Murrysville will seek a consultant to help plan for an amphitheater at Murrysville Community Park, and addressing traffic will likely be a high priority.
“I know you’re trying to build it up more, but there’s problems with the traffic out there,” said Marlene Campas of Murrysville at a recent council meeting. “All you have to do is go out there when there’s a ball game or an activity out there to see that people aren’t going 25 miles per hour (on Wiestertown Road).”
The amphitheater planning comes on the heels of another development request in the southeast corner of the park: Miracle Field officials want approval to light their baseball field to accommodate additional players and games.
In order to access the nearby horse trail, riders from places like Idle Creek Stables must use Wiestertown Road, where a horse was struck by a car on June 1 of last year, according to Murrysville police.
“It was kind of a perfect storm,” Campas said. “The ball fields were letting out, and we had had a car hit one of the horses. We had to file a police report and we came up to the (municipal) building to see what could be done about the traffic or having different access to the horse trail.”
Concerns from nearby residents about increased traffic date back nearly two decades to 2001, when the municipality acquired the 300 acres that would become the community park.
“There were some suggestions a few years ago about making some changes aimed at traffic calming at the intersection of Evans, Bollinger and Wiestertown roads,” Chief Administrator Jim Morrison said. “But council at that time did not act on those recommendations.”
Both council President Dayne Dice and Councilwoman Jamie Lee Korns said they would like to see those suggestions.
“I’d like to talk with staff about some of those options,” Lee Korns said. “Past councils may not have acted on it, but I’d like to see if any of those are feasible.”
Council voted 5-0 to advertise a request for proposals for possible consultants to help plan this next phase of park improvements.
Councilmen Loren Kase and Carl Stepanovich were not present.
