That's right.
That's going to be really good.
Really, yeah.
Like to begin?
Yeah.
Good afternoon, commissioners.
Sir.
Pretty light agenda today.
And as usual, we'll go over just really quickly what we have on tonight's consent agenda.
In case you guys have any issues or concerns.
So just four items even on our consent agenda tonight.
Item A would be to approve the issuance of 2026 licenses for salvage order operations.
This is an 81.
Item B would be to authorize the western Maryland strong fund agreement.
This will allow the transfer of administration from social services to the western Maryland
long-term recovery group.
We're going to continue obviously in the long-term recovery up there.
Item C is to execute an MOU with the Maryland Department of Information Technology at the
terror site along Bishop Walsh Road.
This will allow them to construct and maintain communication equipment for Maryland first
statewide public safety communications.
No cost to us.
And finally, item D would be the reappointment of Kathy Snyder and David Hall as lay
board members on the Allegheny County Board of Appeals for classified employees.
They'll each have a three-year term.
Any concerns there?
No, sir.
No?
I guess, well, just in case anyone has any, we'll do departmental updates first.
Lee, I'll sort of do Lee if you want.
So first we had our, we had our open meetings and ethics training this afternoon.
We had approximately 30 of our employees and board members who attended in person
and approximately 20, about 20 more who attended virtually.
So good attendance today.
We went through, just made sure to provide some information to our boards on compliance
with the Open Meetings Act.
And then we had Kanzi Watson from the state attorney general's office.
She's assistant counsel to the state ethics commission.
She provided some training and updates to the board members as well on that.
So overall, well attended.
And we think it went well.
Good.
Thanks, Lee.
Adam, Roger, Kristi, any, any cakeers?
I guess George's Creek Ambulance Building is a team between us and Public Works.
But on our end, once the sprinkler system's in, we have all the painting done.
The bunk rooms are there.
Sink is ready to go.
All the radios are in place.
We're ready to open up.
We have the people aboard.
So when are you going to open then, Roger?
When the sprinkler system install is complete, which is in progress as we think.
I don't know.
Second week in January maybe?
It all depends on when I can get Brewer in there.
Yeah, and whatever.
Right now, we've, uh, Slick's team helped make the tap yesterday on Coney's waterline.
Yeah.
And Paul and Matt McKenzie have run the waterline into the first space.
Oh, okay.
So Brewer is, we need them.
Yeah, with the holidays.
Yes, it is.
It's really hard.
This is when I'm going to guess the end of January.
Yeah.
Adam, wasn't there something done with the sprinkler system before?
Was either halfway done or?
It is.
The board's majority of it is done.
Okay.
I couldn't recall.
Yeah, the biggest piece is connected to the water boundary that's going to be done here
next to NAMM.
Yeah, Adam, I think the original vendor declined to come back.
Correct.
Yes, I don't recall that.
Yeah.
Good.
Roger.
County engineer.
I know he's got a big one.
Dan?
I'll talk to you in a minute, but not everything else.
Okay.
Well, speaking of that, Dan can start to bring it up and talk about the little book Outdoor
Wellness Project.
All right, thank you guys for a chance to just give a brief update on where we're at
with this project here.
Appreciate President Jones coming from Allegheny College to hear this and just kind of keep
showing this good partnership we've had with them so far.
Just have a few kind of recaps of what we've done so far and then talk about where we're
at and just need kind of some thoughts from you guys on maybe how you'd like to proceed
and then we can talk about what the next steps are after that.
In front of you, just kind of there's two maps in the back of that.
Just a little list of bullet points there and they kind of show I guess what the
options are we have at this point.
Our main goal for this facility overall, and we've, as you know, kind of made the first
step toward that with the completion of the first phase last fall, our goal would be
to have a facility that can be used for outdoor recreation, to have a competitive
playing surface for soccer from the Pee Wee age all the way up through a collegiate
level.
We wish that they see to determine what field size they would need in order to
be able to host different events in a sanction type environment as well as
football from Pee Wee up through high school trying to make the field as multi-use
as possible on the turf there that's labeled football soccer field on that map.
And then also including some grass fields next to that but also wanting to be
mindful that we have a overall facility that's got usable restrooms,
perhaps even a concession stand, storage, adequate parking, spectator areas,
lighting, things like that.
So I'm going to talk more about that as we go here.
The first phase, as I mentioned, was completed last fall through a combination
of funds from Land Water Conservation Fund through the Park Service,
local parks and playgrounds and program open space.
We had a contract with excavating associates and then we also did some
work in-house that constructed is the result of all that work.
