Corps plan criticized by former auditor
After working as an U.S. Army Corps of Engineers auditor for 24 years, Jake McCusker of Centerville said he understands how the Corps operates and believes the unwritten goal of its draft Youghiogheny River Lake shoreline management plan is to reduce the number of docks and boats. Many people who have boat dock permits or are on a waiting list to obtain one, like McCusker, voiced their opposition to the proposal at a meet the Corps held Sept. 2 and he encourages all people who boat on the lake to attend the two remaining meetings about the plan.
The next meeting is 2 p.m. Sunday and the last meeting is 10 a.m. Sept. 19 in the Addison fire hall, 7214 National Pike, in Somerset County.
“The goal is to reduce boats on that lake, but they won’t say it,” McCusker said.
McCusker said Col. Michael Crall, the district engineer for the Corps’ Pittsburgh District, attended last week’s meeting and seemed interested in people’s opinions. However, McCusker said he believes rank-and-file Corps staff want fewer docks and boats on the lake to reduce their workload.
“I’ve known many for years and they are hard nosed. They don’t care about recreational boating,” McCusker said.
Two provisions of the proposed update of the shoreline management plan, which originally was enacted in 1974 and updated in 1987, have private dock permit holders and those on the waiting list angry, he said.
One does not allow a permit for a private dock to be passed on to a child of a deceased permit holder.
“A lot were upset with that,” McCusker said, adding that the Sept. 2 meeting began at 6:30 p.m. and lasted until 11:30 p.m.
The second limits all privately owned individual or group docks to areas designated as “limited development” areas on the lakeshore property, which the Corps owns.
An applicant for an individual private dock permit must own land adjacent to public land in a limited development area, according to the draft plan.
Existing docks would be “grandfathered” or allowed to remain under the draft plan.
McCusker said at least half of the 130 people on the dock waiting list, including him, would not meet the criteria for docks in the proposed plan.
“They’re going to take that list and throw it away,” McCusker said.
He said he bought some property near the Corps’ Tub Run campground in 2000 and built his retirement home there in 2007.
Tub Run is in a recreation area, where docks are not permitted, so he said he got on the waiting list for a dock in the Big Bend primitive area, which is a mile from his home and in the cove adjacent to Tub Run, in 2002 and was told he could apply for a permit for dock there.
Big Bend is a limited development area with individual docks and a boat club dock, but McCusker’s property is not adjacent to it.
“I built an $180,000 home in 2007 on the premise that I could get a dock when my name comes to the top of the Big Bend area (waiting list). I would have never built a home up there if I knew what was transpiring,” McCusker said. “I will never get a permit, which has now cost me a whole bunch of money. They’re being very unfair to people on the waiting list like they were before.”
In the past, he said, the Corps allowed property owners with docks who sold their property to transfer the dock permits with the property despite a ban on such dock permit transfers in the 1987 shoreline plan.
Property owners commonly used their docks to drive up the asking prices of their homes, he said.
People who own property within two miles of the Corps’ lakeshore property should be allowed to apply for dock permits, McCusker said.
The Corps says the goal of the proposed plan is to balance private and public use of Yough Lake, which is one of only three of the 16 reservoirs owned by the Corps where private docks are allowed.
“Public access to the majority of the shoreline is generally restricted by the private property surrounding federal lands,” according to the proposed plan.
The proposal also states: “The objectives of this plan are to balance private shoreline uses with the protection and restoration of the natural environmental conditions of Youghiogheny River Lake. In accordance with Corps of Engineers’ policies, primary goals of management of lake resources are to establish and maintain acceptable fish and wildlife habitat, preserve aesthetic qualities and promote the safe and healthful use of the lake and surrounding public lands by the general public
.”
The lake is host to more than 100 private docks, 63 community docks and 14 boat clubs. It has 15 limited development areas along the 53 miles of shoreline.
Most of the limited development areas are in Pennsylvania, but two are in Maryland.
The Corps will accept public comment on the plan through Oct. 2.
The proposed plan is available on the Corps’ Web site.