Lansford is working to get financing for the construction of a new borough garage.

Council members met last week to approve a loan application to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

If approved, the $600,000 loan, at 2.15%, would be used toward construction of a new borough garage on Dock Street.

“This is an ideal place. You’re not going to wake anyone up in the middle of the night. You won’t hear anything going on down there,” said Council President Bruce Markovich.

The borough wants a new building on property it recently acquired from Silberline Corp. The garage would sit on a 1.5-acre site located next to the Lansford Coaldale Joint Water Authority’s garage.

The borough road crew currently utilizes a building on the property which dates to 1872. Markovich said the borough looked into renovating the building for permanent use as a garage, but determined that the cost would be higher than that of a new building.

Borough officials are hopeful that the $600,000 loan and an existing $160,000 gaming grant will be enough to cover the cost of the project. Earlier this year, engineers estimated the cost at $1 million. Those plans will be scaled back for the final project. The current plans call for a 7,200-square-foot building.

“We’re going to restructure this new building to bring the cost down,” Markovich said.

Markovich said he is optimistic that the borough will be approved for the loan, clearing the way for construction to take place sometime in 2022.

The borough work crew hasn’t had a permanent home since the Department of Labor and Industry deemed the old garage on Spring Street unfit for occupation in 2018.

The borough recently moved to the building on the Silberline property. Markovich said that site is useful as a temporary home.

Before that, they rented a garage on Bertsch Street.

Council has already heard from possible tenants interested in renting the building they are using now. Renting the building would generate revenue to help pay back the USDA loan.

Markovich said that he hopes the activity on the site will lead to possible future developments on other sections of the Silberline property.

“We’re hoping this will show people they can locate more buildings on these sites we have down there,” he said.