The entrance road into the site.
We had an outdoor classroom pavilion put in 3,000 feet or so of a walking
trail.
The Kinetic Fitness Court, which we had a ceremony back in last October to open
that up to let the public do a variety of different exercises which maybe
they wouldn't have before but we got a grant for that and it's a neat
facility that hopefully we get a lot of use out of when the rest of the
facility is built here.
We have about 20 parking spaces next to what will be the future turf field
and built the first round of store monitor management.
The bridge crossing that we put in to get over to the future turf field
area was an old railroad tanker car that we were able to get was a good
repurpose of that.
Pretty exciting project, turned out really well,
completed with our in-house construction crews.
Where we're at now, phase two of this project would be everything at least
up here on the map that's shown there, kind of in the red color.
You also have that map here in front of you.
There's, I guess, a few decisions to be made and before I get into
that, I just want to make sure that I kind of state what should be
obvious.
I hope that this is not a project that's directly competing against
nor is it borrowing from any funds that we're using to try to
complete ongoing flood recovery efforts.
This is a separate issue to date.
It's just requiring our in-house engineering time to work through
and any of the funds that we're talking about thus far are grant-related
or looking at other agencies to help us out.
So this isn't really detracting from the ongoing efforts that we've been
completing for the last seven months in response to the flood.
The second phase, our need here is to have a facility that's functional
and usable from the jump.
So that has to include a lot of elements.
As part of different events out of town that I've gone to with my own kids,
we're trying to avoid a scenario where you show up and you have a beautiful
deter field, but then there's three porta pots and a gravel parking lot
and it doesn't support hundreds of people using it.
So we want to be mindful of having a good field and then also having
the infrastructure around it to support having large crowds there
to try to make this really a good area and something that we could use
to attract people.
We currently have up to $1.8 million in funding from Land and Water Conservation
from Conservation Fund, which is through the park service
to be able to leverage all of that money.
We have to match it 100%.
We've been able to leverage just over $1.2 million of that already
through about $225,000 through Program Open Space.
And the whole parcel that you see here shown is currently property of Allegheny College.
They have graciously agreed to donate that to the county for this purpose.
The value of that land donation leverages about another million dollars
that we can then use for construction from those LWCF funds.
To get the remaining almost $600,000 in funding,
we need to identify either additional cash and or in-kind services
that we can provide to the site through a variety of different manners.
I'll talk more about that in a minute.
To get a really type of facilities and site we want to have out there,
our total project cost at this point would be estimated to be
somewhere between $3.5 and $4 million.
So there's going to be a difference in the neighborhood of about $1.7 million
or more that we need to talk about here to find out how aggressively
you guys would like us to pursue some of these different options.
So the Phase 2, the base build out, which is kind of what I have shown here in red.
I'm just going to kind of read through the things that it covers.
And then we can talk about maybe what some of the additional opportunities
might be to see maybe where we leant and then we can go from there.
So the Phase 2 base, which is just, like I said, something that we really think is just
that we need to have all of these things in order to make it a usable
and safe and functional facility.
It has an artificial turf field for football and soccer use, as I mentioned.
Two natural grass fields next to the turf field,
which can be used for a variety of different purposes.
Stadium lighting for the turf field.
Spectator seating just sets of bleachers for the turf field.
The necessary goal posts, soccer goals, team benches and things to support
those activities on the turf field.
A perimeter fence for the turf field to keep mostly deer out
and other people out that shouldn't be on there.
Additional parking as shown there to support the increased use in that area.
Restroom and storage building that can support enough people
being there to need an adequate restroom facility.
That's one of the biggest things here that we really want to make sure we get right.
Extending the walking trail so it ties in again with the existing walking trail at AC
and extends even further back into the woods to provide another avenue for people
which is already a very popular walking and exercise area down there
and the other necessary store monitor management facilities.
All of those things added up.
If we were to put that out for bids right now,
we would probably be in summer in the neighborhood of about $3.5 million.
It's hard to really nail down exactly what it would cost
because field turf, stadium lights, things like that are not obviously very common items
but based on information we have from other local projects
thinking that's something that we're pretty close and comfortable with that number.
Okay, can you move to the next one, please?
So the green here show which is the second map in the packet.
I passed out here as well.
It's basically all the same things but there's a few additional things
that we think that if we're going this route of trying to find additional funding
this would really kind of represent which would be a really great use,
full build out of this type of facility for us
and really the only real additions to this would be adding additional
sight lighting along the entrance road to make it easy to see as you're coming in
instead of just over at the field area.
