Lycoming County government has a big problem. Quite simply, it owns more property than it needs. Here is the inventory — the primary facility where the county commissioners and the bulk of county offices are located is the Executive Plaza building, which sits behind another county property, the Lycoming County Courthouse. The County Prison is, of course, a county property. The County also owns the property known as the Third Street Plaza, which is directly across the street from the Courthouse. The Lysock Complex and Pre-Release Center (colloquially known as the “County Farm”) are located in Montoursville, and there is the Route 405 Property in Muncy.

Third Street Plaza was primarily used as a rental property, but a problem has extenuated itself with the departure of a number of tenants. Since 2014 the County has collected more in rental revenue than it has spent to maintain the building and that positive result grew from $200,000 in 2014 to $381,000 in 2017. But between August 2017 and August 2018, Third Street lost three of its seven tenants. Santander Bank vacated its space on the first floor in August 2017 but has continued to pay the cost of their lease. This revenue, approximately $150,000 annually, ceased at the termination of the lease in April 2019. What this means is that there is currently a lot of empty space in that building.

This matter was taken up by the Early Intervention Program (EIP) conducted for the County by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. The Public Financial Management Group Consulting conducted an almost year-long study to evaluate all aspects of the county government, and one particular focus area was Facility Management. In their public presentation of the plan on January 31st of this year, they noted that the County owns more space than it needs between the three downtown Williamsport properties.

The EIP study (which is available on the County’s website, lyco.gov, considered consolidating the offices currently in the County Courthouse (Adult Probation, Court Administrator, District Attorney, Domestic Relations, Juvenile Probation, Prothonotary, Public Defender, Register and Recorder, and Sheriff), Executive Plaza (Commissioners’ Office, Controller, Coroner, Fiscal Services, Human Resources, Planning and Community Development, Procurement, and Veterans Affairs), and those in the Third Street Plaza (Assessment, Central Collections, MIS, Treasurer, and Voters Services).

What also needs to be thrown into the mix is the fact that the County is currently renting space at the Sharwell Building on East Street in Williamsport for the Lycoming-Clinton Joinder Board which is comprised of two agencies; the Lycoming-Clinton Mental Health/Intellectual Disabilities Program, and Lycoming Children and Youth Services. Any consolidation plan is expected to include these services as well.

All of this information is background for a media release from the County’s Chief Procurement Officer, Mya Toon. It states, “Lycoming County Commissioners are exploring the potential sale of Executive Plaza located at 330 Pine Street. Within the next few weeks, the Lycoming County Commissioners will be soliciting bids for the sale of the building. A formal announcement by the Lycoming County Commissioners will be made on July 23, 2019, and on July 25, 2019, at the Lycoming County Commissioners regular scheduled Work Session and Board Meeting to outline the specific details of the process.” (Stay tuned to this station for the latest news of this development!)