Project Updates

The maintenance crew is also working in the pool house. Cutting out the old floor around the edge of the walls to put in an inside French drain in . So that we can dry out the pool house. It will help the old pool heater by keeping it dry.

We had our maintenance crew remove the old playground in section D. And recycled the pipe fencing around it. And put it around a new playground.

Well/water plant update #16.

Everything at the the water plant is going well with the installation and making progress.  We are about 70% completed and waiting on the scada system (the brains) of the plant to arrive  then programming can begin.  Once the final piece of equipment arrives and we have it in our hands, we will be able to lock in an opening date which I understand everyone is patiently waiting, but as of right now we are still on schedule.   Thank you.

Water plant update #15.

We are continuing to progress with the equipment installation in the water plant and as of today, everything is still on schedule ( not early and not late) as our longest lead ( critical path) item which we always knew about beside the pumps (which are here) was the SCADA system (the brains of the operation or the smarts and parts) that should be here the second week of March and then testing, start up and commissioning will commence.  Please take note in the pictures of how organized the pipes are installed and we actually have concrete equipment pads under the equipment, no more cinder blocks.

 We also ran into our first  unforeseen incident, which I was always expecting this to happen at least a few times.  During the last bore shot with the board rig, We were literally 1 foot away from finishing the last bore shot in the water plant and the installers inadvertently went through a buried unmarked telephone wire bank.   This bank was not located and after further review, it was our phone lines, not a third-party’s phone lines that were installed. Why they were installed / routed through the water plant a foot below grade I have no idea as it was at no fault of our contractor as No one knew they were there even our maintenance crew was unaware of it. This is another point as an example of why you should always mark on drawings to know we’re all your past buried lines are located. We typically call these as built drawings in the industry but our camp over the years and decades has not done this efficiently. Yes that has now changed over the past few years.  Our maintenance team and Tom Keating is making sure this is going to get repaired quickly. 

Also if anyone may have lost phone or Internet service this is probably why and it will be repaired.   Once all the new conduit and wiring is completed, They will patch all the asphalt that was removed from their installation.

The work completed is: full recap.

The filters are in, filled, set and plumbed.  The backwash drain was in a less than ideal location so they relocated it and repoured the floor.  We used the old secondary containment for the potassium tank as a drain sump.  It is very helpful for filter servicing to be able to see the drain flow and clarity.   The raw water boosters are in and plumbed.  The pad was poured for the distribution booster pumps and backwash booster pump Friday.

Well #4 was drilled and tested.  All came back good.  Rec hall well was cleaned, recased and retested to increase the permitted flow rate.  Lab results came back Friday on it.  They were all safe and nothing was out of line on the iron, manganese or TDS.

Directional drilling is pretty much done.  All the lines are in.  They need to just plumb off of them in the plant, but all the fusing is done.  They still owe us asphalt restoration and some seeding on the hillside.

The bore pits are all fused, well head valves are on, conduits pulled.  They just need to pull wire.

They have the enclosures here for the main control panel in the water plant and the remote panel in the rec hall for the wells.  They can install them and pull wire, but the controls themselves are not expected to be complete until mid-March.

They should have the plumbing of the system complete by the end of next week.  They will then hopefully do all they can electrically the week of the 6th. If all works as currently planned, start up would take place the week of March 20th.  After start up, the whole system is checked and quality controlled before we can open up so again we were still on schedule to be open up on April 1st at 12:01am.   I understand trout fishing is April 1 and we’re trying to get everything completed. We are not rushing this.

Below are a few pictures from my site walk today.   Thank you.

- Have a safe weekend.

Erosion/Flooding Update.

Do you have flooding occurring? If not, you’re a lucky one.

As mostly everyone is aware when we have severe rain/storm events, parts of the campground flood causing damage and issues with memberships lots.  Unfortunately, when the campground was established, little effort was made to control rainwater and I would not think back then not much thought was probably put in as it’s a campground.  Fast forward several decades and its amazing how the camp has grown.  I have seen pictures from the past with dirt roads and limited number of trailers is really eye opening to see (and the outfits were great on people).  Being that more members are further developing their lots and adding asphalt/concrete driveways the water has to disperse somewhere typically at the path of least resistance.   Even know rain events may not affect your lot, many other members are affected.  It would be a huge financial undertaking to attempt to control all the water runoff and may not even be feasible as we are at the end of the day a campground not at a community (some may say we are close).  What we should be doing is reviewing a few “major” areas that flood and I know their are others. Unfortunately, the most flooding happens to our members that live near the creek but unfortunately living on and/or near the creek always comes with that risk and little can be done.

