The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Riverside Council OKs Mad River bike trail extension proposal

City still needs to acquire easements from Five Rivers MetroParks.

Man, 68, drowns at Caesar Creek Lake
5/26/12
Water rescues prompt warning from health officials
5/25/12
Beach Waterpark sued for failure to deliver
5/25/12
Raleigh Trammell’s defense opens in felony trial
5/25/12
UD to move satellite campus to Dublin
5/25/12
> More headlines

By Cornelius Frolik, Staff Writer Updated 10:35 AM Monday, October 11, 2010

RIVERSIDE — City leaders have taken a big step to extend the Mad River Recreation Trail through the city and connect it with another bike trail at the Huffman Dam in Fairborn.

Council members voted unanimously Thursday to allow City Manager Bryan Chodkowski to enter into negotiations with Five Rivers MetroParks to grant the easements necessary for the agency to build 3.6 miles of bike trail.

The Mad River Trail currently runs 2.6 miles from downtown Dayton’s RiverScape to Eastwood MetroPark.

MetroParks proposes spending $3 million to extend the trail through Eastwood, under Harshman Road at the Mad River bridge, and then down Harshman Road.

The trail will then head east along Huberville Avenue and Springfield Street to Huffman MetroPark.

The trail project has been in the works since 2003, but it stalled because the proposed site of the path did not work out, said Joseph Zimmerman, MetroParks project manager.

MetroParks was going to purchase land from Norfolk Southern railroad, but after completing the environmental studies and design work, the railroad decided not to sell, he said.

“We spent a lot of time and money developing those plans, having been given the impression by the railroad that they would be agreeable to them ... but then the railroad declined to allow us to build there,” Zimmerman said. “We literally had to start over at that point.”

History has not been kind to bike paths in Riverside.

A similar bike path project was discussed and pursued as far back as 1980, but the plans always fell apart, said Councilman Edward Schock.

Even this latest project still could fall through.

Funding for the proposal includes $1.55 million from the Ohio Department of Transportation, $500,000 from the state’s Clean Ohio Trails Fund and $987,000 from MetroParks.

Zimmerman said the state funding was awarded years ago, and the state is growing impatient about the project.

He said if the trail is not built soon, it likely will not be built.

“They are charged with distributing that money to worthy goals, and not having it sitting in an account doing nothing,” he said.

Prior to voting, several Council members expressed reluctance about the plan because the bike trail will travel along Huberville Avenue, which they hope will be the site of considerable commercial development, especially if Ohio builds a high-speed passenger rail line and Riverside is awarded a station.

But Chodkowski said he will make sure any agreement allows the city to modify or move parts of the trail in the event of commercial development.

“One of the terms we will seek in negotiating the easement will be the ability to move the trail, and not at the city’s expense or MetroParks expense, but at the developer’s,” he said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-0749 or cfrolik@DaytonDailyNews.com.

@@facebook@@

Share this article