The Lawrence County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 13 accepted correspondence from Collective Efforts LLC describing a proposed Newcastle Readiness Center (NCRC) in Union Township and entered the letter into the official record.

The letter, signed by Lauren Sprinkle, director of civil services for Collective Efforts LLC, states the current National Guard facility was constructed in 1936 and describes it as "dated, constrained, and functionally obsolete." It says the Pennsylvania Department of General Services is the applicant and has selected an approximately 27-acre site adjacent to an existing field maintenance shop. The document says the developed project area would be about 7.89 acres and that the scope includes a new readiness center, an unheated storage building, new vehicular access and parking for personally owned and tactical vehicles, secured military equipment parking and proposed stormwater management facilities.

Commissioners asked staff to confirm whether the letter referred to the county armory. Jesse (staff) confirmed the document references the armory, which the board discussed as state-owned property and said would be subject to decisions by the state armory board. Commissioners requested a copy of the letter for county files; the chair directed staff to provide the missing page referenced in the packet.

Entering the correspondence into the record does not constitute county approval of the project or permits. The letter is a statutory notice to the county because the applicant is seeking permits from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. The board recorded a motion to accept the letter and, after a roll-call vote, carried the motion.

Next steps: the county will maintain the correspondence in its record and provide a copy to county staff for reference. Any DEP permit decisions will proceed through state review and local notice procedures.