What to know about the PA Game Commission’s new $20M regional office planned in Centre County

The Pennsylvania Game Commission plans to relocate its Northcentral Regional Office to Benner Township, where a $20 million building would be constructed on state game lands.

The regional office is currently located along state Route 44 in Jersey Shore, but over the years a number of factors weighed into the decision to find a new location for a new building.

According to an informational fact sheet provided at Benner Township’s meeting last week, the previous building has remained unmoved for 50 years and has experienced roof leaks and other issues that have compiled more than $300,000 in damages.

Austin Kieffer, the Northcentral Region’s habitat planning and development chief, said that moving to the Benner Township location — directly off the Shiloh Road exit of Interstate 99 on State Game Lands 333 — would have several benefits.

“The new building will offer a better centralized location for local wildlife enthusiasts, sportsmen and sportswomen,” Kieffer wrote in an email to the CDT. “They will be able to take part in more seminars and educational classes structured on the foundations of wildlife and the hunting/trapping heritage of Pennsylvania.”

Some services that the new location will offer include hunter/trapper education classes, wildlife/habitat informational and educational opportunities, hunting/trapping license and shooting permit sales, hunting harvest reporting and better wildlife viewing opportunities.

The new office’s location will be close to the Spring Creek Canyon, which has raised concerns for Doug Mason, chair of the Sierra Club Moshannon Group, who spoke at last week’s meeting.

“To my knowledge, it’s know that you can’t build within a certain radius of the canyon,” Mason said. “Now, this new building is on the Game Commission’s land, and it might be just outside of that radius, but I personally still think it’s too close, and I bet that many others would too.”

Kieffer told the CDT that the Game Commission does not expect the construction of the new office to interfere with the Spring Creek Canyon.

“The placement of the office would have no direct impact to the Spring Creek Canyon or (its) habitat,” Kieffer wrote. “We hope that the location of the office helps promote and draws the public to the wildlife viewing opportunities throughout the Spring Creek Canyon and surrounding State Game Lands.”

Mason also asked if there was going to be a public hearing held for the new building — a question that the supervisors were unable to answer last week, since the Game Commission does not have to comply with municipal regulatory oversight of the building project.

Kieffer said a public hearing for Game Commission building projects is not typical.

“The PGC has not yet scheduled a public outreach session regarding the project and does not typically initiate an informative meeting for building projects,” he wrote.

Mason told the CDT that in addition to the concerns with the canyon, he thinks there has also been a lack of transparency with the process.

“The announcement for this new office came out of nowhere and took a lot of us by surprise,” Mason said. “I wish that the Game Commission had been more transparent with their plans. Regardless, we’re going to do our best to make sure that we aren’t caught by surprise again by this project or any others.”

The project is still in the design phase, but Kieffer expects that phase to conclude by the end of 2024, with the project going out for bid at the start of 2025.

From there, construction would commence in mid-2025, and is expected to last 16 to 18 more months until the office’s completion in late 2026 or early 2027.

The Game Commission’s Northcentral Region is comprised of Cameron, Centre, Clearfield, Clinton, Elk, Lycoming, McKean, Potter, Tioga and Union counties.