CLEARFIELD – Solicitor Kim Kesner updated the Clearfield County Commissioners on the natural area in Gulich Township known as Camp Wopsononock at Tuesday’s regular meeting.
During a previous meeting, Commissioner Mark B. McCracken notified the board that the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) had expressed written interest in having the property conveyed over to the DCNR. The DCNR requested a letter from the commissioners indicating their willingness to do so, and they authorized Kesner to draft the same.
In his research, Kesner found that Camp Wopsononock was once owned by a branch of the Boy Scouts of America and used for a camp. He said it was one of the boy scouts’ three or four camps then and wasn’t active or in much use at the time.
According to him, Camp Wopsononock had very unique water sources. In the late 1980’s, a former board of commissioners condemned the property in order to have the water sources to provide to people who didn’t have water in that portion of the county.
At that point, he said a county employee prepared a package of grants, one of which was a Recreational Improvement and Rehabilitation Act (RIRA) grant from the DCNR. He said in addition to condemning Camp Wopsononock, the county created the Clearfield County Municipal Services & Recreation Authority (CCMSRA).
Kesner explained that the municipal services managed the provision of water while the recreation was in order to comply with the RIRA grant requirements. Kesner said the funds acquired through the RIRA grant required Camp Wopsononock to be used for recreation.
After condemning the property and creating the CCMSRA in 1987, Kesner said the county conveyed it to the CCMSRA. In 2000, he said the county, CCMSRA and the Beccaria, Coalport, Irvona Municipal Authority (BCIMA) were able to get an agreement from the DCNR to subdivide the water sources off and to convey them to the BCIMA to be operated by a regional water/sewer authority.
The remainder of Camp Wopsononock was owned by the CCMSRA, he said. He noted that the CCMSRA ultimately filed articles of amendment to change its name to the Clearfield County Recreation & Tourism Authority (CCRTA), which is listed as the current property owner in county tax records.
“I found the county doesn’t own Camp Wopsononock and therefore cannot convey it to the DCNR,” said Kesner. “It would be up to the CCRTA to respond to the DCNR.”
McCracken said he had forwarded Kesner’s report to the CCRTA for further discussion at its next meeting.