By Matt Snyder
MERCER COUNTY — It’s been six months since Mercer County Commissioners bought 218 acres of land along the Interstate 80 corridor as part of an ambitious development plan, and results are still a long ways out.
Commissioners aim to make that 218 acres “shovel-ready” for businesses to move onto. But it will take years to survey the land, install the infrastructure, and find ways to pay for the development, Commissioner Brian Beader said.
Commissioners took a first step last month when they approved a geo-technical survey by Gannett Fleming Inc., Mercer. It’s a compaction study on the stability of the ground and will help decide what can be built at the site, Beader said.
Once the survey is finished, the challenge will be figuring out where their sewer hookups will come from, and then paying for the sewer and water lines, Beader said.
Talks have started with Aqua Pennsylvania on water lines, and Beader said he spoke to both the state Regional Correctional Facility in nearby Findley Township and the Upper Neshannock Watershed Authority about sewers.
Penn-Northwest Development Corp., the county’s lead economic development agency, has also applied for a state grant that would cover half of the projected $16 million development costs, said Commissioner Kenneth Ammann.
Beader said that by next summer, the project will be further along. However, he didn’t know for certain what the development timetable would look like.
“All of these things do take time,” he said.
Another possible hurdle is a lease on the property by mining company Atlantic States Materials of Pa., Virginia, Ammann said.
Atlantic leases the property for about $50,000 a year, money that is paid to the land’s prior owners.
The company’s lease is good through Jan. 1, 2014, on paper, Ammann said. Word has gone around that they may only remain another year or so, instead of the 5è they are permitted. For now, they are concentrated on about 20 of the 218 acres.
“With that lease on the property, it may be several years before we can do anything,” Ammann said.
The county and mining company are on good terms so far, Ammann said. The company is responsible for back-filling areas they mine, and may provide some data that will make doing the survey commissioners have ordered easier, Ammann said.
In addition, they have already mined most of the property except for the area they’re on and an access route, Ammann said. However, they could also use the land for storage if they chose to remain.
Until the survey is done, the county has no clue what sort of development the land is suited for, Ammann said.
Beader said the survey results could spell the difference between commercial and industrial development, as industrial requires more-stable ground.
Ammann opposed the land deal in December, when he was a commissioner-elect without a formal vote. He said at the time that Penn-Northwest should have been in charge.
While he has criticized the land purchase more recently for some of the “unknowns” commissioners are dealing with, he has also said that if the plans work out, it will be a big win for the county.
Commissioners bought the 218 acres for $705,000 using an economic-development fund that is paid for by a dedicated quarter mill of county property taxes.
That fund will replenish to about $330,000 after this year’s taxes, Beader has said.
The development plan is a part of Strategy 1000, a plan approved by commissioners in 2003 to develop land so that prospective businesses will have ground to break in the county.
In December when commissioners bought the land, the mantra was: “we won’t lose the next Cabela’s.”
Cabela’s is a major outdoors superstore that considered moving to the county in the late 1990s, but went elsewhere for a lack of utilities hookups.
The acreage the county owns rests at the junction of I-80 and state Route 19 in East Lackawannock Township, behind the Comfort Inn and was deeded from Samuel B. McClelland, along with trustees of the John T. Jervis Trust, the estate of Daniel M. Berger and others.
