After years of planning and waiting, Ryerson Station State Park will receive several improvements, as part of an initiative known as, “Re-Vision Ryerson.” These improvements will include a general renovation of the campground and its amenities, a new swimming pool and a spray park.
The Re-Vision Ryerson initiative is in direct correlation to the loss of Duke Lake, a 63-acre body of water that was drained due to the failure of the dam system in July 2005, according to the Re-Vision Ryerson Station State Park Public Input Report on the Department of Conservation and National Resource’s website. With the loss of Duke Lake, which provided various family activities like fishing and boating, the park leaders came together to brainstorm a replacement. Thus, the Re-Vision Ryerson initiative was born.
For Alan Johnson, who has been the park manager for the last decade, Re-Vision Ryerson has been about trying to meet the needs of current and future camp-goers. Since 2015, Johnson has been a member of a task force that has gone out to public forums to gauge what exactly those needs are.
“We have been trying to go out and engage the community in lieu of the dam,” Johnson said. “Everything we came up with were all things that were identified during the public process.”
The first project to be completed will be a general renovation of the campground and its amenities. Johnson said these renovations will include the construction of three more camping cottages, updated sewerage systems, RV accessibility and, for the first time in the park’s history, showers.
“I think that just by having modern amenities in the campground, it will allow more people to use the campground,” Johnson said. “However, despite being modern, we still plan to maintain the rustic feel of the park.”
Once the campground renovations are completed, the next set of renovations will begin: the swimming pool and spray park. Johnson said these renovations are still in their final stages of planning.
“The community is greatly going to benefit from the new swimming pool and spray park,” Johnson said. “One thing we looked at with the spray park was that it will allow us to expand the swimming season because there will not need to be a lifeguard present.”
Prior to the Re-Vision Ryerson initiative, the DCNR and Ryerson Station officials originally wanted to construct a new dam to rebuild Duke Lake. To do so, according to the Re-Vision Ryerson Station State Park Public Input Report, they needed to comply with the DEP’s Dam Safety permitting requirements, which requires a general survey of the land.
Due to unusual seismic activity detected during these surveys, the DCNR was required to withdraw the permit and put all Ryerson updates to an immediate halt.
“Greene County lost a significant recreational resource when the lake was drawn down, and we
know many residents and community members will be disappointed that replacement of the
dam is currently not possible with an unstable foundation,” DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn said in a news release produced by Pennsylvania’s DCNR July 24, 2015.
It was only a few months after this statement was released that Johnson and his team were able to get to work and come up with a comprehensive plan for the Re-Vision Ryerson initiative. Jeremy Rekich, DCNR’s regional parks manager of western Pennsylvania, said part of the delay of Re-Vision Ryerson has been due to their team making sure everything is perfect.
“We do a lot of thorough planning, and we want to make sure we do things the right way the first time,” Rekich said. “It’s taken us some time to get up to this point because it’s been very planful.”
The current timeline that is in place has the first set of campground renovations being completed by the end of this upcoming summer. Rekich said he is looking forward to the outcome, but the planning process has been just as exciting.
“For me and the entire team, there are not very many opportunities in our careers where you get to build a brand-new state park,” Rekich said. “From the original concepts and the final designs to the bidding process and the upcoming construction, we are excited to be able to finally open.”