Shickshinny on a river mission

By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.comStaff Writer

SHICKSHINNY – The multicolored tents of 80 paddlers on a makeshift campground bordering the Susquehanna River was part of the backdrop for a long-awaited award ceremony Sunday at Crary Park.

Several state and Luzerne County officials were on hand to present borough officials with two grants totaling $253,000 to rehabilitate the park and build a boat launch.

Trish Carothers, development and outreach officer for the Susquehanna Greenway Partnership and the North Branch Susquehanna Sojourn, was master of ceremonies for the presentation.

Carothers said it was fitting that the ceremony took place on the day 80 kayakers and canoeists paddled ashore at the park as one of their stops on the 100-mile, six-day sojourn from Camp Lackawanna in Vosburg Neck to Shikellamy State Park, situated at the point of confluence of the north and west branches of the Susquehanna.

Mayor Beverly Moore said the park will be even more hospitable to sojourners after the professionally constructed boat launch and campground are installed.

“We’re hoping the sojourners will make Shickshinny one of their stops in 2011 when we celebrate our 150th anniversary, because then we can really throw a party,” Moore said.

Cindy Dunn, deputy secretary of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, presented Moore with a ceremonial check for $156,000 for the park rehabilitation, which, in addition to the campground, will include new playground facilities for three different age groups; a lighted, 43-space parking lot; a dry hydrant for the fire department; a floating dock; and a handicap-accessible ramp to the river and/or dock.

The ramp will provide much-needed river access for river rescue teams, Moore said. Currently, the borough fire company has to travel as far as Berwick to launch its boat for river rescues.

Dunn, who took part in the sojourn, reflected on the hospitality she’s seen in Shickshinny. She recalled the first time sojourners stopped there in 1993, and a former mayor invited them to camp in his backyard because the Crary Park had not yet been built. She also remembered a sojourn stop in 1999 when Moore cooked breakfast for the sojourners.

She hopes Shickshinny’s new facilities will entice more people to bring their children to the river to battle the “nature deficit disorder” caused by indoor technological activities such as computer use, video games and texting.

Kingston resident Norm Gavlick, a commissioner with the state Fish and Boat Commission who represents eight counties in Northeastern Pennsylvania, said he was proud the commission could provide the $97,000 grant to construct the boat launch.

Gavlick said the commission has paid “a lot of attention to the North Branch of the Susquehanna in the last year,” having also provided grants for the rehabilitation of Nesbitt Park and a boat ramp in West Pittston. And he’s glad, because “over the years, the North Branch of the Susquehanna has been underutilized, underappreciated and under-noticed.”

Moore thanked Dunn and Gavlick as well as state Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Dallas; state Rep. Karen Boback, R-Harveys Lake; Luzerne County Planning Commission Executive Director Adrian Merolli; Bob Skulsky of Greater Hazleton Rails to Trails; and Scott Bollinger of the Fish and Boat Commission for their work on helping attain the grants.

Baker defined vision as “seeing the possibilities when no one else can see them,” and she complimented Moore and borough council for having that type of vision for the park.

Baker worked with Boback and organized a meeting with DCNR, the Fish and Boat Commission, the Pennsylvania Environmental Council and other appropriate agencies to move the project forward. “I’m proud to be part of that team effort,” Baker said.

Boback said the project “will become an integral part of heritage of Shickshinny as a river town. … It’s great for the ecology, but it’s also great for the economy. This will pull people to Shickshinny,” she said.

Dan Shane, treasurer of the Susquehanna Warrior Trail that passes through the park, said he expects the improvements at the park will draw even more people to use the trail, which he hopes to extend to Larksville to connect with the trail on the levee.

David Buck, Susquehanna Greenway coordinator for the Endless Mountains Heritage Region, noted that, like Wilkes-Barre and the newly dedicated River Common, Shickshinny is part of the North Branch Susquehanna Water Trail, which the federal government recently designated as a National Recreational Trail.

Being part of that trail and designation as a river town likely will attract many more tourists to the borough, Buck predicted.