Amid ‘convoluted mess’, additional funding for Whitehall Road Regional Park is released

During a special meeting Wednesday, the Centre Region Council of Governments approved releasing $578,974 of additional funding for the Whitehall Road Regional Park while leadership committed to having better management over the project after weeks of unclarity.

The Centre Region COG, made up of State College Borough, and College, Ferguson, Halfmoon, Harris and Patton townships, and its committees and authorities have had a number of contentious meetings about the long-planned project, which the former project manager called a “convoluted mess” in his recent resignation letter.

During Wednesday’s special meeting, Eric Norenberg, executive director of COG, said he learned in September that the park project was incurring costs that would exceed the project contingency fund. COG staff began “digging into this” to better understand the situation, he said. The funds the COG voted to release will ensure they make payments for unexpected work.

“I apologize that we did not catch this situation sooner and I take responsibility for that and am committed to implementing improved management of this and future projects,” Norenberg said.

He said staff assignments have been changed and other changes will be made to the internal process to better track elements of the project. In October, they began holding regular project coordination meetings with staff and the chair of the Centre Region Parks and Recreation authority; they plan to add an elected official to the group, as well.

“This group will be reporting regularly to the finance and facilities committees and to the authority. I’m confident that this expanded team will provide the needed level of monitoring of the project and communication that can give you trust in the oversight of the project during the remainder of the construction phase,” Norenberg said.

The park is being built near the Musser Gap Recreation Area, and between Route 45 and Whitehall Road, and has been in the works for decades. In December 2021, the COG general forum selected and approved bids, which in total came in around $4.8 million and it finally broke ground in April. Since then, progress has been made, but due to unexpected work and, therefore, costs, the general forum needed to authorize access to restricted loan funds to cover change orders and potentially some future costs.

The end of additional costs?

On Wednesday, the COG general forum needed a unanimous unit vote of all participating municipalities. All were unanimous among the individual boards except for Ferguson Township, which voted 3-1 in favor of authorizing access to the funds. Still, each municipality voted yes in the unit vote to access the funds.

Prior to the vote, the general forum was given a chance to comment on the project. Ferguson supervisor Patrica Stephens asked if it was guaranteed that the project would be completed with these additional funds. Norenberg said they believe the $579,000 will complete the current phase of construction, barring anything unexpected outside of the COG’s control.

Bill Keough, vice chair of the parks authority, said he wasn’t “quite as optimistic.” The authority’s intent is to finish the project within the funds that have been identified, he said, and he feels “reasonably satisfied” that the staff has identified upcoming costs. But he said he wasn’t comfortable saying there’s a guarantee that there won’t be additional costs.

Laura Dininni, chair of the Ferguson Township board of supervisors and the sole vote of opposition to releasing the funds, questioned when the project’s contingency fund was publicly reduced. Norenberg said over the course of time, the cost changed for different components of the projects, which necessitated reducing some of the contingency and reallocating it. But when it was presented to the authority in March, there was not a full explanation.

“That was certainly a concern that staff could have done a better job of explaining what transpired, how things got to where they were when the project then broke ground. But we now have been able to piece together and talked to staff that were working on the project at the time to try and understand all the reasons. While communication could have been better and should have been better, it’s very clear to me and the staff that have been piecing this together that changes were made for the right reasons to make sure the project components were constructed in the right way,” he said.

Staff changes

Though the general forum gave the green light to access the additional funds for the Whitehall Road Regional Park, the project is now without a project manager.

Ed Bell, project manager for the park, submitted his resignation in mid-November. According to emails obtained by the Centre Daily Times via a Right to Know request, Bell informed Kathy Matason, Centre Region Parks and Recreation Authority chair, in an email on Nov. 18 that he would be resigning, effective Dec. 2.

“I have never in my 4+ decades of construction management seen such a convoluted mess, nor have I ever witnessed the distrust and attitudes that I have witnessed over the many recent meetings we have been burdened with on the budget for Phase 1,” Bell wrote.

“All of us have spent entirely too much time over the past few weeks defending the management process of the Phase 1 Project. It is clear to me that you will never receive support from management outside Parks & Recreation, nor many outside officials whether they be voluntary or elected,” Bell wrote.

He added that it wasn’t a reflection on Matason or the parks and recreation department, as they’ve all acted professionally “through this grueling process.”

He was also serving as the project manager for another CRPR project, Spring Creek Education Building Phase 2 and welcome pavilion.

Pam Salokangas also resigned from her position as CRPR director Nov. 2, though it’s unclear if it’s related to the park project. Kristy Owens is serving as interim director and recreation services manager.

Norenberg said contractors have identified work that can continue over the next few weeks while the ground is still firm.