Wayne County buys lot from PennDOT in Indian Orchard to aid Lackawaxen river access
The .37-acre parcel is immediately right of The Dime Bank (1055 Texas Palmyra Highway), as seen from Route 6. Vicki Botjer, county chief financial officer, said this lot, along with a long-term lease agreement signed in 2023 with the bank, will allow the access to reach the river behind the bank property.
The Indian Orchard river access is the last of four that are part of the Lackawaxen River Trails project. The others include the improvement to an existing access at Hawley's Bingham Park, completed in 2020; the new access created at White Mills near the Rudy Schemitz ball field, dedicated in 2023; and the improvement to an existing access in Honesdale in 2024, part of the Sycamore Point Park project at the former Industrial Point.
Working with the river trail group, the county received a grant from the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission (PFBC) for the river access. The small parcel alongside the road was acquired as part of the PennDOT right-of-way when PennDOT widened Route 6 some years ago.
Calling it an "arduous process," Botjer said that the county reached an agreement with PennDOT for an appraisal of $7,200 for the lot. The county has a quit claim deed to file, which she said gives the county full control over the lot.
The PFBC grant funds have to be used by Dec. 31, 2025, Botjer said. Woodland Design is ready to proceed, she said, now that the county has purchased the parcel.
In 2022, the county received the PFBC grant of nearly $250,000 for the Indian Orchard site for the Lackawaxen River Trails and its steering group, the Wayne Pike Trails and Waterways Alliance.
The county served as the grant applicant. The Trails' 2022 press release states that plans include parking, a rain garden as well as stormwater treatment, a pre-cast launch, a comfort station and a picnic area.
'The site is particularly scenic, sunny, and open, so our approach was to provide access and limit the impact and built items,' said Jayson Wood of Woodland Design Associates, Inc. in the release. Woodland Design provided the professional landscape architecture design plans,
Interviewed later by email, Botjer said that the Trails group through the Wayne County Community Foundation is providing matching funds for the grant, originally planned for $60,000.
'Depending on the bid costs, if we need additional match, the Trails Alliance does have additional resources, thanks to the generosity of the public,' Botjer emailed.
The funding for the lot, she stated, came out of Act 13, approved by the legislature in 2012, raised from natural gas drilling impact fees in the Marcellus Shale.
Most of the funding is allocated to counties where drilling occurs, and a lesser amount is allocated to other counties such as Wayne, where most natural gas development is prohibited by the Delaware River Basin Commission. It is allowed in the small parts of the western and northwestern areas of Wayne County that are under the Susquehanna River Basin Commission.
Annually, the county receives between $30,000 and $60,000 from Act 13. 'The money is restricted for recreation, green space, [and] natural area activities,' Botjer said in an email.
The county also contributed $15,000 from Act 13 for the river access, Botjer said.
Planning Director Craig Rickard presented the Wayne County Planning Commission's annual report for 2024. Available online, the report details work done including municipal application reviews, total applications and new lots by municipality, county GIS mapping work, reviews of municipal ordinances, PennDOT projects, county and municipal population changes and an updated index of municipal officials with contact information.
The report may be found at waynecountypa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/7312/Entire-Report-2024.
Peter Becker has worked at the Tri-County Independent or its predecessor publicationssince 1994. Reach him at pbecker@tricountyindependent.com or 570-253-3055 ext.1588.
This article originally appeared on Tri-County Independent: Wayne County buys lot in Texas Township to aid Lackawaxen river access
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