Over the past few years our past board members and volunteers have made great strides to help our campground with this issue.  One of them being the creek embankment project in which a company was brought in to shore up the existing creek bank.  This project was successful (and is used to show other governmental / environmental bodies how to correctly save a creek bank) and will further limit the eroding of the creek embankment.  One drawback (as some would say) of this project was the “easement” limits now in place set by the government in which we lost approximately 50’ setback (and length of the area by several hundred feet) of this area that was once a gathering place and attracted our members and kids for activities was lost or severely limited.  Measures were implemented into this plan to allow 3 straight narrow paths through the foliage to access the creek banks approx. 4’ wide and nothing can be done to change this as it’s now a controlled environmental  area. Unfortunately, these paths where never maintained by SCRA and lost due to overgrown foilage and you never see anyone in that area (This area is located below the pool behind the transformer).  Scott Bradley  being the main driver along with other current and past board members held a meeting last year with the subcontractor that completed this work to go over the limits again to bring this area back to life and excitement for the membership so we can again enjoy this area. This is currently a work in progress and thank you Scott for your continued efforts in bringing everyone together and devising a plan in an attempt to bring back the excitement to this area that was lost.

The next area of concern is the erosion taking place at the end of Canyon street and flooding coming from the cornfield down canyon.  This area has been flooding and eroding away for years and each year more area is eroding away.  Bill Kubin was aware of this issue a few years ago and brought it to the current board and found a contractor to look over these areas and devise a plan while also provide pricing.  With the one quote that was received, Phase 1 of this project was approx.. $30,000 and phase 2 of that project was another $100,00.    As you can see dealing with flooding/water is very expense.  At minimum, the eroding at canyon will need to be thoroughly revisited as this will not help with the flooding above but limiting the hill eroding will help.  (See pictures below showing the hill eroding, washout areas and clogged drainage lines) Further pricing and research will need to take place on how to tackle this issue.

Another area of concern is the flooding on Lower Bear Paw st.   In rain events I have personally witnessed a cascade/waterfall (see pictures below as I like it call it “the rapids of Bear Paw) coming through the woods from Upper Bear Paw st and not only does it flood several trailers, the soil/ dirt / subgrade below the asphalt has been eroding causing sink holes and visible pockets beneath the asphalt as the asphalt is giving away and in poor shape.

Again, all the above has been brought up in previous board meetings as far back as 2+ years ago but we should reflect on those conversations again for awareness as it may not affect you but effects your neighbors and friends.  I am sure everyone has some sort of flooding occurring and we all can share stories and pictures, as I do also on my lot at times.  Keep in mind, we stay in the woods, next to a creek, on a hillside with paved roads, semi-developed land and limited water management arrangements.  All recipes for flooding and it could be a lot worse.

Anyone remember the Ragging Rapids at kennywood???

 So what’s wrong with the pool this year? It never opens up on time…

How about we  explore the latest updates with the pool?

The good

- The new pump and motor have been ordered for the pool and that is taken care of. Our current pump and motor is functioning fine.  When the new pump and motor arrives, we plan to replace it and keep our current pump and motor as a back up and rebuilding it if necessary..

-  Heater. We received all the parts and have them in hand to repair the heater. We will schedule this early May for installation.  

- Tom Keating has been putting in a lot of hours and multiple trips getting with maintainence and barb chemical to review our system during the winter months.. Barb, chemical during their review are not electricians and they did not review all the electrical work as they sub that out when electrical work is needed. They did mention that our electrical wiring and panel box does not look like it’s in good shape, which I think we can all agree.

- Barb chemical believes that we should be fine to open. They do not see any problems from visual inspection, but did put in a disclaimer ”as you never know what happens over the winter once you start running water through the lines ..”

- We have our first Pool committee meeting on April 15 at 11 AM. We will discuss with the pool committee with their thoughts are on when to open up the pool.

- Currently we plan to open up on time.

-Tom Keating is working with the maintenance crew to install a below grade/basement drainage system in the pump room to try to get the water out of this area which I believe should work if installed correctly.

The Bad.

- We need to really think about replacing our heater in the very near future and upgrading the plumbing lines. This will involve moving the “new” heater outside of the pump room.  A new heater is 40k+. Not including install or modifications, needed to install the new heater . We have been throwing money away for the last eight years fixing this heater, yearly, which I brought up last year.

- During Barb’s chemical walk of the plant with Tom. They did notice multiple valves are sticking and not functioning correctly and should be replaced as they show significant signs of wear, also multiple flanges show significant signs of corrosion, backwash lever is not working correctly and replacing miscellaneous bolts and hangers that are used on the plumbing systems.  They also found a crack on one of the main flanges that drains the pool.   This actually is very expensive to replace but they are looking at support anchors to help support it as he believes it’s not worth replacing at this time .   the cost of all these repairs is around $12,000 and I would like to discuss this with the pool committee more in depth then bring to the board.

