EMPORIUM — Demolition of the former Jasper Harris & Son building on East Fourth Street in the Emporium Borough will finally begin this week.
Cameron County Commissioners announced that the long-awaited deconstruction of that structure, which has been vacant for more than a decade, will likely be a long process.
Fencing was placed around the building Thursday and North Cherry Street is now closed alongside Jasper. Parking lots along Greenwood Street and the rear entrances of neighboring buildings are still accessible.
Workers plan to begin at the rear of the building and work toward Fourth Street, according to commissioners.
Todd Deluccia of the Cameron County Conservation District attended the meeting to discuss the Wild Envirothon held recently.
Fifteen students from Cameron County High School participated in the event, testing their knowledge in five categories: aquatics, wildlife, forestry, soils and current issue. This year’s current issue questions were about invasive species.
At the Wild Envirothon, teams from Cameron and McKean county schools compete, with the top team from each county heading to the state competition later this month. The state competition features a sixth challenge wherein the teams have to develop a thirty-minute presentation on a selected topic, which is not announced until the day before the challenge.
“There is a lot of information that the kids have to study and learn. The questions are very difficult,” said Deluccia. “We had twenty-one teams this year; that’s the biggest one we’ve had so far.”
Commissioner Lori Reed attended the Envirothon, and said she was impressed with the students’ grasp of the subject matter. While students are given a vague idea of the material they should study, they have to learn it in-depth in order to have a shot at answering the questions in each category.
Commissioner Phil Jones recently participated in a conference call on the proposed increase to the Payment-in-Lieu-of-Taxes (PILT) received on state-held lands annually.
“We’re not really any closer than we were before, but we’re going to have another meeting soon to decide what we need to do moving forward,” said Jones. Recently released figures show that a doubling of the PILT would bring in an additional $580,000 for Cameron County.
Commissioners have continued their tours of local industrial facilities, visiting Emporium Hardwoods and Emporium Secondaries recently. Emporium Hardwoods employs 95 people full-time, plus logging crews.
“The mill has really transformed in the year-and-a-half since we were last there,” said Commissioner Jim Thomas. “They’ve put millions of dollars in equipment in over that time.”
Emporium Secondaries has been operating in Cameron County for 40 years, and commissioners stated that they had a very good tour of those facilities.
Commissioners participated in canvassing of elections last week, and thanked Chief Clerk Brenda Munz and courthouse employees Misty Lupro, Mary Grace Olay, Tara Newton and Staci Brown for their assistance.
Commissioners are working with Pennsylvania Department of Transportation on a number of issues, including assisting Lumber Township supervisors dealing with two closed bridges currently and following up on citizen questions regarding right-on-red turns at the Broad and Fourth intersection. As for the red light issue, a study completed about a decade ago determined that the number of pedestrians utilizing the intersection was too high. In addition, several individuals have been hit by cars in the area. The Emporium Borough would need to petition PennDOT for another study to be completed prior to any changes being permitted.
The next meeting of the Cameron County Commissioners will be held at 10 a.m. on May 19 at the courthouse in Emporium.
