HOLLIDAYSBURG — Blair County will receive a $185,400 state grant to cover the cost of a proposed study for building a new prison.

State Sen. Judy Ward, R-Blair, announced the news Tuesday during the Blair County commissioners meeting, where she commended the commissioners for their forward thinking to address the 154-year-old facility.

“It’s a logical first step,” Ward said of the study.

While commissioners voted in March to seek a Local Share Account grant from the Commonwealth Financing Agency’s gaming revenue proceeds, Ward said the forthcoming $185,400 grant will be provided by the state Department of Community and Economic Development.

“During the state budget development,” Ward later told the Mirror, “I asked for money for this study based on the meeting I had earlier this year with Commissioner Bruce Erb. DCED puts money aside for projects like this, and I was thrilled to learn that Blair County will get it.”

The county’s application with the Commonwealth Financing Agency, expected to meet in late September, had no guarantee of approval from what is regarded as a highly competitive process.

In response to Ward’s announcement at the commissioners’ meeting, Erb thanked the senator for looking out for the county’s needs and securing money for the study that the county wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford.

“We are just really, really grateful,” Erb said after the meeting.

The work involved in the proposed study, along with the study’s $185,400 price tag, were spelled out in a document that TranSystems Corp. Consultants of Pennsylvania, the successor to L. Robert Kimball & Associates of Ebensburg, prepared as part of the application the county submitted to the Commonwealth Financing Agency.

Based on that document, TranSystems proposes to spell out how to design and build a new prison that meets the county’s needs and desires along with a projected cost.

Before looking into the county’s options for financing the cost of the proposed project, a projected cost has to be identified, Erb said.

The proposed study — to be completed in about four months — also proposes preliminary evaluations of potential sites and an in-depth evaluation of a preferred site.

Commissioner Amy Webster said she, too, was glad to hear of Ward’s success in pursuing the DCED grant for the prison study.

“We have to do something down there,” Webster said. “We don’t need a Taj Mahal, but we do need something that’s not as cramped as what we have now.”

While the county has built additions to the prison since the original 1868 construction, it has also converted interior areas for housing, thereby limiting space for other options.

While the prison has a gym, it sometimes becomes temporary housing. During the COVID-19 pandemic, inmates with symptoms were assigned beds in the gym to isolate them from others.

Webster said Tuesday that she thinks the county will have to move toward building a new prison because renovating the current one isn’t feasible.

“There’s not an economic or practical way of renovating the (current) facility that would comply with the laws of the United States, the Department of Justice or even the borough of Hollidaysburg,” Webster said.

As for covering the cost, Webster said this kind of project will have to be financed while the county looks for some additional money to offset the cost.

“For now,” Webster said, “I’m glad that the money came through for this study.”

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.