Roof work, colonial garden proposed for Shields Farm cabin in Delmont

A Delmont group is hoping to make some improvements at the Shields Farm log cabin on East Pittsburgh Street, but they may need to rein in their ambition just a bit, according to the borough solicitor.

Visionary Committee members presented a $2,800 bid to council to have eaves installed on the cabin’s roof in order to keep rain from falling directly onto the logs which make up the building’s walls.

“My only concern is that the borough should be soliciting these bids, not the visionary committee,” solicitor Dan Hewitt said.

The borough spent $2,500 on white pine logs in December, which will serve as replacements in the spring. Council also extended a $12,000 contract with Amish builder Elmer Hostetler to complete the repairs once warmer weather arrives.

“We appreciate the work the visionary committee has done,” Hewitt told council. “But you may want to at least have a phone call before awarding a bid that, essentially, came off the street.”

Council voted to table the contract until its March meeting.

Council members also voted 6-0 to sell a group of period-appropriate logs purchased for $3,000 in 2018. Bought to be installed at the cabin, council later discovered they were not the contractor’s preference.

The logs were placed on the Municibid website, where users can bid on items sold by local governments. They did not prove nearly as popular as a used borough dump truck, which brought in more than $30,000.

“Unfortunately, there was not a bidding frenzy,” Councilman Stan Cheyne said. “I was mostly getting questions like, ‘How many cords of firewood will this make if I chop it up?’”

The high bid was $155.

Money spent on the cabin does not come from taxpayer dollars but rather from the Shields Farm account, which borough officials control.

According to the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, the cabin was moved from elsewhere on the former Shields Farm, and rebuilt in its current location on East Pittsburgh Street.

Colonial garden

Members of the visionary committee would also like to install a garden at the cabin site.

“There’s about an 80-foot walkway behind the cabin and we were thinking of putting in a colonial-era garden,” committee members Vicki Walters said. “Vegetables, flowers, herbs, it would be a full garden.”

Walters said borough public works crews would not need to be involved, as committee members have received volunteer interest from the community as well as the Delmont Diggers, a group of volunteers who helped create the Delmont Public Library’s butterfly garden.

Public Works head Bill Heaps said that while the cabin does not currently have water service, committee members could always install a rain barrel to collect water for plants.

Council President Andy Shissler asked Walters and the committee to bring back a rough sketch next month of what the garden might look like.