Park Closing

The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources says they have to close 35 state parks; Hickory Run bring one of them. The chamber of commerce in my area has a petition to try to stop this. I am going to be bringing it down so that people can sign it.

If you want to try to collect signatures yourself you can print the petition at
www.hazletonchamber.org/images/stories/p...te_park_petition.pdf
When you're finished please fax or mail it to the appropriate place before June 12th or give it to James at the next even so he can give it to me.

Lets try to keep our best camp open!

--Amber

is it also true about Sac, I heard something about condos
- Jason

Anyone up for chaining ourselves to bulldozers?

Does anyone know if the land has all ready been sold, or are the parks closing due to budgetary issues and the land itself is just being held in flux?

Great. Just great.

A bunch of empty boxes are going to wipe out parks.

Check out the press release here.

www.dcnr.state.pa.us/news/newsreleases/2009/0509-budget.htm

MAN THIS SUCKS!

NOOOoooooo that sinks > :-\

wow... this breaks my heart.. i moved up to albrightsville when i was 7 years old and spent sooooo much of my time in Hickory run on school field trips and family outings and stuff... A big part of my childhood and some of my best memories were from going to Hickory run even before i discovered Knight Realms. if they realize how much it will effect the money coming into the area, why would they even close it?

This kind of thing is not as inevitable as it seems. Gov. Corzine of New Jersey tried to pull the same thing on us a few months back, closing many of our few state parks including Monmouth Battlefield. The state pulled together and made sure Corzine had zero chance of reelection if he went through with his plan. We flooded his office with phone calls, letters, and email, made the whole thing really public. Corzine gave up on the closings.

I suggest everyone here who is a PA resident sign that petition, along with sending a letter to your assemblyman or state senator, as well as the governor. Petitions have an impact, but a dozen new letters on the governor's desk every morning about the same thing is very effective.

This is probably one of the saddest things I've ever read. I've only been going to KR for a little bit over a year. Attending KR is something that I look forward to. It has become one of my favorite things to do. I am going to do ALL I can to combat this.

Other than on the petition, I couldn't find anything last night that said anything about Hickory Run. Is there a list somewhere of which parks are closing?

I hope this doesn't happen - having grown up about 30 minutes away from Hickory Run, not only is it one of my favorite camps for LARPing, but it's also just a great place to spend the afternoon, or go for a hike... not to mention grade school field trips to the Boulder field. <3 Love that place!

No one pays attention to petitions.  I suggest contacting yor state rep and senator and making thge point to whichever flak-catcher staffer whith whom you speak that you actually use the park's services on a regular basis and this is an issue which will weigh heavily with you when you next walk into your polling place.

OK, Guys, before you panic, use some common sense.

This hasn't passed yet.  Yes, we should sign the petition.  No, it's not guaranteed that it's going to close.  Keep your eyes on the news.

If you want to help, this forum is NOT the place to do it.  Write letters to your State Reps, if you live in PA.  Posting here won't change anything.

NJ is a different state, and don't believe anything you hear about Sparta / Sacajawea, unless you see it in print.  Rumors are just that - rumors - until you see it verified in writing.  I've heard the Condos rumor along with several others for years now, and none of them have been true.

By all means, contact PA officials and see what we can do, but just to help out a little, I haven't been able to find out anything connecting Hickory Run to this, but I did find the following list.

Pennsylvania State Parks identified for possible closure

Parks '08 attendance

Bendigo 35,669
Elk 20,958
Kinzua Bridge 44,433
Blue Knob 431,738
Clear Creek 136,702
Colonel Denning 61,864
Fowlers Hollow 30,325
Big Spring Delaware Canal
(Black Eddy ONLY) 521,080
Ralph Stover 200,077
Evansburg 661,143
Greenwood Furnace 199,607
Penn Roosevelt 37,637
Whipple Dam 102,528
Kettle Creek 97,179
Ole Bull 82,444
Linn Run 195,950
Laurel Summit 23,223
Laurel Mountain 43,229
Little Pine 107,680
Hyner Run 63,350
Hyner View 36,070
Upper Pine Bottom 1,085
Memorial Lake 155,599
Swatara 64,639
M K Goddard 209,570
Mt Pisgah 64,076
Oil Creek 124,364
RB Winter 138,103
McCalls Dam 2,446
Sand Bridge 17,513
Ravensburg 30,413
Reeds Gap 64,450
Poe Paddy 38,135
Poe Valley 1,523
Ryerson Station 44,230
Sizerville 103,677
Tobyhanna 203,611
Gouldsboro 89,289
Big Pocono 112,591
Yellow Creek 203,053
White Clay 68,040
Norristown
Warriors Path 38,017
Trough Creek 61,252
Prompton 13,750
Salt Spring 30,682
Archbald Pothole 38,205
Sam Lewis 117,357
Erie Bluffs Central & Regional Offices

Source: Budget Reduction in the Bureau of State Parks provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. List dated May 20, 2009.

Awesome work - thank you, Gavin.

It's still a worthwhile cause, so let's do our best at keeping them open!