A Washington, D.C. consulting firm working on behalf of the City of Williamsport is looking for $500,000 for architectural and engineering design work with a focus on a public safety building.

Recently, Andrew Garfinkel, vice president and managing director of grants, loans and procurement for Keller Partners & Co., the consulting firm working for the city, told City Council the Keller team will pursue the funding as part of its plan for looking for community projects money.

It does not mean that if the city would get the $500,000 it immediately must begin to look for an architectural and engineering firm to design a multi-million dollar police building. It just puts the city in a better position to have this pot of money, if it becomes available, for that purpose.

“Regardless of the final decision — rehab City Hall, rehab another space, or new construction, we will need money for architecture and engineering,” Mayor Derek Slaughter said. “Therefore, it makes sense for Keller to go after these funds. Once a final decision is made, we can use these dollars to complete the design work.”

Moreover, Valerie Fessler, director of the city community and economic development department, explained this rationale for pursuing the process to obtain the funding after Councilman Jon Mackey, chair of the public safety committee, asked about it.

Mackey said what sense would it make if the design of a building for Williamsport Bureau of Police was presented in a draft report by BKV Group as the size of a Walmart, and would likely, because of the costs, have to remain on a shelf.

The city would have three years to obligate the funds and five years in which to spend them, said Thomas Keller, the firm’s principal partner. Mackey then thanked Fessler and Keller for the explanation.

To further emphasize Mackey’s point, Council Vice President Eric Beiter told Keller’s team: “We had a timely presentation about a month ago from a consultant that we hired to do the study on our City Hall building and public safety building. It would seem that you’re about two zeros short in the funding that you are requesting. They were asking for around $50 million to build a new building.”

“Yeah,” Garfinkel said.

“Not quite sure what the plan is with $500,000 for this?” Beiter asked.

“We do wish we could go after a grant for a building in those kinds of dollars but unfortunately there is no grant available for that amount,” Keller said. What the consultants are doing, instead, is trying to “space it out, nip and tuck and this would be one way to do it is to pay for the engineering and design,” he said.

Council President Adam Yoder asked about the timeline and added, “to Beiter’s point, the presentation we got about a joint police-city hall building was “substantial.” The city is working through alternative options related to what came out of that report, he said. “I don’t know if any of them are building a new building,” Yoder added, asking “what is the timing on when this funding would be secured, released and when we would begin that process of selecting an architectural and engineering firm and going down that path?” “I ask that for understanding timing because I would hate to have two kinds of parallel things conflicting and your efforts not be fruitful and wasted.”

This is for site identification, identifying a new site, building, or renovating existing space — which may be more in line with what is available from budget point, Garfinkel said.

He added the timing would be as related to Congress passing a federal fiscal 2026 year budget. The city would ideally have prioritized this request and wait for legislation to be enacted and completed. It was estimated the process could take a good part of a year.

Councilwoman Liz Miele asked if the city decided that “we did not want to go the public safety building route could money be reallocated to something different with money aligned for a solution for city hall but not a public safety building. Does that money go away?” The issue is the city is exploring a stand along public safety building but also a solution to the City Hall situation, she noted. The City Hall was closed, publicly, in the fall of 2021.

“As long as the public safety component is the focus,” Garfinkel said. Even if there was a redesign of a portion of City Hall that would be allowable use of those funds, he said.

“It would help to know that in advance, however,” Keller said. “We need to be told what your priority is and if this is a no go we need to know about it. We don’t want to expend the capital and energy to work this and lobby for this if this is not a priority.”

Miele said there is a definite need for a new and more efficient, comfortable and functioning location for police. “It is not necessarily a priority to make certain that it is a separate public safety building,” she said.

Whether a renovation of a building costs $5 million or $10 million, it would benefit the city to hire an architectural and engineering firm, Keller said.

“Everyone is aware there are challenges at local level and federal level,” Keller said, adding there are not a whole lot of $10 million grants for construction of police stations but there is funding for police stations.

Nevertheless, the council members agree they are waiting to be presented with the BKV Group revised draft report on city government operations and support Keller team, as it lobbies for congressionally directed funding and support – can add language to the grant application to give city officials more latitude when they make a decision.