KAREN VIBERT-KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette State Rep. Gene Yaw, left, Steve Sechrist, township supervisor and roadmaster, center and Charles O'Brien Jr., emergency management coordinator,, right, look over potential future Lewis Township Muncipal Building near Trout Run.

It’s a plot of dirt, rocks and stream bed debris right now.

But this empty land along Hemlock Drive in Lewis Township is envisioned to become the future site of a new township municipal building — something township officials who today operate primarily from a municipal building at 69 Main St., Trout Run, said they desperately want to see happen following the damage to the property by Tropical Storm Debby floodwaters in August of 2024.

On Thursday afternoon, township Supervisors Dion Coleman, chair; Supervisor Steve Sechrist, and Chuck O’Brien, the township emergency management coordinator who also works for the township, met at the future construction site (a short distance south of Trout Run and away from floodwater) with state Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Loyalsock Township.

They were there to celebrate $250,000 in state funding that Yaw secured for the building’s construction-related costs, said Yaw’s spokeswoman, Liz Follmer.

It was a photo-op and not a press conference, but the occasion was upbeat for the township officials, who told the Sun-Gazette they can’t wait to be out of the danger of floodwaters from Trout Run.

So far, $153,000 has been spent on the site preparation, with additional costs related to preparing the site for construction expected to be needed for things like removal of utility poles.

Additionally, a $3.8 million grant is being sought in Congressionally-directed spending allocation funding through the office of U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pittsburgh, for the total construction-related costs, Coleman said.

If all goes as planned, this approximate 3.2-acre plot at 200 Hemlock Drive, formerly on right-of-way of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, will become a modern and efficient municipal office and storage building, where the supervisors and residents will hold public meetings, elections and special events.

The full lot is much larger, 10 acres, including a mountainside abutting the construction area, Coleman said.

Yaw, during his visit, looked at the conceptual design plans of the new 80-foot-by-200-foot building before departing. Right now, the debris and fill at the site includes a lot of material that was left in Trout Run from the flood, O’Brien remarked.

Supervisors said they anticipate hearing back by August-September, 2027, about whether they are getting the grant, and if that happens, have plans to begin construction the following year (2028).

Debby caused extensive damage in Trout Run caused mostly by the enormous amount of water, estimated at 9-plus inches of rain in a few short hours that overwhelmed the tributaries and caused the village to be covered in several feet deep of water.

After Debby, state and federal legislators immediately began to do what they could to assist the township and its residents.