Putting in an additional pavilion, just thinking mostly of my own experiences
with my own family going to areas where there's inclement weather
and you're stuck waiting for games to pass
and having another place to go that's under cover.
The pavilion we constructed in the first phase was very nice
and it would be good to have an additional one available
for folks to use while they're using this area.
A playground area next to the fitness course that is already there
to support just a variety of use for young children
and then a scoreboard for the turf field.
So a few things to consider.
Those items added together would probably add around a half million to the total cost.
So we'd be looking somewhere depending on what we settle on
with all those things somewhere between three and a half and four million dollars
if we would put all of those things out for bid.
Trying to determine the best way to go about
how to leverage opportunities for in-kind participation.
Engineering and things like that obviously are being covered through our department.
There's an opportunity perhaps to take advantage of some county construction services
through some trucking, some hauling, and maybe even some grading on-site
wanting to be mindful of what makes the most sense
but also it would potentially save some money
in terms of being able to use our own current equipment
but need to maybe kind of see what makes the most sense
for that going ahead.
Also trying to work with either our own and house crews
or perhaps the city of Cumberland to make the water and sewer connections
for this area.
The other piece of this that is worth maybe considering
it's something that would be new for us
because we don't have obviously a large number of recreational facilities
but I'm sure you guys have seen when we go to different stadiums
they're named whatever whatever field or such and such
whatever concession stand.
There's obviously a lot of potential sponsorship opportunities
that would bring in some additional cash for a facility like this
including not limited to but the field surface itself
some of the lights that they were going to get
a kind of a paved walkway around the football field
not a track but just like a paved walkway
defense itself, some of the goal posts, the goals, the bleachers
scoreboard, the restroom facility itself.
The parking lot, signs, landscaping, all those types of things, depending on how far we want to go with that, there's a potential opportunity to maybe obtain a lot of the cash that we would need through sponsorship from local businesses or organizations.
So kind of wrapping this up here, the facility obviously is going to provide a lot of opportunities and benefits for the city of Cumberland being located within the city limits, Allegheny College and also just Allegheny County in general.
Our recommendations at this point, based on our experience with similar type projects like this in the past, I mean obviously the turf field construction is something new for us, but in terms of working on a park or a recreation type facility, we've done it a few different times, mostly related to the gap trail, but we recommend working with the city of Cumberland to ask for some cash contributions from them.
We've received similar contributions in the past from the city of Frostburg when we've done projects along the trail and also the Miners Memorial Park.
They even consider asking them for assistance with making the water service connection to the site.
We're not recommending asking Allegheny College for additional cash at this point because their band donation is what's enabled about a million dollars in construction funding for the project up to date, which is more than generous.
The commissioners obviously were completing the design and the construction management in-house, which would be a substantial savings as opposed to going out and putting that to bid to a consulting firm.
Any other cash contribution requirements that are left, which potentially would need to be brought before you all would obviously be determined by our scope, minus whatever else we're able to put together for funding.
I guess the decision or the consideration on your parts at this point would be trying to determine if this is something that would be appropriate to ask our local delegation to bring before the state legislature to see if any type of capital funding or appropriations might be available to help us close that gap.
And my expectation is that something that they could consider that obviously we'd want to be able to help you guys put together whatever that type of information is that you would need to be able to make that request.
And just wanted to kind of get your thoughts on that because that would probably represent the lion's share of what additional funding we would need to get from where we're at with the OWCF monies to what the anticipated overall contractor bid would be.
Adam, is there anything else you want to add to that?
I think we've been just twinging around with the idea on how to maximize this money for a long period of time.
Recently, I invited David in.
Basically, a lot of the people I lean on, some expertise, I invited Jay Marley in from the Board of Education, Bobby Smith from City of Cumberland, and Dan and I.
We just sat around and talked about having been to these facilities.
Jay Marley responds for maintaining these types of facilities.
The idea doesn't make sense for our county to try to push forward now and provide an opportunity with an artificial turf field, or should we save the money and do the grass complex.
So we, I think, collectively just shared different ideas and we felt it's in the county's best interest at this point in time.
I think we need to push forward to try to get this type of facility with an artificial turf field, with a full restroom building, with storage, with the adequate parking, with the lighting.
And I think it's appropriate for us to be able to talk to Cumberland.
I think it's also would be, maybe talk to the state, how can we bring this type of project to completion now?
I think the idea of being able to utilize some local businesses and such to be able to help partner with us for some of the small pieces is a good idea.
But I would rather shoot for, you know, let's get this whole thing funded.
And then if we fall short, then maybe we go about that way.
