ODNR awards Canfield Township $196K grant for bike trail
By JUSTIN DENNIS
CANFIELD
A state grant will pay the majority of a more than $250,000 bike trail connecting the township park to the Mill Creek MetroParks bike trail.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources will award the $195,867 Clean Ohio Trails Fund grant to the township upon approval of the state controlling board, township officials said during a Tuesday meeting.
The township will put up a local match of about $66,000, township Administrator Keith Rogers said. He expects the trail to be completed sometime next year.
“We were looking for a way to continue development of the park,” he said, adding township officials have obtained grants to install playground equipment and security cameras and make the park more accessible for those with disabilities.
The proposed trail location is two miles from the MetroParks along state Route 46 and two miles from the Kirk Road trailhead. Rogers said Mill Creek MetroParks recently conducted a yearlong pedestrian survey and estimated more than 80,000 people walked that four-mile span that year.
Rogers said the bike trail of about 3,800 feet would extend south from the township park, then turn east to the MetroParks trail. Neff Land Development Company has offered to donate a five-acre plot in exchange for naming rights.
CT Consultants will design the trail. Township officials said they’ll look to involve Mahoning County Career and Technical Center students in its implementation.
“Real-world experience for an engineering student? That’d be awesome,” Rogers said. “Hands-on experience for a real project being built is unbelievable.”
In other business, trustees voted to switch their health insurance provider from Aetna to Medical Mutual Insurance, effective Dec. 1, as Aetna planned to increase rates by 59 percent, according to officials. Township employees will have a high-deductible health reimbursement account, or HRA.
Two officials who have declined township coverage, Trustee Marie Cartwright and Fiscal Officer Carmen Heasley, may receive cash in lieu of 25 percent of what the township would have paid.