LEWISBURG- A final plan for the Bull Run Greenway and Master Planning Project was presented before the Lewisburg Borough Council Thursday night. Landscape Architect and Community Planner Brian Auman delivered the presentation, which included plans for floodplain and stream restoration, as well as multiple project ideas from community members for improving parks, collected through various community workshops and surveys.
Borough Manager William Lowthert describes some of the major portions of the project, “One of the big components of the project will be a restoration of the floodplain and a more naturalized area, more of a nature play area, so that people can find themselves to be reconnected to the stream.”
The borough has already received a $250,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation of Natural Resources, a figure that the borough will need to match, to be used toward the floodplain restoration and a nature play area.
Lowthert explained, “That will be focused on South Sixth Street, south of St. Louis Street. Part of that grant is that the borough is also required to come up with $250,000 to put towards the project. Our hope is that we may be able to use some of our community development block grant funding as part of that match, as well as potential private donations and other funding that becomes available for the project.”
Lowthert says that the grant they received from DCNR has a life of three years. Because of this, they (the borough) will want to begin to work toward first implementation of some components of the plan within the next few years, “One of the things the borough is looking at in the short run is potentially a streetscape improvement project on South Sixth Street, which may include trees, may include improvements to sidewalks, may include other things to make it a better looking area of the borough.”
The council expects to have a formal vote to approve the final plan at a meeting in the near future. Another public presentation of this plan will be given at Larison Hall at Bucknell University on Sunday, April 2, at 2:30 p.m. You can download the entire presentation from Lewisburgneighborhoods.org. (Ashley Thomas)
