Authority to be formed for park
JEFFERSON – A meeting will be held early next month to finalize the creation of a new authority to oversee development of a park at the Wisecarver Reservoir in Franklin Township.
The meeting will be held with representatives of the three entities expected to form the authority and appoint members to its board, Jack Golding, manager of Southwestern Pennsylvania Water Authority, told his board Thursday.
Representatives of Southwestern, Franklin Township and Greene County, which are expected to form the new park authority, have been asked to attend the May 9 meeting.
Plans have been discussed for several years to create a park on the 380 acres that surround the reservoir, which is owned by the water authority.
The park authority will manage the park and raise money for the park’s development. The new authority will be separate from the water authority and will not be funded by the authority’s ratepayers or by the county’s and township’s taxpayers.
A master plan was prepared for the park in 2009. It showed the park being developed primarily at the southern end of the reservoir property, where land is level and easily accessed from Route 18. The park would include ball fields, a play area, camping and recreation areas, a boat launch, a walking trail and pavilions.
In other business, the authority agreed to advertise for a line worker and a plant operator, openings that resulted from personnel changes made in the last month.
At last month’s meeting, plant manager Charles Barno announced he would retire April 30. At a special meeting March 28, plant operator Tom Goughenour was selected as his replacement.
The board at that meeting also created a new position, operations manager, and appointed Tim Faddis to the post. Faddis was previously a foreman in charge of general maintenance, tanks, pumps and regulators. He also is chairman of the authority board.
Faddis will now supervise the foremen and the plant manager, Golding said. Faddis will report to Golding and will be in charge of the “operations side” of the authority, while Golding is in charge of the “business side.”
The board voted to fill Faddis’ previous position by appointing employee Barry Guesman to the post.
At Thursday’s meeting, engineer Randy Krause reported the authority will close on the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority loan the authority received for its plant expansion on May 21.
Assuming everything goes as planned, contractors can be given notice to proceed with the project the next day, Krause said.
The authority awarded contracts last month for more than $13 million for the first phase of the expansion of the authority’s water treatment plant. The work will increase the plant’s capacity from 7 million to 9.2 million gallons a day.