By Justin Strawser
The Daily Item
SUNBURY — Northumberland County Prison Warden Bruce Kovach is working on a wish list of what the future prison should have when it’s built on the former Knight-Celotex property.
At Wednesday’s prison board meeting, Kovach informed the board members that he, rape counselor Sam Kranzel and a project manager toured the Franklin County Prison for four hours on Oct. 2 to get an idea of what a state-of-the-art facility looks like.
“They have really cool stuff,” Kovach said, “but you have to update it all every three to five years. Some of the technology they have is already obsolete.”
The visit reinforced Kovach’s ideology of less technology to run a prison.
“Technology is great,” he said. “Sam and I are old-timers, and we like to see cells and turn keys to open doors. That type of technology has worked for 100 years.”
Kovach liked the boiler redundancy at the Franklin County Prison as well as a plumbing system that would trap foreign objects so the system wouldn’t break. He also suggested the new prison use green energy.
“It will cost at the beginning, but it will save us in maintenance,” Kovach said. “We’re looking at a 20-year lifespan for everything. How can we best spend taxpayer money to save in the long run?”
The warden is working on a list of what the new prison should have, and the project managers and engineers will base the price of the new facility partially off that.
After a Jan. 14 fire destroyed the county prison on North Second Street, the county purchased the 22-acre property for $2 million from JDM Acquisitions, a subsidiary of the Watsontown-based Moran Industries, with plans to build a jail at 1400 Susquehanna Ave.
The intended use of the property will be county facilities and new city development, according to the application. The city is planning to use Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program funds, about $4 million, for the overall project.
A joint venture between Northumberland County and Sunbury will allow the two governmental agencies to develop the land with state money.