CLARION, Pa. (EYT) – Clarion County Commissioners Ted Tharan, Wayne Brosius, and Ed Heasley on Tuesday morning unanimously approved the execution of a sales agreement with Charlene Holabaugh for the purchase of a Paint Township building for $150,000.00 currently housing Riverhill Beverage Inc.

(Photo by Dave Cyphert of ProPoint Media Photography).

“That is the beer distributor building which will be used for storage of EMA Department trailers and equipment, all of the trucks and equipment and things used by the maintenance department, long-term record storage which will be climate controlled, supply depot for all county functions, and storage for county vehicle depot,” said Tharan.

Clarion County previously had an agreement to house equipment at the old Clarion Ford Garage, but a business is expected to soon open in that location, so a new building was needed.

“They were closing the business and approached us about buying the building when they heard about the old Ford garage,” Tharan said. “Beer distributors are a thing of the past.

“The size of the building is around 8,000 square feet, and there are not a lot of renovations to do in there because they are using it for their trailers and the maintenance vehicles. EMA will build some offices in there and will renovate a little bit of it. For record storage, we will probably use parts where they had their coolers in, and we’ll have a climate-controlled records storage, so we’ll have low humidity and heat and air.”

The sales agreement is signed, and Tharan expects to close within 60 days.

Tharan said the new building is not for 9-1-1, at least for now.

“There’s two and a half acres of ground there,” said Tharan. “But, there’s a possibility of that (9-1-1) although we don’t have anything written in stone. We’ve had the money sitting in our capital reserve for a year.”

There are no plans for the cell areas of the old jail once the records storage is removed.

In other business:

“There’s a meeting with PennDOT at the Knox Firehall from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on September 5, talking about the replacement of the two bridges on I-80 over Canoe Creek,” Tharan said. “They will both be replaced, and they will maintain two lanes of traffic in each direction at all times. I’m kind of curious to see how they’re going to do that. Another interesting fact is that eastbound has 12,540 approximate vehicles going east each day and there’s 12,737 going west each day. Bridges were built in 1966.”

• Clarion River Cleanup is set for Saturday, September 7, at 10:00 a.m. Volunteers are needed, and registration is from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. at Pale Whale Canoe Fleet in Cooksburg. A reception for volunteers after the cleanup will be held at 2:00 p.m. For questions, call Clarion Conservation District at 814-297-7813.
• The Armstrong–Indiana–Clarion Drug and Alcohol Commission, Inc. is hosting its first Recovery Respects First Responders on Saturday, September 8, at 2:00 p.m., at the Clarion Veteran’s Memorial Park across from the Courthouse.
• Commissioners approved a request from the Clarion Area Chamber of Business to use Veterans Memorial Park and courthouse lawn during the Autumn Leaf Festival. Tharan noted that the chamber pays reimbursement costs for everything to do with ALF on county property.
• Commissioners approved a contract on behalf of Human Services with the Clarion Area Agency on Aging for home-delivered meals for adult services consumers and the program is one hundred percent grant-funded. Cost of the meals are $3.96 for a hot/frozen meal, $3.87 for an emergency meal, $5.69 For a special meal, and $5.71 for delivery.
• Commissioners approved the CYS Fiscal Year 2020 to 2021 Narrative Needs Based Plan and Budget.
• Approved a $300.00 bid on a property in Licking Township from the Repository list, reuniting the surface property owner with the mineral rights.
• Jillian Stephens started as human services director on August 19. She was earlier hired effective September 9, but she was able to leave her job as human resources director at Venango County.
• The resignation of Kelly Yocca as a key human services fiscal official was regretfully accepted effective September 6.
• Following a recommendation of the hotel tax committee, Commissioners approved a one-year contract with Leif Logue for a 16 x 40 Billboard at a cost of $600. per month.The term of the agreement is from October 1, 2019, to September 30, 2020. Commissioners unveiled a preliminary drawing/design of the billboard.

  Preliminary Illustration of Clarion County Billboard