Plum prepares to move into $20M municipal center

Plum officials are moving into the borough’s $20 million municipal center, which will host its first public event in December.

The building on Old Mine Road, between Old Leechburg and Renton roads, is expected to be ready for occupancy by Nov. 14, and borough council will meet there for the first time that night, Borough Manager Michael Thomas said.

Aside from the public council meeting, “Christmas at Plum Creek” will be the first community event Dec. 1. It’s being moved there from Plum Creek Park.

The event does not need a new name because Little Plum Creek flows past both locations, Thomas said.

Among its amenities, the building features an oversized parking lot.

“This whole facility has been designed so this is the community center for all of our community events,” Thomas said.

The only exception is Summer Fest, which will stay at Larry Mills Park, he said.

Built on part of 110 acres owned by the borough since the late 1990s, earthwork at the site started in February 2021 followed by construction that August. It sits near the borough’s public works facility and beside the Al Franci Emergency Services Building, which houses the Renton Fire Department and Plum EMS.

The Plum Borough Municipal Authority is expected to move to a new building at the site, but it’s not known when that will happen, authority Manager Howard Theis said.

A trail system also is planned.

“There was a lot of thought that went into that facility,” Mayor Harry Schlegel said. “We wanted it to be a true community center.”

The building has been in the works for at least a decade. Formerly the borough tax collector, Schlegel said he had opposed it in favor of putting a second story on the old borough building, but changed his mind as he spent more time in it as mayor.

The borough borrowed money for its construction when interest rates were lower, and materials were ordered and arriving before supply chain issues arose.

“Some residents might be concerned about how we could build a building like that in today’s economy,” Schlegel said. “We didn’t build it in today’s economy. We built it in the previous economy.”

The two-story building features a main lobby, offices, council chambers and a rentable banquet facility with a full kitchen on its upper floor.

The lower level consists primarily of the police department and a gymnasium with a kitchen between two party rooms.

Extra offices were included to accommodate the borough’s growth. Thomas, who himself was sharing an office and now has one of his own, said the borough will be hiring needed staff now that it has space for them.

Features outside the building that are not yet complete include a 300-seat amphitheater with an outdoor kitchen donated by the Plum Rotary Club.

“They wanted to be part of the project,” Thomas said. “We think it’s a great amenity to add.”

The amphitheater will be finished in the spring, Thomas said.

A splash pad for kids that will double as an ice-skating rink will be behind the building. It will be built on an area of land that was created by depositing soil that was not suitable to be built upon and placed there instead of being hauled away.

It will include bathrooms, a concession stand and skate rental facility.

Construction is expected to start in the spring, with it being ready for use in the fall, Thomas said.

The main-floor banquet facility has access to the lobby and to an outdoor patio through two garage doors. All combined, Thomas said it can accommodate almost 400 people.

The gymnasium will be available for public use for basketball, volleyball and futsal, Thomas said. It also will be used for movies, with a retractable screen against one wall and bleachers that can be moved into a theater setting.

The borough will move into the building in stages, with police among the last for security reasons. Thomas said that will allow the borough to include the police department in tours before it becomes off-limits to those without approved access.

Police Chief Lanny Conley said he anticipates his department moving there in December.

Vestibules at the entries to the police department and main lobby will serve as panic rooms. A person who feels threatened will be able to enter and press a button that will lock the outer doors and notify 911.

The police department is gaining a considerable amount of space, including inside the building and a large canopy-covered area where all of its patrol vehicles can be parked shielded from the weather.

New amenities include a sally port, where officers can securely remove suspects under arrest out of vehicles, a wheelchair-accessible jail cell and a room dedicated to charging electronic devices.

Officers will be able to use an indoor, four-lane gun range for training and required qualifications.

“I think council and the borough manager have done a tremendous job. They have thought of everything that they could possibly think of and for the future,” Conley said. “It’s a tremendous, tremendous building.”

Conley said officers are raving about the firearms range and looking forward to the larger lockers in the locker room.

“It was well thought-out. We’re not going to outgrow it anytime soon,” he said. “The layout is very strategic. It’s a good workflow for our department.”