By Rich Cholodofsky
Tribune-Review
GREENSBURG, Pa. — Almost six years after Westmoreland County commissioners borrowed $10 million to expand the juvenile detention center, work will finally begin on a cheaper project to rehabilitate the 29-year-old structure.
County officials last month signed off on architectural work for the $2 million project to expand juvenile probation offices that are housed in the Regional Youth Detention Center in Hempfield.
Construction work tentatively is slated to begin this spring and will take about a year to complete.
“The building is 29 years old and was designed for the needs back then. The needs have grown since then,” said facility director Pete Chapman.
The staff of about 40 juvenile probation officers has been crammed into basement offices at the center. Rehabilitation plans call for revamped office space as well as larger courtrooms for hearings that are conducted at the facility.
Additional space will be created to house medical and mental health services for the minor inmates, Chapman said.
Probation officers will be moved temporarily to the courthouse in Greensburg until the work is completed. The juvenile probation staff will take over third-floor offices at the courthouse that were vacated nearly two years ago when the Children’s Bureau was relocated to a new building across Pennsylvania Avenue.
Commissioners scrapped original plans to enlarge the juvenile detention center almost immediately. Officials determined the need to increase the facility’s capacity to 36 juvenile inmates was not necessary.
The $2 million for the renovation project will come from the $10 million that was borrowed for the initial expansion project. The county continues to use the other $8 million for capital improvements in other departments.
“In the late 1990s the numbers of juveniles at the facility was really high and then the numbers dropped, so we made a decision to just renovate the existing facility. We’re getting better value and a longer life expectancy of the building,” said Ted Kopas, chief of staff to Commissioner Tom Balya.
The detention center has a capacity of 24 inmates.
Chapman said that is more than sufficient. The facility houses an averages about 15 inmates a day and as of Friday had just eight children living there.
“If we had built the 36-bed facility back in 2003 and had just eight kids in it today, you’d be writing a whole different story,” Chapman said.
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