Centre Region COG calls special meeting for Whitehall Road Regional Park funding
The Centre Region Council of Governments’ general forum is holding a special meeting Wednesday to vote on releasing a chunk of additional funding for the Whitehall Road Regional Park project, which is at a “critical point” in development.
The general forum will vote to release the $578,974 from loan funds that have already been approved.
The Centre Region COG, made up of State College Borough, and College, Ferguson, Halfmoon, Harris and Patton townships, and its committees and authorities have held several different meetings as of late to discuss Whitehall Road Regional Park. The park is planned for near the Musser Gap Recreation Area, and between Route 45 and Whitehall Road, and has been in the works for decades. In December 2021, the COG general forum selected and approved bids, which in total came in around $4.8 million and it finally broke ground in April.
Though the project has made progress since then, “numerous delays” have occurred for several reasons, including inclement weather, muddy conditions, permitting delays, and costs and delays due to unexpected rock excavation and site utility work, according to COG documents.
Because the unexpected work, such as rock removal and other “unexpected site and subsurface conditions prior to construction,” was not included in the approved base contracts, it needed to be addressed through change orders, COG documents state. The project’s contingency budget was $75,000 but the value of approved and pending change orders exceeded that amount. In November, COG and Centre Region Parks and Recreation staff determined that in addition to already approved and pending change orders, additional change orders may be needed during the winter and spring phases of the project, documents state.
The motion on Wednesday’s agenda, as recommended by the finance and executive committees, is to “authorize access to $578,974 from the restricted loan funds in order to ensure payments for contractors, fees, materials, and supplies for the completion of the initial Phase 1 of Whitehall Road Regional Park explicitly excluding irrigation and the all-season pavilion.”
The general forum was expected to take action on the item during its regular meeting Nov. 28, but voted to remove the item from the agenda during the meeting due to a “potential legal issue.”
Now, the project is at a “critical point,” according to Wednesday’s agenda.
“While contractors have been receiving progress payments for work completed related to contracts, payments for change orders related to justified and valid expenses … have been on hold. Contractors have been patiently awaiting approval of the release of funds as recommended by COG Committees so that the Parks and Recreation Authority can approve the change orders and bills can be paid,” the agenda states.
The “justified and valid expenses” that payments are still needed for, include “an unknown pre-existing water line that had to be capped, costs for excavation of rock encountered during installation of sanitary sewer lines, underground electrical, and due to changes to sanitary sewer manhole elevations.”
Eric Norenberg, executive director of COG, told the CDT in an email that the way the loan is set up, funds can only be drawn for “valid, approved invoices for the project.”
In order for the motion to pass, a unanimous unit vote of the five municipalities that are park members (State College borough and College, Patton, Ferguson and Harris) is required. The Ferguson Township board of supervisors has an update on the park on its agenda for their meeting Tuesday.
The meeting, scheduled for noon Dec. 7, will be a hybrid format where the public can attend via Zoom or in person at the COG Building, 2643 Gateway Drive, State College.
This story was originally published December 6, 2022 at 5:08 PM.
