A portion of Lebanon County’s municipal building is about to get a facelift.
Lebanon County Commissioners gave unanimous approval on Thursday, Sept. 5, to begin Phase 1A municipal building renovations by securing architectural design services with Lancaster-based Beers + Hoffman Architecture.
The contract for design services from the firm totals $63,695, but also contains a provision for other services of up to $30,415 to be billed as needed on an hourly basis, according to county administrator Jamie Wolgemuth.
Wolgemuth noted that spending for this phase is capped at a maximum allowable expense of $94,110.
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The services the county hired the firm to perform for this phase include the creation of construction documents for renovations to the Public Defender’s and Assessment offices.
Construction documents (including design development from the concept plan) totals $29,950. These services include floor, ceiling, and interior elevations plans and room finishing scheduling services.
Other costs include the creation of mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering services construction documents at $27,245 while furniture and interior design coordination services documents are set at $6,500.
“These are all fixed lump sum costs,” said Wolgemuth about the $64,695 price tag for design services. “The rest are billed hourly as needed, for the most part, so there is an allowance not to exceed there for bidding phase services, mechanical bidding phase services, construction administration, which is oversight during construction by Beers Hoffman. Also oversight by Moore Engineering and then any reimbursable expenses, which is (a total of) $30,415. So all total, $94,110.”
Wolgemuth said the county has capital funds available for this project but may seek to use other financial resources instead.
“We may be dealing with a little more ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) shuffling, so I think there is a possibility of utilizing that,” he added. “My hope is to be able to reallocate some of that since this has to do with space and the better use of space, which is ARPA-eligible.”
Wolgemuth noted that the county’s Department of Emergency Services, which had received ARPA funding to construct new emergency communications towers, may have funding left over from that project since agency officials have decided to build fewer structures than originally planned.
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Wolgemuth anticipates the tower bids will be awarded at the commissioners’ next meeting on Thursday, Sept. 19. At that time he should know how much funding is available to potentially be reallocated towards these renovations, other municipal building renovations or possibly other non-county ARPA funding requests that are pending.
Wolgemuth told LebTown the county has until Dec. 31 to allocate its remaining balance of ARPA funds to help communities recover from the pandemic. LebTown previously reported that the county had received nearly $26.1 million in ARPA grants and published in April 2024 that the remaining balance was $813,000.
The remaining balance dropped by $150,000 following a funding request for a construction project at Soldiers Field in Mount Gretna, which commissioners approved in April, leaving the county approximately $660,000 to allocate by Dec. 31.
Read More: County commissioners vet $150,000 ARPA request for Soldiers Field project
Funds must be committed by the end of this year and spent by the close of 2026. Any uncommitted funds as of the end of 2024 or unspent through 2026 would have to be returned to the federal government under ARPA program guidelines.
Read More: 11 projects funded, Lebanon County seeks to spend remaining ARPA dollars
Wolgemuth said the county had begun to reconfigure the Public Defender’s office in 2018 due to spacing issues but the onset of the COVID pandemic led to staff reduction. Now that staffing is returning to pre-pandemic levels, there is a need to revisit those concerns.
“We are clearly back in a space crunch,” said Wolgemuth. “The Public Defender’s office is one away from being fully staffed and if they aren’t they will be soon. They have two and three people crammed into spaces down there.”
Concerning the county Assessment office, Wolgemuth said when the municipal building was expanded 25 years ago, that section was built with several islands to store large assessment records.
“Those (records) have since been digitized, so those areas that were used to store large, hardcover books are no longer needed,” said Wolgemuth. “We will be able to move the Public Defender’s office, expand it over into the other side of the wall with Assessment and Assessment will be able to consolidate a bit with their staff to provide that room. So, it is just a block of the first floor of the addition being reconfigured, some walls moved.”
Wolgemuth said this is the easiest renovation to make since it does not require asbestos abatement and doesn’t have other challenges to complete. He added that he hopes Phase 1A is ready to bid in a month or two.
In other county business, commissioners unanimously passed a number of other items from a packed agenda.
Erin Moyer, administrator for Lebanon County Children & Youth, presented six budgetary items for her department, including its 2023-24 fiscal year final report and 4th-quarter invoices and fiscal year 2024-25 contracts.
For fiscal year 2023-24, the department was certified at $12,573,777 with a county share of $2,735,458. Moyer said the department spent $12,783,005, which is an overexpenditure of $209,228.
