With wheel enthusiasm, patrollers hit bike trail

By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
CHAMPION -- About two dozen cyclists have volunteered to patrol Trumbull County's first section of the Western Reserve Greenway, which opened this week after 16 years of talk and preparation.
Volunteers in bright yellow T-shirts were among cyclists on an inaugural trip Monday along the 8.4-mile paved trail, which cuts past housing tracts, fields and a golf course between the Kent State University Trumbull Campus in Champion and Hyde-Oakfield Road in Bristol.
In a few weeks, Trumbull County commissioners are expected to award a contract to build picnic pavilions at parking areas on Educational Parkway, near KSU on state Route 305, and on Hyde-Oakfield Road. The work is expected to be covered by a $50,000 state grant.
The trail opened this week will eventually link up with other trails in Ashtabula, Mahoning and Columbiana counties to form a continuous path from Lake Erie to the Ohio River along abandoned railroad lines.
Champion volunteers
Neal and Carol Irwin, bike patrol volunteers from Champion, said they were thrilled the trail near their home has been opened. The couple, both in their 60s, say they are avid cyclists.
"Oh, man," said Neal. "It is the first thing we think about in the morning when we get up, and the last thing at night."
Volunteers are required to sign up for two two-hour shifts a month patrolling the trail, weather permitting, said David Ambrose, who sits on the Trumbull County Metropolitan Park Board.
The board hopes to maintain its newest venture with a volunteer work force, he said. The Trumbull Horsemen's Council will maintain the northern part of the trail, and Champion Kiwanis has volunteered to maintain the southern part.
The portion of the Trumbull County trail completed this summer cost $1.6 million. The county paid $270,000 toward construction and engineering costs.
County Commissioner Michael O'Brien said it was money well spent, regardless of the county's financial crisis.
"We spent a lot of money putting [jail] bars up; let's spend a little money on quality of life," he said.
Continuing the path
He said he would push to continue the trail through Warren after he becomes mayor there in January.
Plans call for the trail to continue from Warren through Niles and Weathersfield, to meet up with a trail maintained by Mill Creek MetroParks in Mahoning County.
Work is expected to continue this summer to continue the 10-foot-wide paved path north to the Ashtabula County line. Ken Symson from the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments said the approval process for a $1 million grant for the second phase is 95 percent complete.
siff@vindy.com