News

Appraisal low — search continues for coroner’s building

The quest for a building to house the Lycoming County Coroner and Magisterial District Justice Christian Frey's office has taken another turn as the building that had been considered was appraised far below the asking price of $3.5 million.

"We've been working on this diligently for quite some time. We all know the history of the coroner needing a building and it's been over 10 years," said Commissioner Scott Metzger at this week's commissioners meeting.

"We thought we had one that looked like a very strong possibility. We've worked on it, had two appraisals done on it and unfortunately we've come to the conclusion that it's just not going to be able to be purchased," Metzger said.

He shared that the second appraisal came in between $1.7 and $1.9 million.

"We cannot legally pay more for a building than what the appraiser says," he stressed.

"It would be very irresponsible for us financially to do that. As much as this building is needed...this cannot be an option, and we've come to that realization this week," he added.

The property that had been under consideration was a warehouse-like building owned by Don Lundy in Newberry.

The commissioners have worked with their attorney to try and find a way to make the situation work, Metzger said, including speaking with the owner of the building.

"It's been frustrating, but we haven 't been able to do that," he said, referring to finding a solution to the problem.

Now that the building that was being explored as a possible site is off the table, the commissioners now are considering finding land to build a completely new building.

"We have a possibility on some land and we'll meet with those individuals in two weeks," Metzger said.

Although he would not reveal the exact location of the site until after that meeting, Metzger noted that it is an "excellent location" west of Hepburn Street but within the city limits.

The location is important because the district justice's office must be located within the magisterial area.

"So we could do the magistrate and the coroner building and make it that size of a building. There is enough land there that we could acquire to do so and we could have this up and going within the year or we could have it constructed within a year," Metzger said.

Metzger said that the cost of building from the ground up would be about the same as the cost of the building that had been considered plus the build-outs that would be needed to customize it for the coroner's needs.

"This building would be brand new...It would be exactly what the coroner's needs are," Metzger said.

The county's coroner Charles Kiessling was at the commissioners' meeting and questioned how the initial appraisal on the building was $4.3 million and the second so much lower.

Kiessling, who seemed frustrated by this latest development, said that the only difference between the two appraisals was that the first included the $600,000 to $800,000 build-out, which the second did not.

"That's where I'm really struggling. And the (with) the cost of construction today, I think you're going to be in the $10 million range to do new construction for this building," Kiessling said.

Kiessling said that throughout his career as the county's coroner that he had always tried to improvise to save the taxpayer's money.

"Unfortunately I can't save county tax dollars on a building that meets our needs. The building we were in for 16 months or 22 months, met the needs of the office and can easily be modified to meet the needs of my office plus the DJ's office and yet we still can't seem to make it happen," he said.

"It doesn't make any sense to me," he added.

Kiessling also questioned why the first appraiser who had been consulted said the purchase price of the building was fair.

"We have to get a fair market value appraisal on the building as it is now," Mirabito said.

"Somehow between the request for us to order the appraisal and the completion of the appraisal, the appraiser thought it was to be done after the completion of certain renovations," Mirabito continued.

"We don't know how that mix-up happened and at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter," he said.

The problem with the owner doing the renovations is that the commissioners have to bid out projects because of having to pay prevailing wage for the work.

When the commissioners asked the first appraiser to just work backwards in order to have the appraisal without the renovations, he said that he couldn't do that without doing an entirely new appraisal.

"At that point we ordered a whole new appraisal with a different appraiser, because quite frankly, we were concerned that when the appraiser had appraised it one way with renovations done that he wouldn't necessarily have the objectivity that the law requires for a fair market appraisal," Mirabito explained.

"The only thing I can say to you, Mr. Coroner, is that I am firmly committed and I believe my colleagues are firmly committed. We will move this post haste," Mirabito said.

Saying that they "don't ever want to put all our eggs in one basket," Mirabito urged the coroner to continue to look for a site for his offices. He also encouraged any person or entity, such as a volunteer fire company that has land suitable for the coroner's facility to contact the coroner.

"I know there is some land out there in addition to the leads Commissioner Metzger is pursuing," Mirabito said.