HOLLIDAYSBURG — Blair County may not yet have a site for its proposed prison, but as of Thursday, commissioners have designated an architectural firm to design the facility.

Commissioners Dave Kessling, Amy Webster and Laura Burke agreed Thursday to sign an agreement for architectural design services with TranSystems, the company that handled a feasibility study recommending a new prison and identifying pros and cons of three potential sites.

While TranSystems identified acreage currently owned by Alto-Reste Park as the preferred site, commissioners agreed last week to back away from that location because of public sentiment and criticism.

Since then, no alternate site has been identified, commissioners said Thursday.

To keep the project moving, however, commissioners voted Thursday in favor of relying on TranSystems to design the new prison, without interviewing other potential firms.

TranSystems, which acquired the L.R. Kimball firm of Ebensburg in 2021, has since merged with Gannett Fleming and has multiple offices throughout Pennsylvania.

“They came highly recommended,” Webster said after Thursday’s meeting concluded. “They were identified as the experts who were up to date on the most recent design features and requirements.”

Commissioner Laura Burke referenced TranSystems’ familiarity with Blair County’s current prison, in light of having designed the prison’s prior additions and preparing the feasibility study.

“They know all the sites we’ve looked at,” Burke said.

Kessling said he wasn’t aware of the county ever considering any other architectural firm for the task.

“Since I came on the board 16 months ago, it was TranSystems from the beginning,” Kessling said.

Webster added that because the work fits into the category of professional services, the county is under no obligation to advertise for bids.

In Lancaster County, TranSystems is in the midst of designing a single-story county prison with 944 beds on 75 acres of farmland, with construction targeted to start in late 2026.

TranSystems got the job after commissioners in that county, in May 2023, publicly interviewed personnel from three interested architectural companies.

Besides TranSystems, representatives for two other firms were interviewed in Lancaster. They included Dewberry, a Fairfax, Va., firm with offices throughout the nation including Pittsburgh, Mechanicsburg and Philadelphia and STV, a New York City-based firm with offices in Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Philadelphia.

Kessling on Thursday praised Webster for discussing and negotiating TranSystem’s fee for architectural design services from 6% to 4% of “the budget for the cost of the work.”

Webster said the fee will be applicable to construction costs associated with the prison and exclude costs such as what the county will pay for land acquisition. She said the company was willing to reduce its fee in light of total cost projections.

In its feasibility study, TranSystems projected the anticipated cost of building a prison would range from $96.27 million to $123.16 million, based on its examination of three potential sites. Besides the Alto-Reste grounds, the firm also examined pros and cons of building on acreage behind the Altoona Grand Hotel and off Route 36 near Chimney Rocks, where steeper slopes and access issues were expected to result in the higher site preparation costs.

Kessling reiterated Thursday that with the Alto-Reste site excluded from consideration, the cost of building elsewhere is expected to be higher.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.