Watershed has big plans for Jacobs Creek Park@Greenlick Dam

It's a question Annie Quinn hears often in her position as executive director of the Jacobs Creek Watershed Association.

"One of the most uniform requests we get is, 'When are you going to put a trail around that (Greenlick Dam)?' " she says.

An accessible, 2-mile trail around what is being rebranded as Jacobs Creek Park@Greenlick Dam in Bullskin Township is part of the master plan preliminary designs for the Fayette County recreation area.

Quinn hopes the proposed plans will enhance a park whose amenities are minimal, and whose pavilions and restrooms could use upgrading.

Public meetings have allowed people to weigh in on ideas like a dog park, botanical gardens, historical play areas, a hillside slide and amphitheater.

Quinn envisions a destination park that will fill the area with people fishing, boating, picnicking, holding reunions and parties, even marrying at a planned gazebo.

During a recent open house at the Bullskin Township Historical Society, visitors reviewed maps showing how the park could transform. Several notes posted on the renderings suggested shuffleboard or bocce courts, and expressed enthusiasm for a dog park.

A $40,000 matching Department of Conservation and Natural Resources grant led to the hiring of design consultant Pennoni Associates Inc. of Pittsburgh and sub-consultant Richard P. Rauso Landscape Architects of Trafford for original plans.

Quinn says plans could be finalized by June, with fundraising — for an amount yet to be determined — beginning by 2019. Plan phase-in could start that year and hopefully be completed within five years.

The park had no existing long-term, strategic plan, she says.

Her association began working with Fayette County officials to try to determine how the site could best serve the public.

Best uses for park resources

"My organization decided to be the leader of that process. The grant's goal is to provide that long-term, strategic plan," Quinn says.

A committee of 25 community members and officials hosted an earlier public meeting to help come up with the most current park design.

An online survey received more than 100 suggestions, which the association, county and Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission all reviewed in coming up with a master plan proposal.

Quinn says a "variety of funding sources" will be pursued.

The planned trail will be accessible to hikers, bikers, those using wheelchairs and "march-in fishermen," she says.

Planting of flowering trees native to Pennsylvania is planned, perhaps cherry and birch tree walks to, Quinn says, "maintain a secluded connection to nature."

Recreation sought

Along with the trail, another big request was for a destination playground, Quinn says. Plans call for incorporation of the site's history, she adds.

According to a site marker, Gen. Edward Braddock and his troops set up camp at "a swamp" in what is now park property in 1755 during the French and Indian War.

"Our idea is to have the Great Swamp Camp playground," Quinn says.

Instead of plastic slides and swing sets, think wagons, forts and interactive play spaces.

"Kids (will bring) a sense of play to history," Quinn says.

A three-stage playground will include additional pavilions and a recirculating hillside stream meant to be played in.

'"It's the watershed's version of a spray park," she says.

She hopes that security cameras and park lighting can be installed early on, to assuage visitors' safety concerns.

"We believe (the master plan) is possible. We believe it's fundable. We want to make this something the community is going to utilize and the (Fayette) county is going to invest in. ... We have pretty high expectations of bringing people from Mt. Pleasant, Scottdale, Connellsville here, but I think (the reach) might be greater than that," Quinn says.

Mary Pickels is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 724-836-5401 or mpickels@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MaryPickels.