From the Daily Item
January 7, 2010
$9 Million Riverfront Project to Begin in Spring
By Diane Petryk
The Daily Item
SUNBURY — It must be real this time.
U.S. Rep. Chris Carney, D-10 of Dimock, came to wield one of the shovels over a symbolic groundbreaking Wednesday for the much-anticipated, long-delayed $9 million riverfront project.
Carney told city officials and guests gathered in front of the flood wall at South Front and Chestnut streets that the project to showcase the river will stimulate economic development in Sunbury.
After six years of planning and jumping through the hoops of many regulatory agencies, including re-introducing eels to the river, Phase I of the riverfront enhancement project will begin as soon as the weather breaks, Councilman Jim Eister, supervisor of Parks and Recreation, said after the ceremony.
“In a month or two,” he said.
Despite the natural inclination of people to be tentative in a struggling economy, Carney said the timing is right.
“You need to be bold in times like these,” he said.
It was the general view that the riverfront project will do what’s long overdue — link Sunbury residents with the river.
The project will enhance Front Street with landscaping, better lighting, curbs and walkways, and bring access to the Susquehanna River via a pedestrian walkway over the flood wall, where there will be a boat launch, fishing pier, amphitheater and other amenities.
Reason to brag
“The river is part of us. It’s part of what we are,” Carney said. “I brag to my colleagues that I get to represent Norman Rockwell’s America.”
Carney and state Rep. Merle Phillips, R-108 of RR2 Sunbury, helped coordinate efforts for the project, which had to pass through 10 or more agencies, said project coordinator Tom Deans.
“We even had to re-introduce eels to the river,” he said
Deans, a private consultant, praised Mayor Dave Persing, who, he said, “had the foresight to recommend this very important project and recognize its importance to the city.”
Front Street will be tree-lined and more aesthetically pleasing, Deans said. “It will bring an environmental change to the city, which, along with other projects, we can be extremely proud.”
Eister said the other projects include revamping Cameron Park, Stroh Alley lighting and Edison Plaza.
Phase I of the riverfront project, the trees, lighting, and curbs and walkways along Front Street, should be done by fall, said project manager Scott E. Russell, of Buchart Horn Inc., the engineering firm charged with its design.
Begun in 2004, the project’s budget and scope has grown and dwindled over the years. The original design called for an expansive project that included openings in the flood wall, a marina between Church Street and Raspberry Avenue and an amphitheater at Market Street that included a cafe, the deck of which would have sat above the flood wall to overlook the Susquehanna River.
But the cost estimate of that plan ballooned to $20 million.
Revised designs have cut the overall budget to about $9 million and eliminated openings in the flood wall.
Instead, residents and visitors will use the Chestnut Street ramp to access a scaled-down amphitheater along the riverfront on the other side of the flood wall.
Walking back to town after the groundbreaking, Janet Yonkoskie, president of Sunbury Revitalization Inc., proclaimed the near fruition of all the planning “just wonderful.” “We’re promoting the river,” she said. “The Susquehanna is an asset, and it’s great that this will bring people to it.”
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