The church’s original asking price was $200,000.

NEW NEGOTIATIONS

Commissioner Rick DeBlasio said Gettings has been the catalyst with Lynch in negotiating a deal for the county to buy the church from him.

Gettings said Lynch, who is distantly related to his wife, was planning to remodel the church and put attorneys’ offices in there.

“We saw the importance of the building and were trying to secure it,” Gettings said.

“I tried to indicate this would be a good thing for the county,” he continued, explaining that the commissioners and Lynch were going back and forth on the price until they arrived at the $275,000. That includes a couple of years of rent the county would have paid Lynch if it had continued leasing the parking lot and space inside, he said.

Commissioner Dan Vogler said the county otherwise would pay Lynch $13,500 a year in rent.

Steve Craig, commissioner chairman, announced that the board, Gettings, county administrator Jim Gagliano and county solicitor Thomas W. Leslie convened for executive sessions Friday and Monday to discuss the proposed purchase.

Under Pennsylvania’s Sunshine Law, executive sessions are permissible to discuss real estate transactions.

If Lynch were to keep the building, his property taxes for city, county and school would be around $24,000 a year, based on the property’s assessed value of $723,900. Before he bought it, the property was tax-exempt because it was a church. The county’s ownership will mean it will continue as tax-exempt.

The commissioners adopted an ordinance recently to borrow $1.5 million to renovate the county warehouse to create more space for county offices.

Getting said he did a cost analysis and found that the square footage cost at the warehouse would be $196, versus $66 in the church.

The church has 25,000 square feet, while the warehouse has 7,800.

“We’re getting three times the square footage for the same amount of money,” he said, adding, “I thought it was a no-brainer. That building up there is a perfect fit for the county. I’m glad we came to the conclusion that we can make it work.”