Pennsylvania parks see changes
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
By: Shai Ben-Yaacov
sben-yaacov@whyy.org
This week marks hiking week in Pennsylvania, so far, it's been a year of change for parks throughout the Commonwealth.
In its last major act before its dissolution at the end of June, the Fairmount Park Commission approved two land transfers to Philadelphia's new Deparment of Parks and Recreation. The land will be used to continue the trail along the Schuylkill River south of Locust street in Center City.
Department Commissioner Mike DiBerardinis says the two narrow parcels will be built out onto the river like a boardwalk.
DiBeradinis: That's kind of going to be an interesting engineering feature, and I think pretty exciting, and give a really nice feel and connection to the river.
At the same time, the State Senate version of the budget cuts 19 million dollars from the state park system. The head of the parks says if enacted, the cuts would result in the closure of 35 to 40 state parks, along with hundreds of layoffs.
The final version of the budget will likely restore some of the funding.