Upper Gwynedd Recap: Change Orders Coming for Township Building Upgrades

Dan Sokil | The Reporter•

Security upgrades to Upper Gwynedd’s Parkside Place complex are in the works, and two change orders have been approved to add extra work to that project.

The township’s commissioners approved just over $22,000 in change orders this week for the security upgrade project.

"During the design, we left out these two items, so we’re now looking to include them as a change order,” said Assistant Manager Megan Weaver.

In September 2023 the commissioners approved a $365,000 contract for building security upgrades for the Parkside Place complex, which includes administrative offices, a public meeting room, and police station all attached to a building that last saw major renovations in the early 2000s. During those talks, township staff made the case that the building’s entrances needed to be more secure, aging utilities updated, and the lobby outside the meeting room could be reconfigured to add more space. In a visit this week, township staff could be seen working at temporary desks in that lobby area, while caution signs pointed visitors away from the administrative entrance toward the lobby entrance during construction.

In the March 4 commissioners meeting, Weaver said the board would be asked to approve a $25,000 payment for electrical work on that project at their March 11 meeting, then outlined the change orders. The first, for just over $12,000 to contractor S.B. Conrad, would upgrade the doors between the meeting room, the atrium, and the administration and police wings to add a key fob locking system.

"That would make sure that our facility is fully secured,” she said.

The second section of the change order, for just under $11,000 to the same contractor, would replace sound panels located over in the administrative offices: "We had initially planned to reuse the panels that we currently have; however, after we did all of the paint upgrades, it was very clear that they looked dingy, they were stained from the windows previously leaking onto them, so we are looking to go forward with replacing those as well,” Weaver said.

The commissioners then unanimously approved the change order, with no further discussion, and Weaver said specifics on the next regular payment would be included in the agenda for their March 11 meeting.

Women’s History Month Proclamation

In their first action item of the month, the board unanimously approved a proclamation marking Women’s History Month, after the proclamation was read by commissioners President Katherine Carter.

"Whereas: the 2024 theme for Women’s History Month is ‘Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.’ This theme recognizes women throughout the country who understand that for a positive future, we need to eliminate bias and discrimination entirely from our lives and institutions,'” Carter said.

"Whereas: American women have been leaders not only in securing their own rights of suffrage and equal opportunity but also at the forefront of every major progressive social change movement in history, paving the way for future generations to enjoy the unalienable rights, duties and responsibilities afforded equally to all citizens of the United States of America,” she said.

In 2020 the commissioners made history by having the township’s first all-female board, and Carter is the third consecutive female board President, succeeding fellow commissioners Liz McNaney and Denise Hull in that post; the township’s manager, assistant manager, solicitor, parks and recreation director, and tax collector are also women.

"Whereas: each woman is extraordinary in her own way, proving that women working inside the home, or outside in academia, science, technology, business, labor, military service, governance and more, maintain a critical role in every sphere of society,” she said.

"Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the Board of Commissioners do hereby designate the month of March as Women’s History Month in Upper Gwynedd Township to honor women everywhere for their outstanding achievements and invaluable contributions to society,” Carter said, prompting a unanimous approval from the board.

Merck Plans Modified

The board’s March 11 meeting will likely also bring an update from Merck about a building project the global pharmaceutical company had presented earlier this year.

"The board did grant approval for their preliminary and final land development. They are coming back and requesting an amendment,” said Weaver.

"The only thing that they’ve changed in their plan is in their square footage to the building design, nothing else has changed,” she said.

In January Merck secured approvals for a new "Building 41” to be located toward the center of the company’s 320-acre complex, a new lab analysis and testing building to be built on the site of a research building that had stood on the company’s Sumneytown Pike campus from 1955 to 2021.

According to meeting materials and documents provided by Merck, the original approved plan called for a building of just over 110,000 square feet and the revised plan now calls for just over 119,000 square feet, and the revised plans have been vetted and approved by the township’s solicitor and engineer and are scheduled to be presented by Merck for board approval on March 11.

Hearing Scheduled on Code Update

The commissioners also previewed a hearing scheduled for the March 11 meeting on a code update the board voted to advertise in February. That new ordinance is meant to update and modernize definitions for convenience stores currently in the township’s codebook, planning and zoning officer Van Rieker told the board, and would not apply to the planned Wawa fuel station and convenience store approved in January for the corner of Valley Forge Road and Sumneytown Pike.

"The ordinance amendment that will be discussed and heard next week, is not to accommodate Wawa. Wawa is approved. It’s a language update the solicitor and I thought would be appropriate, relative to observing some good plans when we saw them, that were not in our ordinance but we thought should be. It’s really more of a housekeeping update,” he said.

The full text of that code update, and related review letters, are all included in the commissioners’ meeting materials packet for March 4. Upper Gwynedd’s commissioners next meet at 7 p.m. on March 11 at the township administration building, 1 Parkside Place; for more information visit www.UpperGwynedd.org.

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