Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Elk Country Visitor Center Grand Opening Held Today

Paul Staniszewski reports from Elk County that he arrived at the Elk Country Visitor Center this morning at 8:00 a.m., was given a Keystone Elk Country Alliance vest, and went to work assisting DCNR officers with traffic control and Parking.

Elk Country Visitor Center  September 22, 2010:  photo by W.Hill
According to Mr. Staniszewski, "The governor arrived at 10:30AM and the festivities began. After about an hour of speeches from the politicians and refreshments it was over. A few of the notable politicians were, of course, Governor Rendell, U.S. Congressman Glen Thompson, District Representative Matt Gabler, and a lot of candidates that are running for office. Other guests included PA Wilds Director Dan Surra, DCNR Director John Quigley, representatives from the U.S Forest Service, officials representing the village of Benezette, and the general public. Also there were at least 50 people from DCNR all uniformed and the Pennsylvania State Police were present. Noticeably absent was any representation from the Pennsylvania Game Commission either in uniform or not. My best guess estimate is that there were between 350 and 400 people there and at least 25 people from various media outlets recording the event."

"All in all, I think that things went well and everyone was impressed. One of the speakers mentioned that every effort is being made to keep the center open all year round. My hope is that more people become involved in protecting and preserving this national treasure." Paul Staniszewski reporting from Benezette, October 6, 2010

Originally Posted at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill

5 comments:

V.L. Locey said...

It`s a beautiful facility. I hope it does well!

Anonymous said...

Very nice photo of the center. Great information, Willard.
I hope it will help the land and the wildlife.

Curt said...

Game Commission was represented. I shook hands with WCO Greg Sassaman.

Willard said...

Curt,

I can find Greg Sassaman listed as a DCNR Regional Park Manager from Emporium, but not as a PGC officer, although I realize that this may be another man who replaced some of the PGC officers that have retired in the last few years, or that escaped our attention in some other way.

Gretchen said...

I covered it for the paper and I didn't see Matt Gabler anywhere. Maybe he came in late?