The Cameron County Chamber of Commerce is asking people to vote on the name of what they hope will be a future dark sky park near Emporium.
The park will be similar to the nearby Cherry Springs viewing area, which is currently the only DarkSky Place certified in Pennsylvania. Officials hope to pursue the same certification at the Cameron County site, which is at a former landfill near Emporium.
County and local officials finished the Master Site Plan in March this year. That plan includes information on the dark sky viewing conditions and light pollution in the area, the next steps to make the site accessible and a timetable for the overall project. Organizers say the park could be developed within three years, depending on funding and the management capacity of the partners involved.
Currently, organizers are looking to raise funds and awareness.
"We realized that there was never an official name to this park," said Rowan Crisp, the education and outreach administrator for the Lumber Heritage Region, an economic development group helping with the project.
"We've been referring to it as the 'Cameron County Dark Sky Park,' and so we realized we needed to decide, 'What are we going to call this place?'" Crisp said. "And in discussing that, we saw an opportunity to get the public engaged a little bit more by allowing them to be part of that selection process."
Crisp said community stakeholders came up with five names for people to vote on.
“We wanted the names to reflect the natural landscape and a little bit of the heritage of the site," Crisp said.
The options are Cameron County Celestial Park, Sylvan Skies, Sterling Star Park, May Hollow Skyway and Onyx Meadow.
Crisp said Sterling refers to the nearby "Sterling Run" waterway and neighborhood. May Hollow is the name of a road leading to the site. Sylvan means "of the woods" and is part of the name "Pennsylvania."
Crisp said she likes all the names and was upset when they had to limit their ideas to five choices.
"Personally, I'm a little partial to Sylvan Skies," Crisp said. "I'm a sucker for alliteration."
People can vote through donations online or in-person, which officials say will go toward the park’s development. Voting is open until January 31.