She added the county’s share is projected to be $2,497,335, a decrease of $238,123 under the certified amount due to an increase in children who qualified for federal IV-E funding. She added that Children & Youth spent $10,387,330 and was overspent in the amount of $323,425 while Juvenile Probation spent $2,395,674, an under expenditure of $114,198.
Commissioners voted to approve the final fiscal report along with paying 4th-quarter invoices for fiscal year 2023-24 totaling $3,926,061.
Commissioners also addressed fiscal year 2024-25 implementation budget, service provider contracts and placement provider contracts for the department.
Moyer said the department’s implementation budget for 2024-25, which was approved last year, is certified at $13,616,137 with a county share of $3,132,772.
“With additional renovation costs and increases in fees associated with the agency’s legal counsel, we actually anticipate our projected spending to be somewhere around $14,783,705, with a county share of $2,905,292,” said Moyer. “The county share actually looks like it will decrease for fiscal year ‘24-25 as well because we were able to move more programs from Act 148 to our grants portion of the budget, which has a higher state reimbursement rate.”
Wolgemuth said the costs are for space renovations that will benefit Children & Youth Services, adding the state is “well aware” of their existing space challenges.
“We’re going to do some expansion into the other side of the building and with the state being aware of it, they’ve inserted a significant amount in here, about a million dollars in renovations,” he said. “That is a one-time, so your next budget will drop that. Of the $2 million extra, a million of that is for renovations.”
Moyer said the FY 2025-26 needs based budget request is $15,392,381 with a county share of $3,068,298, which is an increase from FY 2024-25 implementation budget due to an increase in renovation costs and asbestos abatement and removal for new office space at the county building. Moyer noted the renovation costs are spread out over two years since that’s the time needed to complete the project.
Additionally, there are provider increases, which are required so programs will accept Lebanon County youth into their placements and programming.
“Actually, the county’s share for this is lower for our needs-based budget even though our budget is going up, it is lower than what was anticipated initially for our implementation budget this year,” said Moyer. “Again, we were able to move some programs around to get the higher reimbursement rate from the state and use our money more wisely.”
Moyer presented 28 service provider contracts with eight not requesting an increase and noted there are two new ones for the current fiscal year. Additionally, the remaining 18 providers have requested an overall average increase of 5 percent, she added.
For FY 2024-25, there are a total of 60 placement provider contracts with 22 providers whose rates await approval from the Office of Children and Youth Families. Therefore, Moyer presented 39 that have been approved.
Of those 39, six didn’t seek an increase while the remaining 33 requested increases with an average of 10.5 percent, all of which being within the state-approved rates.
“These increases are due to increasing wages to attract employees, increased costs for insurance, and services needed for more specialized/trauma informed care,” Moyer told commissioners. “Placement providers, just like we are, are seeing more complex, more difficult children, so they require a higher level of care, higher level of service. So they (the providers) are increasing their rates to accommodate those children.”
Moyer noted that she will come back to a future meeting to seek approval of those other placement providers once they receive state approval.
Holly Leahy, administrator for the Mental Health/Intellectual Disabilities/Early Intervention department, presented 14 contract amendments for two fiscal years for approval by commissioners. All of the contracts are covered under current allocation funding, meaning no additional taxpayer dollars are needed to cover the expenses.
Nine contract amendments for fiscal year 2023-24 totaling $42,046, including five for early intervention and two each for mental health and intellectual disabilities, were unanimously approved by commissioners.
Five contract amendments for fiscal year 2024-25 totaling $66,472 were also approved, including four for early intervention and one for intellectual disabilities. These expenses were for additional services provided by the department, according to Leahy.
Following up to a prior commission workshop on Wednesday, Aug. 21, they voted to provide $10,000 to the county’s America250PA committee for 2024. Wolgemuth noted he had received prior invoices, which was stated at the workshop to have been paid out-of-pocket by committee members, totaling $1,285.
Those invoices for t-shirts, coasters, pens, mileage reimbursement to regional meetings and room reservations were approved to be paid. Wolgemuth estimated expenditures for remaining outstanding invoices that have not been submitted for approval and payment to total between $2,000 and $3,000.
Read More: Lebanon County officials get funding requests for nation’s birthday celebration
In another move related to the committee that was formed to plan local events for the commemoration of the nation’s 250 birthday celebration in 2026, commissioners named Bonnie Loy of Daughters of American Revolution and Jane Yordy of Visit Lebanon Valley to the America250PA for Lebanon County committee.
