CLEARFIELD – The Lawrence Township Supervisors revisited the thought of a boat launch at Tuesday night’s meeting.
Secretary/Treasurer Barb Schaffner said they had met with a representative from the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources who gave them different ideas so that they might keep the grant they received for the launch. One way that the township might be able to move forward with the project is to accept matches of “In Kind Service”.
The township received a $52,500 grant from DCNR for the project and would need a 50 percent match in order to keep the grant. If they are unable to match the amount they have to turn the grant in.
Supervisor Bill Lawhead said they would first have to hire engineers to design the boat launch before they could proceed any further.
Supervisor Glenn Johnston said, “I believe it’s a worthy cause that would benefit the community. It’s a great location in the river. For those reasons, I will personally pledge $5,000 of manpower and labor towards the project.”
Ed Brown and Bill Lawhead expressed their reservation in the project being the amount of work and maintenance such a project would require. Brown also said that a boat launch carries with it a substantial liability.
“I’m gonna say what I have to say about this and them I’m gonna let it go,” Brown said.
He said that it was, and probably still is a very worthwhile project, but feels that without funding and professional development of the land the liability that lies within the project is too great for the township to take on.
Brown also said that when the project was originally proposed their role was to maintain the land and pay the light bill. He said the mowing would have come from volunteers.
“I don’t think it’s fair to ask all our local residents to come up with the money.”
Brown said that if local businesses and organizations donated the money then they might have a project they could move forward with but they had to do things “in the right manner.”
The board voted to send the grant back after it agreed that they would not be able to come up with the funding.
Lawhead said, “It’s hard to come up with that kind of money when we still have $100,000 worth of roads that need paving.”