City Council will decide in two weeks whether to accept a bid on the former City Hall at the corner of West Fourth and Hepburn Streets in Williamsport. KAREN VIBERT-KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

A preliminary report by BKV (Group) Architects showed a refurbished Williamsport City Hall at 245 W. Fourth St. could be designed and constructed for about $28 million. The figures discussed publicly just three years ago were a remodeling for $5 million to $8 million.

To refurbish a building on Pine and Fourth streets, occasionally cited as a possible seat of government, would be in the mid-$60 million range, as would constructing a combined government police facility on a parcel in the east end of downtown, according to cost “estimates” the firm’s employees presented to council and the administration in a 120-page preliminary study on City Hall and city government facilities.

BKV members said they will be working on a four- to- six-week timeline to fine tune it and return a final study report. The work session, where no action was taken, involved sharing information in the report, receiving input and initial thoughts from the council and the administration and hearing from interested parties.

City Hall has been unoccupied since August 2021. The city is following a federal consent decree that it must be made accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act to be reoccupied, Mayor Derek Slaughter said.

A year ago, the council asked for the city to put out a request for proposals for architectural firms. The city received many responses and went through a selection process, and ultimately awarded it to BKV Group in the April-May timeframe, Council President Adam Yoder said.

The kick-off meeting was in late May, and an updated meeting occurred in late summer with the city economic revitalization committee chaired by Council Vice President Eric Beiter.

The council now has a preliminary report on the options for the building and city government operations.

Assisting over the next few weeks will be Kelly Naylor, a partner at BKV Group, whose lead role is that of city hall planning. She introduced Craig Carter, the partner in charge of the project, and who presented a portion of the material. Paul Michell, Government Practice Leader and partner who focused on public safety aspects, and Joe Brown, an expert on historic preservation.

The purpose of the study was to initially assess the city hall building, to see what condition it was in and how it may be able to be utilized for a city hall. In addition, the company did a space-needs study – to look at what was required now and 10 to 20 years from now for city hall staffing and support spaces, Naylor said.

The existing city hall structure was looked at in terms of its value and whether it could be retained and used. Among the changes that will be required is to find enough parking spaces for police, staff and the public, Carter said.

The work session discussion involved sharing information in the report, including the condition of the existing structure, needs to replace the mechanical, electrical, plumbing and telecommunications, historical aspects of the building, space needs for the Bureau of Police, options and costs to remodel, refurbish another building, and to construct a combined city hall and public safety facility in eastern downtown on a parcel potentially available for that purpose. It also included a time when people could provide their thoughts and expressions from Council and the administration.

If the historic building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, would be constructed today it would take $60 million to $70 million to build it, Carter said.

He said a private developer would be permitted to demolish and redevelop this existing property.

There has been an offer to purchase the building from JBAS Realty of Jessup, which is in the half a million dollar range. Council tabled that decision on accepting or rejecting the bid in order to get more clarity and guidance from architects.

Councilman Jon Mackey noted how there may be other factors for the council and administration to consider, such as the median income of those in Williamsport of $44,000. He was appreciative of the mayor for doing the best he could for the city and its employees by temporarily relocating them in safe and secure offices around the city.

Mackey, turning to the details of the public safety portion of the study, expressed concern that the architects had not put the specific city police spatial needs in the study rather than adding what might be feasible for other departments across the nation, including an indoor firearms range.

“Why wasn’t that done?” he asked, adding that the preliminary study was supposed to be presented in the fall and it is February, and that the 77,000 square foot concept did not sound right for the department needs. BKV’s architects said the preliminary study was only a template that can be adjusted accordingly. BKV provided the city officials with options; its officials were adamant they do not dictate final decisions.

The issues at hand

City Hall was closed due to the building not being accessible under federal law and the mayor and codes officials having safety concerns caused by water leakage causing the presence of mold and mildew, which was tested and determined to “be inside and mitigatable.” That December, when the building was closed, and city offices were relocated temporarily, a burst pipe sprayed water inside covering floors.

The decision on whether to sell or remodel, refurbish another building or build something new, comes as the faces a $2 million to $3 million deficit heading into 2026.

The city recently passed a tax increase of .33 mills, and has been told by the finance director there is a 1 to 3 mill tax increase potentially in 2026 if there are no changes.

Moreover, the work session discussion touched on how there was a legal firm hired to negotiate with the Federal Transit Administration, which says the city owes $1.48 million due to actions by a former city administrator regarding use of state and federal grants and management of the former River Valley Transit, now River Valley Transit Authority.

