Click to make bigger. I've been banned from making any comments on our club's message board. I suppose that's one way to shut me up........All in all, an extremely immature action on the club presidents part. I emailed him about it two days ago and he hasn't replied, so I guessing that he's ignoring me.
Whatever.
I guess it's no secret that the president of our club and I haven't exchanged Christmas cards for the past couple of years. For the past several years York Water has been logging different areas of Kain Park hoping no one would make much of a stink. Every year when it happens, some of the club members would get upset and post a few messages and that was that.
Not once did the president of our club publicly speak out or publicly criticize what was going on. Not even a petition was circulated among members to hand in to the water company. Last year he did arrange a meeting with our members and the water company which resulted in............more logging this year.
The fact that our club president is also the county parks advisory board president is a good thing but since the vice president of the water company was also on the same board up until last year and the fact that they are friends creates a conflict of interest in my opinion. I might be totally off-base.........but that's how I feel.
Both the guys I am talking about are super nice guys but that doesn't change the fact that the forest at Kain Park is getting hacked up piece by piece every year.
The fact that myself and Hank went to the local media was made out to be a bad thing on our club's website by our president like somehow he wanted less publicity and make less waves................oh, I forgot, his buddy is the vice president of the water company...........we wouldn't want to piss him off, would we?
At least we got an article in the morning paper to make more folks aware of what the water company is doing and I saw this letter in the evening paper last night...........
County should target Kain Park
Opinion by Rick Altland York Township
Having lived in York County my entire life, I have followed the eminent domain battle in the eastern park of the county with mixed emotions and thoughts.
What of the right of personal property and your rights to do with it as you please? But aren't zoning laws stopping you from doing just that?
Do we really need another open-area park? Don't we have enough area now to support our citizens' outdoor enjoyments? One would think so, since some of those parks have low usage by the general citizens of the county.
But, I would imagine, from the folks who use those parks you would get a different answer since they are being used to walk, bird watch, ride a bike or horse, or just enjoy the solitude of nature.
One such area has always been the William H. Kain Park between York and Jacobus. Having lived next to the park on Reynolds Mill Road for the last 28 years, my family has had a unique opportunity to enjoy
This area with no more than a short walk from our back door. Anyone who has used the trails has enjoyed a unique experience that I believe is unmatched in any other park in the county.
The trails are wide, spacious and totally tree-covered with towering 30-foot pines and some hardwood. It was possible to enter into the park on the Lake Williams side and follow those tree- covered trails for hours if you so chose.
The solitude and quiet were unbelievable with the only sounds being those of the birds or of the flocks of geese in the spring and fall.
Coming upon a vista of the open lake or crossing the Lake Williams' dam was always breathtaking any time of the day or year. Then of course there was the almost secret sighting of the signs of the resident beavers and their distinctive mounds.
About eight years ago I started to enjoy the park on a mountain bike. I am sure, to some, I'm an obtrusion to their walking or bird watching or riding a horse, but we all shared the same love of the park, its unique beauty.
Three years ago a degenerative knee stopped me from enjoying the sport and the park, but last summer a knee replacement made the sport a possibility again.
Sunday was my latest adventure into the park I loved to enjoy. What I found broke my heart.
Sure I witnessed the loss of trees along the Old Trail on the knob overlooking Lake Redman and the eventual loss of those trails to development -- and last year the clear-cutting of the trees just down the street from my home on Reynolds Mill Road.
I was sure this was not the norm, but were my eyes opened on Sunday.
The entire park is in danger of being destroyed by logging. The whole south end of the park, as we speak, is lined with dozers and loggers clear-cutting the hills and destroying those tree-lined trails.
What you now have is nothing but dusty, open, windy and noisy (yes you can now hear the traffic on I-83) bald hills.
Who is going to want to enjoy these areas? Not the bird watcher I passed on Sunday, nor the family walking their dog. It is no longer an enjoyable place to be. So what will happen to those of us who have frequented the park? We will stop using it, since it no longer represents what we have loved and enjoyed.
With the loss of patrons and the stretched York County Park Service dollars I sure the area will be dropped out of the system. Then what happens to the land?
Is that the master plan, to sell off all the land to developers and to make more money for the York Water Co. and their investors?
Who else stands to benefit from this? Surely not the residents of York County. As the water company has expanded into each small town or burg across the county, have they lost sight of the benefits to the community? Or are they just a slave to the bottom line?
Where are the York County commissioners now? Why spend millions on land that presently is open farmland. Do we need more open-space parks for ball fields and pavilions? Or do we need to save and enrich the unique park areas we currently have that make York County what it is.
Since the William H. Kain Park is nothing more than good will from the York Water Company, why not utilize the money and the eminent domain process on an area that we currently utilize as a park.
Stop the logging now. Seize this land and preserve something beautiful before it is too late.
Nice letter.
This whole thing has been a major disruption in my personal life, but if more residents (and potential Park users) were made aware of the continual logging at Kain Park by myself and Hank going to the media.............it was worth it.
I just hope that more club members wake up to the fact that our club president has a conflict of interest and ask him to step aside as long as he is on the county parks board.
I honestly wish him no ill will but he isn't doing us any favors by staying in both positions due to his friendship with the folks at the water company......check your ego at the door and let someone else represent us.
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