Pittsburgh City Council considers reallocating cash for new public safety training facility to Penn Circle project

Pittsburgh City Council could reallocate funding for a proposed public safety training facility in the city’s Lincoln-Lemington neighborhood to a project to convert Penn Circle into a two-way roadway.

Council would take just more than $808,000 that was included in the 2019 budget for the proposed training facility and nearly $192,000 from the 2020 budget to instead fund the project at Penn Circle. The money had been earmarked to build the Public Safety training facility at the former Veterans Affairs hospital complex in Lincoln-Lemington, according to Jake Pawlak, director of the city’s Office of Management and Budget.

When the idea of purchasing the 168-acre property was introduced under former Mayor Bill Peduto, officials estimated the project would cost more than $100 million and take years to complete.

The federal government in 2019 approved Pittsburgh’s request to acquire the property through a “public benefit conveyance” at no cost to the city. The VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System had closed the complex in 2013, shifting its medical services to sites in Oakland and O’Hara.

Pawlak said the city still plans to move ahead with the new training facility at that site, but said “we do not have concrete plans to deploy those funds within this budget year” and the city could lose the cash from the 2019 and 2020 budgets if it’s not used this year.

No timetable was offered for when the public safety training facility project may proceed.

The reallocated money would “close the funding gap” to allow for the Penn Circle project to move forward.

Councilman Bruce Kraus said there will be an opportunity to replenish the funds for the public safety training facility project in future budgets.

City Council unanimously voted this week to advance the measure, which could be ready for a final vote next week. Councilman Corey O’Connor was not present for the preliminary vote.