Hatboro Considers $20K Facilities Study

The Hatboro Borough Council is looking to spend about $20,000 to get a better handle on the condition of borough-owned buildings.

During Monday night’s council meeting, the governing body agreed to conduct interviews of three architectural firms – TCA Architecture, Kimmel-Bogrette Architecture and KCBA Architects  - to determine which should carry out an all-encompassing facilities study.

Officials decided to interview those three firms based on the proposals submitted, which show costs ranging from $19,415 for TCA to $24,400 for KCBA. A fourth firm, which submitted a $50,000 proposal, has been eliminated from further consideration, the council agreed. 

Ultimately, the facilities study could shape Hatboro’s future in terms of potential renovations, expansions and possibly replacement of borough-owned buildings.

Council President John Zygmont said that at this point, planning for various borough facilities should be separate. The point, Zygmont said, is in “hiring somebody to come in and do a study and tell us what we have and what we might want to have.”

The possibility of a facilities study was first discussed at a capital budget meeting in January, during the ’s first few weeks in office. that he hoped the study would address if the police building should be renovated or rebuilt; how the public works departments' need for space could be addressed; and what should be done about the .

Borough Manager Steven Plaugher – who has – said Fred Zollers, the interim borough manager as of next week, will arrange interviews between the firms and the council. 

The study, if carried out, is not currently covered under a specific budget line item, Plaugher said.

“No actual money was budgeted,” Plaugher said in an e-mail. “Council would have to pay for it from its Capital ‘Savings’ Account.”

Under the previous Democrat-controlled council’s leadership last year, to determine if the existing nearly 60-year-old police station should be renovated and expanded, or razed and built anew. The architectural firm suggested the council build a new police station at a $2.2 million price tag.

Zygmont told Patch in January that his concern regarding Omnia’s evaluation is that representatives did not take into account what would happen to the public works space within the existing police building.

It may be a while until the borough council decides how to address its building needs. Plaugher said he could not determine how long it would take for the study to be conducted, or when the borough would receive the results.