Apr 21, 2017 2 min read

The newly constructed Monongahela River kayak launches in Monongahela and Fredericktown will be a tad easier to find once Washington County purchases and posts signs.

The $11,200 expenditure with Steel Dog Construction of Charleroi is part of a $247,000 Commonwealth Finance Agency grant, Lisa Cessna, executive director of Washington County Planning Commission, told county commissioners Wednesday at an agenda-setting session.

The contract was approved Thursday by a 2-0 vote. Commission Vice Chairman Diana Irey Vaughan was absent.

The board also discussed other recreation-related business.

Because the demand is there, Cessna asked the county commissioners to seek proposals from engineering firms to prepare a site for a second shelter on the Thompson Hill side of Cross Creek County Park.

The second shelter on the Route 844 side of the park could be ready “hopefully, next year,” Cessna told the commissioners. “It depends on how much is involved.”

Mingo Park is popular with those planning parties, reunions and other gatherings, and its shelters are generally booked for weekends, while Cross Creek park has a few openings.

The county plans to widen Thompson Hill Road, and it has entered into an agreement for an easement with West Penn Power to relocate a utility pole at a cost of $4,540, for which the county’s oil and natural gas revenue will be used.

Cessna also asked commissioners to approve a $9,780 supplement with HRG Inc. of Canonsburg to do an archeological survey on a trail from the Route 50 boat launch at Cross Creek park to Lynn Portal Road kayak launch, to be paid from the county’s oil and gas revenue. The revised contract amount stands at $47,280.

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission is requiring the survey. A similar survey of the Thompson Hill area turned up no artifacts, Cessna said, noting that Cross Creek lake was created relatively recently from flooded farmland.

“I don’t anticipate anything coming of it,” Cessna said after the agenda meeting.