Hazleton buys former high school to house police force
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - A Hazleton Police vehicle is parked outside the Gottstein Building on North Church Street in Hazleton on Nov. 1, 2023.
HAZLETON – The Hazleton Police Department will soon move from center city to the Church Hill section after the city’s purchase of the former Hazle Township High School.
The school building on North Church Street is known by many as the Gottstein Building as it recently housed the Gottstein Corporation, whose logo is prominently displayed on the building.
In a Facebook post, Mayor Jeff Cusat’s office said the city purchased the building for $1.75 Million with American Rescue Plan funds “under the specific category of gun violence deterrence.”
“The City of Hazleton would like to assure you that we are following all the legal steps and reporting requirements to administer the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds as It does with all other grants and allocations made to the city, the office said in the post. “ARPA money is not a reoccurring revenue source and cannot go into a single year budget to be allocated by council because budgets do not carry over year to year. Since ARPA is not able to be placed into a reserve fund or used to pay debt service or pension costs it cannot be inserted into an annual budget unless it’s classified as lost revenue.”
Cusat’s office referred any questions to the Pennsylvania Third Class City Code.
According to city council minutes, the building has been a topic of conversation for the past few months.
At the September 12, Councilman Jack Mundie questioned whether or not council should have a say in the purchase, and a resident echoed that question at the Sept. 26 meeting.
The city’s solicitor said the city’s form of government allows the executive — the mayor — to decide where ARPA money is spent.
Cusat also said in Sept. that the police department will be moving from city hall to the Gottstein building, and not the fire department.
Two police vehicles were present at the building Wednesday afternoon.
Gottstein recently moved out of the building and, two years ago, Elevate Health and Wellness, which was also housed in the building, closed.
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