Wednesday, February 25, 2015
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Fresh off the completion of Phase 3 of the Western Reserve Greenway hike and bike trail in the fall, the Trumbull County MetroParks Board has learned it has been approved for $2.4 million (80 percent funding) for Phase IV.
The funding, from federal Congestion, Mitigation and Air Quality funds, was announced by the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments.
Phase IV, from Burton Street at the south end of Warren to the Niles Greenway Trail Head in downtown Niles, will complete the Trumbull County portion of the Lake To River Greenway and provide an uninterrupted trail from Ashtabula to Canfield.
When the entire greenway is complete, the trail will travel between Lake Erie and the Ohio River at East Liverpool.
Today, the Trumbull County commissioners are expected to authorize Zachary Svette, operations coordinator for the MetroParks, to submit a plan to the Ohio Department of Transportation giving it specific information about the project.
Svette said Tuesday the MetroParks board has about $130,000 of the remaining $600,000 that will be needed for Phase IV, but he will be applying for Clean Ohio Trail funds, Clean Ohio Recreation Trail funds and seeking money from foundations and donations to acquire the remaining money.
A target date for completing Phase IV is 2020. The route Phase IV will follow has not yet been determined, Svette said. Phase III, from Champion Avenue East in Champion Township to North River Road in Warren, was completed in the late fall. Warren and Niles also recently completed portions of the trail through those cities.
In other business, commissioners are expected to amend their agreement with Bazetta Township and the city of Warren for water service to provide water to the proposed Bazetta Township Fire Station near the Route 305 dam between Warren-Meadville Road and Elm Road Extension.
The agreement will allow Warren to provide water to the fire station but permit the county to recover Bazetta Township as a water customer if and when a water main planned for Elm Road Extension (state Route 5) is built.