Dedication of parking and rest area on Warren Bikeway is a celebration

Staff report

WARREN

Charlie Kohli of Ashtabula, who was among those who led the effort begun in 1989 to create what is now the Western Reserve Greenway hike and bike trail, helped dedicate Warren’s new parking lot and rest area on North River Road on Friday.

The city completed its Warren Bikeway several years ago, but the city’s new $236,000 trailhead is a connecting point between Warren’s trail and the Greenway, which travels about 50 miles north to Ashtabula and nearly reaches the shores of Lake Erie.

The Greenway and Bikeway are part of the 100-mile Great Ohio Lake To River Greenway that is mostly complete. The Trumbull County MetroParks is working to complete the county’s final phase of the trail. It will connect Warren’s Bikeway to the Niles Bikeway near downtown Niles.

The trailhead has 29 parking spaces and a pavilion with picnic tables. A water fountain is located next to the Greenway and close to the county engineer’s office. It’s on nearly 12 acres donated by Mahoning Valley Economic Development Corp. of Liberty.

Kohli said the trailhead completion was an opportunity to “celebrate all our accomplishments and our collaborations.” He said Warren’s part of the Greenway is significant because Warren “is the heart of it because all of the railroads came together” in the city at one time. Most of the Greenway follows former rail line areas.

Even 30 years ago, folks from Ashtabula were collaborating with Trumbull County residents such as Ada Callahan Sutter of Warren, Kohli said.

“You can still hear voices saying, ‘Keep going. Keep going,’” said Julie Green, the grant writer who obtained much of the funding and carried out much of the work to get the Greenway built from North River Road to the Trumbull/Ashtabula counties line.

Callahan Sutter’s three daughters were on hand for the dedication, which included the unveiling of a likeness of their mother on a stone near the pavilion. Warren obtained grants to pay for much of the trailhead.