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Updated 34 minutes ago

South Greensburg Councilman Brandon Costello, Deb Muse and Jeff Richards recently stood in the borough's park, studying a snowy hillside covered in fallen trees and looking to the future.

The park has come a long way since 2014, when a logging company left piles of timber behind after its wood-cutting contract with the borough was canceled, said Muse, chairwoman of the South Greensburg Community Park Commission.

Most of the felled wood is gone, but the commission members want to get the rest cleared out so they can focus on a new goal.

“Now we're moving into the long range, and that's developing a strategic plan for the park,” Muse said.

Early suggestions include creating a nature trail and installing a simple kitchen in one of two pavilions.

A logging company in 2014 paid the borough $10,000 to cut down trees and take the lumber. The work was halted early because of community outrage. The company paid the borough $4,200 for the lumber it had already taken.

The commission was created in 2014 to preserve and restore the park after the tree felling. But even before the logging, upkeep at the park was minimal, said Costello, a park commission member.

Rusty playground equipment stands at the center of the park, and renovations have been low on the borough's priority list, Costello said. But the park remains a popular gathering place for residents, and the commission is looking for their input.

“There's people who (come here) every single year. What do they want out of this property that hasn't been maintained?” Costello asked.

The commission is working on the plan with Richards, a registered landscape architect.

“The first part of it has been more about reacquainting ourselves with the resources that are here,” he said.

The 27-acre property was officially made a park in 1971, but it had been a community hangout for decades before. Residents used to set up temporary dams to transform the small stream that runs through the woods into a swimming pond.

A tentative concept of the strategic plan calls for bringing back the pond, restoring or removing much of the broken-down playground equipment and building a fire pit.

Muse wants to hold a community contest to name the stream.

All of this is still some time off, Richards said. At a recent council meeting, he presented an early draft of the plan. He estimated it would take about three years and $200,000 to fully implement it.

For now, the commission plans to keep working on the plan while cleaning up the remaining wood in the park. A public cleanup day tentatively will be scheduled in March, Muse said.

“We need to leave what happened in the past in the past and move forward,” she said.

Jacob Tierney is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-836-6646 or jtierney@tribweb.com.

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