Auditors are working on getting clean or as accurate as possible audits and Slaughter said the administration will be presenting a financial management “action” plan to address the pending fiscal matters at hand.

Councilwoman Liz Miele observed, once the auditors complete their work, the city will have a sense on whether or not it can borrow potentially for any one of these decided projects.

The city, she said, although not wanting to take on any more debt, has a debt ceiling of $30 million to $40 million.

She also observed how “everything federally is completely in flux.”

Miele highlighted two paragraphs in the draft report within the executive summary. It says the following: “A functional review of City Hall staff was not within the scope of this study because staff are distributed over several small suites downtown and at public works. The decision to move out of City Hall was the correct decision but we would be remiss if we did not comment that the current scattered arrangement of City Hall functionality is noticeably dysfunctional. The staff, understandably and through no fault of their own, has lost connection with the workings of government outside of their particular silo. This is harmful to staff morale and overtime will significantly impact the functionality and efficiency of government. The institutional knowledge and connections that develop with a truly functional city government facility take time to build but are critical to providing support to citizens in need. Those intangibles will continue to erode until staff is back under one roof and if there are key resignations and/or retirements in the interim the city will feel the impacts for a significant period of time. A review of the current police station facilities was not within the scope of the study, but the existing split across (three or four) buildings is an immediate concern due to the operational inefficiencies, the lack of administrative oversight of the patrol division, the challenges of maintaining evidence, chain of custody, the morale damage from inappropriate facilities for patrol staff and the concerns about protecting the health and safety of the officers. A new police station should be an important priority for the City of Williamsport.”

“I think it is important that we need to do something,” Miele said. “That we don’t wait four or five years to determine what our next steps are.”

Councilman Randy Allison said the BKV preliminary study has provided good information, concrete solid data to work with as the city decides.

“I want to thank you guys,” said Lisa Fink, who added, “it’s really nice that you’re being fiscally responsible.” “I just wanted to point out we started this about three years ago and we were talking about $5 million to $8 million, and we were all like ‘oh, we don’t have $5 million to $8 million and we can’t put that into the building,'” she said. “Geez, I wish we would have done that.”

She also made a reference to a statement by Miele that something must be done – as the report pointed out the inefficiency and confusion caused by the spreading out of city departments in various offices in different locations.

“City Hall is the only building the city owns, therefore, renovations could be in as soon as funds are procured,” Fink said. “The other options add years to the process.”

She also referenced how the report detailed how the building constructed in 1891 was in good condition. “Anything 134 years old is in good shape . .. anything renovated in 1979 needs to be replaced,” she said. “Why would we build an entirely new building when we would know it would have to be replaced 40 or 50 years from now?” she asked.

Developer and Pajama Factory co-owner, Mark Winkelman, asked two questions based on square footage and logistics. He asked if City Hall is 52,000 square feet and if the city needs 27,000 square feet for city government.

Yoder confirmed that was true.

“That means there is 25,000 square feet that could be utilized some other way if it is organized in a different fashion,” Winkelman said. “Instead of taking the ground floor for parking, maybe that can be commercial use and move the city hall (operations) upstairs a little bit. That may influence cash flow and the value of the project,” he said.

Winkelman also asked about the accessible parking spot complexities.

Carter answered by saying there are a couple of ways to provide accessible parking to the building. The parking requirements are to make sure the closest parking stalls are accessible. There are loopholes associated with that, but Carter said his suspicion was the solution may be calling Government Place (to the east) an alley and establishing accessibility from stalls there by making it flat, adding a stable sidewalk surface leading to the existing ramp in the front and arranging for a parallel parking space on the front of the building.

For staff, accessible parking stalls likely would be behind the building, which present more challenges, he said. Such design would require either significant regrading to bring the level of the parking to the first floor or ground for or a little bit of both.

The existing rear building ramp is not that far off, but the configuration of the stalls do not come close to the ADA requirements. The asphalt area is too steep. It is plausible to put accessible parking in but not critical to do parking inside the building, Carter said.

The indoor parking at the building is in the report, so members of the committee and council who were curious could see how that would work. It is not the only option for providing parking but the most parking on the site.

“I love Williamsport for all its historic buildings,” said Kelly Spitler. “I hope we preserve it,” she said of City Hall. “It is one of the things that makes Williamsport special.” Spitler calculated based on city population and the proposed remodeling cost, that it could be done for $20 a year per taxpayer. “Sign me up,” she said.