Mountain Springs Recreational Preserve Public Meeting — Thursday, October 8 Area residents are invited to review the design draft and give input for the final plan
For the past few years, Mainspring of Ephrata has been presenting the Mountain Springs Recreational Preserve first as an idea, then as a project worth serious consideration and investigation. The master planning stage began earlier this year and on Thursday, October 8, the draft design plan goes public for the first time, and the guessing can stop. We invite all members of the community to see the vision come to life, and give feedback that will be used to create the final proposal.
Mountain Springs Recreational Preserve Public Meeting
Thursday, October 8 · 6:00–7:30 PM
Brossman Building, 3rd Floor Event Space · 124 E. Main St., Ephrata
The evening is led by YSM, a landscape architecture firm hired by Mainspring of Ephrata that specializes in park and recreation design and planning. YSM will walk through the planning process, present the draft Master Plan, cover the conservation work and security strategies built into it, and then listen. Attendees will be able to ask questions and make suggestions.
How a Project Like This Comes Together
The mountain has been on Ephrata’s to-do list for a long time. The Borough’s 2014 Comprehensive Plan, called to establish environmentally sensitive recreation on the mountain and to reopen the trails already there. In 2023 and again in 2024, Borough Council adopted resolutions authorizing Mainspring to plan and pursue funding for the preserve.
From there, the project has followed a typical path. We began with a community survey in fall 2025 to gauge interest, and based on the overwhelmingly positive response, secured a grant from the High Foundation and hired a professional firm, YSM, to develop a master plan. YSM held an open house in the Spring to gather more input in person, then used that feedback to develop the draft plan. That plan will be shown at the October 8 public meeting, where the community will view it and comment. Using the feedback from the meeting, YSM will revise the plan before presenting it to Ephrata Borough Council, which will make the final decision as the land’s owner. October 8 is the meeting where public input has the most room to shape the outcome.
Deep Roots, Bright Future
Right now the mountain is being left alone, which isn’t the same as being cared for. An invasive understory has moved in. Bush Honeysuckle and other invasives have worked against insect, pollinator and bird populations that have been thinning for years. Their shallow roots do little to slow the stormwater heading off the mountain, creating erosion and runoff issues for residents. Old trees killed from blight, insects, and age stand throughout the acreage creating dangerous conditions as they weaken.
The Preserve begins as a conservation project: eradicating the invasives and restoring native trees and shrubs, opening and creating unpaved trails designed to appropriately direct rainwater rather than simply shed it, and ensuring the Preserve is protected from building into perpetuity.
From there, the benefits reach downtown on their own. Picture a Saturday morning: someone visits for a hike and comes into town ready for a coffee, a table for lunch, a shop window worth stopping to look at and discover. That’s not a separate goal — it’s what the Preserve makes possible. One root system, feeding two things that grow from it: a thriving mountain, and a downtown that shares its future.
Who Should Be There
Whether you strongly favor this project, strongly oppose it, or land somewhere in between, this is the meeting to attend. The plan Borough Council eventually receives is only as strong as the input that shapes it — a plan built just from the loudest voices on either side is incomplete; a plan built from the whole community is thorough. Mainspring exists to grow economy and build community, and this project is designed to do both.
Everyone who wants to speak will. Presentation first, then comments one at a time.
What Happens After
YSM takes what it hears and revises. The revised plan goes to Ephrata Borough Council. Council owns the land, and Council will decide whether and how any of it moves forward.
Bring a neighbor. Bring your notes. Let’s build a preserve that secures our iconic mountain for the next generation and helps fuel the downtown that sits at its feet.
Questions before October 8? Joy Ashley, Executive Director, joy@mainspringofephrata.org or (717) 721-6196. More at mainspringofephrata.org.