Official hopes for grant for walking trail

EAST PALESTINE -- City Manager Gary Clark is hopeful a Clean Ohio grant from Ohio Public Works will fund most of a $60,000 project to build a walking trail in the city lake area.
About 50 acres of city-owned property on the west side includes the seven-acre lake.
Clark said city officials want to develop about 36 acres of city-owned land near the lake and the site of the former city electric plant.
He said if the city receives a grant to build the trail, $45,000 would come from the grant and $15,000 from the city's capital improvement fund.
The trail would be about a mile in length and run along the fringe of the 36 acres the city hopes to sell for residential development, Clark said.
He said about seven acres would be left undeveloped as a conservation zone.
Clark said long-range planning for the trail would include extending it to a total of 21/2 miles to connect to the city park.
He said the man-made lake was created to store the water needed in the cooling process during electric plant operations.
Clark said the city originally purchased the land near the electric plant for a well field, but found a better water source elsewhere.