The lobby of Pleasant Hills’ new borough building prominently displays the municipal seal, a welcoming visual of the sun rising over mountains, and the Latin phrase “pro bono publico,” meaning “for the public good.”
For Jarrett Niecgorski, the statement summarizes the purpose of updating the local seat of government.
“We are investing in our community,” he said. “I personally, am investing here in Pleasant Hills. I’m going to be here for the long run, and we want families and businesses and anybody who’s looking at Pleasant Hills as an option to feel the same way.”
Niecgorski, who was elected president of borough council at its Jan. 5 reorganization meeting, looks forward to residents seeing what the 25,095-square-foot building off East Bruceton Road has to offer.
Among the attractions is a sizable community room with a panoramic view of nearby Breisinger Field through banks of ceiling-to-floor windows that allow for an abundance of natural light. The room, which has an adjoining warming kitchen, is available to the public to rent for any number of events.
“We’ve slowly been bringing people in and letting them use the space, and I think it’s going to be a very frequented and very popular space in the community,” Niecgorski said.
Next door is a multipurpose room that is intended to accommodate scheduled programming and instructional activities.
Just off the lobby is council chambers, constructed so that windows are on three out of the four sides of the room. Council’s regular meetings are at 7 p.m. the third Wednesday of each month.
“I think it’s the best-looking room in the building,” he said. “This, I feel like, is where people belong.”
Pleasant Hills’ police department is located within the structure, and the project included adding 9,275 square feet to the adjacent public works facility, bringing its square-footage total to 13,420.
The total cost was $19.287 million, paid for in part by a $2 million state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant toward construction and a $496,082 multimodal grant for improvements to East Bruceton Road and Winifred Drive, just to the southeast of the building.
For 2025, the borough implemented a 2-mill real estate tax increase, bringing the total to 11.5 mills, according to the Allegheny County treasurer’s office.
Municipal staff members worked at a temporary location for just under two years before moving to the new facility during the first full week of January.
An 18,500-square-foot structure at the same site, built in 1962, served as municipal headquarters for 62 years.
“The building was well-designed for the functions it served in the 1960s, but it did not fully support what is currently needed for our residents,” Mayor William Trimbath wrote in a 2024 borough newsletter. “The new building will be a facility that we can all be proud of and provide everyone with the resources that they need.”
