Published: May 04, 2007 12:00 am      

ATV park debuts ahead of schedule

PATTON — Christmas came early near the village of St. Lawrence.

After four years of patience and perseverance, Rock Run Recreation Area quietly opened Thursday to ATV and other off-road enthusiasts – two weeks ahead of its scheduled May 17 grand opening.

“We finally cracked the gates open,” said state Rep. Gary Haluska, D-Patton, who chairs Rock Run’s board of directors. “We’ve been waiting for years to do this.”

The trails are expected to provide a tremendous boost to northern Cambria County’s economy as one of the region’s top recreational attractions.

The Cambria County Conservation and Recreation Authority purchased the 6,000-acre tract, formerly a strip mine, with a $2 million grant from the state in March 2004.

Almost $6 million has been spent to get the park ready for the thousands of visitors expected to roll through the gates and over its 50 miles of trails by fall. Snowmobiles will be the vehicles of choice come winter.

Haluska said Rock Run’s board decided after a Tuesday meeting to open the park early.

“We wanted to let the word drift out there, and be low-key,” Haluska said of the spur-of-the-moment decision.

He said the only announcement made about the early opening was a blurb on the park’s Web site: http://rockrunrecreation.com.

Not only did park employees sell the first season pass on opening day, the first Internet transaction for a season pass was made.

“Everything’s set up, and we’re ready to go,” Haluska said. Visitors can buy passes on the site.

Required waivers can be downloaded and printed to save time upon arrival.

Haluska and the park’s four seasonal, part-time workers are eager to see whether this weekend, with good weather, will bring a caravan of ATV trailers.

“I think we’ll be busy,” the representative said.