Top stories of the year: Nos. 12-10

Editor’s note: A few weeks ago, the Tribune provided readers with what we believe are the most important Crawford County-area stories of the year. We then asked our readers to rank the stories from No. 1 (most important) to No. 12 (least important). Today, we present story Nos. 12, 11 and 10.

No. 12 — Meadville-Vernon police agreement

One year into a 20-year police services agreement between the city of Meadville and Vernon Township, the arrangement couldn’t be working better, according to officials at both municipalities.

“I don’t think there is a downside,” Vernon Township Manager Rob Horvat said last week. “I only hope that what we’ve experienced in this past year continues in the next 19 years.”

Chief Michael Stefanucci of Meadville Police Department offered a similar evaluation.

“It has turned out better than I could ever have dreamed,” Stefanucci said. “I honestly couldn’t come up with a single downside where something has happened this past year. We’ve just been fortunate, no problems whatsoever. It’s always been positive feedback.”

The agreement forged last year went into effect Jan. 1 with the dissolution of the township’s department after 65 years of service. For the first time, the township received around-the-clock police patrols every day of the year.

The deal was made possible largely by the township’s overfunded police pension fund. More than $3 million in the fund was transferred to Meadville’s police pension fund and will provide annual credits against the police services fee charged to the township for the first 17 years of the agreement.

In a typical year, the credits will reduce the annual fee for police services by about $350,000 to $138,000. Over the life of the agreement, the township expects to save $4.1 million compared to continuing to operate its own police force, according to Horvat.

“The Vernon Township Police Department was a great police department, but we had our constraints with our budget. We just didn’t have the 24/7 police department we have now,” Horvat added. “Having that is great for the township.”

Stefanucci said the staff members hired to fill the new positions and fill additional vacancies have proven to be one of the best results of the agreement.

“When we added officers, we’ve gotten the best five or six guys the department has ever had,” Stefanucci said. “We’ve been real fortunate to attract these guys to our area.”

The additions came after a period when the department struggled to fill vacant positions and at times was forced to require grueling amounts of overtime for existing officers,

“It’s something I didn’t see coming,” Stefanucci said of the change. “We were battling like everybody else to keep and maintain manpower, and then boom, this deal came along and we all of a sudden became a place where everybody wanted to work and attracted all these top of the line guys.”

No. 11 — Tuttle Point Campground reopens

LINESVILLE — After a 14-year absence, Pymatuning State Park’s Tuttle Point Campground reopened to the public this spring.

April 12 marked the first day of camping at Tuttle Point since the end of October 2009.

Tuttle Point, located north of the Route 285 causeway, is one of three campgrounds at Pennsylvania’s Pymatuning State Park.

The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources had closed it as a cost-saving move after the 2009 camping season. The high operational costs of Tuttle’s outdated water treatment facility was part of the reason for the closure by the state.

Pymatuning State Park’s two other campgrounds — Jamestown, at the southern end of the park’s lake, and Linesville, at the northern end of the lake — remained in operation.

At a public meeting in October 2021, the state outlined plans to revive the campground and commissioned a rehabilitation and rebuild of Tuttle Point Campground.

An $8 million project, carried out in 2022 and 2023, leveled out the campground, moved some camping sites closer to Pymatuning Lake and upgraded infrastructure and facilities at Tuttle Point.

The revised campground has a two-loop configuration with 112 camping sites, down from three loops with 201 camping sites.

Tuttle Point’s center and eastern campsite loops were rebuilt as handicap-accessible sites with water, sewage and electric hookups. The western loop didn’t reopen, but it could be a future project.

New water and sewage lines were installed on Tuttle Point’s grounds. The campground’s 75,000-gallon water tank was refurbished with a new sewage pumping station and water treatment facility installed.

The campground has a new main restroom and shower building and a smaller new restroom at the beach area. A new accessible fishing pier plus a boat launch were also installed while roadways and parking lots were repaved.

The state held formal dedication ceremonies for the revamped Tuttle Point Campground on June 6.

No. 10 — Meadville volleyball team wins state title

STATE COLLEGE — Avenging previous losses, the Meadville boys volleyball team won the 2024 Class 2A PIAA championship in June.

The Bulldogs defeated Manheim Central 3-1 (25-16, 18-25, 25-22, 28-26) at Penn State University’s Recreation Hall. It was the program’s third title (1961, 2019) and the team’s seventh appearance in the title game. Meadville lost to Lower Dauphin in 2021 and 2022.

In the fourth set, Meadville trailed 23-19 and 24-20 but never wavered. A service error, Luc Soerensen’s back-to-back kills and a Max Decker block tied the game at 24. Maheim Central had set-point at 25-24 and 26-25, but the ‘Dogs prevailed.

Soerensen tied the set at 25 and a Decker kill made it 26-all. Tymir Phillips had a huge block in the middle to push Meadville ahead. The winner come on a botched play from Manheim Central.

“I’m really proud of these guys. They battled. It was a tough match all the way through,” Meadville head coach Nick Bancroft said after the match. “Manheim is a great team and these guys had to give it everything they had.”

Soerensen led the team with 18 kills and added nine digs and two blocks. Jack Brown tallied 41 assists, four digs, two blocks and two kills. Landon Carter and Luca White had eight and six digs, respectively.

Parker Gosnell and Tymir Phillips each had nine kills. Max Decker and Kellen Ball each added six.

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