The official agreement between the county and Williamsport Ballpark, Inc. was approved by the Lycoming County Commissioners this week, cementing the county’s commitment of $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) for the project. The county’s share is a matching grant with ARPA funds from the City of Williamsport for the project.

The ballpark will be located on a 28-acre site on Rose Street next to the highway and the Pennsylvania College of Technology. It will feature seven ballfields including baseball and softball fields which will be utilized by the college.

According to Jason Fink, president/CEO of the Williamsport Lycoming Chamber of Commerce, work has begun at the site with equipment being brought in to deal with the Brownfield portion of the project“The first phase of that project, utilizing the Brownfield funds, is to do just the preliminary site work for the project. That’s a little over a million dollars in total and will take them about six weeks to be able to get it done,” he said.

The area where the ballfields are being constructed is located at the site of a former landfill resulting in the need for Brownfield work.. The equipment currently being brought in will be used to break up the large chunks of concrete on the land in order to do preliminary site work.

Fink said that it is estimated to take six weeks to complete.

When completed, the fields are estimated to bring upwards to 300,000 visitors to the area per year which will benefit the area economy.

In addition, Fink pointed out that there are properties adjacent to the site that could be developed.

“There’s some other areas of the city that could benefit from this as well and realistically throughout the county…we’re going to bring in a lot of people,” he said.

Related to construction at the new Coroner’s building, the commissioners approved the purchase of morgue equipment including autopsy carts coolers and freezers from Mopec in the amount of $619,875; a change order with Dixon AC&R Corp., in the amount of $13,221 for permit costs; and awarding a bid of $62,390 for testing and inspection of the Coroner’s building to Hillis Carnes.

In another action, the commissioners approved a resolution and fund match letter to the Statewide Local Share Assessment (LSA) grant for the construction of the new Magisterial District Justice (MDJ) building in Jersey Shore. The grant, in the amount of $1 million, is from monies derived from gambling in the state.

Approval was given by the commissioners for the following agenda items: the grant of right of way to PPL for the new service on Allenwood Camp Road in Montgomery; the new process and procedures for non-budgeted expenditures which will require a formal review at the commissioners’ level; a Letter of Agency to change the service provider from Comcast to Windstream for the phones and ports at MDJ Dieter’s office saving upwards of $180 per month; a lease with Old Lycoming Volunteer Fire Company to use their hall for training courses; agreements with Donald Martino, Esq. and William Miele, Esq. for work at the Public Defender’s office; an amendment with PennDot to increase the time of the agreement on transportation planning from June 30, 2028 to June 30,2031 and to increase the budget capacity by $1 million; and an amendment to the agreement with Geo Reentry Services, LLC, from 11/1/24 through 10/31/25.

Under personnel, the commissioners approved hiring the following persons for the positions and pay rates listed: Mary Stein, resident supervisor at the Pre-Release Center, union position, $18.64 per hour; Richard Gething, public defender investigator, grant, $25 per hour; and Patrick Cusick, emergency management specialist-training in Public Safety, $46,393 per year.