Posted on August 17, 2021
PARKERSBURG — The Wood County Commission received an update about Mountwood Park from officials during a meeting on Thursday morning.
According to Wood County Parks Director Jeremy Cross, one of the main projects has been trying to dredge Mountwood Park’s lake marina area due to shallow water up six or eight inches.
Although the lake has still been used by smaller boats, kayaks, and canoes, Cross said bigger boats with motors have been dealing with difficulty getting around the shallow end of the lake as in years past.
“This summer one of our main projects is we’re trying to dredge the marina area at the park, we have a lot of sediment there, it’s really shallow right now, six-eight inches,” Cross said. “It’s really hard to get a small boat out into the lake. So we’d like to work on getting that before next spring and trout fishing season.”
Dredging is the act of removing silt and other materials from the bottom of bodies of water. As sand and silt wash downstream, sedimentation gradually fills the bottom of lakes, rivers, harbors, and other water bodies.
Cross hopes that dredging the lake will make Mountwood Park look better to those coming in as the park’s entrance is located near the marina area.
“The lake dredging is one of the main ones, that’s the entrance to our park. So a nice, pretty good-looking lake when you enter the park that you can get a boat on. That’s one of our high priorities right now,” Cross said. “With this process, they will lower the lake level 10 vertical feet and let the lake dry out for about a month. They will bring in equipment and dump trucks and remove the sediment that way.”
After having attendance through the roof for two years in a row, Cross said he would like to make multiple upgrades to the campground as well, from having new cabins, playground equipment, new shelters, and repairs and upgrades to current cabins.
“We could talk about the park for hours without a doubt. There’s a lot going on there, but also a lot of fantastic user groups,” said Chris Swarr, president of the Wood County Parks and Recreation Commission. “That put a lot of time and energy as volunteers to help make the park what it is as well. So it’s a great place and I think the numbers we’re seeing there really reflect that.”
Wood County Commission President Blair Couch said funds from the American Recovery Act may be used for the upgrades if needed.
“This is going to be a big project, one will probably want to see about the American Recovery Act being able to help fund. It comes into recreation and healthy lifestyles but there’s more to Mountwood than just the lake,” Couch said. “It is our largest park in Wood County, bigger than any city park, and is probably one of the largest county parks in West Virginia.”
