OHIOPYLE, Pa. — Generally, February is a slow time in Ohiopyle, the tiny Fayette County borough tucked in the Laurel Highlands on Route 381 along the Youghiogheny River.
The area is best known for warm-weather activities like white-water rafting and biking in Ohiopyle State Park, which draws upwards of 1.5 million visitors every year. Some of the restaurants, markets and recreation outfitters that are overrun in the summer even shut down once the snow flies.
But this isn’t an ordinary winter for Ohiopyle.
A joint proposal from the state Departments of Transportation and Conservation and Natural Resources that calls for major changes in the borough — which could include relocating streets, installing a pedestrian tunnel to the Youghiogheny River and moving bike lanes off of busy Route 381 — has created a controversy here.
To the state, the proposed project is the next step in trying to improve safety and traffic flow through the area, where the borough is one of the few in the country completely surrounded by a state park. PennDOT and park operators see the proposed changes as an opportunity to separate bikers and those headed for the river carrying rafts and kayaks from traffic on the highway that doubles as the main thoroughfare through town.
But some residents and business operators in the hamlet with a census count of fewer than 70 say they had been left out of the planning for the multi-million-dollar project until last week. They feel the state’s approach is like using a bazooka to handle a flea-sized problem and the borough has more pressing needs that should be addressed if money is available.
“Zee-ro. We had zee-ro input,” said Pam Kruse, a member of Ohiopyle Council and owner of Falls Market, a business that stays open all year. “Really, in town we’re just finding about this in the last two or three weeks.
“Where were we? Why didn’t they contact anybody here?”
Chatter about potential elements of the project set off a social media backlash last weekend from some borough officials and business operators who were upset about some of the details and believe they have been left out of the process. Ms. Kruse said the borough needs help with sewer debts and improvements to Sugarloaf Road, a narrow road with no berms or lane lines used by outfitters to bring rafters and kayakers back to town, more than it needs the proposed work.
The state held private meetings with the locals Thursday and Friday to tell them more about the project and hear their concerns in advance of a community meeting scheduled for 5 p.m. Feb. 27 at the Ohiopyle Stewart Community Center.
Joe Szczur, PennDOT’s executive for District 12, said five options remain on the table for the project, two of which include the pedestrian tunnel. There has been a lot of misinformation in the community, he said, and now is the time to hear from residents and business owners.
“We’re hoping to present the project and come out of that meeting with a preferred option,” Mr. Szczur said. “We haven’t settled on a preferred alternative yet. We still have a variety of options available.”
Among the misinformation in the community was that the potential tunnel, which would run from revamped parking lots near outfitters and under Route 381 to the river, could cost $10 million to $15 million. In reality, that’s the range of the entire project and the tunnel, if built, would only be about 10 percent of the cost, Mr. Szczur said.
The most expensive part of the project, around $4 million, would be replacing the deck and improving the superstructure of the Route 381 bridge over the river at the edge of town. A 10-foot walkway would replace the narrow bike lane on the bridge now to allow rafters and kayakers to carry their gear without interfering with traffic.
Other work could include moving bicycle lanes from the river side of the highway near the visitors’ center onto the grassy area already owned by the park that’s closer to the river. That would create a few more spots along the highway for parking, which always is at a premium during the park’s busy season.
New changing facilities, consolidated parking lots across from the visitors’ center and the relocation of Sugarloaf Road closer to the outfitters also could be part of the project. It also could include colored crosswalks on the road in some areas to slow traffic.
Plans call for the work to be done from September through May the next two years to avoid the town’s busy season.
Ken Bisbee, operations manager for the park, said the project is the next step after erforts in recent years to upgrade the highway, install bike lanes, build the visitors’ center and address sewer overflows in the borough. Improving safety — which locals say has never been a problem — is the next step , he said.
“There’s been an awful lot of near misses,” Mr. Bisbee said, involving rafters, kayakers, motor vehicles and bicyclists. “That’s what this whole multi-modal proejct is about — improving safety so that nothing ever happens.
“One of our goals is to improve the experience of folks when they are here.”
The challenge, he said, is that a vast majority of activity in the 20,000-acre park is concentrated in the ¼-mile area near the visitors’ center, where gear outfitters, the river entry point and other shops and restaurants are located along the highway.
“We have 1.5 million visitors and this is where they all come,” Mr. Bisbee said.
That’s part of the problem — catering to visitors rather than meeting the needs of the borough, said Vicki Marietta, a lifelong resident. Since 2008, she’s owned Backyard Gardens Market, a seasonal business a couple blocks off the main road that features locally grown and produced mustards, jams and jellies as well as products such as art, jewlery and wooden toys.
“[The borough] just keeps getting things forced on us,” said Ms. Marietta, who winters in Florida. “We need three more parking lots, all of them bigger than the ones we have. We need bathrooms. None of that is in here.”
Another businessman, Joel Means of Ohiopyle Trading Post, said last week’s meetings helped him understand the proposed project. He’s pleased most of the work would be done during off-season months for most recreation and agrees the tunnel would be “the safest way” to handle customers carrying rafts and kayaks.
“I’m not as apprehensive as I once was,” Mr. Means said. “I get what they’re trying to do. We tried to make them aware we were uninformed, and that’s not good.”
Ms. Kruse, who says October is her busiest month of the year due to visitors looking at fall foilage, said she’s concerned that the proejct is scheduled to start this year. That feels rushed to her and she’d rather the state take another year or two to study the real needs of the area.
“I don’t want to come across as the naysayer to improvements,” she said. “Planning involves looking 10 years down the road. They just put these bike lanes in a few years ago and they’re already moving them.”
Ohiopyle Mayor Mark McCarty, a borough native who has held the post for 38 years, said the borough has suffered from similar construction projects the last few years. He said he heard about this new project early last year, then nothing until a couple of weeks ago.
“It seems a little heavy-handed to me,” he said. “We’re very appreciative of the work, but can we survive another project?”
Ed Blazina: eblazina@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1470 or on Twitter @EdBlazina.
First Published: February 4, 2018, 5:06 a.m.