Photo courtesy of Chapman State Park Robert Sweeney has been appointed to serve as the next manager of Chapman State Park.

Chapman State Park has a new manager that’s focused on raising the profile of the park across the state.

Robert Sweeney has been appointed to the post. He comes to Chapman most recently serving as an assistant park manager at Nockamixon State Park in Bucks County.

“Robert has demonstrated a wonderful commitment to the outdoors with DCNR in a number of roles,” DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn said. “I expect he will be a wonderful addition to the park and the community at large based on his education, experience and his mentality as a servant leader.

“We are looking forward to seeing the impact he will have shaping the operations at Chapman.”

“Chapman is a great place for people to stay overnight by camping or renting a yurt/cottage, and then explore all that Warren and the Allegheny National Forest has to offer,” he said. “I want to help promote that. Plus, the park itself is pretty beautiful too!”

According to DCNR, Sweeney is a Camp Hill, Pa. native who has always wanted to work for DCNR. He completed his undergraduate work at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

From there he moved to California working as an outdoor educator, returning to Pennsylvania to work with the Outdoor Corps in 2018, which, he says, gave him a better understanding for how state parks operate.

Promoting the park will involve taking advantage of the state-wide park system as well as working with stakeholders in the community, he said.

“Within the last year or so, the Bureau of State Parks has been working to expand our PR and Social Media section,” he said. “So with any significant events, activities, or updates in the park, we will pass that on to Harrisburg to put out on the state-wide Facebook page or press release.”

He also aims to work “with all the different stakeholders and organizations that relate to Chapman, and doing what I can to make things run smoothly. ”

That includes state Forestry, the Game Commission and the Allegheny National Forest.

“There’s too many other organizations and volunteers to name them all here, but I want to continue to develop those relationships,” he said.

Sweeney outlined several projects that will be coming to the park in the near future.

“The biggest project planned right now is to convert roughly half of the campground sites into ‘full hookup,’ meaning water, sewer, and electric access right at your site for your RV/camper,” Sweeney said. “With that comes the need for site expansion, meaning just making those sites slightly longer and wider to accommodate larger RVs and campers who would be attracted by those full hookups.”

That work could start later this year “and if so hopefully it would be ready in time for spring 2023 and not impact any amount of the camping season,” he said. “Another project is a small upgrade to the sewer lift station system, mainly the electronic controls. Obviously, this is not as exciting or glamorous as full hookup campsites, but, behind the scenes infrastructure improvements like this are so necessary to keep our parks operating smoothly. ”

He’s also looking to “improve fishing access on the mooring side of the lake with some new paths and small gravel parking spots.

“This is a simple thing we could do in-house with our maintenance staff, and it would only cost us a small percentage of our budget,” he added.