My Opinion
The last place you want to take your kids for summer vacation is an unsafe place. A recent report suggests that the Allegheny National Forest might be one place to avoid.
The Unites States Forest Service here kicked off the summer vacation with a rash of criminal complaints they attended to.
Here's a reported listing of how visitors here spent their Memorial Day weekend:
- 24 federal violations
- 7 All-terrain vehicle charges
- 10 alcohol violations
- 3 counts of unsafe shooting
- 1 count of removing government property
- 2 counts of possession of a controlled substance
- 1 assault count
- 1 count of disorderly conduct
This is in addition to numerous warnings issued and the filing of several reports documenting still more incidents. I spent some time working the newsbeat in a large city's police department and I can assure you there are other things law enforcement officers would prefer to do. It certainly appears that the woods of northern Pennsylvania are a place where crime runs rampant.
The easiest way to take care of the problem would be to close the forest to the million or so people who tramp through here every year. If we can build a fence between the United States and Mexico we might consider one here around the Allegheny National Forest.
Failing that, we could put out the word that this is a bad place for tourists, perhaps by suggesting that it is not safe. It might work.
But it might not. And if these were just the problems we ran into for one holiday weekend, who knows how bad it is going to be for the rest of the summer?
Recent advances by the United States Forest Service here may suggest a way out. They are now out-sourcing much of the upkeep and development of some tourist areas to what appears to be an efficient organization called Allegheny Site Management, a private business that specializes in this sort of thing.
Perhaps by developing our wild areas into more civilized attractions as this business is doing, tourists may not have to resort to drugs, theft, violence, and alcohol for weekend fun. Maybe not. But apparently Allegheny Site is turning a buck at their enterprise and this might help pay for additional law enforcement in our area to keep things safer. There's nothing like seeing a police officer on the corner to keep things quiet. I know I always feel safer when I do.
Are there any other organizations to which the USFS can out-source more of their secondary responsibilities? How about the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and their Pennsylvania Wilds project? How about the Seneca Nation (they are quite familiar with the area and seem to be doing OK--some casinos rake in a million bucks a day)? How about the county of Warren? It seems to me that many banks might be interested in supporting a responsible organization that wants to develop the area. This is a leadership opportunity for which no one has stood up for yet. If it is done the right way (giving oil rights and timber privileges full attention) this might do a lot for the local tax base. I'm not kidding.
The USFS isn't in the business of making money. We need to engage the profit motive here to restore order and share our good nature to the benefit of visitors and our community and important business interests.
When I was a kid, Warren was touted as the Gateway to the Kinzua Dam. Maybe we had it backwards. Maybe the Kinzua Dam is a gateway to Warren. But instead of criminals, maybe we should attract fine upstanding tourists with families who like to camp, fish, swim, hike, canoe, and just go boating.
We need to help people get busy having fun. But they need something to do.
We could start by re-opening the area's largest beach at Kinzua. I see no reason why the state of Pennsylvania and the county of Warren cannot do this right away. It's an investment we cannot afford to pass up much longer if we want to upgrade our clientele and improve safety in our own backyard.
--Chris Lareau
see related article: Kinzua Beach Re-Opened
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