HOLLIDAYSBURG — Blair County commissioners are poised to vote today on an ordinance signifying their intention to seize two parcels of land in Allegheny Township for a new prison.

Since last week when Geoff Behrens, vice president and general manager of the Alto-Reste Park Cemetery Association, announced his organization’s opposition to the proposed seizure, hundreds of county residents have spoken against the proposed site, including ones expected to attend today’s 10 a.m. commissioners meeting at the courthouse.

Two online petitions, available through the change.org website, had a combined 6,230 signatures as of Wednesday night.

The opposition had also drawn attention from local politicians, including state Sen. Judy Ward, R-Blair, who has no vote in the decision, but deemed the county’s proposed plan of taking land from a cemetery as “not in the best interest of the community.”

While the plan involves no current burial grounds, the proposed seizure involves 77 acres of a 200-acre site designated for future burial grounds.

“This may be the only time that you will get the chance to let (commissioners) hear directly from you before they make a decision,”

Behrens said in an online message to family and friends of Alto-Reste Park who are voicing their opposition to building a prison near grounds where their loved ones are buried.

“The Good Family has been hearing your voice loud and clear,” Behrens stated in the message, referencing his family that operates and maintains the cemetery founded 100 years ago by R.P. Good. “Now, it’s time to let them hear from you.”

Today’s commissioners meeting agenda includes, among several actions, a proposed vote to adopt an ordinance authorizing the use of eminent domain procedures to acquire land for building a prison to replace the aged prison on Mulberry Street that’s regularly criticized as outdated, overcrowded and run-down.

Based on a study, the preferred site consists of 75 to 77 acres that Alto-Reste owns behind the former Calvin House restaurant and that is targeted for future use.

The second parcel of nearly nine acres, with frontage on West Plank Road that will offer access to the proposed prison, is part of a 19-acre site that owner Dorothy Ventura doesn’t want to sell, according to her son, Russell, who lives in the suburban Philadelphia area.

“That 19-acre site is more valuable as a whole site and we don’t want to sell just part of it,” Ventura told the Mirror. “Its value rests with commercial development and the county shouldn’t be buying valuable commercial property for a prison.”

Ventura said he, just like Behrens, learned of the county’s interest in the parcel in January when the county made what he referred to as “a ridiculously low offer.”

Ventura also said Tuesday that no one from the county contacted him about the initiation of eminent domain proceedings.

Commissioners, who in February heard representatives from TranSystems detail pros and cons of three sites evaluated for the prison, cast a 2-to-1 vote a week ago to advertise their intent to move forward with eminent domain proceedings. While Commissioners Dave Kessling and Amy Webster voted yes, Commissioner Laura Burke voted no after a lack of support for putting the vote on hold for a week. The advertisement for the proposed ordinance to exercise eminent domain proceedings was printed in the Saturday/Sunday edition of the Mirror, indicating that commissioners will consider it at today’s meeting.

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