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Park Authority lays initial plans for Silver Lake
Now that the Prince William County Park Authority has control of Silver Lake, department officials need to figure out exactly how they will open it to the public.Park Authority Director Jay Ellington spoke with The Times on Monday about how exactly, his agency plans to implement its plans.
First and foremost, the Park Authority will be spending about $70,000 just to open the park by the Oct. 1 deadline. That is money coming out of the operating budget for the PA, so it did not need to make extra requests to the county for funding on that end.
"We've been anticipating this, so we've been holding some money for that purpose," Ellington said.
He explained his department's first mission is making sure the park is safe for people to use. If deadline is met and it opens this fall, primary trails near the lake itself will be among the first projects to be completed.
Ellington said that by fall, he would like 1-3 miles of trails to be open for both hiking and horseback riding.
Trails will have natural surfaces of dirt and rocks. Staff and volunteers from the PA are expected to clear out debris and small growth vegetation. Most of that work should be done by hand, though small machines may be needed as well, according to the director.
The rest of the $70,000 will be needed to cover the costs of building rest rooms, having a water supply on the site, designating parking areas, bringing in trash bins, putting up signs and supplying maps to visitors.
The PA has $350,000 to complete the initial development the park and Ellington is requesting the county add in an extra $150,000 to help out with expenses. That money is all proffer money from residential developer Toll Brothers.
According to Ellington, the proffer money has already been transferred from the developer to the county and is now being transferred once more to the Park Authority.
Six to 12 paid staffers should be working at the park this summer, Ellington said, while volunteers like the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and other stakeholders will also pitch in to help.
He is planning to hold a stakeholders meeting with private groups in the next two or three weeks. Those groups include the Nokesville Horse Society, the Prince William County Trails and Streams Coalition, and the Prince William Conservation Alliance.
Later, during master planning meetings, groups like the Bull Run Mountain Conservancy, which dropped its competing bid to run the park, will also be invited to pitch their ideas about how best to run the park.
Part of the initial plan for the park includes free access for the public.
"Currently, in this initial phase, we are not saying we will charge any admission to get into this park," said Ellington.
The money needed to run the park will come from two sources: the budget allocated by the Board of County Supervisors and user fees from other parks.
That has raised concerns about whether the park will only be used for passive recreation or if active recreation, which is more of a money-maker for the Park Authority at other facilities, will eventually come to Silver Lake.
Since the early debates about who would control Silver Lake, all of the leading plans from the Park Authority, BRMC and Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority called for passive use. The Board of County Supervisors opted last week not to put any deed restrictions on the property, which would have ensured the park remain dedicated to passive uses like hiking and horseback riding.
When asked how he can assure county citizens that the PA will keep Silver Lake passively recreational, Ellington said, "I think our process really dictates that and our process for the master plan will set in place the primary program elements, which in turn dictate what facilities will be built and whether they will be active or passive. The passive being highlighted as part of the guideline that the county board ... has given us to develop the site."
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