Acristickid
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An upgrade and renovations- article from Pittsburgh Tribune Review.
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is taking on a new property and renovating one it already owns.
The commission spent $3.995 million to buy a 104,000-square-foot building on 12 acres in Centre County. It will become the agency's new regional office, housing employees in the engineering bureau, fisheries management staff, maintenance workers, hatchery employees and more.
All of those people are spread out across several buildings that encompass only 69,000 square feet combined, said Michelle Jacoby, director of the commission's bureau of engineering. That's at least 26,000 square feet less than what an internal review of operations determined was needed, she said.
The commission, in a document explaining the purchase, said its existing buildings spread around the Pleasant Gap and Bellefonte areas are “antiquated.”
Commissioner Bill Sabatose of Elk County was more blunt.
“What's there now, it's like a bunch of old chicken coops,” he said.
It is estimated the building can be retrofitted to the commission's needs for less than the cost of building a new structure, Jacoby said.
At the same time, upgrades to the commission hatchery that supplies many of the stocked trout that end up in area waters are about 20 percent complete.
Brian Wisner, chief of fish production for the agency, said work on the Reynoldsdale Fish Culture Station in Bedford County is close to being on schedule. Originally to be done by November or December of this year, it should now be completed by next January.
The project is being done in phases so production can continue unabated, he added, saying it will produce as many fish this year as ever.
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is taking on a new property and renovating one it already owns.
The commission spent $3.995 million to buy a 104,000-square-foot building on 12 acres in Centre County. It will become the agency's new regional office, housing employees in the engineering bureau, fisheries management staff, maintenance workers, hatchery employees and more.
All of those people are spread out across several buildings that encompass only 69,000 square feet combined, said Michelle Jacoby, director of the commission's bureau of engineering. That's at least 26,000 square feet less than what an internal review of operations determined was needed, she said.
The commission, in a document explaining the purchase, said its existing buildings spread around the Pleasant Gap and Bellefonte areas are “antiquated.”
Commissioner Bill Sabatose of Elk County was more blunt.
“What's there now, it's like a bunch of old chicken coops,” he said.
It is estimated the building can be retrofitted to the commission's needs for less than the cost of building a new structure, Jacoby said.
At the same time, upgrades to the commission hatchery that supplies many of the stocked trout that end up in area waters are about 20 percent complete.
Brian Wisner, chief of fish production for the agency, said work on the Reynoldsdale Fish Culture Station in Bedford County is close to being on schedule. Originally to be done by November or December of this year, it should now be completed by next January.
The project is being done in phases so production can continue unabated, he added, saying it will produce as many fish this year as ever.
