MIDDLESEX TWP — The new state gas tax law coupled with the continued work of the Glade Run Lake Conservancy could see the drained lake restored a little sooner than expected.

Siggy Pehel, president of the conservancy, said the number of memberships and the amount raised has nearly doubled since last year, and new goals have been set for 2014.

The conservancy was formed in 2012 after the 52-acre Glade Run Lake off Overbrook Road was drained in August 2011 due to a faulty dam. The group’s goal is to raise the $4.2 million to fix and refill the lake, which was built by the state in 1955.

Group keeps growing

Pehel said the conservancy had 1,100 members at the end of 2012 and had raised about $90,000. Today, he said, the group has 2,000 members and has raised $170,000.

Conservancy board members also manned booths at fairs and festivals that resulted in 1,350 signatures on a petition that urges Gov. Tom Corbett to provide funds for the lake’s restoration.

“We’ve tried to get the word out,” Pehel said, “and we’ve done several fundraisers.”

Pehel said in March, the group had a chili cook-off at the township fire hall that raised $11,000; the 10K Where’s Our Water? race in July raised $7,000; and an oldies concert at Mars High School in October brought in $5,000.

Those were in addition to the smaller fundraisers, such as plant and candy sales, ongoing throughout the year, he said.

He said businesses and organizations donated to the conservancy. For example, Butler Memorial Hospital gave $1,000, and the Grange organization gave $5,000.

Legislators’ action

He said the conservancy’s first year was spent organizing, and the second was spent building a membership and alerting state and local lawmakers to the lake’s plight. Pehel was more than pleased when four legislators or their representatives met at the lake in October.

He hopes that meeting will result in collective pressure on Corbett to provide funds for the lake.

“We are working with them, and they are working with the governor’s office,” Pehel said.

Brian Barner, deputy director of administration for the state Fish and Boat Commission, said every motorist in the state is contributing toward the restoration of the lake through a new gas tax included in the recently passed state transportation bill.

Barner said Act 89 increases the annual amount the commission gets from a tax on gasoline. The $1.9 million received by the commission will increase each year for five years via a higher tax at the gas pump.

Barner said the commission will get an additional $3.8 million this year, $4.5 million the second year, $5.1 million the third year, $5.8 million the fourth year and $6.4 million in the plan’s final year.

“For the first five years, we must use the money to repair high-hazard, unsafe dams like Glade Run,” Barner said.

While there is no priority list regarding which of the state’s nine high-hazard dams will be fixed first, Barner said the dams will be repaired according to funding coming in not only from the new gas tax, but from other sources.

“Decisions on which dams to repair are fluid and are made as funding packages from these varied sources become available,” Barner said.

Those sources include funding from groups like the conservancy so raising money at the local level becomes more important.

Barner said the commission is committed to restoring all nine lakes as quickly as possible.

“We recognize their value to the communities as both recreational facilities and economic assets, and we will do everything we can to secure funding to fix them,” he said.

Youth fundraiser set

Pehel said conservancy fundraisers are taking shape for the new year.

One is by Becky Miller, a conservancy board member, who is organizing the second annual Kids of Steel program for Mars School District students in kindergarten through sixth grade.

Students must run 25.2 miles between January and May. They must record each half-hour running session. Sports or activities that include at least 12 minutes of sustained aerobic activity count as one mile, Miller said.

They then travel to the Pittsburgh Marathon, where they complete a Kids of Steel Fun Run of one mile. The young runners recruit family and friends to sponsor them for the project.

She expects to attract more students than the 14 last year because the teachers leading two running clubs for younger students are advocating the Kids of Steel program.

“I hope I get 100 kids,” Miller said.

Mars’ Kids of Steel project last year raised $1,100 for the conservancy.

She said she has undertaken the project because Glade Run Lake is a regional resource that serves as a wildlife habitat and outdoor recreation venue for residents.

“In these days of urban sprawl, that’s important,” Miller said.

Pehel said another goal at the conservancy this year is to find grants to pay for the sediment removal at the lake. He said conservancy officials have been working with the state Fish and Boat Commission to create a sediment-removal plan.

“When we do get the funding, we’ll be able to go in there and take out the sediment that we need to,” Pehel said.

Pehel hopes residents and businesses will continue to support the lake restoration effort.

“We’ve made a lot of headway in two years,” Pehel said.

For more info

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The next Glade Run Lake Conservancy board meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Middlesex Township Building, 133 Browns Hill Road. The board invites the public to attend the meeting.