Oct 16, 2009 8 min read

Some municipal officials are upset over the state Department of General Services’ decision to build a second state prison in Luzerne Township. On Thursday, state Rep. Bill DeWeese, D-Waynesburg, announced that the state Department of General Services has narrowed the field for a new state prison in Fayette County to three sites, and all three are located in Luzerne Township.

“Make no mistake, I understand and share the disappointment of those who preferred that this new prison be built in the 50th District slice of German Township,” DeWeese said. “During every meeting with DGS officials, I urged them to take a strong look at the German Township sites before ruling any of them out. I wanted no stone left unturned in their effort. I wanted this facility in German Township.”

DeWeese represents the 50th Legislative District.

More than a year ago, DeWeese announced that the prison, which will bring 700 permanent jobs, was most likely going to be built in German Township, but later said that it may not be located in German, but it definitely would be in Fayette County. A total of $205.6 million was allocated for construction of a prison in Fayette County.

One state prison is already located in Luzerne Township. The State Correctional Institution at Fayette opened several years ago and also is located in DeWeese’s district, as is SCI-Greene near Waynesburg.

Department of General Services Secretary James P. Creedon recently told DeWeese that after reviewing dozens of potential sites, his department narrowed the list to a half-dozen semifinalists, including two in German Township. However, Creedon said the DGS concluded the German Township sites were unfeasible because they posed “significant challenges” to building a prison, including “irregular site layout” and up to $25 million in site preparation costs – money that would have to be subtracted from the $200 million budgeted for the prison.

Local officials previously said they were completely behind having a correctional facility in their municipality and were not happy to learn the prison is going somewhere else.

“We will be highly upset and disappointed if the prison doesn’t end up in German Township and so will our residents,” said German Township Supervisor Bob Croushore. “We rolled out the red carpet.”

Croushore said he is aware that other sites where prisons have been located have been costly to prepare, adding that the site of SCI-Greene included large expenses prior to construction.

“I think there should be more effort so it ends up where we were promised it would be,” Croushore said. “All the (German) township supervisors and the majority of residents will be let down by this.”

Masontown Mayor Tom Loukota said he was “quite unhappy” with the announcement.

“We definitely need this stimulus to help us,” Loukota said. “If they put it in Luzerne, he has delivered a death nail for Masontown and it will be reflected in the next election.”

Croushore said there is a workforce in German Township and Masontown Borough that would be a good fit for having the prison in German Township.

“We have so many pluses compared to any site in Luzerne Township,” Croushore said.

Loukota said if the prison were located over the ridge, Brownsville would be the recipient of another windfall for jobs and the Masontown area would be left out in the cold. He said people working at a prison in Luzerne Township wouldn’t travel Route 166 to Masontown to look for a new home or to shop.

“We’ve supported Bill DeWeese. It’s time for Bill DeWeese to support us,” Loukota said. “I’m tired of being the last one at the trough.”

DeWeese, who serves as majority whip, said although he wishes one of the two sites would have panned out, he was pleased that Creedon acknowledged that DSG focused on German Township sites at DeWeese’s suggestion.

DeWeese said that ultimately the decision rests with DGS, which has a well-established criteria list that takes into account site topography and configuration as relates to security needs, as well as cost considerations. After the DGS constructs the prison, it is taken over by the Department of Corrections.

DeWeese said locating the prison in an adjacent township in the 50th District – possibly a few thousand yards from the German Township line – is preferable to letting the project wane.

Loukota said it isn’t right for DeWeese to tell people from Masontown that they should be happy the prison is going to be in his district, especially considering that Luzerne Township is already home to a state prison.

“He made a big deal about bringing it here. I don’t think he’ll be very popular,” Loukota said.

Attempts to reach officials in Luzerne Township for their reaction to the news were unsuccessful.

Creedon said specifically the physical configuration of the two German Township sites – the 209-acre Bukovitz site near Footedale and the 204-acre Tiberi site near Edenborn – did not make them acceptable choices for the prefabricated design/build concept that DGS plans to use to expedite construction of the prison.

“Both of the sites in German Township pose significant challenges as a site for the correctional facility,” Creedon wrote in a letter to DeWeese earlier this month.

“The 209-acre Bukovitz (site) barely satisfies the minimum of 200 acres to even be considered for a correctional facility. The site also has a very irregular layout, which seriously complicates the ability to configure a safe prison layout with proper site lines and the necessary significant buffer. In addition, the site lacks enough additional space to permit expansion if that would be required in the future. Consequently, this site does not meet that requirement and has been removed from consideration.”

Regarding the 204-acre Tiberi site, Creedon said it “also has an irregular site layout, complicated by the presence of high-voltage electric lines and high-pressure gas lines. In addition, the Tiberi site has significant constraints that will add as much as $25 million to the project costs.

The site will need to be completely re-graded, water and sewer will need to be brought to the site, the natural gas and electrical lines will need to be relocated and potential wetlands issues would need to be studied.” Creedon added, “The project budget does not allow for expenditure of over 10 percent of the budget on site preparation alone. For those reasons, it is not in the best interest of the taxpayers to continue to evaluate this site,” Creedon wrote.

In these tight budgetary times, DeWeese said he did not want to see the Fayette prison project meet the same fate as the planned State Correctional Institution at Benner Township in Centre County, which DGS has put on hold because bids came in higher than what was budgeted. In a recent meeting with DeWeese, Creedon described the high Benner bids as a “budget-buster.”

DeWeese said the three Luzerne Township sites remaining as finalists for the Fayette prison are all located in his district, and he believes most area residents will see that the area’s greater economic needs are served by getting the project under way as soon as possible.

“The good news is that the project remains on track and it will add 700 family-sustaining, recession-proof jobs to the local economy. In this tough economic climate, it is imperative to stick within the allotted $200 million budget for building a new prison,” DeWeese said. “DGS has a responsibility to be a good steward of public dollars, while also ensuring public safety, and I urge everyone to respect the decisions made by Secretary Creedon in those regards.”

DeWeese added that while he sympathizes with those who are upset that no German Township sites were ruled suitable, most people understand that the checklist process for prison sites is extensive and not all sites qualify.

“Secretary Creedon’s decision has been criticized by some of my friends,” DeWeese said. “However, it would be an outrage to expend millions of dollars in precious state funds – perhaps putting the entire project in jeopardy – when alternate sites are readily available without that added expense. Our primary goals should be public safety and putting people to work as quickly and efficiently as possible, not crossing swords with the DGS.”

Creedon said the next step for DGS would be to perform subsoil testing on the three Luzerne Township sites to determine their continued viability.

He said he expects the site selection process to continue into early 2010, and hopes to receive construction proposals in the spring with construction starting next summer.