A $500,000-plus project to expand the Lackawanna River Heritage Trail in Mayfield is mostly complete.
The Lackawanna Heritage Valley Authority will hold a walk-through Monday with its contractor, M.R. Dirt, to review work that began in the fall to extend the trail about a quarter of a mile along Old Plank Road, install a Lackawanna River access point, add an open area for passive recreation and put in a Chestnut Street Trailhead parking area, according to Owen Worozbyt, director of operations at the LHVA. The new trail serves as an extension to an existing section of trail that starts at Meredith Street, continuing it to Chestnut Street.
“As of right now, the contractor is pretty much done with everything they’re supposed to be doing as part of that project,” Worozbyt said. “There still are some additional things that we’re hoping to be able to do with volunteers, but as far as opening it up and getting everything out, it’s pretty much done.”
Crews began work on Oct. 1.
Worozbyt described one hurdle the project faced — the material they used for the Lackawanna River access point failed over the winter and into early spring. The pavers they used didn’t hold up to the early spring storms, he said.
Lackawanna Heritage Trail along Old Plank Road in Mayfield on Friday, July 18, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRPAHER)
The boat launch along the Lackawanna Heritage Trail off of Old Plank Road in Mayfield on Friday, July 18, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRPAHER)
The Pennsylvania Environmental Council gave them about $20,000 to repair the access point by putting in a concrete slab, Worozbyt said.
The Mayfield river access will tie into the LHVA’s plans to build a Lackawanna River boat launch at the Greater Carbondale YMCA’s park in Carbondale, which Worozbyt hopes to complete by the end of the summer.
“You could float from Carbondale down 4 miles to this point in Mayfield,” he said, emphasizing that the LHVA strongly encourages people to get off in Mayfield because it is just upriver from a dam.
The contractor remobilized to address the access point around the 4th of July and spent the next two weeks finishing up work, Worozbyt said.
Moving forward, the LHVA will look for volunteers to help plant trees and shrubs in the fall, he said.
“Come this fall, we’ll probably be organizing a community effort to get a lot of the vegetation in around the site,” he said.
They will also have to put in some additional signage, including telling people to exit the river at the access point before the dam, he said.
Although there is no timeline, other volunteers offered to help with other amenities, like one volunteer offering to build a bike repair station for the site and another planning to donate some historic structures related to local railroad history, Worozbyt said. The latter will give them two call boxes from the New York, Ontario and Western Railway, or more commonly O&W, which had a rail yard at the site of the new park, Worozbyt said. The call boxes were basically six-sided concrete telephone booths where the operators would call from one end of the yard to the other to notify them about things like incoming trains, he said.
The new site will give the LHVA a venue to host additional events, he said.
Worozbyt joked that he now hopes for wet weather to help the new grass at the site.
“I know people aren’t going to want to hear it, but hopefully the rain just keeps up so we can get some grass growing,” he said, laughing.
Monday Update
THEN: The Lackawanna Heritage Valley Authority started work Oct. 1 on a trail extension with a new trailhead in Mayfield.
NOW: The project is nearly complete, with a hurdle over the winter when the materials for a Lackawanna River access point failed, requiring an additional $20,000 or so of work.