So I think it was important that we had the right people at the table before we had a chance to talk to you.
So it just wasn't Adam and Dan coming up with this artificial turf field complex that we can't afford.
I've traveled to these facilities and I know these guys do now, too.
But we need one of these. I mean, we really do.
I know this past fall, there were teams, soccer teams, looking for fields, okay?
Granite Riverside had some damage as a result of flood.
Some of the middle school football teams have been bounced around, mainly the Allegheny feeder team.
They were at the old Allegheny field and now we have construction going on there.
So they've been just like no home field.
So I feel with a turf field, with lighting on an evening such as tonight where it is 50 degrees in mild.
You will have kids on that field at six o'clock at night playing.
When you guys talk about the timeline here and the delegation, are you referring to this session?
Or would it be a place for them? What are you referring to?
We would like to get in on this session.
So the 1.8 has kind of been set aside, this LWCF.
It's not necessarily like 1.8 is ready to spend, but it's been set aside.
And we're going to make an application to DNR.
And then we're going to work with the Federal Agency.
Park Service.
And that money is not available until next fall.
But the request has to be put in now.
We have to identify the scope.
And in my mind, the scope that we identify for LWCF funding is the turf field.
Because in 15 years time, plus for a couple of years, when it's time to replace that turf field,
we can go, hey, open space.
We need you to come to the table now to replace this turf field.
And now we have a turf field that's in place for 30 plus years.
Okay.
So I think between what we can do in-house on our floor with design,
I think what we perhaps can orchestrate between Cumberland County
and what we can accomplish with some in-kind services for some of the general rough construction.
I think we should do that to a certain extent.
But I think it would be fantastic.
We can get Cumberland's money.
We can get some money from the state.
We will put out a really nice project just so we can be proud of it.
Commissioner Zantho, our delegation has, in recent past,
talked a lot about regional recreation as being a priority.
And particularly, Delegate Buckle has really expressed that's a priority for him.
Dan and Adam talked about being at these events.
I was just on the eastern shore with my sons.
And we were talking about the fact that there's a $30 million indoor-outdoor facility going in
on the eastern shore, or entirely devoted to regional recreation.
So I think the time for the state to support a project like this is really prime.
With our delegation behind it, I think it makes sense to prioritize it
to the extent that we're able to get their support.
And outside of the flood, Commissioner,
is the only thing we've asked the delegation for so far will be to take down the smokestacks at the mill.
So there's cost there for sure, but generally,
I think they'd have some capacity for the project.
So the time's probably good if you want these guys to kind of start to rate this up
or we could get a letter together.
Absolutely.
Maybe at our next meeting to go downstate to our delegation,
whoever we need, we'll figure out who we need to get it to,
to make the request if that's something you guys want to do.
Yeah, people will come.
Yeah.
It sounds just like the movie.
Well, it's much needed.
Well, yeah, it is needed.
Because we have how many people always want to use this.
It was more ground back here, this field behind us,
which is nice to get to walk through.
Yeah.
Yeah, we did entertain a long time ago.
Yeah.
Right there.
That upper part, does that border with the,
would be considered a Libby property, I guess, up that way?
This is the country thought.
And just so to give you a little bit of reference,
when you come out on Old Willowbrook,
so you can turn down into the campus here if you'd like
and then work your way to the back
and then pop up onto this road right here.
But what you're going to do is you're going to go past,
here's some college housing,
an H housing here, I think 55 and above.
And you can work your way around on this road here
and you can come down in.
There's a small parking lot here with the building completed.
Continue down the hill.
Okay, you're going to go across this bridge.
You can come up onto the hill here
and then you can sit in this parking lot
and you can turn and look down towards
evens at that point
and you can kind of visualize with all this,
how it's always sitting in here.
But that's all completed.
If you haven't been out there, I'd recommend you.
If you ride out or else if you're walking around,
this connection from the AC mile loop now
is already there and you can get over on it.
And what did we have in place
as far as continued maintenance?
Did we have like an idea?
As far as funding or how we've arranged?
Cutting the grass, just, you know.
David said he's cut the grass.
Okay.
He said in 9.8 or in 988 he started cutting the grass.
Thank you, David.
That's the artificial field.
A lot of those decisions are going to depend,
I guess, on how large in scope we go.
I mean, the parking, the building,
plowing, things like that,
I think between cooperation between the city,
between County and Allegheny College,
I think it's something that's pretty easy to figure out,
but no specifics yet,
just depending on how far we end up going.
I think if you get used to the fields,
I think they'll help you.
They can help maintain some of the,
we'll have a dumpster there.