…Life is better poolside.

Basic electrical systems update (non primary)

With all of the great progress we are making on the well and water plant, we should not lose site of the other issues we have ahead of us on the horizon.  I am grateful to hear of this finance subcommittee our President mentioned in an attempt to tackle multiple issues we have throughout our park (this is a monumental task by volunteers) and develop a plan to present to the finance committee.   (Our past plans seemed to always be “ crisis management”..as one maintenance guy told me and he was right) I believe we all agree our campground is the best around but does show it’s age at times (when you get a deep look) as we are collectively tackling issues.   I think we should all be transparent and let the membership understand what Allie’s in the future and I hope they are addressed in some correct fashion.  My goal and hope is that my kids raise their kids at this wonderful campground as many of the original members have.   Not to many places can say that and we should thank our past  members who kept our happy place going and we owe it to them to keep it running in tip top shape as many things have changed from past practices.

The frustrating part of this post is the past “fixes” /  band-aids / non-qualified people  attempting to correct issues (in good faith I assume or to the best of their ability), if that’s what you want to call it when it comes to electrical installation.  We had a qualified electrician review multiple areas of our park to attempt to give us a big picture (electrical review) of any issues we have. It’s safe to say that he delivered.    You do have have to be an electrician to understand what’s right and wrong most of the time.   I hope in being transparent, the present and future boards and membership will understand the nature of repairs  and the importance of bringing in qualified contractors and reviewing work once complete.   I have no idea and/ Or clue when any of this work took place or who performed this work (that’s not the point). This post is a great example on why (for certain activities) you need qualified people fixing issues.   I understand you always will have issues that need addressed but the years and years of putting these fixes off are now compounding on us.

Attached you will find a few electrical photos that show both major and minor issues.      This is not a debate post but a post to raise awareness on what not to do.

***We have a few of these (basic) items that are already being addressed. (Ie.  Putting on cover plates). Tom Keating is leading the way to correct the minor issues.  Thanks Tom.

Well Update update!!!! #14

With this week coming to a close, we have made great strides in progress with both the well and water plant. The team had some great weather, and we took full advantage of it.

- Drill shot from new well to rec hall is complete.

- Completed the pitless adapter welded on new well today and all the tie in at the well fused.

- Finished the pump install on the new well.

-We couldn’t put tanks in place in the plant till concrete has a little more time to cure.

- The filters were moved into the plant.

- All the material is now staged in the plant.

Let’s hope the weather stays on our side and enjoy todays photo dump of the work that took place today.

Also take note of the photos showing all the wires and conduit the team had to work around without damaging them (that’s alot of hand digging). It’s amazing to see all the heavy equipment, specialized machinery and different types of drill rigs (multi-million $ operation) along with multiple crews working in different areas all in unison. As you can see the team is working in 3 different areas at once as this was pre-planned to meet our very aggressive schedule. The crews also appreciated that they had little to no disruptions from the membership from cars going up and down the roads. Thank you.

Have a wonderful and safe weekend and lend a helping hand to stranger this weekend.

Michael Blue

UPDATE!!!! Enough with the water plant updates. How about something else!!!! 

Tom Keating (C-section board) and Chair of SRCA maintenance and our great maintenance crew have been hard at work over the winter and I think it’s best we take some time and showcase one area they’ve been working on amongst others as they’re working nonstop fixing multiple issues (putting out fires as I like to put it ) throughout the park daily. It’s amazing they’re able to fit this into their schedule. As always, please thank them when you see them this year. 

Now let’s take a quick picture tour of our updated and renovated C Bathhouse. This entire renovation was done in house with our maintenance staff.  New vanities were installed, new shower/toilet fixtures, The partitions were removed, all the wall paneling and walls were replaced with new trim and new paint added throughout. I think it’s also worth noting that prior we had block wall issues in which the water lines ran through and any repairs were very complicated due to the block walls so now any future repairs will be easily fixed. They completely removed the block walls and installed new wood framed walls and ran all new plumbing lines and fixtures. This renovation also carried out into the laundry facilities. They should be wrapping up this complete renovation in a few weeks. Tom gave me a tour of this area last week and  our maintenance crews did a great job. 

…. I googled my symptoms….Turned out, I just need camp season to start. 

Michael Blue

Well Update update!!!! #13

This weeks report below.

· Existing water plant equipment has been removed.

· We excavated around the rev hall well and didn’t damage any existing utilities. We are pretty happy about that. There’s a million things buried there. ( as you see in the pictures).

· In the water plant, the filter drain was in the way to put the filters where it would be ideal. So we saw cut the floor and relocated it to the secondary containment that wasn’t used anymore. (see, not all goes as planned, but we collectively figure it out as a team).

