Did you make it to any of the earlier community design workshops held in Lewisburg?  There was one many years ago in 2003, which looked at the Bull Run Neighborhood in depth and lead to the creation of this organization.  There was another in fall of 2015 focused on the Bull Run Greenway.  And yet another in spring of 2016 focused on River Town Planning.  And now it's time for a followup.  The LNC is excited to announce that a River Town Public Planning Meeting will take place on Wednesday, November 14, from 6 to 8pm at the William Cameron Engine Company Training Facility (at 5th and Buffalo Rd).  Please join us for pizza and planning that evening. 

We did a Hidden Lewisburg Bike Tour in September that hit many of the highlights of the areas being discussed.  The topics and route of the tour are now posted here.  We plan to do that tour again in the spring, so stay tuned (and watch our facebook feed at On the River -- Lewisburg).

The public is invited to participate in this close look at the potential of the publicly owned land along waterways in Lewisburg Borough.  As with all River Town Team activities, this event is open to anyone with an interest in the community’s connection to the Susquehanna, whether or not they are residents or property owners in the Borough.  This is an issue with bearing on the daily lives, recreational options, and environmental health of more than just those with legal standing inside the Borough’s boundaries.

The Lewisburg River Town Team began in 2014 as a collaboration between the Borough, the Lewisburg Neighborhoods Corporation, and the Lewisburg Downtown Partnership, all working closely with the Susquehanna Greenway Partnership.  A kick-off public meeting that fall established the priorities for the group:  events, conservation, planning, and connectivity.  In the years since then, the Walk It! Bike It! Lewisburg group evolved out of the connectivity piece, the Green Team out of the conservation component, and the River Town Team more broadly has carried on with events like Picnics in the Park and cleanups as well as planning.

In 2016, Bucknell students working on their Environmental Studies capstone project conducted a survey about attitudes toward the river.  The results of that as well as a discussion of the history of the riverfront are included in the presentation post here.

As a companion and complement to this fall's public meeting, we are working with a new round of students.  Alexandria Chomyn is a fourth year Landscape Architecture student at Penn State and she is working on rendering the sketch plans created after the last public design workshop.  We were able to get her assistance thanks to a grant from the Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds.  In addition to that design work, we are also working with Ainslie Eck, a Bucknell senior studying Anthropology and Environmental Studies.  She is working on collecting oral histories related to flooding in Lewisburg.  If you or someone you know has a story that should be recorded, please contact Ainslie at ase008@bucknell.edu or 781-812-6003.  The focus is on the impact of flooding historically but also looking forward -- how has the experience or prospect of flooding affected your outlook and behavior?  You can contact Ainslie at any time, but she will also be at the meeting on the 14th if you want to check in about whether and when to participate.

The upcoming planning meeting will look at sites as diverse as Wolfe Field (along Buffalo Creek), the Community Garden, Soldiers Memorial Park, Mariah’s Garden, Lewisburg Landing (including the St George St boat ramp), as well as referencing private sites like the River Walk south of St George St and the Bucknell Landing site.  It will seek to make sure we have all the best ideas pulled together especially in light of recent and evolving developments like the County Trail Authority taking over the Buffalo Valley Rail Trail and the construction of the Central Susquehanna Valley Throughway.  We will work together to establish priorities and a critical path for the process moving forward.

Here's the River Town Planning Meeting Post 2018 in PDF format (13M).  It gives you some sense of what we looked at and talked about.  A more complete accounting of the results of the evening's discussion and prioritizing exercise will be forthcoming, hopefully in December.  Thanks to all who participated!