ALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pa. — A groundbreaking was held Friday along the Allegheny RiverTrail Park, where six acres of land will be transformed. The former industrial scrapyard is now slated to be a public green space with a riverside deck, hillside slides and beautiful views of the Allegheny River. The efforts originated from Aspinwall community members.
Dee Stathis is the Executive Director for the Allegheny RiverTrail.
“They found out that this land was actually going to be turned into a parking lot and they found out about it and they banded together and decided to buy this property themselves and that they were going to turn it into a park,” Stathis said.
Right next to this new development is a park the community also helped build in 2011.
“It’s been completely transformed since then,” said Rich DeFelice, who lives in Aspinwall. “The acquisition of the new land and turning this into a wedding venue and we’ve been making constant improvements with a dog park, farmer baker it’s just really been kind of an amazing community treasure that we’ve put together here.”
Robin Durr from Aspinwall said, “Now to have it available to the community is really special. Kids are fishing off the dock, you know kids from urban areas…Sharpsburg and Blawnox. You don’t think of them as being urban but there’s a lot of pavement and they can come to this park and be in green space.”
Also underway, is the construction of 1.5 miles of multi-use trails.
Stathis added, “It will take you 13th street in Sharpsburg and I think the goal for all of us is to be able to connect to Millvale.”
The goal is to have the new portion open by this fall.
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