· A lot of the old plywood was rotten where there were leaks in the old system. We replaced the damaged areas. Then repainted that and the entire wall. Going to do second coat tomorrow and pour concrete.

· We won’t have a lot more production in the plant till Monday. The filters will sit on the fresh concrete so we all have to wait for that to cure.

· Depending on the rain, we may tie in the new well underground and put the pump in Friday.

· Lab work is all back on new well. It’s better than anything onsite. All bacteria samples are safe. We are anticipating the lab to have the rev hall results by the weekend and that’s all we need to finish the permit.

Photo dump of the above. (In no order).

Have a great weekend and go for a walk tonight and enjoy this great weather. (if your in PA. Lol)

Michael Blue

Well Update update!!!! #12

Being that we will begin the water plant demolition and starting the directional bore rig next week a few items below are for further clarification.

1. We will have a rather large amount of construction activity on Jellystone Road. I am asking that everyone please stay off this road if you do not have a lot on this road. This is both for the safety of the membership and the safety of the crews.  “But hey, I live on jelly stone. Will I have access to my lot.”.  Of course!!! The crews will generally place cones to block off areas They are working in. If you need to get to your lot, please get with security and they will help escort you to your lot through the construction zone if you see them working near your lot.

2. “ Hey, I was up there yesterday and seen all these red flags who installed these”? Those flags were placed by Penn power, please do not touch or move them, they are not souvenirs.

What about water pressure?

3. “With all this work going on with the new wells and the water plant, which is all wonderful and long over due…but my water pressure sucks,  is this going to  correct the problem”

The team worked on that section of the design engineer’s report on Friday.

“Let’s go to class” Water pressure increases with elevation. For every 1’ of elevation you add 0.433 psi of water pressure. Our highest site is 1204’. Lowest Site is 1094’. You will have a difference of 47.6 psi in between you highest sites on the knob between buffalo pass and beaver pass and the low sites near the creek. We currently have our pressure set at 20psi leaving the plant, with the plant elevation at 1225’. If we keep the pressure the same our highest sites would have 29psi and your lowest sites would have 76.6psi.

In a normal scenario, they would increase your highest sites pressure to 35psi leaving our lowest site at 82.6psi. We would still be ok to not have pressure reducing valves at the low sites there. Our BIGGEST issue is that our distribution piping is marginal/poor at best and we already have a lot of trouble with leaks. As you can imagine the more leaks you have out of the system the more pressure you are losing as everything I mentioned above is in a perfect scenario with no leaks, (that’s what you have to design to) but we do not have that.  We simply can’t just crank up the pressure as our current distribution system cannot even handle our current pressure ratings and then we would have to add a slew of pressure reducing valve as mentioned above.

As I mentioned in multiple board meetings, our infrastructure is in much need of  replacement as it’s beyond repair and failing each year.  Once everything gets underway, I will be having meetings with our current team, to put together a short term and long term plan/goal on how to move forward with our long-term goals of correcting our water distribution replacement.

Below would be a basic analogy of our current water system (and no, I am not in the medical field)

Our first priority is to get our failing Wells and water plant in tiptop operation. “Let’s call it the heart”.  after that is working successfully (pumping) we can then start to look at the distribution or “let’s call it the arteries”.  Right now we have a tremendous amount of “stents” in our arteries  and those continue to fail and more stents are needed. We are getting to the point where we need a bypass To replace all these arteries.  and on top of that we have multiple arteries that have ruptured.

Current setting:

Lowest elevation / highest pressure = 77psi

Highest elevation / lowest pressure = 29 psi

If distribution system was in good shape (which it’s not)our recommended setting would be:

Lowest elevations would have highest pressure at 82psi.

Highest elevation / lowest pressure at 35psi.

We have the ability to set the pressure at whatever our operator is comfortable with. With the fragile infrastructure, we don’t want to push our limits.

Thanks.

Michael Blue

Well / Plant update!!!!

Today we are going for a ride down into the both wells via camera inspection. We do this to get better visuals of our existing and new wells, to see if there are any obstructions to clean out or causing issues and have a better understanding of the geology below grade that we have ran into.  Nothing more to report in these pictures other than everything was completed successfully. This is very important information to have on file. Should we run into any issues in the future and during this process we are not leaving any stone unturned…literally.

What you are seeing other than the cylindrical hole are big fractures that are naturally occurring. Not every well hits a fault line / fracture like that, nor do very many wells make 1,000 GPM (new well). The huge naturally occurring fractures make for the flow path through the rock. With the cylindrical borehole for the first ~100’ of well bore, we still have a ton of rock above the fractures to ensure that they do not communicate to the surface (if that happens you worry about surface water infiltration. We have none of that and the lab work was all safe on the new well.)

Rec hall and new well camera pictures

Michael Blue