DUNCANSVILLE — After two rounds of public auctions — and two different realtors — the Borough of Duncansville has finally found a buyer for the currently unused municipal building.

The building sale, for $170,000 to a local business owner, was announced during a Monday night meeting.

That came as a relief to Borough Manager Rodney Estep, since the building had gone unsold for nearly four months.

Borough Council had initially listed the property for sale with L&H Realty Group in November after two unsuccessful public auctions earlier in the fall, then switched to RE/MAX in February to pursue a more “aggressive” marketing strategy, Estep said.

The Third Avenue building previously housed the borough office, police station and conference room, all of which have been relocated to the nearby Community Center.

Proceeds from the sale will be used to pay off a portion of the roughly $350,000 in loans for the first renovation phase for the Community Center building, which concluded in fall 2024 just before the general election.

Borough Council had received an appraisal for the municipal building for $257,000 in the fall, and maintained this target through the two auctions and subsequent real estate agent listings.

According to Estep, there was no interest from the market at that price, which is why they accepted the lower amount.

The first phase included a suite of construction work to build the new borough office and police station in the opposite end of the Community Center building from the Duncansville Fire Hall.

The expansion allowed for a police headquarters more than double the size of the previous location, and additional facilities and space for the borough secretary office.

In the planned second phase, the borough will use grant funding to add new technology to the Community Center building, including publicly available, computer-equipped offices for a variety of uses, including virtual job interviews and telehealth appointments.

Other business

Later in the meeting, Borough Council agreed to schedule a public meeting at 7 p.m. March 26 on a proposed cell tower construction project. The proposal calls for a 125-foot cell tower to be built by AT&T on Stone Way near the Antique Depot on Third Avenue.

Duncansville residents are encouraged to attend the meeting to discuss the cell tower proposal, Estep said.

The council also approved a payment structure for an extensive ordinance codification project with General Code.

The proposal was initially on the agenda for the borough council meeting in February, but was tabled in order to give the borough secretary time to get clarification on the payment schedule from General Code.

This structure would see the total $18,000 cost split evenly between the Borough Council and the Duncansville Municipal Sewer and Water Authority, paid in installments over three years.

Codification would include collecting years of resolutions and ordinances issued by the borough, and would collect them into a publicly accessible digital format.

Under the current organization system, the borough secretary has to search through physical ordinance books and meeting minutes in order to find the exact wording of an ordinance, which may be contradicted by another ordinance passed previously.

Mirror Staff Writer Conner Goetz is at 814-946-7535.