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New vision for Ryerson Station park

3 min read
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A local task force and the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources assured that a $36 million legal settlement with Consol Energy will be used exclusively for Ryerson Station State Park.

The initial purpose of the settlement was to recreate Duke Lake, but the DCNR announced July 24 the dam at the lake could not be rebuilt. The settlement is now being redirected to improve Ryerson Station State Park.

Members of Ryerson Station Previsioning Task Force are assuring the public that the remaining portion of the legal settlement with Consol Energy will still be used exclusively for the park, even though its initial purpose was to rebuild Duke Lake.

“The money is going to stay here at Ryerson Park to be used to enhance the park,” said Harry Gillespie, co-chairman of the task force.

On Wednesday, the task force and DCNR officials discussed some ideas to get the ball moving.

“We talked about ways to get public input through a series of public meetings and to see what the public wants to do in regard to the revitalization of the park,” Gillespie said.

DCNR announced July 24 the dam for Duke Lake could not be rebuilt after experts said movement near the foundation would have made it unsafe. The $26 million remaining from the settlement reached with Consol two years ago will now be focused solely on what would be best for the community and for the park itself.

Jeff Anna, a co-chairman on the task force and DCNR regional manager for state parks in the western region, said Wednesday’s first meeting helped to get the task force and others involved all on the same page. The group is a variation on the previous Duke Lake Task Force that was formed a decade ago after the lake was drained and cracks were found in the dam.

“The objectives were to discuss the future and then to move forward with a new vision of what the park would be without the lake,” Anna said.

Some ideas being discussed are creating hiking and biking trails, improving the stream that flows through the park and possibly adding some small fishing ponds.

Anna wants to see people in Greene County and surrounding counties become reacquainted with the park.

“We need to do something fantastic and extraordinary,” Anna said.

Gillespie and Anna said no plans are set in stone because the groups want public input first.

They plan to have multiple public meetings, surveys and even possibly an open house is which DCNR staffers will be present to hear people’s thoughts and ideas. A public meeting will be held in September, although no date has been set.

“We are going to be very positive about it, but we are not going to jump into things,” Gillespie said. “We are going to take our time and do what’s best for the majority.”

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