Murrysville to spend $29,000 to renovate park's Sears House

Council will spend $28,990 to renovate the interior of the Sears House, where a caretaker will live at Murrysville Community Park.

Council unanimously approved the interior improvements Wednesday. The money will come from the 2010 capital improvements fund.

Work at the Sears House includes air conditioning, heating system and duct work, along with insulation, wiring, carpentry, plumbing and dry wall.

"We're proposing to do this through a combination of both contracted work and in-house work," said Jim Morrison, chief administrator. "Anything beyond our ability will certainly be contracted out, in particular the furnace and air conditioning work and the duct work associated with that."

Other work to be contracted includes electrical and carpentry.

Sears homes were ready-to-assemble houses sold through mail order by Sears Roebuck and Company. More than 70,000 were sold in North America between 1908 and 1940.

The building will be used by a caretaker for the 305-acre park located on Wiestertown Road.

"Once the interior work is done, plans are to develop a lease and hopefully have someone in there by the end of June," Morrison said.

Renovations to the exterior of the home were completed in October. A grant from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources funded that work project, which cost $71,000.

In 2001, Murrysville entered into an agreement with John and Margaret Cline to purchase their farm for $1.35 million to be developed into a community park.

Considerable progress was made at the park in 2009. Along with exterior renovation to the Sears House, a dog park, funded by new Mayor Robert Brooks and his family, was completed during the summer, and an anonymous donor funded repairs to a barn on the site.

Council authorized advertising for bids to construct a 6,300-linear-foot sanitary sewer line to service the park. The line will be an extension of the public sanitary sewer system, starting downstream from the proposed Bianca Rose development on Wiestertown Road and ending upstream near Farm Road in the park area. The sewer line will be located off Wiestertown Road and adjacent to Steels Run.

Proposals will be accepted until Feb. 24.