With the clock ticking to allocate its roughly $1.2 million in covid relief funds, Buffalo Township has taken another step toward remodeling its joint administrative office and police station.
Supervisors this month put out a request for proposals and expect bids to come back within 30 days. That leaves the township uncomfortably close to the end-of-year deadline to allocate its share of federal American Rescue Plan Act money before it reverts to the federal government. And they’ll have until the end of 2026 to spend the money.
“There is somewhat of a risk (of missing the deadline),” township Manager Rich Hill conceded.
But, he added, “those funds can be spent for anything.”
The U.S. Treasury has enumerated an array of eligible uses, including mitigating the covid-19 pandemic’s impact on public health, building certain infrastructure and offering premium pay to essential workers.
Recipients also can use the money to replace lost revenue from the pandemic, either by tallying losses or accepting a standard $10 million allowance — well over the full award for Buffalo Township and many other small jurisdictions.
Relief funds, however, cannot be used to pay down debt or replenish financial reserves.
As Solicitor Brian Farrington sees it, the township has two options to make the remodeling comply with Treasury’s rules: Take the standard allowance and free up the money, or classify the project as addressing public health concerns through modernizing the space.
For Chief Tim Derringer, the top priority is upgrading the building’s security.
Township officials envision the refreshed building having a holding cell, interview room and separate entrance for police officers.
Right now, officers and suspects must pass through the administrative offices to access the police station.
To make this expansion possible, the station will take over the existing meeting room. The new meeting room will be on the other side of the government center and slightly spill into what is now a parking lot. It has taken at least a year of planning with architects and technology experts to draw this up, per Hill.
Derringer said there simply is not enough room for him and his nine officers right now.
When he started in 1998, he noted, the township only had four officers and a significantly smaller population.
“As we grow the police department, the road department,” he said, “the entire municipality has to grow with it.”
The building dates back to the 1950s, as evidenced by the wood-paneled meeting room.
In deciding what to do with the money, Hill said the most important thing to him was fiscal sustainability. To him, the nightmare scenario is what’s happening in Allegheny County, which spent years filling its budget with rainy day and covid funds, and may now pass a 46.5% property tax hike.
“We didn’t want to plug the budget with these funds,” Hill said.