HOLLIDAYSBURG — The Blair County commissioners office has no copies of environmental reports for the Duncansville area land where a new county prison could be built, Commissioner Amy Webster said Thursday.

While commissioners reported in late May that environmental reviews of the wooded site off Dunnings Highway generated no cause for concern, Webster said that information was relayed in conversations with the architectural/engineering firm personnel.

“We met with them and that’s what they told us verbally,” Webster said.

Because of the commissioners’ continued interest in acquiring the 83.25-acre site — and their May 28 vote in support of preparing a formal offer to acquire it — the Altoona Mirror filed a Right-to-Know request for copies of the site’s environmental assessments.

In a response the Mirror received Monday, county personnel indicated that the request was being denied because under the Right-to-Know Law, environmental reviews are exempt from release “since the county has not acquired land or made the official decision (aka vote) to proceed with the land/project.”

When asked Thursday if commissioners would consider an exception in light of the conclusion that there were no concerns, Webster said the county has nothing to render.

“All we have is them saying (in conversation) that there’s no problem,” she said.

GFT, the architectural/engineering firm formed by the merger of Garrett Fleming and TranSystems (the company that acquired the L. Robert Kimball firm of Ebensburg in 2021), would have performed the environmental assessments, based on a contract commissioners authorized in April 2025. But that firm works for the county, so it’s up to the county and not GFT to release the reports.

The Right-to-Know Law also specifies that once a governing body makes a decision to proceed with a land purchase, environmental reviews are among the documents that no longer qualify as exempt from public record disclosure.

At their May 28 meeting, commissioners acknowledged that environmental assessments of the proposed site for the prison wrapped up with positive results and provided no cause for hesitation. That put them in a position, they said, to vote on a motion to consult with a real estate broker and solicitor for preparation of a formal offer. During their June 18 meeting, commissioners identified Hanna Bardell Realty as the county’s broker. And as of Thursday, Webster confirmed that the efforts are ongoing toward that goal.

GFT, meanwhile, has been working on the prison’s design. As shown to the prison board in May, the proposed 150,000-square-foot one-story facility with a mezzanine is expected to house as many as 454 inmates.

While county leaders have talked for years about building a new prison to replace the aged facility on Mulberry Street in Hollidaysburg, the commissioners’ interest in the Duncansville site dates back to Aug. 14, 2025, based on one of several letters that commissioners voted in favor of ratifying during their May 28 public meeting.

In the Aug. 14, 2025, letter, Webster advised Pennsylvania Terminals Corp. of the county’s interest in its land for a large building project.

“Your property … in Blair Township, south of the borough of Duncansville, has been identified as an appropriate property, as it meets size, site and location requirements,” Webster said.

In a Sept. 18, 2025, letter signed by Webster and fellow commissioners Dave Kessling and Laura Burke, they told Kevin Anderson, a broker for Pennsylvania Terminals Corp., that the county would offer $660,000 for three parcels the corporation owned. But almost three weeks later, in an Oct. 8, 2025, follow-up letter, Webster explained that the law restricts the county from paying more than the appraised value, so the county would instead offer $585,000 for two parcels. That price, according to the Oct. 8, 2025, letter, reflected the assessed values of the two parcels, as updated to reflect common level ratio calculations.

Two weeks after sending the Oct. 8 letter, commissioners advised Anderson in an Oct. 22, 2025, letter that engineers, on behalf of the county, wanted to perform a wetland assessment, geotechnical testing, boundary/topographic survey, utility investigation and an environmental site assessment. And a day later, on Oct. 23, 2025, commissioners signed what was described as a letter of intent to purchase parcels of vacant land for $585,000, with a time frame proposed for environmental assessments and a settlement deadline on or before Feb. 28.

On April 7, commissioners signed a similar letter labeled as a “possible intent” to purchase the same parcels at $585,000. The letter also contained a time frame for environmental assessments and listed a settlement date as on or before Dec. 31, 2026.

To secure copies of the letters that commissioners approved during their May 28 meeting, the Altoona Mirror had to submit a Right-to-Know request which the county subsequently honored. In addition to the letters, commissioners ratified and released a Dec. 22, 2025, agreement with Pennsylvania Terminals, allowing representatives for the county to have access to the site for completing environmental assessments.

If the county’s pursuit of the property ends with a sales agreement, the Mirror plans to ask again for environmental assessment reports.

The Mirror, in late December and again in January, filed Right-to-Know requests for public records regarding the commissioners’ pursuit of the Duncansville-area site for the prison. At that time, the Mirror had learned of the site’s location and wanted to know more about the developing efforts.

After the county initially denied the Mirror’s requests for documents, the Mirror filed an appeal with the state Office of Open Records. The county, in mid-March, released only its Oct. 23, 2025, letter, prompting the Mirror to appeal to the state office for help in securing additional records.

In response to an April 28 directive issued by the state Office of Open Records, Webster prepared an attestation for the Mirror, dated May 18, indicating that the records being requested didn’t exist or that they met exemptions as allowed by law. Any exemptions relative to the specific letters and agreement that commissioners publicly ratified on May 28 would no longer be valid.

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