North Strabane moves forward with new building plans
North Strabane Township is moving ahead with plans to acquire new property, which will likely serve as an updated municipal building.
Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday for township manager Andy Walz to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the Mikec family. The township intends to purchase their property, the former site of Lighthouse Electric, at 1957 Route 519, Canonsburg, which sits adjacent to the current municipal building property.
The building at the site would be renovated and used as a new township administration building, said Walz. The rest of the property would be subdivided and used for a parking lot and the township’s salt shed.
“We’ve been looking to build a new township building since before I arrived here,” said Walz, who has served as township manager for five years. “The nice thing there is we’ll have a campus. We’ll be able to tie in with the park.”
According to township research, at the top of residents’ wish lists is an indoor recreation center, Walz said. The plan is to move the township admin building to the new property, once it’s purchased, and tear down the current municipal building. An indoor recreation center that can be used year-round would be constructed in its place.
“We’re excited to enter into some discussions with the owners (the Mikecs),” Walz said.
Also Tuesday, township supervisors voted to adopt a new ordinance for wireless communications facilities.
The ordinance comes after the state and federal governments released a new policy governing those facilities. Walz said the Federal Communications Commission deemed 5G towers safe, and the state and federal government permit them to be placed anywhere in a public right- of-way.
North Strabane’s new ordinance establishes standards for the construction, location, placement and maintenance of tower-based and non-tower-based and small wireless communications facilities.
The ordinance does not include township districts zoned as A, because those areas were missed in the documents, council President Neil Kelly said during Tuesday’s meeting. However, the ordinance may be amended at any time and will likely be updated again in 2025, when the township completes a new comprehensive plan, Walz said.
The board also voted unanimously to purchase a new server for the police department for $78,575.99. The new server includes enough bandwidth for the department’s new cameras.
“This is a system that’s built for the future,” Walz said.
Walz said the township could have leased the server system, but it is more cost-effective to purchase. The price of the system, he said, increases by 10% starting next month.