By SUSAN EVANS
EBENSBURG — Location, location, location.
That’s the key motivating factor in Borough Council’s decision to buy some land and a building for about $100,000.
The Babcock Lumber building is empty now, but it sits on South West Street near the Ghost Town Trail and borough-owned baseball fields.
That makes the site advantageous for the borough to own.
Its acquisition also would solve some storage problems and improve the site.
Council’s decision to proceed with the purchase is timely because the borough is in need of a new site for composting.
The former lumber property also would be used for storage of equipment, road salt and other materials.
Through a cooperative agreement, the borough would store equipment owned by the Cambria County Conservation and Recreation Authority, which owns and maintains the trail.
Plans are to demolish the deteriorating wooden structure now on the lumber property and provide “green space” for pubic parking along the street.
The most timely use will be as a borough compost site.
Tired of having to send borough trucks to collect waste, Ebensburg officials recently closed the composting site on Tanner Street, which they said was being “greatly abused.”
“Originally intended as a place that residents could dump small amounts of grass clippings and shrub trimmings, it has become a site used by persons from outside of the borough,” Borough Manager Dan Penatzer said.
Borough crews have been loading and removing dumped materials from the site.
Until the lumber site is prepared, a dump bed is positioned at the rear of the borough building for compost materials.
