CLARION Efforts are being made to improve the Clarion County Park from the ground up.
The Paint Township park is getting new restrooms and a new playground. An upgrade to a mine drainage site adjacent to the park is also in the works.
The park has three ball fields for baseball and softball use, two soccer fields, a tennis court, volleyball court, basketball court, horseshoe pit and archery range.
Four local organizations, Next Step, TTSR (Training Toward Self Reliance), United Community Independence Programs (UCIP) and Roads to Recovery are helping raise funds to provide a local match for grants planned the playground.
The $390,000 ADA playground will be for children of all ages and abilities. Playground equipment will be mounted on an approved rubber surface that will fall safe and adaptive.
The playground will be located near Pavilion One, and a large new ADA restroom is being constructed by the Clarion County maintenance staff.
Two state grants totaling $390,000 have been approved. A $175,000.00 the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources will require a 50 percent match and a grant from the Department of Community and Economic Development needs a 15 percent local match. The DCED grant can be used as the match for the DCNR grant.
Any labor Clarion County supplies for the ADA compliant restroom or playground can also be credited as a match as an in-kind contribution.
The acid mine drainage work will correct the legacy of an old strip mine. Glacial Minerals operated the mine but that company is now out of business.
The current system was installed in 1999, and a wetland channel was installed to have the metals drop out on the wetland channel. The channel clogged, breached the ditch and has killed trees on neighboring properties.
Grants have been awarded for a passive treatment system that would remove metals and raise pH levels of the water.
Funding for the $102,000 acid mine drainage work came from several sources including a Growing Greener grant, the Clarion County Conservation District, Clarion County and the Department of Environmental Protection.
Construction is hoped to be completed by the fall of 2019.
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