Mount Pleasant officials hoping to develop land
MOUNT PLEASANT — Borough officials are hoping the only land in the borough available for development will be ready to market within the next nine to 12 months.
At their meeting Monday, April Kopas with the Westmoreland County Redevelopment Authority gave an update on their progress with the testing and clearing of the site along Bridgeport Street that used to house the former Levin’s Warehouse.
“The Phase II testing has been completed, and now we’ve initiated the process of getting the Act II clearances,” she said.
The Act II clearances need to be approved by the Department of Environmental Protection and will relieve the borough of any liability should something occur during future development.
The county has been partnering with the borough in the restoration process of the property, which was also the site where a glass factory plant was once operated. The debris and contaminants from this factory have been the driving concern as far as redevelopment.
Surface samples, sub-surface samples and testing of the site began in 2015 and has cost over $100,000, which has been paid for by a couple of Environmental Protection Agency grants awarded to the county.
“We’ve been marketing this site for the borough for years, but the guess work of whether there were contaminates or if the property was safe to develop has hindered any progress,” Kopas said.
Kopas said Monday that it should take between six to nine months to obtain the clearances from the DEP, and once that is finished they will begin the process of creating a market analysis, which Kopas called a roadmap for reuse and a guide to the borough on the benefits of leasing, selling, appraisals and market values.
The market analysis should take about three months and will cost about $15,000, which will also be covered by the EPA grant.
Borough Manager Jeff Landy, who has worked closely with Kopas on this project, said it has been a complete partnership between the borough and the county redevelopment authority to get this property ready to use.
Several months ago, Mount Pleasant Borough businessman Bob Karfelt, owner of RKN Trucking, approached council about the property.
For the last few years he has been following the progress of contaminate testing done on the property in hopes of a clean report so that he might be able to purchase a portion to erect a building for his trucks.
Karfelt has already been using the property, bringing in loads of gravel to make a nice pad to park his trailer trucks. In exchange for parking his trucks on the property, he mows the grass there for the borough.
While Karfelt can use the property at this point, he cannot disturb the ground for any kind of construction for now.
Several months ago, Karfelt did ask the borough if they might give him first consideration to purchase a portion of the property if the DEP finally signs off that the amount of contamination, if any, on the property is acceptable.
At that time, council President Jack Caruso said they as council could not make any promises and Councilman John Rogacki said if the borough ever decided to sell property, it would have to go through a bidding process.
Nothing was mentioned Monday night about any future plans for the property as council waits to see what the market analysis will show.
In other business, members of council agreed to ratify the renaming of Frick Park basketball court to “J.R. Gustafson Court.”
They also approved the hiring of Julia Specht for the position of summer help at the street department at a rate of $8 an hour and Steven Zuback for the position of part-time police officer.