Construction of the new state police barracks begins with unanswered questions

Construction is set to start Monday on the new 15,000-square-foot state police barracks slated for the Benner Commerce Park, near the Centre County Correctional Facility. But the Centre County Board of Commissioners still has questions about the Pennsylvania State Police’s plan to consolidate the Philipsburg and Rockview barracks, and the state’s decision-making process.

Plans for the new barracks date back to January 2015, when the Department of General Services issued a Solicitation for Proposal on the DGS website. At the time, the building was to be built as a replacement for the existing 7,500-square-foot Milesburg barracks, according to the PSP.

The PSP’s 2015 plan was to move the Milesburg troopers into the new facility and with the additional space, administrative and support personnel would also be housed in the barracks. The Philipsburg barracks was to remain open under the plan, and neither barracks was to experience personnel cutbacks, according to Ryan Tarkowski, communications director for the state police.

During a visit to the Happy Valley LaunchBox on Feb. 13, Gov. Tom Wolf said that he was unaware of any plans to consolidate the barracks. Just more than two weeks later, Wolf in a letter to Rep. Scott Conklin, D-Rush Township, detailed plans to consolidate the Philipsburg and Milesburg barracks into the new facility. The result would mean the closure of the Philipsburg barracks, which the area relies on for police services.

“One of the most frustrating parts about this is that it doesn’t seem like the whole process was very open,” Commissioner Steve Dershem said. “It didn’t give us an opportunity to opine about what we feel are the issues facing Moshannon Valley if there is a loss of a barracks.”

At a community-organized public hearing held in Philipsburg in April, the state police confirmed the plan Wolf detailed in his letter to Conklin. To a room of about 300 people, Maj. Maynard Gray explained the PSP’s plan to handle the decision to close the Philipsburg barracks and move the troopers almost 30 miles away.

Gray explained a zonal coverage plan that will not require troopers to check in at the station in Benner Township and will have a trooper on patrol in the area at all times. Gray added that the plan will provide residents with the same service that people in the area have come to expect.

“One of the questions I had then and I still have now is what happens in a situation where an officer needs to report to the barracks,” Commissioner Mark Higgins said. “I understand their plan and most of the time the zone coverage should work fine, but if a trooper needs to come back to the barracks for anything and there’s inclement weather, I’m not sure how fast they can respond to the northwest part of the county.”

After the public hearing, the commissioners drafted letters to Col. Tyree Blocker, of the PSP, and Wolf. The letters expressed their concerns about the consolidation plans and the distance between Philipsburg and the new barracks in Benner Township.

The letter sent to Wolf also asked the governor to consider funding the Philipsburg barracks in the new state budget. Last week, the House and Senate passed the spending bill that included a seven percent increase in PSP funding, which bring the annual PSP funding number to $1.3 billion, but the bill doesn’t provide funding specifically for the Philipsburg barracks.

The commissioners have not received a response to their letter from Wolf or Blocker.

“It appears that this was decided up high and I really don’t believe it was an open and comprehensive discussion,” Dershem said. “But I guess if they’re moving forward, we’re going to have to deal with it as best as we can.”

This story was originally published July 10, 2017 at 1:01 AM with the headline "Construction of the new state police barracks begins with unanswered questions."