Progress on Penn State's construction project at the Dickinson School of Law's Carlisle campus is at a crossroads, as the administration is hopeful a large contribution from a potential donor may "dramatically alter the project," said Stephen MacCarthy, vice president for university relations.

The current project -- which aims to renovate Carlisle's landmark building, Trickett Hall -- is slated to be a $35 million undertaking.

However, MacCarthy said the school is very close to successfully completing the deal with a potential donor whose contribution would allow the project to reach a much larger scale.

"This has always been a moving target," MacCarthy said of the project, "but we think we're about to close the loop."

Last month, a $60 million new law school facility at University Park was approved by the Board of Trustees, while funding for the Carlisle half of the project has been contingent on a matching grant from Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.

The grant pledges to match funding raised by Penn State in a quantity up to $20 million.

Penn State has put $10 million toward the project, and has relied on philanthropy to raise about $7.5 million.

McCarthy refused to speculate as to the exact amount of the potential donation.

"It's a lot easier to work on the philanthropy side of things if you're not being scrutinized by a lot of media," MacCarthy said.

Kelly Jones, Dickinson School of Law spokeswoman, said pledges for the Carlisle project declined in May, when it was announced the law school would be preserving the Trickett Hall building instead of constructing all brand-new facilities.

Since that point, the fundraising process has been focused on talking to major donors to see if they are still interested in contributing to the Trickett Hall renovation, she said.

MacCarthy said the school should know by the end of the month whether or not the new donation will be a part of the project, at which point the administration could finalize its budget for the construction plan.

Yesterday, Cumberland County's Redevelopment Authority received a notice from Penn State about the status of the project budget, responding to a letter sent about two weeks ago asking about the school's progress.

"It gives assurances that they are working on putting it together and that they will provide documents as they are completed," Christopher Houston, director of real estate development, said.

Houston had previously been concerned about the lack of information they had received about the project. The Redevelopment Authority has the task of taking the project budget provided by the school and turning it into an application to the state -- a lengthy and involved process that must be completed by January 2007 to make good on the matching funds from Rendell.

"We are a little concerned because we want to make sure that money does not go away," Fred Bean, Carlisle's borough manager, said Tuesday.