Oct. 30--Karen Morelli once spent four straight hours this summer on her hands and knees picking up pieces of dirty, rubber foam from an old lawn cushion someone dumped below the Route 217 bridge in Derry.

"One piece at a time. I was underneath all this brush because the foam got spread out," said Morelli, 54, of Derry Township. "But it had to be done."

Morelli's labor to help clean up the 9-acre tract owned by Norfolk Southern Corp. was rewarded Thursday when the National Park Service agreed to assist the Derry Area Recreation Board and Derry Area Revitalization Corp. in developing the once-littered grounds into a park and 20-mile trail system.

From April to July, Morelli and other volunteers of all ages and backgrounds cleared about 170,000 pounds of trash and debris discarded at the site -- which once housed a roundhouse and train tracks -- after it was abandoned by Conrail in the 1950s.

"It was a big eyesore," Morelli said.

Volunteers removed old refrigerators, piles of plastic and glass bottles and large swaths of brush and weeds, transforming the site into a lush haven for wildlife, including a variety of birds.

"Once we got that all cleaned up, that was excellent," Morelli said. "I got a few mosquito bites, but I got to see some really nice birds, and I even watched some eggs hatch through that time."

Through the National Park Service's Rails, Trails and Conservation Assistance program, outdoor recreation planner Peggy Pings will help the community with feasibility and concept planning, public outreach, partnership development and identifying private and public funds for development of a park at the site and what's being called the Derry Station Heritage Trail project.

"I'm looking forward to sitting down with them and seeing what they want to accomplish," Pings said.

The first step, according to borough Mayor Susan Bortz, is for the borough to acquire funding needed to install a half-mile of chain-link fencing along the length of property abutting the railroad track for safety reasons.

"Basically, it's a one-year contract with the service for technical assistance in finding funding to get the fencing installed," Bortz said.

Once that project is complete, they will negotiate a lease agreement for the property with Norfolk Southern at about $600 per acre to create the park, Bortz said.

"Norfolk Southern said they'd turn the land over to us if we were doing a park or beautification project, but the fence is one of their stipulations."

The eventual goal is to develop the trail network to connect Derry to other municipalities and trails, including one in Blairsville, the eventual extension of the Hoodlebug Trail in Indiana County and additional trails being planned to link Latrobe with New Alexandria.

The borough applied for the federal aid in August on the advice of the Smart Growth Partnership of Westmoreland County, which provides communities with education and technical assistance to enhance and restore land.

"We look at it as a way to bring people and business and commerce into town ... so I hope it works out," Bortz said.

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