What can former Ligonier Beach property become? Township to spend $100K for plan

Ligonier Township officials and residents have ideas to revive the decaying Ligonier Beach property.

The township plans to spend about $100,000 to hire a consultant who will generate a plan for the property along Route 30.

The township bought the property for $230,000 after the resort closed in 2018.

The bids for the study of the property and the expansive swimming pool that once was its main attraction were opened this week.

All but one of the bids fell within the $100,000 in funding the township has put aside for the study. The consultant that is selected will be tasked with developing a potential roadmap for revival of the swimming pool as well as a master plan for recreational use of the surrounding 10-acre site along Route 30 east of Ligonier Borough.

The apparent low bid was $89,000 from Aquatic Facility Design, a Dauphin County firm that conducted a previous limited study of the pool structure. Other bids ranged up to about $137,700, which was submitted by Pittsburgh-based D.K. Lawrence & Design Studios.

Public input will be required as part of the study, and the township doesn’t expect the consultant will have a completed document ready until late next year.

“We are very excited to get the public involved and hear what they want to see down there,” Janell Emery said. Emery chairs the study committee and also sits on the board of the nonprofit Friends of Ligonier Beach.

“We’re just excited that we have six engineering firms that are interested in the project,” said Emery. “Hopefully, the engineer can start this summer with the study. There will be public meetings, and the engineer will be responsible for managing those.”

“Hopefully, when this is done, we can move forward with building a park,” said township Manager Michael Strelic.

In the meantime, some supervisors have expressed concern about property maintenance.

Chairman Dan Resenic is worried that someone could fall into open pits that remain where a filter house and pump house for the pool once stood. He noted his concern about the township’s resulting liability.

Strelic said the municipality’s insurance carrier completed a review of township facilities and should be aware of the pits, yet it did not flag any concerns about them.

Plastic construction fencing is no longer in place around the pits, but Strelic indicated the property has been posted for no trespassing.

“When somebody is a trespasser, we don’t have a duty to them,” said Solicitor Dan Hudock. But he pointed out the open pits could be considered an “attractive nuisance.”

Hudock said, “It never hurts to secure an area that might hurt somebody.”

Resenic asked Strelic to obtain proposals from local contractors for filling in the pits.

Supervisor John Beaufort said there was an interest in salvaging some pool filtering elements that remain in the ground.

Emery asked the supervisors to consider a temporary fix for the pits that still would allow the study consultant to assess the state of the filtering structure.

“I don’t like spending tax dollars down there,” Supervisor Scott Matson said of the Ligonier Beach site. But he said the property has become unsightly with overgrown vegetation and debris left over from its years as a resort.

“The place needs cleaned up,” he said.

Supervisors were agreeable to Terrell Funk’s suggestion that the township rec board join forces with the Friends of Ligonier Beach to organize a cleanup day at the site, reprising past volunteer efforts there. Funk is a member of both organizations.

Strelic said the township is paying $200 every two weeks to have grass on a portion of the property mowed. Terrell Funk asked if the scope of mowing could be expanded following the cleanup.

Strelic said the Friends group has raised a local match for $50,000 in state funding approved for the Ligonier Beach study and has contributed a few thousand additional dollars to cover related expenses.

The supervisors in January voted to return $42,500 the township had received from the state to assist with a previously planned project at Ligonier Beach.

That project called for developing a walkway and kayak launch to improve access to adjacent Loyalhanna Creek.

Additional funding from Westmoreland County assisted in demolishing some buildings at the former resort, including a restaurant and a bathhouse.

Opened in 1925 as the Ligonier Valley Bathing Beach, the private resort operated for more than 90 years before it was closed in 2018 after flooding damaged the pool’s water pumps and the restaurant’s furnace.