Following the state’s decision to close the State Correctional Institution at Rockview state and the Quehanna Boot Camp, a group of Pennsylvania lawmakers plan to introduce legislation to improve the transparency of future land sales by the state.
“This bill ensures that going forward, regardless of what has happened, that the backroom deals, the sweetheart deals, whatever you want to call them, will not happen," said State Rep. Dallas Kephart, a Republican who represents part of Clearfield County, including the Quehanna Boot Camp. "This will be an open and transparent process.”
He was one of three House members who held a bipartisan press conference Wednesday in Harrisburg.
State Rep. Scott Conklin, a Democrat who represents part of Centre County, said he’s seen other state correctional facilities sell for low amounts through "backroom deals" that were closed to the public.
Conklin’s district does not include Rockview, but he opposed its closing and is now co-sponsoring the land sale transparency bill.
“There's 5,700 acres at Rockview alone with probably, again, some of the most prime real estate in all of the state," Conklin said.
Conklin said the bill doesn’t say what should be done with the land — like keeping it as agricultural or forested land or for hunting — just how a sale should be done.
Lawmakers also pointed to interest in longterm commercial development because of nearby work on the I-80 and I-99 interchange project and a future Amazon warehouse facility near Bellefonte. That could make the land at Rockview a prime spot for development.
"That's the kind of thing that I want to make sure that if anything happens along that corridor, that it be a public process and that it ultimately benefit the people and communities of Centre County," said state Rep. Paul Takac, whose 82nd district includes Rockview.
Takac is not yet a co-sponsor of the land sale bill, but he did speak in support of it during Wednesday's press conference.
The state Department of Corrections hasn’t said if it will sell any land, but it does plan to close Rockview and Quehanna sometime early next year.
Kephart said he's heard from the department that the Forestry Camp at Rockview will be continued by the neighboring State Correctional Institution at Benner.