In a separate item, commissioners discussed how to compensate hotel tax grant applicants when unencumbered funds ($14,957) as of this meeting were lower than the five requested funding amounts of $26,000.
Chairman Robert Phillips asked his colleagues how they wanted to approach the requests. Following about 15 minutes of discussion, two of the four applicants received funding totaling $4,000.
Hilltop Playground Association received $2,000 of a $4,000 request for its Cars for Kids car show at Hilltop Playground on Sept. 14 while Lebanon Community Theatre was awarded $2,000 of a requested $4,500 to promote its 2025 season.
Two prior funding requests, one for Motorama Productions in the amount of $7,500 and one for $5,000 for Penn State Extension’s Crop Conference, both of which had been tabled at the Aug. 15 meeting, were tabled once again.
Another application that was submitted since the program guidelines were changed from Susquehanna Valley Showdown for $5,000 for its 2025 jackpot show was also tabled.
The reason these three were tabled is because commissioners have considered at past meetings awarding grants based on each event’s chronological order.
Wolgemuth noted that Motorama Productions has been notified that the maximum grant amount had been changed to $5,000. However, that funding request has not officially been lowered to the maximum amount since it was received prior to new hotel tax grant program guidelines being approved.
The date of Motorama’s Dragfest event is Jan. 4-5, the one-day county extension program falls on Feb. 4 and showdown is next July. All three events will be held at the Lebanon Valley Exposition Center and Fairgrounds.
Meeting attendee Faith Bucks suggested commissioners should request which events are blocking rooms for their attendees as a way to ascertain which gatherings are generating hotel stays, which is how the program is funded. Commissioners did not comment on her suggestion.
It was noted several times during the meeting that the hotel tax is collected to support local events that “put heads in beds.”
In other county business, commissioners voted to:
- Approve a contract totaling $30,080 with Wilson Civil Engineering for a county bridge repair project on Jonestown Road over Swatara Creek at the west end of Jonestown Borough. The contract includes initial data collection and preliminary engineering fees.
- Sign a rental agreement with Myerstown Borough to lease space at the Myerstown Community Center, 101 S. Railroad St., for the county’s Area Agency on Aging department. The department has outgrown its current space, and new accommodations were sought for 250 senior citizens who utilize AAA services on a monthly basis in eastern Lebanon County. The agreement runs from Oct. 1, 2024, through Dec. 31, 2025, in the amount of $1,310 per month. The prior rent was $625. No additional taxpayer dollars are needed to cover the rent increase.
- Renew for five years property tax, billing and collection, tax claims and wEdge software with DEVNET at a rate of $20,582.10 per year through 2029 with the county’s Information Technology Services office. The IT department also entered into an iSeries Programming support retainer with M.A.P. Consulting Services for four hours per week at a rate of $125 per hour.
- Enter into a public utility right-of-way agreement with UGI Utilities on county-owned land in North Cornwall Township to provide service to the Lebanon Wastewater Treatment plant.
- Apply for a PA Counties Risk Pool grant from its insurance carrier totaling $1,279 to purchase a new automatic external defibrillator. The new AED machine will replace one whose battery stopped working and is no longer manufactured. The county’s insurance carrier provides annual grants for purchases that lower the county’s insurance risks.
- Apply for a RASA/VOJO grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency totaling $111,927. The Rights and Services Act (RASA) grant is for $82,064 while the Victims of Juvenile Offenders grant totals $29,863. It was noted this is a 5-percent decrease over the previous grant period.
- Proclaim September as Hunger Action Month.
- Provide exemptions from real estate tax for 10 fully disabled veterans.
- Approve the minutes of their Aug. 15 meeting and workshop and executive session on Aug. 21, the treasurer’s report and various personnel transactions. During personnel transactions, Phillips noted there is an ongoing issue with attrition within two years of county employees being hired, adding that workers used to stay employed long-term, including their entire careers.
Lebanon County Commissioners meet at 9:30 a.m. on the first and third Thursdays of the month in Room 207 of the county municipal building at 400 S. 8th St., Lebanon. Public workshops are held on an as-needed basis on Wednesdays at 1:30 p.m. at the same location. Meetings are announced at least 24 hours in advance on the county website.
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