EASTON, Pa. – Northampton County will add its 22nd park with the acquisition of 42 acres in Allen Township.
The Bodnarczuk Preserve comes at the bargain price of $225,000, thanks to the owners, brothers Paul and Wasyl Mauser. The land was appraised at $900,000. Wasyl gave the county his half of the land, and Paul donated half of his acreage and will receive the $225,000.
The brothers will retain 16 acres next to the new park, which they will farm. The preserve's name, Bodnarczuk, was the last name of the brothers' maternal grandparents.
The land is on the southern side of Indian Trail Road, west of Kriedersville Road. At $225,000, what the county is paying works out to $5,357 per acre compared to an assessed value of $20,000 per acre. The Mauser's donation, based on the total assessed value, is $675,000.
"We're spending so much time talking about warehouses, truck traffic and pollution," County Executive Lamont McClure said at county council's Energy, Environmental and Land Use Committee meeting Thursday. "I don't think we're drawing enough attention to all the green space" being saved.
Since 2018, McClure said almost 300 acres have been added to the county park system. The executive has said many times that the best way to keep warehouses off land is to own the land.
"Our future is green," McClure said as he thanked the Mauser brothers for the bargain acreage.
Bryan Cope, the county's superintendent of parks and recreation, said the land includes forests, wetlands and slopes, and provides habitat for many species, including wood ducks, turkeys and deer.
The land is across from the Allen Township Municipal building, and there are warehouses not far away, so the acreage was in "immediate threat of development," Cope said.
