Sewickley Hills officials seek funding for proposed community center project

A proposed Sewickley Hills community center project is on hold as borough officials seek funding sources for the borough building addition.

Council hopes to add about 920 square feet to its estimated 1,855-square-foot, log cabin facade facility at 349 Magee Road.

The building sits on a 50-acre lot surrounded by parcels owned by the Alle­gheny Land Trust.

The addition would stretch from the side of the building closest to Borough Secretary Diana Steele’s office to part of the parklet by the fire pit.

Plans show about 450 of the 920 square feet would be used as office space, while 380 square feet is earmarked for storage and 65 square feet for a new office.

Conceptual drawings also show stairs leading up to an attic for easier access to the upper level compared to the current set of steps accessed via a pull-down ceiling ladder, similar to ones in old homes.

Councilmen Hunter Hopkins and Tom Klixbull are spearheading the project.

“Our community center application is about creating a central place for our residents to come together,” Hopkins said via email on Sept. 29. “We envision it as a welcoming spot for groups like Scouts, seniors, business networking organizations, and clubs, while also serving as a safe space during emergencies.

“The center will help the Sewickley Hills borough community in many ways. It will expand our ability to host volunteer groups and civic organizations, provide an improved space for neighbors to connect, and give our growing population an up-to-date place to gather and participate within the community. It will also strengthen our emergency preparedness by serving as a warming and cooling center when needed. Additionally, the facility will complement our park master plan, helping to support recreation, community identity and connection.”

Steele, the smiling face greeting people at the main entrance and the only borough employee, does not plan on moving offices should the project come to fruition.

Sewickley Hills contracts with Ohio Township for police services. Its other services, including borough building cleaning, are all subcontracted out.

Steele’s favorite part of the proposed project is the increased functionality.

“Just being able to access the attic would be so wonderful,” Steele said. “There have been other options that we’ve looked at in the past about accessing the attic without the addition. As the borough expands, it looks like it would be best to expand the building.”

Project creation

The community center idea was first proposed in January 2024.

Borough building maintenance and utility bills are largely paid for via space rentals.

“This place is rented out practically every weekend,” Steele said. “In June, July and into August, it’s rented almost every day of the week for graduation parties, weddings, wedding receptions, that sort of thing.”

The secretary pointed to conceptual drawings of the addition when describing future uses.

“We’re thinking if it’s that busy, we can actually have two events (going on at once),” Steele said. “One in this great room, and a smaller event in this area. It’s going to be a place for council to meet and the planning commission. Right now, we set up tables every time that there’s a meeting in this room that have to be broken down and chairs put away at the end of the meeting, because there’s usually a rental the next day, or (we have) to clean around the tables and chairs.

”It’s just going to be easier if we can set up a table and chairs in that addition that will be there constantly except for whenever we decide to rent it out or use it as a community center.”

Some of the planning included a pair of borough officials going to Ohio last year and talking with log cabin builders to gauge construction pricing.

“They gave the dimensions that they were looking for and the bid came in at $250,000, which was pretty doable,” Steele said. “Until we got into the finite details of the addition, which (were) heating, air conditioning, electrical, all the things. The price went up to $500,000. The borough thought that was too much, so they rebid it and the next bid came in at $600,000. You can see the vast difference in the pricing.”

NIRA consulting engineer Emile Ketterer said the borough put the project out for bid twice, and twice the figures came in higher than anticipated. She declined to discuss specifics.

Borough documents indicate the addition project was bid out in October 2024 and April of this year.

Meeting minutes for Oct. 8, 2024, show the lowest bid in the first round was $446,300 by TBI Contracting.

Council, at the time, then asked NIRA Engineering to look into a different outside façade to reduce the price.

The project was rebid and the April 8 meeting minutes show there were four bidders, with $470,000 being the lowest bid. The minutes did not specify which companies bid.

Documents for the second round of bidding show Grahamboys LLC bid $494,609 for the project and Marco Contractors bid $524,016. They both submitted alternative constructions with stone veneer with potential $34,000 and $39,000 in additional costs, respectively.

Allegheny City Electric bid $150,000 in April for the electrical work.

Steele said an Amish contractor’s bid was discarded because of concerns over insurance and wages.

Council at the April meeting declined to rebid the project again, according to meeting minutes.

Klixbull did not respond to a message seeking comment by press time.

Project funding

The estimated total project cost was about $600,000.

Council in August approved seeking $500,000 in state Gaming Economic Development and Tourism Fund money passed through the Redevelopment Authority of Allegheny County. No borough match is required for the grant, which is being applied for through the Quaker Valley Council of Governments.

Borough officials have reached out to state Sen. Devlin Robinson, R-Bridgeville, and state Rep. Valerie Gaydos, R-Sewickley, for their support.

Steele said Robinson has provided a letter and Gaydos has pledged to do the same to bolster the borough’s grant application. Messages left with both officials were not immediately returned.

Steele said the addition cannot be built without grant funding.

The borough secretary said Sewickley Hills has no money budgeted for the project. That could change heading into next year.

The borough’s preliminary budget is expected to be approved in November with final adoption in December.