Mahoning Township officials Wednesday revisited the plans to purchase the former Penn Medical building on Route 443, west of Normal Square.

Supervisors have been looking at the building, at 2175 Blakeslee Blvd. Drive W., since last fall.

The building once housed the offices for Dr. Floriel Diaz.

The plan is to renovate the building, which includes 14 acres of land, and move the township offices and police department to the location.

Supervisor Brian Reeser said the township has been discussing new offices since 2003.

“We’ve been talking about this for way too long; first we look at one property, then another, we have tests and surveys done, but we are not getting anywhere, and it’s gone on long enough,” Reeser said.

The other board members agreed and will be moving forward with the plans for the offices.

First, though, they need to deal with mold.

According to officials, Seitz Environmental Services has been checking the facility and has found instances of mold in most of the rooms there.

“I don’t know much about mold, so I don’t know if all of it is bad,” Vice Chairman Robert Slaw said. “But the preliminary report shows they found nine varieties of fungi around the building.”

Seitz wants to do more testing by drilling small holes into the drywall and inspecting further, but the property owners are asking for a release to be drawn up and signed before any such holes are dug.

The supervisors want Seitz to give them more detail on where they want to drill and how big the holes they need will be.

Wendy’s paving approved

A motion was made to approve a paving project by Wendy’s, the fast-food restaurant on Route 443.

The restaurant opened in December 2020, but weather prevented the restaurant from finishing the paving of the parking lot.

Pete Eisenbrown, borough engineer, said that the township was supposed to inspect the lot before it was paved, but the owners appeared to have forgotten the inspection and paved it anyway.

The supervisors made the motion to approve the paving project, with the condition that the owners sign a release form that, if anything turned out wrong in that paving project, the owners would assume full responsibility.

Once that is signed, the township will release the escrow funds to the restaurant owners.

Other business

Supervisors also approved the following:

• Awarded a contract to Lehigh Asphalt to provide a variety of materials the township needs for its various road projects.

• Awarded a contract to Suburban Propane, the only company to provide a bid, for fuels. Pricing would include $2.30/gallon for diesel, $2.12 for heating oil, $2.50/gallon for 87 octane gasoline, and $1.46 for propane. The current bid expires June 19, 2021.

• Passed a motion to allow Zion Lutheran Church in Packerton to erect two “No Parking Between The Signs” signs due to people parking along their parking lot, nearly blocking the entrance and making it difficult for anyone trying to exit to see up and down the road.

• Tabled the proposed Airbnb/short-term rental ordinance, to give supervisors additional time to review it.