BELLFEONTE — Four clocks that adorn the courthouse tower cupola in Bellefonte may soon be getting rehabilitated.
Sue Hannigan, assistant director of financing with Centre County, visited the Centre County board of commissioners Dec. 6 to explain that over the years, Mother Nature has taken its toll on the clock — most notably, the cast iron frame on each of the four faces, as well as the cast iron Roman numerals.
“The idea is to remove and refurbish the glass, as well as clean up the cast iron,” said Hannigan. “There’s other work that needs to be done, too; however, we only need to seek help from the Bellefonte Historical and Architectural Review Board if we’re going to change something. When we remove the glass from the clocks, we’d like to replace it with acrylic. It looks a lot better with the acrylic.”
Hannigan explained she needed the approval of the commissioners to move forward with the project and to make applications for the repairs and rehabilitation.
She said other work includes repainting the cupola, replacing broken louvers and removing the oxidation that has appeared on the dome of the structure.
According to Hannigan, the courthouse was built in 1805 and the clocks were added to the tower in the 1850s. The fish weathervane was placed on the building in 1810.
Commissioner Steve Dershem suggested the cast iron on the clocks, as well as the weathervane, should be powder-coated to help prevent more weather and time damage.
“That’s something we definitely need to look into,” said Dershem. “It certainly couldn’t hurt.”
Hannigan received the go-ahead from the commissioners. She said it will be presented to HARB on Tuesday, Dec. 13, and the Bellefonte Borough Council will review the proposal on Monday, Dec. 19. She said if approved, the project would get underway in spring 2017. The cost of the project was not discussed.
WALKING TRAIL
Mike Bloom, from the Centre County Planning Office, also visited the commissioners’ meeting to announce a grant was approved to conduct a feasibility study on a walking trail that would connect Milesburg and Bellefonte.
This summer, the planning office sought an $80,500 grant from the state Department of Community and Economic Development’s Greenways, Trails and Recreation Program for a comprehensive feasibility study of a multi-use, 2.5-mile trail connecting the two communities. Bloom explained that $70,500 was awarded through the application, and with $14,500 in donations from nine different local agencies, enough capital is available to conduct the study.
He said the proposed project would possibly create a walking/bicycling trail from Bellefonte’s waterfront to Milesburg, following Spring Creek, the former canal and the SEDA-COG railway.
“Now through March, we’re going to be looking for consultants to conduct the study,” Bloom said. “We expect that will take about nine months to complete, and we’d like to get that going this spring.”
He said if the timeline stays true, the study would be completed in December 2017, and if the study shows the project is feasible, the county could begin applying for funding through the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, as well as from the state Department of Transportation, in 2018. Engineering and permitting would occur in 2019 and construction would begin in 2020;
In other business, the commissioners:
■ Approved a STOP Violence Against Women Pass Through agreement between the county and the Centre County Women’s Resource Center to the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. The contract total is $53,750.
■ Approved a Senior Community Center Grant between the county and the state Department of Aging for renovations to the Snow Shoe Senior Center in the Mountaintop Medical Center for ADA compliance. The grant total is $15,000.
■ Approved a contract between the county and ModernFold to provide installation and material for folding partitions at the Philipsburg Senior Center. The contract total is $9,000.
■ Approved a contract renewal between the county and Stenograph to provide software support for court reporting equipment. The contact total is $1,258.
■ Approved a contract renewal between the county and the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Institute to provide maintenance and service for victim notification upon offender’s release.
■ Approved a contract renewal between the county and LexisNexis to provide inmate legal library services. The contract total is $10,212.
