Grant to help pay for new trail in Boardman Park

Pedestrians will be able to loop around the park without getting onto the road.

By Denise Dick

BOARDMAN — A $148,000 state grant will help separate pedestrians from vehicular traffic within Boardman Park.

Dan Slagle Jr., park executive director, said the grant covers half the cost of a roughly 4,000-foot-long trail to be installed.

“It will be a sidewalk that runs parallel to our main road,” he said.

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

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

“It goes back into the woods and connects to the existing nature trails,” Slagle said.

The money came from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ recreational-trail program.

It will improve safety, the executive director said, providing walkers and joggers with a trail apart from where vehicles traverse.

“You’ll be able to loop around the entire park without getting on the road,” he said.

D’Juan Hammonds, grants manager for ODNR’s recreational trail and Clean Ohio trail programs, 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, Hammonds said.

Boardman Park submitted applications to fund the trail project beginning in 2006, but the grant wasn’t awarded until 2009.

The trail fits with the park’s master plan for improvements approved several years ago as well as a $2 million capital campaign launched in 2008.

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

Slagle said MS Consultants of Youngstown, the park’s engineering firm, is preparing the bid specifications to advertise the project for bids. He hopes work can begin when the weather breaks. The grant requires the trail to be completed by June.

denise_dick@vindy.com