Cambria County commissioners on Thursday approved bids to sell two long-empty county-owned buildings in Ebensburg, clearing the way for private buyers to take over properties that had sat vacant for years.
The building on Manor Drive went for $63,000 to Delbert Framing, Roofing, & Siding LLC, while the South Center Street property sold for nearly $96,000 to Jonathan Steingraber. County officials said the unused buildings had been costing taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars each year in maintenance, insurance and utilities.
The sales matter now because the county had tried multiple times before to find buyers and had come up empty. This time, officials widened the search nationwide and brought in new bidders, a move that finally produced offers for both properties.
County solicitor Ronald Repak said he does not know exactly what the buyers plan to do with the buildings, but he said the county sees the sales as a chance for economic development. He said the properties could bring jobs and assets, and that once they are renovated and officially sold, they are expected to lose their tax-exempt status and begin generating property tax.
That is the turn the county had been waiting for: buildings that once drained public money could soon start adding to the tax rolls instead. Whether the new owners move quickly enough to make that happen will be the next thing local leaders watch in Ebensburg.
