Sep 19, 2016 By Luke Campbell 4 min read

Three questions posed by Commissioner David Brumfield summed up the approach toward tackling some of the expensive projects looming in Mt. Lebanon:

“Do you like the project? Is it necessary? And are you willing to pay for it?” Brumfield said during the commission’s Sept. 13 discussion session.

While the majority of commissioners agreed that spending millions to address the community ice center’s permafrost issue and major imporvements to the public works facility are musts, how they complete both will have a serious financial impact.

Financial estimates, along with considered alternatives to cut costs, were posed to progress the talks on what public works director Rudy Sukal considers to be a facility that creates suboptimal efficiency.

“That’s based on my experience and my years in public works,” said Sukal. “My goal is to be as efficient as possible. It’s not one particular issue, but it’s all the issues together.”

One issue Sukal cited is the lack of storage for salt and vehicles, especially in the winter. The municipality is currently working out of two salt storage facilities because the main dome is not large enough.

“Ideally, I would like to have all of our salt stored in one facility,” said Sukal.

The 1,500 tons of salt stored in the secondary facility is part of the expansion area for the garage to fit all the vehicles and allow for enough overhead clearance for larger machines to fit.

“If we don’t do anything, we’re going to be putting money into the facility just from a maintenance and enhancement standpoint for operation staying as it is,” said Commissioner John Bendel, regarding a project that decreased from its original price of $7 million.

While salt trucks may fit into the current facility, it creates issues of movement within the building, which creates another unwarranted hazard, according to Sukal.

“By not increasing the size of the facility, we’re also not improving the safety of the facility, either,” he said. “Our guys literally have to crawl over plows and through trucks to move in that building.”

An alternative being considered is moving the firing range at the site to a stand-alone facility elsewhere, a measure that also would decrease the high volume traffic that travels into the facility daily.

The predicted cost to build a separate stand-alone facility for the range would cost about $1.3 million and reduce public works building expenditures to between $5.2 million and $5.3 million.

The municipality, though, would look to other organizations, including the Mt. Lebanon School District and members of South Hills Area Council of Governments, to provide funds for the use of the range. The district has been seeking a new home for the high school rifle team since the range was eliminated in the wake of school renovations.

“I think it makes sense to move it out of the public works facility, especially if the high school wants to use it,” said Bendel. “It’s an incompatible population that would be using the same facility. I would like to investigate more about the alternative location. If we move it out of the public works facility, I would like to know pretty firmly before we move too far ahead.”

A tentative location under consideration for the indoor facility is adjacent to Mt. Lebanon Public Golf Course, which is owned by the municipality.

The Mt. Lebanon Police Department uses the Allegheny County Police Academy and North Fayette Township ranges for qualifications. According to police Chief Aaron Lauth, those courses range from $12 to $20 per shooter for an hour.

“As a department, we are trying to improve proficiency and decision making,” said Lauth. “As a police administrator, one of the things I’m most concerned about is the officer’s use of their service weapons. The events we want to prepare for are termed by risk managers as a low-frequency, high-risk event.”

Another cost-saving alternative discussed was changing the surface of the public works site’s lot. Not paving it would cut costs, Sukal acknowledged, but not having pavement would prove more difficult to maintain and clean.

The amount of traffic, particularly heavy construction vehicles, passing through the facility, could also cause deterioration.

“The longer we wait, the more time we have a dangerous facility,” said Brumfield.