They can use the building,
have some of these operations and maintenance agreements,
but the idea is we would put together a committee,
that we would have the right people at the table
to make sure that the field is shared
the way it needs to be.
But this last summer, our summer helpers cut this.
My college kids who come in
and help work with Dave Hawkins and those guys,
they cut it.
The city plows it,
and campus security locks a gate at night.
So that's how we're set up right now.
To Lee's point,
you know, if you can also,
that could be a selling point,
is bringing tournaments in,
travel teams and stuff like that,
and really utilizing and bringing those,
you know, dollars into the county as well.
I mean, that could be a big...
We talked about that,
and we like to be able to think big,
be able to get one of these tournaments,
and I've gone to some of these in Pennsylvania
where sometimes they're playing behind a church,
and then the next thing,
you're on another high school field 20 miles away.
So nothing's out of the question,
that you couldn't play here,
you couldn't play Riverside,
you couldn't play even Greenway,
Bishop Walsh,
and it wouldn't be far to travel to Mountain Ridge.
And then you have Glen Denny,
so something like that,
we just need a good volunteer base
to do the food.
I think it's a great project.
I think so too.
Do you guys want them to start to pull
the numbers together?
And guys, I would suggest maybe
the low number and the high number,
what you need,
and potentially a way to show how we could face it
in case the state would come back
and say, hey, we can give you half a million this year
and half a million next.
Okay, that's fine as long as it works.
If you guys can do that,
you can find out who we need to get it to
at the state so they can kind of incorporate it
in the capital request.
If you guys are good for this.
It's great.
We need it for a while.
We get calls here all the time.
I get hit up all the time.
For fields.
I'm sure we can do that.
Well, thank you very much.
It's a good partnership.
As always.
Yeah.
We had a lot of fun.
We talked to him about the possibilities.
He agreed like
you end up having a scheduled game
up here and they have a very nice grass field
over there.
But all of a sudden you get some type of September
thunderstorm and now you can end up
perhaps abusing your field.
Well let's walk 100 yards
and use the afternoons.
Use the two yards over there for the afternoons.
Sounds like a way to help potential.
That's amazing.
Bring it slowly.
Just bring us the money and we'll get it done.
We'll work on it.
You mentioned a lot of pride.
We don't need to say a lot more, so that's great.
Very good.
Personally.
Yeah, thank you.
No, thank you, guys.
Thank you guys very much.
They've been working on this a long time.
Yeah, it's something that's been needed for a long time.
We definitely don't have enough fields for everything
that's going on.
No, to find a piece of ground that's
got 80% of the infrastructure already in place.
Yeah, that's, again, that good partnership with the college.
Yeah.
You know.
I think today is sort of pre-COVID.
It's pretty crazy that it's been going on a long time.
Yep.
Before we can accelerate this thing and get a nice facility
to open it.
When we get the money, I mean, it's going to be right
on board with you.
Yeah, yeah.
And I mean, just for clarity, too,
I know the state's got their budget issues,
but this would not be, you know, this isn't something they
built in the budget.
This is something they typically bond out.
They do those projects pretty well,
regardless of budget, just the size of the bond a little bit.
And we get an allegation on it.
And this is a huge ask per the state's request
that they will put in for a bond.
And that's kind of our thought.
If we're going to ask, let's ask,
yeah, what we need to make it work or not.
But we're getting such a small piece compared
to what the state bonds going to be.
But I'm hopeful still that they'll
view the flood assistance.
Yeah.
Hopefully they won't say, oh, you're getting all this
and you're not going to get anything else.
I think that's conversations we had with the state.
That's a disaster-run plan.
That was the capital project necessary to get it.
Let's hope, yeah.
The last conversation I had when we were down there is they understood that they're two separate issues and that just because we may get funding for the flood doesn't mean we're not going to get anything else.
They were very receptive to that in our last meeting with them.
Let's get into writing.
But I recorded it on my phone.
What else we got?
That's it. Do you guys have any other questions?
No. Good.
I like it.
Moving forward.
Again, thank you.
You guys have put a lot of time into it.
Because I know that that's kind of stalled open when it took off, it really took off.
They did a great job.
They always do.
Wait until you see it.
You'll be proud of it.
Seven dumpsters of trash.
No kidding.
That's not accounting building materials.
The best day. I hope that that station sits here and none of them.
That would be the best day in Allegheny County if no one had to go.
It's a valuable service and a key location.
Thank you.
See you.
A little bit.
Thanks guys.
Looks good.
Can you get up?
Boy, that was a good one.