Follow the trails
Posted: July 29, 2009 at 5:09 a.m.
ROGERS — After moving to Rogers from Colorado, Jessica Shores was thrilled to find a trail system for her family to use, she said, as she unloaded children, a stroller and a tiny bicycle in the Olive Street Park. There are trails everywhere in Colorado, she said, and she expected to miss them in Arkansas.
"This is a good thing," she said about the newly discovered Rogers Trail System.
Her family set off from the Olive Street Park toward Walnut Street where the trail comes to an abrupt end, but it's long enough - just under a mile - for the entire Shores family to get in a little bit of exercise.
Since opening the Blossom Way Trail near Rogers High School in 2006, the city of Rogers has been slowly working on a trail system that may some day total 50 miles around and through the city. But building the trails has been a slow process.
There's very little trail work going on right now, Parks and Recreation Director Rick Stocker said. In spite of a Walton Family Foundation matching grant that came with a deadline, construction has stopped.
"The money's there. It's the bureaucracy that takes time," Stocker said.
Many of the sections that were once marked "to be completed by January 1, 2010" involve crossing state highways and that means the state highway department must approve the plans.
"One piece was submitted last fall," Jennifer Bonner of the city's planning department explained, referring to plans where the trail intersects with Interstate 540. She's not sure if the highway department has looked at it yet, but when the state is finished with it, the federal highway department will also have to approve it.
"We're setting the standards for everyone's projects," she said, explaining that she's advised other cities on what to include in a design destined for the Highway Department.
There are several sections of trail complete in the area near the interstate, but there's no way
to connect them until the designs are completed and approved. For example, a section of the trail begins behind Home Depot and runs in front of Red Lobster and Olive Garden, but it ends at Guido's Pizza. Another section begins on the other side of New Hope Road and heads toward the new Mercy Medical Center. The plan is for the trail to go under New Hope Road, but the design can't be completed until the state places right-of-way markers on New Hope Road, Bonner said. The right of way markers are the first stop in the design process.
"A whole ton of it (construction) will start at once," Bonner predicted.
Another section that could be completed soon is along Horsebarn Road. It will connect via city sidewalks to a completed section behind the Church at Pinnacle Point and eventually to the section that will go under New Hope Road on the other side of I-540.
Although the Walton Family Foundation grant came with deadlines, they agreed to an extension at the end of 2008, and Stocker believes there will be another extension this year.
"The Walton family has been very supportive and generous," he said.
Meanwhile, several sections are complete in the Turtle Creek area.
"You can walk from Walnut Street to Sam's Club and only cross two roads," Stocker said.
Bonner said a crosswalk with caution lights to warn traffic when pedestrians are in the intersection is planned for where the trail crosses Olive Street. The trail is complete on both sides of Olive Street, but the crosswalk isn't yet there.
City workers will do the construction around the crosswalk, she said.
In 2007 a 2-mile stretch that includes a section of boardwalk over wetlands was opened near Cambridge Park. That reaches the north side of Olive Street. Italso connects with a section built along with the Sam's Club off of Hudson Road. Eventually that section will connect with Bentonville's Trail system, Bonner said.
Another short section went in behind the Adult Wellness Center off of Dixieland Road.
Although there will be more trails in the future, for now pedestrians can use sidewalks and then cross 24th Street and connect with the trail that leads to Olive Street Park, Stocker said.
Another section now being designed will connect the Adult Wellness Center with an existing trail on the other side of Dixieland Road. That short section goes from Oakdale Middle School on Dixieland Road to 13th Street near Lingle Middle School.
Bonner predicted that it would take 10 years for the city to complete the entire trails system. If everything planned for this year is completed it will add 4.4 miles to the city trail system.
No one knows how many people use the trails, but Stocker suspects there are many.
"As soon as the concrete dries people are on them," he said about the newest sections of trails. "We couldn't stop
them if we tried.
Recently he met with contractors to talk about finishing
touches on the Olive Street Parksection that had just opened.
"People were buzzing around, doing lap after lap.
They get used," he said.
News, Pages 1, 6 on 07/29/2009
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