Former casino to be renovated

The city is also getting a grant to install sidewalks on North Buhl Farm Drive.

HERMITAGE, Pa. — The old casino at Buhl Farm Park is going to get a makeover using donated money and state grants.

The idea, said Buhl Trustees president Jim Feeney, is to renovate the building, which opened in 1915 and is in bad shape, so it can be used more by the community for weddings and other gatherings. The entire downstairs will be gutted and redone, he said, and the upstairs ballroom will be “spruced up.”

Feeney said the building will get new restrooms, a new heating system and new wiring, and the project will also include asbestos removal. An elevator will also be installed.

Helping out with the $3 million in project costs are grants from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.

The department’s Growing Greener II program is giving $500,000 toward the project, and the department’s Housing and Redevelopment Assistance program is giving $250,000.

The rest of the project money will come from $5.1 million the trustees raised over a four-to-five-year campaign, Feeney said. The rest of the money the campaign raised will go into an endowment fund for the park’s operational expenses, he said.

Feeney said the trustees hope to solicit bids for the project in the first quarter of 2009, and expect it to be finished in the first quarter of 2010.

The city also received $500,000 from the DCED’s Elm Street program to improve North Buhl Farm Drive toward the park. Jeremy Coxe, the city’s community planner, said the grant will be used for sidewalks from East State Street to Highland Road and for other improvements for pedestrians.

“We’re trying to get people to the park,” Coxe said.

The 300-acre park, founded in 1915, was a gift to the community from Frank and Julia Buhl.