Siggy Pehel, President, Glade Run Lake Conservancy

Butler Eagle Newspaper

Cheers to Siggy Pehel and the Glade Run Lake Conservancy. Pehel, the conservancy's founder and president, spearheaded the drive to repair the Glade Run dam and restore the drained lake in Middlesex Township.

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Pehel had the pleasure of jointly announcing with Jerry Woomer, a project manager at the state Fish and Boat Commission, that the restoration project will go out to bid next month, with a completion date of 2016. The lake is to be stocked with fish the following summer, in 2017.

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When the lake was drained in 2011 for safety reasons - the earthen dam was aging and structurally insufficient - few people would have given the lake a chance of a comeback.

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Pehel thought otherwise. At times his quest seemed quixotic, raising a thousand dollars here and a few hundred there, for a project estimated at $4.3 million. But the immensity of the task did not deter those who joined and supported the conservancy and its campaign.

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Their determination paid off. Former Gov. Tom Corbett in April 2014 agreed to provide $2 million in funding to repair the lake, and the Fish and Boat Commission agreed to provide another $2 million.

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The funding was the result of the conservancy officials' relentless pressure on state legislators in and around the region to push Corbett for funding. Woomer, the project manager, recognized the conservancy for its pursuit of the restoration.

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"The conservancy worked really, really hard on this," Woomer said. "I don't think we'd be at the stage we are without them."