BEAVER COUNTY — Saturday's special “Opening Day” on the Hereford Manor Lakes in Beaver County has been postponed because the lakes remain covered with ice.

The Fish and Boat Commission had planned to stock the lakes with trout to give anglers one last opportunity to fish before the lakes are drawn down in spring in anticipation of breaching the dams.

The commission now will attempt to stock the lakes on March 12.

The Hereford Manor Lakes are popular fishing and boating lakes in Franklin Township.

The dams were built before 1958 in conjunction with strip mining operations and were acquired by the state in 1973.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has declared both dams as “high hazard, structurally deficient” structures which must be rebuilt. Breaching the dams is the first phase of the project and is expected to be done by November.