Franklin County Department of Emergency Services to move

Cumberland Valley Business Park building to get $1.3 million makeover

April 18, 2008|By DON AINES

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. -- A nondescript warehouse in the Cumberland Valley Business Park will be getting a $1.3 million makeover later this year to become the new headquarters of the Franklin County Department of Emergency Services.

On Thursday the Board of County Commissioners awarded contracts to the lowest bidders. The money will be used to upgrade about 14,000 square feet of the 18,000-square-foot Building 426, which the county has leased from the Letterkenny Industrial Development Authority since 2004.

Once the notice to proceed is given to the contractors, the job is supposed to be completed within 240 days, County Chief Administrator John Hart said.

General construction will be performed by GRC General Contractor of Zullinger, Pa., for $498,500; heating and air-conditioning by Stouffer Mechanical of Chambersburg for $240,589; electrical by Midstate Mechanical of Mechanicsburg, Pa., for $419,593; and plumbing and fire suppression by Kings Fire Protection for $131,238.

Once completed, the building will become home to the 911 dispatch center, hazardous materials, emergency operations center and other functions of the department. Building 426 will provide those emergency services with about twice the space now available to them in the basement of the courthouse annex.

The county will pay about $700,000 out of its capital improvements budget on Building 426, with additional funds coming from state grants and money left over from the county's public safety radio system improvement project, the Agricultural Heritage Center, Hart said two weeks ago when the bids were opened.

The county is in the fourth year of a five-year , $56,000 a year contract with LIDA for the building, Hart said. The county has options to renew the lease for up to 20 years, with the annual fee dropping to $1,000 a month in June 2009, Hart said.

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