>

MANSFIELD Personal electronics are banned at Liberty Lake Day Camp, so campers like 13-year-old Joey Miller spend their days swimming, fishing and playing soccer. They might not be doing that much longer.

If current plans to build a warehouse near Liberty Lake are approved, runoff from the new development might worsen flooding at the day camp, rendering portions of the site useless, camp owner Andy Pritikin said during a public hearing last week.

It would jeopardize a huge section of my property, Pritikin said. Im afraid that nobody has really looked into this.

Pritikin addressed the state Department of Environmental Protection on Tuesday during a crowded hearing on the warehouse and several other Mansfield-area developments. Supporters of the camp packed the Mansfield Municipal Building, with the crowd filling every seat and spilling into the hallway.

Miller was there, holding a large poster scrawled with the slogan: SAVE LIBERTY LAKE. Before the hearing, a DEP official reminded the audience that the warehouse proposal was only a proposal and that the DEP would hear concerns, but not address them. Answers to residents questions would come in writing within a few weeks, the official said.

About 10 people, ranging from camp counselors to parents, spoke out against the warehouse development during the two-hour meeting.

Several others took the microphone to condemn other developments proposed for Mansfield, such as a sewer project that could spur development in the rural community. But most of the people were there on behalf of Liberty Lake, as evidenced by their T-shirts and impassioned three-minute speeches to the DEP.

This camp gives kids an experience that I dont want taken away, said Shannon Callery, 15, a counselor and former camper. Flooding changes that experience.

Callery was one of several speakers who told personal stories about the camp.

Here is the original post:
Warehouse proposal presents new threat to Mansfield's Liberty Lake Day Camp