May 3, 2002 By Paul Sunyak 3 min read

Responding to a news article about the unkempt condition of Dunlap Creek Park, 10 students from Pressley Ridge School at Ohiopyle spent most of Thursday picking up litter at the county-owned facility as part of their community service mission. Rick McClintock, Pressley Ridge director, said the 60 youths aged 9 to 16 housed at the facility are encouraged to participate in community service projects. The bulk of those students come from juvenile courts and Children and Youth Service agencies, he said.

“One of the many things we do at this school is community service. We want kids … to have a sense of being able to give back to the community,” said McClintock.

Upon reading of complaints about the park’s condition in a story arising from a recent county commission meeting, McClintock said, “A lot of the kids said that would be a good community service project. A couple of times a year, the school uses that facility for some fishing trips, and we thought it would be a good opportunity to not only repay the community, but to also address some of our own community service needs.”

Fayette County Commissioner Sean M. Cavanagh praised the efforts of the Pressley Ridge students, noting that they responded to a need and volunteered to perform a general clean up of the park.

“They volunteered to get involved, to help clean up Dunlap Creek (Park) and we appreciate their efforts,” said Cavanagh. “The bottom line is, the administrators of Pressley Ridge and the kids volunteered their time and effort to turn a negative into a positive. I’m very appreciative of their efforts.”

Cavanagh added that the commissioners are also doing their part to improve conditions at the park, after three citizens brought those problems to their attention at their last meeting. He said part of the effort calls for closing restrooms where there’s been “people causing mischief” and putting up Port-A-Johns in their place.

Cavanagh said the contractor who’s supplying the Port-A-Johns must also agree to secure them in place in a way that makes it difficult for them to be removed and dumped in the lake, which county manager Warren Hughes said has been a problem in the past.

“Almost all of the things that people talked about, we’ve handled. People told us there were needs and we responded to those needs. We took action,” said Cavanagh.

McClintock said that one “treatment group” of 10 students participated in Thursday’s park clean up, and he left open the door for future community service work performed there by Pressley Ridge.

“They were going to do some litter pickup and then let us know their view of (future) needs, so maybe we could talk to commissioners about a next step,” said McClintock.

Commissioner Ronald M. Nehls said, “That kind of does your heart good … That’s a wonderful thing. I didn’t know (they were doing this), but it makes your heart feel good that somebody is out there saying, ‘Let’s work together to make the community better.'”

Commissioner Vincent A. Vicites could not be reached for comment.