Ervin Kaminski Park to use grant funds for needed updates

1-7-2026

By Lauren Royce, Editor
SOUTH GIBSON — The Greenways, Trails and Recreation Program (GTRP) recently awarded Susquehanna County with $192,500 to Gibson Township for improvements to Ervin Kaminski Park. In the near future, work will begin on giving the park a facelift.
In addition to program-specific grants, Pennsylvania also received around $4 million in statewide Local Share Account (LSA) funding supporting critical community projects.
Susquehanna County received $1,139,058 in total.
“I went after this grant not only for our children, because it takes a village to raise our children today,” said Missy Ambrose, secretary on the park committee. “But I’ve cared for the disabled and elderly most of my life. I really want to improve ADA at this park.”
The LSA is like the lottery, split where the needs are greatest, Ambrose said.
“We had issues with ADA handicap access. It wasn’t adequate enough and then we have to put restrooms in,” she said, as well as a storage area for equipment. There will also be paving done and some landscaping.
“We put in for a bunch of things,” Ambrose said, and the township has different levels of what they want to do. Ambrose applied for $325,000 in grants and of that, received the $192,500.
“The township sups have been super supportive on listening what the park committee thinks
they need down there,” said Ashley Kilmer, who is also involved with the park and Office Manager for Matt Kilmer Flagstone. “Missy spearheaded for sure the stuff with ADA compliance.” It took about a year to get the grant money, Ambrose and Kilmer said.
The park is about seven or eight acres, offering a space to youth soccer, softball and baseball to use for practices. Even local high school teams come to practice there occasionally. It also features a pavilion and mini library, a project by Dave Gow about a decade ago, Kilmer said. Back in 2015, the park got playground equipment and redid the softball field.
Kilmer said Katie Smith from the Northern Tier Regional Planning and development, huge help with getting the grant, along with Christine Dettore, regional advisor from the Department of Conservation And National Resources (DCNR).
Nate Tompkins from Tompkins Engineering also assisted Ambrose with calculating what these updates may cost in order to ask for the right amount of money. Kilmer said the township also had to put up at 15% match.
Leonard Bartkus has been a supervisor of Gibson Township for 55 years. At 95, he’s got no plans of stopping and said he just put in for another two-year term. It was Bartkus that started the park back around 1970 after his friend Ervin Kaminski, who owned the land, willed it to Gibson Township after his death.
Around 1970 to 1972, Bartkus said he acquired thousands of dollars in grants. “I had to get a 10 year lease to get a $50,000 grant,” he said. The area had been a swamp before.
“So then I had to get a lot of grants,” he said, “We had dozers, pans hauling dirt.” He said that it would be more difficult to try and construct the park today, due to wetland rules.