Hempfield will no longer maintain, operate Swede Hill Park after county balks at handing over ownership

After a quarter-century run, Hempfield no longer will maintain and operate the 17-acre Swede Hill Park.

Hempfield officials chose not to renew the township’s $1 annual lease after they could not persuade Westmoreland County to transfer ownership of the park at no charge, said George Reese, chairman of the township supervisors board. The request came after the township covered the cost of day-to-day maintenance of the park throughout the lease and paid for improvements to its fields and playground.

“I don’t think it was an unreasonable ask after 25 years,” Reese said. “That’s a long time. We did the improvements without ownership.”

The county, however, had no interest in the proposal.

“The township did not want to pay market value and wanted the 17 acres for free,” said Greg McCloskey, the county’s director of public works. “The county, as I said before, was willing to continue (the) lease, but the county wouldn’t typically give a land asset away.”

The county offered Hempfield the option to continue paying a dollar a year for the park, McCloskey said. The lease ended Feb. 28.

McCloskey said the county plans to keep the space as a park.

Swede Hill Park, along Willow Crossing Road, is tucked into a residential neighborhood in Hempfield. According to township manager Jason Winters, Hempfield over the years remodeled a building to make way for a preschool program and made improvements to the fields and playground.

“We operated it like it was our normal park, so we cut the grass every week,” Winters said. “It was a satellite park for us.”

When the township built a regulation-size soccer field at the park, they named it for Laurence Leggett, who was instrumental in founding Hempfield’s soccer program and died in 2001. A rock and plaque bearing Leggett’s name at the field will be moved to Hempfield Park.

Hempfield leaders plan to focus on other parks within the township.

Reese noted that supervisors are considering converting a 17-acre parcel along Route 136 into a park. Plans created in 2020 call for an inclusive playground and spray pad, outdoor classrooms and nature education, sports courts such as basketball and pickleball, pavilions and picnic spaces, along with a garden and art sculptures.

The township also is working to update its comprehensive plan, which will examine parks and recreation.

“The supervisors right now, with the comprehensive plan, are looking to what other recreation opportunities are there and at this time just felt continuing a long-term lease on a property we didn’t own wasn’t the right direction moving forward,” Winters said.

Reese added that people who live around Swede Hill Park questioned the status of the facility and expressed concerns over maintenance of the property.

“I would have loved to maintain that and continue to do what we did up there if we could have come to terms, but we didn’t own the property,” Reese said.