Workers build new dock at Cross Creek
Kayakers and canoeists wanting to fish or just paddle around the lake at Cross Creek County Park have had the opportunity to use a dock with a profile flush with their watercraft that allows them to climb in more comfortably.
County workers constructed the wooden dock late this summer on the Route 50 side of the park. The lake previously had only a ramp designed for boats large enough to be hauled in via trailer. Also added near the new dock were two parking spaces for the disabled.
At the commissioners’ agenda meeting Wednesday, Lisa Cessna, director of the Washington County Planning Commission which oversees county parks, asked the three-member board to renew a 25-year lease the Department of the U.S. Army has with the county for 12.17 acres at Ten Mile Creek County Park in East Bethlehem Township, which flows into the Monongahela River. The Army Corps of Engineers is in charge of locks and dams on the river, and Ten Mile Creek park provides them access.
Commission Chairman Larry Maggi said on the day of his recent visit to the park, it was well-used by picnickers and others enjoying the facilities. He called the scenery there “absolutely beautiful.”
The commissioners are prepared Thursday to award a $587,407 contract to Morgan Excavating LP for work to be done at the Cross Creek County Park entrance from Route 50 to the boat launch, Shelter 10 to the observatory at Mingo Creek County Park, Nottingham Township and the Ten Mile entrance.
The commissioners also expect to solicit bids for a mini-excavator, 10-foot roller and a paver that can put in place a 10-foot swath of blacktop on either the Panhandle Trail and trails within county parks. The equipment would be small enough to be hauled by either a low-boy trailer or a pickup truck.
Now that the county fair is over, Cessna was asked outside the meeting about the status of proposed stone quarrying at the fairgrounds.
The county sought bids in the spring and several prospective quarriers attended a pre-bid meeting. No one, however, submitted a bid in mid-May and an extension brought no more takers.
“At this point, we’re pursuing new barn projects,” Cessna said. One barn has been built using the proceeds of Marcellus Shale extraction from beneath the fairgrounds. The county will seek bids for the construction of a second horse barn later this year, with site preparation scheduled for next spring, weather permitting. The new horse barn will be built on the hillside down from Gun Club Road.
A long-range plan for the fairgrounds called for the stone to be quarried to make the fairgrounds more level. It is likely that the project will be put out for bid in the future.