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City, neighborhood groups unveil new walking trail at Jackson Park
YOUNGSTOWN
A South Side neighborhood will have a new walking trail thanks to the 7th Ward Citizens Coalition, the city of Youngstown and the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp.
A quarter-mile walking trail was unveiled Monday in Jackson Park on the South Side during a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Despite the cold, rainy afternoon, a group of partners and collaborators on the project gathered at the park to see the trail’s official unveiling.
Ian Beniston, executive director of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., led the event during which he praised the collaboration on the project and discussed upcoming work at the site.
“We continued building a project the neighborhood started – they put down a gravel trail, and we came through and paved it. In spring we’ll come back and seed the area and clean up the trail,” Beniston said.
The $16,000 trail was paid for with a grant from the Youngstown Foundation Hine Memorial Fund and is built on the site of the former Jackson Elementary School.
John R. Swierz, president of the Seventh Ward Citizens Coalition and a former Seventh Ward councilman, said the coalition knew it wanted to improve the trail once it was learned the site was available. The YNDC was sought as financial agent for the project.
Swierz said there are many elderly residents in the neighborhoods surrounding the park, and that accessibility was a major priority in the development of the largely flat and even trail.
“There’ll be a two-space handicap spot at the park entrance and, in the future, there will be a wheelchair-accessible pathway connecting to Lenox Avenue,” Swierz said.
Councilwoman Basia Adamczak, D-7th, praised the partnership that made it possible, noting that her ward had the most parks in the city and that their continued upkeep was dependent upon collaborations and effective grant campaigns.
“Since my time on council began, we’ve managed to raise more than a half a million dollars in grant money to help improve the parks,” she said. “It’s important, now more than ever as the city faces financial constraints, that we utilize these partnerships and go after these grants to ensure we can continue to improve our neighborhoods.”