Update provided on Pumping Station Dam project at Shenandoah council
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - The Pumping Station Dam in East Union Township is seen from the spillway on April 4, 2023.
SHENANDOAH – The revival of the former Pumping Station Dam recreational area, affectionately known as the Pumpy, took another step forward Monday night.
Councilman Joe Gawrylik, chair of the infrastructure committee, provided an update on the project.
He said a meeting was held with the members of the Pumpy Association and borough engineers from Alfred Benesch and Company.
Gawrylik said the meeting was positive and they received valuable guidance from the engineers.
“I think we’re going in the right direction because we’re meeting with the right people,” Gawrylik said. “We’re not just saying ‘Yeah, do it.'”
“We have support behind us and I think this thing can be a go, but I’m not going to say we can go fishing April 1,” Gawrylik added.
He said volunteers are working on the grounds regularly.
Gawrylik also raised concerns over timbering activity that appears to be occurring on Girard Estate land south, uphill and upstream, of the reservoir.
The Sentinel has filed multiple right-to-know requests with the Girard Estate, a public body created by the City of Philadelphia and answering to Philadelphia County courts, regarding this and other activities in Schuylkill County but they have not responded. The City additionally denies responsibility for the board, despite being statutorily connected.
Gawrylik worried about the impact of the timbering on the property, or timbering overrunning the property line.
He said he would visit the site “and see if I can meet these people and talk to them and see where they’re timbering.”
“Maybe they’re not even timbering by the Pumping Station, and people are getting nervous,” Gawrylik said.
Solicitor Shane Hobbs said he would look into the matter.
Councilman Mike “Zeckie” Uholik said the Pumpy Association volunteers “have their heart in it.”
“I told them we’re going to help them however we could as a borough,” Uholik said. “It’s a good thing.”
Council approved a motion to allow Benesch to move forward in planning at a cost of $10,000.
“Let’s go forward with it,” Gawrylik said. “We have out foot in the water this far.”
Gawrylik also said a lease was being drafted for the site between the borough and the Pumpy Association.
Shenandoah Borough has owned the facility since the early 20th century when it was a primary source of drinking water for the borough-owned Shenandoah Public Water Works, a predecessor to the current Municipal Authority.
When MABS was formed in the 1940s, merging the three companies, the Pumping Station Dam became a recreational area under the purview of the the Shenandoah Pumping Station Project Booster Club, the Pumping Station Recreation Committee, and most recently, the Shenandoah Pumping Station Preservation Association.
A 1961 article in the Shenandoah Evening Herald described the facility as “among the finest trout waters in the state.”
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