8 The Dallas Post Dallas, PA Wednesday, October 25, 2000 Rec center (continued from page 1) will be a real asset to this com- munity,” he said. In order to get the grant and the support of DCNR, Schneider said, Lehman Township needs to con- tract a peer counselor and form a study committee, which will be a group of representatives from the various organizations that are committed to the project. The purpose of a peer counselor is to help with getting the group to- gether and then doing research and collecting information for the study committee to work with, such as composing and distribut- ing municipal questionnaires; making site visits to determine what parks and recreation areas already exist and what facilities they have and don’t have; and analyzing parks in comparable settings to see whether they're failing or succeeding and deter- mining how and why. Schneider recommended Julie McMonagle for the role of peer counselor; she is a trained geolo- gistand environmentalist who has had previous experience as a peer counselor working with a park commission in Columbia County. McMonagle, a native of Trucksville, has recently begun working with the Pennsylvania Environmental Council on trails, greenways, and rivers. DeMara, who has had many years of park experience, would work with McMonagle as a technical con- sultant. By the next meeting, the town- ship must submit to DCNR a list of acceptable study committee members and a fully-executed contract with McMonagle as the peer counselor; then, when they receive a copy of the Common- wealth contract, they will obtain approval to proceed. When the study committee is formed and the peer counselor contracted, research and plan- ning work will begin, It is neces- sary to look at long-term manage- ment and maintenance, because a recreational park can be very expensive in the long run. There are many factors to consider: se- curity, facilities, garbage, care- taking of the grounds — to name just a few. “The first 10 years are easy,” Schneider said. “As time goes on, maintenance costs and maintenance become more diffi- cult.” He said that is why a thor- ough and long-term plan for op- eration and revenue must be de- veloped before any sort of work is begun on the recreational center. In the meantime, the Back Mountain Recreation Board is working on a master site plan. Eight municipalities have ex- pressed definite interest in the project, as well as two school dis- tricts and two athletic clubs; these need to send in letters of interest to solidify their commitment. “We are committed as a board to plan and come up with the money,” Sutton said. State agen- cies will match funds, but there will be a need for funds for long- term maintenance; Sutton said they are not looking for financial backing from the municipalities. Phase one will be to use the initial grant to purchase the land, which consists of two contiguous properties totalling 130 acres, one of which the township has a solid option on. “It happens to be an absolutely perfect piece of prop- erty,” Sutton said. “And even if the park isn’t built, it will never be developed. The land will be used for recreation or for nothing.” “I know we can get it funded, I know we can get it built,” Sutton said. “Someone’s going to give us a 50,000-foot house, and all we've got to do is figure out how to pay the heating bill.” Schneider sounded a theme that was heard several times. “Why are we doing this? We're doing this for the kids, right? The kids don’t give a damn about what township they live in — they want to play soccer, they want to play baseball!” Back Mountain Baseball Inc. has over 1,100 children involved, ranging in age from six to 16, both boys and girls, and consists of 80 teams. “It would give us some assurance that we'd be there for- ever. The land would be ours,” said Jack Snyder, president of the league of the proposed baseball complex at the recreational cen- ter. However, Snyder said, “we’d like to stay where we are.” He said that the Back Mountain Recre- CONCEPTUAL PLAN oid BACK MOUNTAIN SPORTS AND RECREATION COMPLEX § ih itd i aad mn — Pr Wand Sail Tas Tl A drawing shows the conceptual plan for a proposed Back Mountain Sports and Recreation Complex. ation Board has asked for a letter of interest, which Back Mountain Baseball intends to send. Snyder said there were certain factors to be taken into consideration be- fore the league could give its full approval, but thus far, Snyder admitted, the positive aspects of having fields at the park seemed to outweigh the negative ones. “We're backing them in theory. If it turns out to be our best option, then we're in favor of it,” he said. Adrian Merolli, who has been involved with the Back Mountain Youth Soccer Association (BMYSA) for many years and is currently on its board of directors, says that BMYSA is in favor of the project. “Very much so,” he said. “We are going to cooperate fully.” Merolli said that the BMYSA is in the process of writing its letter of in- terest. “Currently we use at least nine fields,” Merolli said. There are over 1,000 children involved in the various soccer programs, and Merolli estimates the BMYSA’s growth rate is between 4 and 5 percent annually. When combined with the existing facilities, the new fields would provide suffi- cient space to accommodate all the players. The current situation whereby BMYSA shares athletic fields with other sports teams has drawbacks that would be solved by the cre- ation of a soccer complex: “The fields get so overused — it would keep the existing fields in better condition,” Merolli said, and added that having new fields would pre- vent scheduling conflicts. There has been talk of an out- door ice rink as one of the final projects for the recreational cen- ter. “There's no outdoor hockey rink in the area — the only place is in Montage, and that goes over very well out there,” said Rich Coslett, a member of the Back Mountain Recreation Board. Coslett believes an outdoor hockey and skating rink would do well in the Back Mountain, and that even the Wilkes-Barre /Scranton Pen- guins were enthusiastic about the idea of one being built. “I don’t think many people in the NHL grew up playing organized hockey in an indoor facility,” Coslett said. Sutton said that in addition to an outdoor ice rink, some of the other possibilities for the recre- ational center include an indoor pool and a skateboarding ramp. “There will be facilities for unor- ganized sports, too,” Sutton said, meaning by “unorganized sports” such activities as hiking, skate- boarding, mountain-biking, swim- ming and jogging. Coslett agreed: “There are so many places for organized sports, and not many for unorganized,” he said. “We're doing this so families can go and play.” There will also be picnic grounds, nature trails, and a wet- lands conservation area. the term. Fc Name There 1s a new bank on the horizon. First National Community Bank. 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