Times Observer file photo by Josh Cotton What will 2024 bring to the riverfront in downtown Warren? No clear answer to that question yet exists.

There has been a lot of talk – and $3 million allocated – for riverfront improvements in downtown Warren.

While there was some behind-the-scenes movement in 2023, nothing happened at the site.

And it’s at least a fair question to ask whether anything will happen there in 2024.

A piece of the puzzle is acquiring the right properties and the city has been seeking to secure the empty concrete pad at the base of Liberty St. as well as the parcel behind the HIY building right along the riverfront.

That effort came to fruition in October when the state awarded $147,600 towards securing the properties.

The riverfront award, according to the state, is for “payment toward the acquisition of approximately 0.51 acres along the Allegheny River and .19 acres along Breeze Point Circle and Liberty Street in Warren City, Warren County for a multi-use trail, river access and parking.”

“Both of these parcels are absolutely ‘mission critical’ to the overall riverfront development project,” Jim Decker, president/CEO of the Warren County Chamber of Business and Industry, told the Times Observer.

The appraised value of the two parcels is $340,000 and this marks the city’s third attempt at securing acquisition grant funding.

The remaining funds were allocated by Warren City Council from the city’s federal American Rescue Plan allocation.

In the midst of some debate about the future of a property adjacent to the riverfront, council held a public meeting on the site in May intended to serve as a reset for the project.

Funding is secured for the roughly $3 million needed for the construction of the boat launch.

“That’s money that has been … allocated to the project,” Wortman said. “The anchor of the redevelopment project has largely been viewed across the board as the boat launch itself so that’s where we’re starting.”

The rest of the proposed items — ranging in total cost in the area of $8 million to $9 million — include trailer parking, restoration to paved parking of the current dirt lots, a riverwalk trail behind the HIY, Inc. building, a bicycle pump track, redesign of Clark Street and Langdon Drive as well as a pedestrian bridge with an estimated $2.1 million that would like the riverfront to Point Park across the Conewango Creek.

It was thought at the time that the boat launch would come first. It still may. But that’s less clear as the calendar turns to 2024.

The penultimate permit to allow work in the river itself will come from the Department of Environmental Protection and involves federal agencies including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, FEMA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

And that permit can take time.

A piece of that permit is a study of mussels in the Allegheny River, which was completed in September. It’s believed that endangered species were observed which means the city will have to approach the state about what options exist for mitigation.

Given some of the dissension and debate, the county briefly toyed with the idea of a joint task force for riverfront development, an idea which was pretty quickly withdrawn.

A couple different sessions were held this month that gave a different perspective on the future of the riverfront.

The first were final presentations by 14 upper-level architecture students from Penn State who spent the semester undertaking a community design process for the riverfront.

Lisa Iulo, associate professor of architecture and director of the Hamer Center for Community Design at Penn State said the work will be assembled and shared with the community.

“(We) hope that this has generated lots of ideas for you as a community to talk about,” she added.

“They were given absolutely zero constraint, which is obvious,” WCCBI President/CEO Jim Decker said in a follow up meeting. “Ninety-five percent of what they have on the paper just doesn’t make any sense.”

But that doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable.

“It does stimulate some neat thinking,” Decker said. “(They) planted the seed for something we can look for in the future.”

A few days after that session, stakeholders got together to review two new designs for the future of the riverfront that purport to fit within the funding already secured.

Those proposals came from S2O Engineering, a Colorado-based firm that designs recreational facilities.

S2O “gave us some pretty neat ideas,” Decker said, on “how to address getting into the river in a less obtrusive way.”

He called it a change in thought and focus.

The most substantial change in each of the two options provided by S2O? Moving the part of the launch for motorized boats from the base of Liberty Street upstream to the confluence with the Conewango Creek at the base of Market Street.

The proposals come at a rough estimate of $2 million, which would fit within the funding already secured.

So what else do they include?

One option includes a splash pad at Breeze Point Park Landing, parking, a general assembly area, a cantilevered deck for a walkway along the river as well as boulder terrace bank in addition to canoe/kayak access in that area.

Option two is similar but designs the canoe/kayak point differently and replaces the splash pad with a bouldering element.

The gazebo that is currently at Breeze Point is removed in both proposals.

The current engineering design for the boat launch focuses on the launch and the parcels to the east of Liberty Street.

Most of the work in the new designs – except for the boat launch at the confluence – occurs to the west of Liberty Street.

City Manager Mike Holtz and Mayor Dave Wortman both argued that the boat launch piece needs to go first.

Decker acknowledged that the motorized launch could be forgotten if it’s left out at this stage.

Holtz said the American Rescue Plan money involved has to be spent by 2026.

“(We) need to probably decide what the boat launch is going to be (fairly) quickly and start,” he said. “We already should be hurrying because of some of the funding timelines.”

Decker said the next stop will be to evaluate the estimated numbers and Holtz said it should be done by the middle of January.

Such a step, Decker said, “puts us in a good position” to know whether the designs are viable.