Oct 18, 2016 By Luke Campbell 3 min read

When municipal engineer Dan Deiseroth of Gateway Engineers and Joel Cluskey, president of RSH Architects, approached Mt. Lebanon commissioners in March, it was with optimism that bids to renovate the local history center would fall within the estimated costs.

After receiving bids that were much higher than expected, those involved with the project took a step back and found that the circumstance had to do more with timing than anything.

“Some of what our architect found was that it was just not the ideal time to put this project out for bidding,” said Jim Wojcik, Historical Society of Mt. Lebanon president. “We decided to simplify it a little bit and focus on a much smaller scope.”

Six months later, after rebidding the project, commissioners voted to award the interior demolition and replacement of the roof to Ramp Construction of Canonsburg for $185,720.

“The roof has deteriorated rapidly,” Deiseroth said at Mt. Lebanon Commission’s Oct. 10 discussion session. “It does appear that we can do the roof and the interior demolition that was specified in a time period to be completed by Jan. 31.”

Ramp Construction submitted the lowest of the three bids received. The company had previously done similar work on the roof on the municipality building.

While it was an emergency to repair the roof and demolition in a timely fashion, other problems persist on the inside of the Spanish Colonial Revival-style building at 794 Washington Road, including the removal of asbestos.

The historical society also wants to be able to move to the first floor, rather than the basement that it has occupied since June 2009, to draw more interest to the multiple exhibits it has during the years.

“What’s difficult is the entrance has been on Lebanon Avenue,” said Wojcik. “A lot of people walking by on Washington Road didn’t even know there was a history center there. The space we have been in is limited. We work with the Heinz History Center and their traveling exhibit requires 500 square feet. We had to pass on those exhibits.”

Wojcik is expecting once the work finishes in January, the second phase will be put out for bid to allow for a larger exhibit area on the first floor.

To continue to raise money for restoration efforts and to eventually buy the property from the municipality, the society has received grants from the Pennsylvania Gaming Economic Development and Tourism Fund, administered through the Redevelopment Authority of Allegheny County. It was also awarded $50,000 from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission as a Keystone Historic Preservation grant.

The site, owned by the municipality, has a lease-to-own agreement with the society. The society pays approximately $8,000 per year to eventually fund the $160,000 purchase price.

How exactly to pay for the repairs was tabled by commissioners after a copy of the proposed agreement was accidently left out of the meeting documents.

Commissioners plan to review and approve the agreement during their Oct. 24 meeting, which would either allow the historical society to pay the costs up front or spread payments over the 20-year lease agreement with the municipality.