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November 10

Moon Lake Park’s future is explored

Consultants at public meeting lay out a “wish list” of improvements for county-owned facility.

By Jerry Lynott jlynott@timesleader.com
Business Writer
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WILKES-BARRE – From the swimming pool to the trails and nature center much of Moon Lake Park needs work, but the consultants hired to put together a master plan for the Luzerne County-owned property said it has a lot to build upon to make it better and self-sustaining.

“Our view is that Moon Lake Park is a great park,” said Alistair T. McIntosh, a principal of Sasaki Associates Inc., the Watertown, Mass., consulting firm hired to complete the master plan.

He and architect Varoujan Hagopian, also of Sasaki, were among the speakers during a nearly two-hour public meeting Wednesday night at the Burke Auditorium in King’s College’s McGowan School of Business.

McIntosh presented a “wish list” of improvements at the 650-acre park in Plymouth Township, including expanded camping areas, a water slide, summer sports camps, snow tubing, shooting and archery ranges, and converting the superintendent’s house to a nature center.

The meeting, attended by approximately 40 people, was the second of three planned to gather information to develop the master plan update. After the completion of the update by the end of the year, the third public meeting will be scheduled for sometime early next year, said county Chief Engineer Joe Gibbons.

“Sustainability is the top priority,” he said.

The county is looking for ways to generate revenue from those who use the park in order to maintain it, he said.

Activities such as camping and swimming have been eliminated due to budget cuts, but the park is open for hiking, mountain biking, fishing and cross-country skiing, among others things.

After the first meeting in July, the consultants compiled a list of the top activities people would like to do at the park.

Camping was ranked highest on the list, said Gibbons, followed by swimming, the trail system, fishing, nature education, special events, shooting and archery, sports camps, snow tubing, ice skating, rock climbing, a dog park, zip lines, disc golf and flying radio-controlled aircraft.

At the earliest, camping could resume in 2013, said Gibbons.

Based on the update, the county would implement the plan in phases after getting approval from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and seeking state funds for the improvements.

“Do you have any cost projections?” asked Rick Williams of Kingston, an architect with Williams, Kinsman & Lewis Architecture and newly elected member to the county council.

“The cost projections will be coming,” said Gibbons.

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