Busy year ahead for area trails

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May 25, 2009

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Mon May 25, 2009, 08:29 PM CDT

By Derek Spellman

dspellman@joplinglobe.com

The recession, a more health-conscious society and a heightened awareness all spell an increase in traffic for Southwest Missouri trails.

Plans, meanwhile, are afoot to extend existing trails in Joplin, Carl Junction and Webb City.

“It’s growing so fast, it’s hard to keep track,” joked Dan Johnson, the civil engineer for the city of Joplin, about the city’s network of trails.

The long-term hope: to have the area veined with interlocking trails, including links between the Frisco Greenway and Ruby Jack trails.

In the short term, though, last week set the stage for trail developments.

The Missouri Department of Transportation announced that four Southwest Missouri projects would receive a total of $646,800 in federal stimulus money through the Transportation Enhancement Program. Of those funding awards, almost $621,000 went to local trail projects.

Eric Kellstadt, senior transportation planner for this MoDOT district, said the agency received 23 applications seeking more than $4.4 million. The “vast majority” of those applications, he said, were for trail and sidewalk projects.

Joplin

The city of Joplin received a total of $439,500 for two trail segments that will be treated as one project.

Johnson said the federal stimulus money will extend the Turkey Creek Trail eastward.

The Turkey Creek Trail feeds off the Frisco Greenway Trail and then heads east, paralleling Turkey Creek on the north side.

Once the expansion is complete, the trail will move to the south side of Turkey Creek at St. Louis Avenue, then continue east until it intersects near the intersection of Florida Avenue and Newman Road.

The far eastern segment of the trail — technically called the Ozark Memorial Park Trail — will lead through scenic wooded areas north of Ozark Memorial Park Cemetery before ending at the Florida-Newman intersection.

“It’s an amazingly scenic pocket of woods in this city,” Johnson said of the planned Ozark Memorial Park Trail segment.

Plans call for the trail eventually to connect with Missouri Southern State University, although those projects are still to be funded.

Later this year, Johnson said, the city staff will present plans for the extension of the Landreth Park Trail. That plan calls for the trail to advance north to the railroad crossing that spans Turkey Creek.

Altogether, Johnson said, the city will add about six miles of trails over the next year.

The plans for Joplin, as for the area in general, are to create a tracery of such walks weaving throughout Joplin.

“The theme of it is it is an alternative form of transportation,” Johnson said.

Carl Junction and Webb City

The city of Carl Junction also is ramping up for a trail expansion.

The city will receive $181,472 in federal stimulus money to extend its Thom Station Trail, which roughly tracks the old St. Louis-San Francisco Railway system that ran through Carl Junction.

The stimulus money will allow the city to expand the trail, which begins at Third Street near the fire station and goes south, from Briarbrook Drive to near Copper Oaks Drive.

The city eventually hopes that the trail can reach all the way to Fir Road. City Administrator Steve Lawver said the next round of grant money for that kind of project likely will not be available for several years.

Besides the Thom Station Trail, Carl Junction also has part of the Ruby Jack Trail. The two currently don’t connect, although they are within a few blocks of each other.

The Ruby Jack Trail is a 16-mile “rails-to-trails” project that stretches from Carthage through Oronogo and Carl Junction, and all the way to the Kansas state line.

Lawver said Carl Junction’s trails right now see light usage, largely because the trail system is still under development.

He said the trails’ potential is still untapped.

“It’s another avenue the city can provide its citizens for recreation — not only recreation but also transportation,” he said of a trail network.

Tom Reeder, director of Webb City’s parks department, said he has observed a rise in use of the trails in his city.

Webb City has part of the Frisco Greenway Trail, a nearly four-mile trail that links Joplin and Webb City.

Webb City also has a walking trail that runs through parts of King Jack Park. Those trails have seen “a lot more” usage, Reeder said, and the city is expanding them to double the existing size.

“I think the economy has a lot to do with it,” Reeder said of the higher usage, saying residents are increasingly looking for activities that are affordable and closer to home.

‘Leaps and bounds’

Perry Johnson, president of the Joplin Trails Coalition, said the traffic also can be attributed to a growing awareness of the health, economic and environmental benefits of trails. Using a trail as a means of transportation not only is a form of exercise but also saves money on gasoline for cars and helps cut fuel emissions.

Johnson said he has seen a growing number of people on the trails. Although physical counts are not conducted, trail members estimate that 40 to 50 people can be seen on the Frisco Greenway Trail in the early evening on a weekday. About 100 can be seen during that time on a weekend day.

Traffic on the Ruby Jack Trail is increasing “by leaps and bounds,” Johnson said.

The coalition is awaiting approval from MoDOT on engineering plans for a project that will put down a compacted rock surface on the stretch of the Ruby Jack Trail between County Road 180 and Route D. Coalition members hope those plans will be approved sometime in the fall.

Once that stretch is complete, hikers, bikers, walkers and joggers will have a continuous 5.5-mile stretch of trail with limestone overlay from western Carthage to the Oronogo area.

The cost of the work is about $30,000 per mile, Johnson said. The coalition has relied on small donations, fund raising and grants to develop that trail and others. The group plans to apply for state Safe Routes to School grants to develop trails within Carl Junction that students also can use to get to school buildings.

Like other area urban planners, Joplin’s Johnson said he hopes the Ruby Jack and Frisco Greenway trails will be linked one day. That would give the area more than 20 miles of trails.

“It (plays) a very, very important role as far as a recreational component,” he said of trails.

Meeting

The Joplin Trails Coalition will meet at 6:30 p.m. today at Papa John’s Pizza in Oronogo. Information is available via the organization’s Web site at www.joplintrailscoalition.org.