Trail will separate pedestrians, vehicles

By Denise Dick | April 23, 2010 at 12:06a.m.

By DENISE DICK

BOARDMAN

Construction hasn’t yet started, but plans remain for a Boardman Park trail to separate pedestrian from vehicular traffic.

The park last year received a $148,000 state grant to help fund the trail.

Dan Slagle Jr., park executive director, said park officials hope to have final plans and specifications complete within a couple of weeks. Plans then must be sent to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for approval.

Once ODNR approves them, the project will be advertised for bids.

“We are still planning on having it done by mid-summer,” Slagle said.

Plans call for a 4,000-foot-long sidewalk running along the main road of the park.

“It’s pretty exciting,” Slagle said. “We’ve made so many improvements at the park, I think this is going to be at the top of the list.”

Walkers and joggers regularly use the park, and many know about the plans, he said.

“I’m sure they’re looking forward to it,” the executive director said.

The trail will snake along Main Drive, branching into two sections. One section goes to the park’s community center, where pedestrians can access the park’s other trails.

The other goes to the Maag Outdoor Theater and winds around the Bicentennial Rock, ending across from St. James Meeting House.

Completion of the trail would allow pedestrians to loop around the park without having to walk on the roads.

Slagle said that’s a safety improvement, too.

Because the project involves state money, several studies including an archeological survey had to be done for the project to move forward. That archeological survey didn’t find any artifacts, Slagle said.

The grant, which covers about half of the trail’s cost, came from the ODNR’s recreational-trail program.

D’Juan Hammonds, grants manager for ODNR’s recreational trail and Clean Ohio trail programs, has said the Boardman Park trail was one of 22 to receive funding in 2009. Eighty applications were submitted for the program, he said.

Recreational-trail grants totaled about $2 million last year, he said.

The project totals about $296,000 with the grant footing half the bill. The park also received a $5,000 donation from Alltel toward the project. The remainder will come from the park’s capital-improvement fund.