But bicyclists, walkers and joggers shouldn’t expect it to be finished anytime soon, because local governments say they don’t have the millions needed at their disposal, especially in light of the slashing of local government funds by the state.
“It just comes down to the money to do it,” said David Fehr, Butler County Department of Development Director. “They’re not cheap to build.”
The last two sections of the trail built in Butler County — totaling about 3.4 miles in Middletown and between Hamilton and Fairfield Twp. — cost nearly $1.6 million.
The Great Miami River Bike Trail was envisioned by then-Huffy Corp. president Horace Huffman in the 1960s. He formed the Miami Valley Regional Bicycle Council, which drafted one of the nation’s first regional bikeway plans.
A key part of that plan included a trail along the river.
The trail travels through Butler, Warren, Montgomery and Miami counties and accesses hundreds of miles of other recreation trails in the state.
But the state’s trail system, and the Great Miami River Bike Trail, started in 1976 in Dayton with an 8.2-mile section.
Butler County just opened a 2.2-mile stretch of the trail from Canal Street in Hamilton to Rentschler Forest MetroPark in Fairfield Twp. That piece cost nearly $1.08 million, all of it paid for by a state grant and the Hamilton Community Foundation.
Fehr said the next piece Butler County would consider doing is a 2-mile stretch from Rentschler Forest to Liberty-Fairfield Road. Engineering work is still being done, but it won’t be built until financing — and it will have to be private money or state or federal funding — is in place.
“With the decrease in the local government funds, (communities) don’t have the funding,” Fehr said. “When you’re laying off police and firefighters, bike trails tend not to get as high of a priority.”
Last month, Middletown finished a 1.2-mile stretch of the path, and that cost $501,000, though the bulk of it came from federal funds. The Middletown Community Foundation also contributed to the project.
The city has less than two miles remaining to connect the trail from North Verity Parkway to Baxter Drive in Franklin.
However, interim Middletown Public Works and Utilities Director Steve Husemann said that “is not an easy piece” to complete.
Around $900,000 is needed to complete that portion, and about 55 percent of that price tag would be for 1,000 feet of retaining walls.
“It would be in our best interest, economic development-wise, to get the piece completed,” Husemann said. “But it’s going to have to be some type of grant. I don’t think we can justify it with our budget.”
Champions needed
Miami Conservancy District project specialist Anglea Manuszak said “it’s pretty exciting seeing communities value” the bike path.
“All of Southwest Ohio has just an amazing and unique system of trails,” she said. “We have a lot of interest in that corridor, mainly because of our primary interest in flood protection, which includes Middletown and Hamilton.”
Hamilton Community Foundation President and CEO John Guidugli said in order to complete the path in the other parts of the county, “You need a champion.”
The Hamilton Community Foundation in 2001 committed to help fund the bike path within the city. More than $1 million has been provided to finance the on-going project within the city, and Guidugli said the foundation plans to donate more.
“It can be such an important quality-of-life feature to the community,” he said. “The existing bikeway has been popular and very much utilized, and the goal (of the foundation) was to be able to extend that.”
About seven years ago, the Middletown Community Foundation committed $200,000 for the portion of the path in Middletown. Three-fourths of that money has been spent on engineering of three phases of the pathway, and the last $50,000 will be for amenities and signs, said Middletown Community Foundation Executive Director T. Duane Gordon.
Hamilton Public Works Director Rich Engle said the city has applied for state funds to connect the path from the Marriott to Canal Street.
No city funds will be used with this portion, Engle said. The Community Foundation will cover whatever the state grant does not cover, Engel and Guidugli said.
Where the city cannot provide bike trails, Engle said there are dedicated bike lanes on the streets, such as at Joe Nuxhall Boulevard north of downtown Hamilton.
The city of Fairfield has invested $724,200 in its portion of the bike path, which goes from Water Works Park on Gogh Lane north to Joyce Park on Joe Nuxhall Way. About two-thirds of that funding has been from the Ohio Department of Transportation and OKI.
The city’s plan, which has not been engineered yet, is to get the path from Water Works Park to the Hamilton County line on East River Road, said Fairfield Parks and Recreation Director Jim Bell.
But he said that won’t happen anytime soon due to other priorities, such as completing the new Black Bottom Park and waiting on the land that would expand Marsh Lake to be transferred from Martin Marietta, a gravel mining company.
“We have the capability, but not the funding, to build the rest of the bike path,” Bell said. “We do know where we’re going next.”
The city will connect the path to the East Miami River Road bridge, which has dedicated bike lanes. From there, Bell said, the Hamilton County Park District is expected to connect to the trail and continue it south.
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