Springdale committee of the whole continues plans for Dean’s Trail

City of Springdale City Hall Administration building entrance. NWA Democrat-Gazette/FILE PHOTO
City of Springdale City Hall Administration building entrance. NWA Democrat-Gazette/FILE PHOTO

SPRINGDALE -- The City Council is set to take the next step on Dean's Trail.

The council, working as a committee of the whole, Monday forwarded to the council vote agreements to pay matching funds on a construction grant and the purchase price of land for the trail.

The grant will pay for construction of Dean's Trail Phase 3A from East Robinson Avenue to Don Tyson Parkway, said Mike Peters, the city's new director of active transportation.

The grant from the Arkansas Department of Transportation will total $500,000, with the city expected to pay $100,000 in an 80% to 20% match, Peters said.

The city each year puts $1 million for trails into the Public Works Department budget.

The grant comes from the federal Transportation Alternatives Program focused on smaller-scale transportation projects such as pedestrian and bicycle facilities, recreational trails and safe routes to school, according to the state transportation department, which administrates the reimbursement program.

The city received similar matching Transportation Alternative grants for design and property acquisition for this phase of Dean's Trail, as well as completed phases of Dean's and other trail projects in the city.

"It's amazing how much we have in trails without much city funding," said Mayor Doug Sprouse.

The council also agreed to pay $25,474 above a 2020 appraisal amount to buy property on which to locate Phase 3A. That part of the trail will run from Robinson to Don Tyson Parkway.

The city appraisal set the property worth at $53,300. Juniper Springdale, which owns the land, made its counteroffer of $78,774. The council agreed to pay the difference.

Juniper holds the property both north and south of Electric Avenue. The trail's path will cut between an apartment complex and a subdivision of single-family homes. Seven parcels of land are located along this section of Dean's Trail, and these are two of them, said Ernest Cate, the city's attorney.

Work continues on Phase 2 of Dean's Trail, which includes a tunnel under Robinson Avenue, which also holds a U.S. highway designation as U.S. 412.

Peters reported utility crews should being work to relocate utility lines in that space in September and begin digging the tunnel in December, Peters said.

The City Council in December contracted with Benchmark Construction for $2.6 million to build that tunnel.

Phase 3B of Dean's Trail will take the trail from Don Tyson Parkway south to the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks, Peters said. There it will tie into Fayetteville's trail system.

Dean's Trail, when completed, will stretch 5 miles from The Jones Center and Shiloh Trail to Lake Fayetteville. It will be a lighted, 12-foot-wide, hard-surface, multi-modal trail, the city reports.

The first phase of Dean's Trail is open for use from East Emma Avenue to East Robinson Avenue.


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