Jun 22, 2016 4 min read

WAYNESBURG – Greene County commissioners are finalizing an agreement with Southwestern Pennsylvania Water Authority to lease property at Wisecarver Reservoir in Franklin Township to develop it into a park.

The commissioners, at their agenda meeting Wednesday, voted to place on today’s agenda a motion to enter a 99-year lease agreement with the authority for part of the 380 acres of land the authority owns surrounding the 18-acre lake.

The proposed agreement calls for leasing the property for $10 and is subject to approval by the county solicitor and the water authority’s board of directors.

The authority restored the dam at the reservoir about five years ago with a plan to form a separate authority with the county and Franklin Township to develop the property into a park. The effort was initiated by local and elected officials to create a new recreational area for county residents to make up for the loss of Duke Lake at Ryerson Station State Park. The dam was eventually repaired but park plans gradually fell by the wayside.

“It will be a start, with maybe opening up an area for fishing and then working with (the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources) to get a boat dock there,” Commissioner Blair Zimmerman said.

A master plan initially prepared for the park called for developing ball fields, pavilions, walking and cross country trails, playgrounds and picnic areas, he said. The county won’t be able to develop a park overnight, Zimmerman said, and it will have to be done in “baby steps.”

Commissioner Dave Coder said he was excited about the project.

“This will give us an opportunity to look for some grant money, through DCNR and with different foundations and companies, to develop the property,” he said.

The property is “underused,” Coder said. “I think it can be a very nice asset for Greene County.”

The county has experience in developing other parks, Coder said. He cited the county’s efforts in creating theGreene River Trail and in accepting ownership and making improvements to Mon View Park in Greensboro.

The proposed agreement must be reviewed and approved by the water authority board, authority manager Jack Golding said. It also must be considered by the authority engineer.

“We have to meet with our engineer to delineate what part of the property will be the county’s (under the lease) and what we will have to keep,” Golding said. Certain parts of the property may be needed by the authority for its operations.

The authority was required to drain the lake in 2005 after gabion protecting the downstream face of the earthen dam began to sink. The repairs, funded by $2.2 million in state grant money, involved removing the gabions and applying roller-compacted concrete to the dam’s downstream face. Work to repair the dam was completed in 2012, but more than a year later the authority was still completed state Department of Environmental Protection-required tests to determine whether any water was seeping beneath the spillway.

A drainage line and valve beneath the dam also had to be repaired. Though the work took a long time, Golden said, the line was subsequently repaired and the authority was permitted to refill the lake.

Initial plans had called for the formation of a recreation authority to seek grants for developing the park and to maintain it, but the authority never materialized.

The water authority could not use ratepayer money to do the project itself, Golding said. At the time, he added, neither the township not the county wanted to accept the additional “burden” of a park.

Economic circumstances also intervened, Golding said. Initially, it had been hoped the coal companies would play a role in the park’s development.