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DALLAS TWP. — The board of supervisors will hold a public meeting Thursday to discuss purchasing the former Hildebrandt Learning Center corporate office on Lt. Michael Cleary Drive and moving the borough offices there.

The move, if approved, would nearly double the size of municipal offices and police station.

The supervisors will present a resolution to buy the building at 6:30 p.m. in the meeting room of the municipal building.

Several hurdles need to be cleared, however, before the borough officials can begin the move. Township Supervisor William Grant said Tuesday the township must first come up with $1.3 million to buy the building, annex the 1.5-acre lot it sits on from Dallas Borough and go through a building appraisal and inspection.

Despite the challenges, it’s a move the township needs to make, according to Supervisor Elizabeth Martin.

“We have outgrown the township building,” she said.

Administrative work space and the police department, consisting of 10 full-time officers, are cramped in the nearly 4,500-square-foot municipal building, she said.

By law the municipal building is required to be within the township boundaries, township Attorney Thomas Brennan said.

Dallas Township proper includes the area around the property, including Dorchester Drive, which intersects with Lt. Michael Cleary Drive, and the neighboring Geisinger Dallas Family Practice, Brennan said.

“It is a little notch of Dallas Borough,” Martin said, describing the boundary lines around the lot.

An annexation request will be decided on by the Court of Common Pleas, Brennan said. If approved, then the other conditions in the sales agreement will need to be met, Brennan said.

If denied, the township will not proceed with the purchase, Brennan said.

Supervisors have looked at other properties with structures and “raw land,” in the township, Grant said.

“We looked at another building a year and a half ago,” Grant said. “The price was high, and it needed a lot of renovation.”

The former Hildebrandt Learning Center corporate office would offer the municipality three floors totaling nearly 8,500 square feet, Grant said.

The second floor is in move-in condition, Grant said. The main floor could provide office space for administrative staff, the zoning officer and tax collector plus a meeting room, he said.

The lower level is unfinished space that can accommodate the police station, holding cells and lockers, Grant said.

“Other governmental agencies approached us with interest in leasing space (in the building),” Grant said, noting he could not identify the agencies at this time, but the revenue could offset some of the building’s expense.

Grant was part owner of the building and co-founder of the child care facility before Bright Horizons of Boston, Mass., acquired it in May 2015.

“At that time I was required to divest myself of the property,” he said.

The Dallas Township Municipal Building.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/web1_DTMB-2.jpg.optimal.jpgThe Dallas Township Municipal Building.

By Eileen Godin

[email protected]

Dallas Township meeting

Time: 6:30 p.m.

Date: Thursday

Place: Dallas Township municipal building, 2919 Route 309, Dallas

Reach Eileen Godin at 570-991-6387 or on Twitter @TLNews.