Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Kinzua Beach, shown here, is one of the focal points of a redevelopment effort. A consultant was in town this week meeting with stakeholders as part of that process.

When the Kinzua Dam was erected in the 1960s, there were a host of pie-in-the-sky ideas about the transformation that could come to places like Kinzua Beach and Jakes Rocks.

Unsurprisingly, many of those ideas never came to fruition.

But county officials believe there’s a willingness now to explore some level of development in that area.

And officials from tourism, recreation and government in Warren and McKean counties met throughout the day Thursday to push that conversation forward.

The initiative is formally called the Kinzua Regional Marketing Initiative. It’s specifically looking at the future of Jakes Rocks, Kinzua Beach and Kinzua Point.

The discussion on site and at dinner Tuesday centered on “how a business could function in that space, (what) types of businesses” and what “would be an effective utilization of the space to amplify what’s going on there,” Warren County Commissioner Jeff Eggleston explained.

One of the participants on Tuesday was the consultant hired to pull all the ideas together, Margaret Bailey with CHM Government Services.

She comes with experience working with the challenges that can come from developing federal land.

Her mission is to wrap up a report by the beginning of October that will identify options for the area and generate “leads” regarding “how we would go about creating private investment, partnerships and crafting agreements that would (push) development,” Eggleston explained.

“(We are) trying to leave the door open to a lot of options.”

Past initiatives in that area failed for a whole host of reasons.

Eggleston said he “feels like everyone is ready to put their personal agendas aside” to develop a “forward thinking plan for that space.

“They’re all at this place where they’re ready to come together,” he said specifically of the businesses engaged. Those involved, he stressed, are “ready to really transition to a more unified vision of recreation.”

Those changes aren’t necessarily as grand as past visions for resorts and amphitheaters, but they might be.

“Everybody is going to shoot for the moon,” Eggleston acknowledged. “The bottom line… if we can raise the bar a little bit, then the utilization of that space increases, the quality of the experience increases. We will have done a good thing for the community.”

Two factors give Eggleston optimism that this time might be different.

“Anybody who goes there sees the opportunity, sees the benefit,” he said. “It finally feels like the region is ready to see that space move forward.

“I think that the fundamental goal for everybody involved (is to) think about the space as tastefully and respectfully as possible given its history. As long as we keep that in front, (it) will work out in a way the community will welcome.”