At their January 27 meeting, the Lancaster County commissioners voted unanimously to contract with L. Robert Kimball & Associates, Inc. to “provide design and construction phase services for the Lancaster County Forensic Center and Laboratory.” The firm will be compensated with no more than $490,000 by the project’s completion, according to the Wednesday resolution.
“We did go through a [request for proposals] process in putting together these firms,” Commissioner Scott Martin said, “We had about four interviews, I believe, and coming out of that, we decided that Kimble was the institute we wanted to work with.”
The proposed forensic center has been a subject of deliberation among boards of commissioners since it was requested by the county corner in 2004. The current lease for the county’s morgue space in the basement of Conestoga View will expire this year. A 2006 plan for a new, 10,000 square-foot facility, estimated a $3.5 million price tag for the entire project.
The specific plan from 2006, however, has since been scrapped by the current board of commissioners, who had been concerned about the proposed East Hempfield Township location with its proximately to residential developments. In August 2009, the commissioners agreed to lease land owned by Lancaster General for $10,000 a year.
The new location will be will be adjacent to the LGH health campus, near Route 30’s Rohrstown exit.
