City council to discuss parking garage at special meeting
Uniontown City Council will conduct a special meeting Wednesday morning to consider approving a 40-to-50-space addition to the parking garage under construction on Penn Street. Garage designer, Churches Consulting Engineers of Claysville, and construction contractor, Concrete Preservation Systems Inc. of Pittsburgh, will outline plans for the expansion at the 8:30 a.m. meeting.
Work is on schedule to complete the initial $3.41-million, 220-space, 31/2-level garage by the end of July, but the expansion would push the completion date back to the end of September, City Councilman Bob Cerjanec, director of accounts and finance, said Friday.
Construction began in October 2005.
The city received two state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) grants to finance construction.
The first $3.15-million grant was allocated in spring 2004 and the city borrowed $2 million from a bank for part of the required dollar-for-dollar grant.
Approximately $1 million from the loan and two in-kind contributions comprise the match. The In-kind contributions are $1.2 million that Joseph A. Hardy III spent on materials for the Main Street streetscape and $900,000 of the money Fayette County spent on renovating the Federal Building.
The $1 million remaining from the loan was used as interim financing for construction.
To pay for the expansion, the city obtained state approval to restructure a $1.5-million RACP grant that the city received in April 2005.
Originally, $1 million of the grant money was going to be used to renovate the former YMCA building and the remaining $500,000 was to be forwarded to Community Action of Fayette County for a building construction project.
However, the state-approved re-allocation sent $900,000 to Community Action and $600,000 to the garage expansion project.
In addition to the planned expansion, options for components to collect parking fees and handle parking permits will be discussed at the special meeting.
Cerjanec said the $3.41-million construction contract includes basic gate equipment for entering and exiting the garage, but the components for fees and permits will come from the $600,000 expansion budget.
A representative from CTR Systems of Pittsburgh will detail the fee and permit options so council can select the system that fits the city’s needs, Cerjanec said.