New pedestrian bridge and streambank stabilization work in progress.
Like many Pennsylvania municipalities, York City has a system of aging parks. It also has a growing need to address regulations aimed at improving water quality and reducing flood damage.
While these could be challenges, York has embraced them as opportunities through its Green Infrastructure Action Plan. One resulting project: the Poorhouse Run Stream Restoration.
The project took place just beyond the ballfields at Memorial Park, along a stream known as Poorhouse Run. The work combined water quality protection with outdoor recreation.
Improvements made include:
- Streambank stabilization
- Streamside tree planting
- New pedestrian bridge and walking path
- Educational signs
Installing the new walking path (photos credit: Chaz Green).
DCNR supported these improvements with a $200,000 Rivers Program grant from the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund. The city matched the grant dollar-for-dollar, for a $400,000 investment in the park.
“I grew up in York near Memorial Park and can remember splashing around in this stream,” says Chaz Green, the city’s Director of Public Works. “The restoration of Poorhouse Run will encourage local access to the water and provide green stormwater infrastructure.”
These improvements not only make Memorial Park better, they also benefit people downstream. The new trees and stabilized streambanks will reduce pollution in Codorus Creek, the Susquehanna River, and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay.
