The Fish and Boat Commission has rescheduled to November 5, its informational meeting to discuss the agency’s habitat and fisheries management plan for Cumberland County’s Big Spring Creek.

The meeting will be held from 7-9 p.m. at the Big Spring Event and Activities Center, located at 2 Chestnut Street, Newville, PA 17241. Guests should enter the facility from the High Street side entrance and come down the steps to the lower level.

“The purpose of the meeting is to present the agency’s habitat management plan for Big Spring Creek using funds provided by the PA Turnpike Commission as mitigation for environmental impacts associated with one of their planned construction projects in Cumberland County,” said Charlie McGarrell, the PFBC biologist leading the project.  “We will describe the overall habitat project and will discuss how it will improve the overall fishery of the creek. After the presentation, the public will have the opportunity to ask questions.”

The Turnpike Commission has provided $586,000 for the habitat project, which will be located downstream of a large habitat project completed in 2010 on the creek. The project is currently in the design phase. Construction of the project is expected to begin by next summer and be completed by fall 2013.

The meeting is free and parking is available: on Chestnut Street, along Rt. 233, also known as High Street (fold mirrors in if parking here),across from the Event Center (across Route 233) on East Liberty Avenue behind the Newville Historical Society, and at the Boy Scout facility on Vine Street.

Guests may only park in business lots near the center (Big Spring Pharmacy, Big Spring Physical Therapy, J. P. Wolfe Insurance, and Graham Medical Center) if the business is closed.

The Big Spring Center can be reached at 717-776-1065 or 717-331-7391.

11/5/2012