Uniontown state police to receive new barricks
By this time next year, the 100 police and civilian employees at the Pennsylvania State Police substation in Uniontown should begin settling into a new barracks befitting of the largest barracks in the state. A 10-year lease has been signed and a groundbreaking ceremony will be held in August for the new barracks along Route 119, just south of Penn State’s Fayette campus in the University Technology Park.
Station Commander Lt. Harvey Cole said the existing substation along Youngstown Road in Lemont Furnace has been in use since the early 1970s.
Additions have been made to the building over the years, but it can no longer house the growing number of troopers or support their heavy workload.
“It has been added on to, to accommodate the increased complement here. I think the first addition was in the late ’80s. We’ve outgrown that. Our complement has grown since then,” Cole said.
About 60 police and civilian employees worked at the barracks when Cole was first assigned there in the early 1980s.
Since then, the number has grown to handle the increasing workload, and 10 new troopers will join the substation next year after they graduate from the State Police Academy, he said.
“The new location is central to our busiest areas, which are North (Union) and South Union (townships),” Cole said. “That was key. We’re staying right where we wanted to be.”
The new two-story station will be 22,974 square feet – about twice the size of the current building – providing room to use more computers and communications equipment than is available now.
Other benefits will be a larger evidence storage room and more parking spaces than the existing station offers.
“We take in a lot of evidence. We have over 5,000 pieces of evidence currently. That’s a lot. We needed more space for evidence,” Cole said. “This will be the largest substation building. It will look like a headquarters building. It will be unique for this area.”
Statewide, the state police operate about 65 county substations, not counting the eight Pennsylvania Turnpike patrol stations.
The Uniontown station is part of Troop B, which also has stations in Greene, Washington and Allegheny counties.
Cole said the state will lease the building from Miller Brothers Construction Inc. of Schuylkill Haven, which bought the land from Penn State.
“Everybody wins,” Cole said. “We’re staying centralized and there’s more room for us. It’s been a long time coming.”