HOLLIDAYSBURG — The Public Works garage is going to cost slightly more than initially anticipated, and the Stowell Farm stormwater project is potentially facing yet another delay, according to Borough Council at its meeting Thursday.

Borough Manager Ethan Imhoff explained the various change orders for the garage project, which included $2,181 for HVAC, $4,503 for plumbing, $4,960 for electric and $35,638 for various masonry, such as concrete footers to help with flooding.

“Going into this, when we approved the building, we knew this was coming,” council member Brady

Leahey said. “We just structured the building.”

Imhoff said they budgeted for such contingencies and “this is well within this budget.”

The council also approved the reallocation of its Community Development Block Grant funding, which had been earmarked to pay for a fence to enclose the designated stormwater retention pond site on a plot of land commonly referred to as the Stowell Farm in Gaysport.

The funding will expire in February 2026, Imhoff said.

“With the project delayed due to the State Historic Preservation Office reviews, it’s recommended to redirect these funds from the Stowell Farm

stormwater project into a removal of architectural barriers and new curbing project,” Imhoff said.

The reallocated funds will be used to remove barriers at the intersections of various streets in the borough, including by Hometown Market and in front of the junior high school, Imhoff said.

When asked if there would be funding available to put up a fence later, Imhoff said the borough usually “sees an annual allocation of about $110,000.”

“This money is actually from 2021,” Imhoff said.

The phase one report on the Native American artifacts found at the retention pond site was submitted to the preservation office on May 22, Imhoff said.

“They have a 30-day period to respond,” Imhoff said. “We anticipate that they’ll take the full 30 days.”

He said they should receive feedback in “a week or two” on whether or not the site will require a phase two investigation.

“Our historic preservation consultants are telling us that, based on everything they found, they think the state will require a phase two investigation,” Imhoff said.

If that were to happen, the project would be pushed to sometime in 2026 and “we just have no control over it because it’ll take another three to four months to do the additional study,” Imhoff said.

The borough’s other stormwater mitigation project in its East End is also at a standstill, as Imhoff said he is “waiting to hear back on funding applications to Congressman Joyce and Senator McCormick.”

The council also approved an ordinance expanding the borough’s permitted parking district to the 300 block of Wayne Street, 500 block of Mulberry Street and the west side of the 500 block of Union Street.

According to Imhoff, a lot of homeowners “don’t have a chance to park.”

“It is definitely needed with the county garage being closed,” Leahey said.

Council member William Kitt asked if the expansion would end once the garage reopened, to which borough solicitor Nathan Karn said the council “could take it back at the end.”

In other matters, council member William Kitt said the borough’s blight committee decided to use the 20 gallons of paint donated by Leydig’s True Value “on the parks.”

“I think anything that needs painting, like benches, picnic tables,” Kitt said.

A “little ad hoc committee” was put together, Kitt said, consisting of himself, Imhoff, Holodnik and Public Works Director Amy Hazlett, to accompany the Boy Scouts and True Value “and see what exactly we want to do with each park.”

Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor is at 814-946-7458.