Monday Creek Restoration Project Staff:

1996-1998:
Mary Ann Borch, Coordinator

1999-2002:
Norah Pons Newberg,
Assistant Coordinator

1999-2004:
Mike Steinmaus, Coordinator

2001-2003:
Sue Farley,
Water Quality Technician

2001-2004:
Rebecca Black,
Water Quality Specialist

The Monday Creek Restoration Project formed in November of 1994 when a group of concerned citizens joined with Rural Action to create a partnership for a healthy watershed. Since then many dedicated people have worked for Monday Creek, bringing to life a dozen reclamation projects that have been successfully completed in the last decade.

"The Monday Creek Restoration Project is a partnership committed to improving the health of the Monday Creek watershed for the benefit of the community."

Tenth Anniversary newsletter (PDF format, 1.6 MB)

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Reflecting on our first ten years in the watershed...

Top: Presenters Dr. Mary Stoertz, Ohio University (left), and Mary Ann Borch of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, (then an AmeriCorps*VISTA volunteer at Rural Action) at the first Monday Creek Restoration Project meeting in 1994.

Below: US Forest Service Spirit Award is presented to the MCRP partners in a ceremony in the historic Haydenville Methodist Church, 1999. From left: Scott Miller, Dan Imhoff, Harry Payne, Jen Shimala Bowman, Mike Steinmaus, Mike Dombeck, Pam Stachler, Mitch Farley, Max Luehrs, Pat Dewees, Mary Ann Borch, Norah Pons Newberg, Marsha Wikle. (MCRP file photo)

CAROL KUHRE, Executive Director Emerita, Rural Action

I’ll never forget the day that Mary Ann Borch called together the first organizing meeting for the MCRP. We had a visitor from the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation in New York City named Vic DeLuca who was here to see if we knew how to organize.

I sent him to the meeting Mary Ann had arranged and he came back very enthused about Rural Action and what its VISTAs were doing to organize people around improving the environment and the communities in the region. I am sure we secured general operating money from the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation based partly on what Vic saw happening at that meeting.

We had the first MCRP office in Albany because Rural Action only had a small office building in Athens and we had to "farm out" many of the VISTAs and programs to other locations— and on occasion into the homes of the VISTAs or staff.

Mary Ann graciously allowed us to use her upstairs for the office. Because we weren’t out "in the field" as much during the early years of writing the planning documents, it did not hinder our work to be in Albany. However, as we began to implement the plans, it became imperative that we be closer to the center of the watershed.

I also remember Mike Steinmaus’s interview. He smiled (actually beamed) throughout the whole interview. We were down to three very qualified finalists for the position— but I think it was Mike’s "can do" upbeat attitude that landed him the position.

I guess my greatest contributions were in convincing Mary Ann to take the VISTA position and in meeting with all of the partners early on to make sure that we were all willing to cut through as much bureaucratic red tape as possible to get the project launched. Our pro-bono attorney Jonathon Sowash worked with me on that process. We owe him a great deal of thanks for his role in helping us with a smooth start.

MIKE STEINMAUS, Monday Creek Watershed Coordinator

As we send our 10-year anniversary newsletter to the printer, I am amazed to see how much has been accomplished in improving the watershed during the decade. In January 1995, the first issue of this newsletter (then known as The Monday Creek News) identified a group of five individuals partnering in the watershed restoration project.

Those same individuals remain active participants in our partnership, which has expanded to include a number of agencies, educational institutions, businesses and citizen groups.

As a partnership, we have leveraged funding and shared technical knowledge to complete projects on abandoned mine lands that have capped coal refuse piles, fi lled subsidences, designed treatment ponds and established open limestone drainages. By the time you read the newsletter, a lime kiln dust doser —essentially a water-driven neutralizing system— will be operating in the headwaters
of Monday Creek. And our restoration efforts have extended far beyond impacts resulting from acid mine drainage. We have planted thousands of pine, oak, locust and other tree species on strip mine lands. We have also removed tires, appliances and household trash from our streams, stabilized eroding stream banks with willow posts and tree plantings and picked up litter along highways within our watershed.

Over the years, it has been the concern and involvement of citizens that has made Monday Creek Restoration Project a reality. Local citizens have participated in planning meetings, volunteered for stream sampling and litter cleanups, provided management plan input and become involved in Friends of Monday Creek events. Federal and state agency personnel, educators, scientists and volunteers have all contributed their time and talents to our projects. And past and
present staff and VISTA volunteers have dedicated their skills toward a cleaner and healthier watershed.

Our goal for the Monday Creek Watershed remains the same as in 1994: to return Monday Creek and its tributaries to fishable and swimmable conditions. We have come a long way in the past 10 years, and I envision remarkable progress in the future.

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