate of Cranberry High School who also was a Clarion University graduate. She had worked for the county since 2011.

See her full obituary here.

The commissioners lit the courthouse a purplish-pink in honor of Flockerzi.

OTHER BUSINESS

In other business the commissioners:

• Approved a sign lease agreement with Troy Hutchinson (Doing business as Park Avenue Greenhouse).
• Ratified the ordering of a vehicle with Whitmoyer Group for Substance Abuse.
• Appointed Shelly Hartle as the 504 Officer, Josh Sterling as the language access coordinator and Erik Johnson as the Labor Standards officer and Fair Housing officer.
• Approved floodplain management agreements with Irwin and Rockland townships.
• Entered into a contract with Mahantango Enterprises for a tire collection event to happen sometime in October.
• Ratified a standard mitigation measures agreement between Venango County, Emlenton Borough and the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office concerning the tearing down of a historic house in Emlenton. The county agrees to a safe demolition process that will take into account the surrounding historic buildings while the borough agrees to being sensitive to the historic nature of the property in the redevelopment of it.
• Appointed William McClintock and Gerry Woods to the Park Advisory Board and Kay Koyack to the Crawford Area Transit Authority (CATA) Board of Directors.
• Approved a pair of proclamations — one for National Library Week and another designating April as Pennsylvania 811 Safe Digging month.