Portion of municipal parking lot down from City Hall proposed for new LH police station

LOCK HAVEN, PA – City officials have come up with another proposal for a new location to house the city police department. Scheduled for action for City Council’s meeting Monday night is a proposal to “pursue the plan to build a new City Police Department facility at 45 E. Church Street.”

According to a schematic with the council agenda, the new building would occupy the eastern third of the municipal E. Church Street parking lot across from the Gearhart-Herr building.

City Manager Greg Wilson, in his information to council, recommends the new building be constructed as soon as feasible. He said in working with the city’s architect from Buchart Horn, the cost for the one-story building would be about $2.1 million.

Through the efforts of City Planner Abbey Roberts, the city manager said, US Sen. Bob Casey has agreed to place a $1 million grant into this year’s federal appropriations bill; if adopted by Congress and signed by the President, that money would be available toward the project. The remaining balance would come from the $2.4 million remaining in the city’s 2021 A Note borrowing.

This is the first time the municipal parking lot has been mentioned as a prospective location for police quarters, presently located in the back of City Hall’s first floor. There had been earlier talk of a new building along Bellefonte Avenue on a vacant lot near the 5-Way intersection and further down on E. Church Street at the present home of the Hope-Hose Fire Company.