The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Rail Trail cleanup scheduled for Saturday
Volunteers are needed to help clean a portion of the Rail Trail between Seneca and Sayles streets.
ONEIDA >> Volunteers are needed for an Oneida Rail Trail cleanup effort Saturday in Oneida.
The Oneida Rail Trail is a shared project of The Oneida Rail Trail Committee, the City of Oneida, Madison County and the Oneida Improvement Committee, which has worked for the last several years to develop abandoned rail beds into recreational trails for public use.
The Oneida Rail Trail Committee is sponsoring work day on Saturday, Oct. 10 from 9 a.m. to noon.
The work will concentrate on a three- quarter mile length of trail stretching between Seneca and Sayles streets.
Volunteers are asked meet at the Oneida High School parking lot on Seneca Street at 9 a.m., and to wear sturdy shoes, long pants, long-sleeved shirts, work gloves and bring plenty of water.
City Parks and Recreation Director Luke Griff said the section behind Oneida High School is used by those in the community for walking, exercise and even by the cross country team at the high school.
“This is a heavily used section” of trail, Griff added.
If all goes as planned, he would like to see this section opened sometime later this fall.
Other trail improvements
There has been an ongoing effort to create a master plan for trail design. At a July meeting, local res- idents were given the opportunity to provide development input for other sections of trail, which total 11 miles of abandoned rail roadbeds in the city.
That meeting largely focused on a 3.9 mile section that has received grant money for development. Griff said the final design for the section should be completed by the end of 2016.
Since 2013, the city has received two federal grants administered through the state Department of Transportation, one for $895,000 and the other for $771,000. Eighty percent of each grant will be paid by the state, and the remaining 20 percent must be met by the city through in-kind services such as having public works employees lend a hand in tasks during regular work hours.
The design of the trail section through the city, which starts on Hubbard Place and heads to Oneida Street, ending at Lake Street, would include lighting, street-scaping and pos- sibly a pedestrian plaza area on Oneida Street, complete with seating and possibly a stage area for outdoor concerts. Trail highlights include connecting to the Old Erie Canal Towpath. A section along Hubbard Place was opened within the last year, and more development is expected to take place along that section.
Griff said a follow up public meeting will be held to discuss conceptual designs created based on the July public input meeting, but a date for that follow up has not yet been set.
The Oneida Rail Trail Committee meets the last Thursday of the month at the Oneida Recreation Center, 217 Cedar St. The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 29 at 6 p.m.
For more information, call the Oneida Recreation Department at 315-3633590.
More trails in New York
In addition to the Oneida Rail Trail, hikers and other outdoors people will find new trails in the North Country with a proposed Adirondack section of the North Country National Scenic Trail, effective Oct. 10.
The plan routes the projected 4,600-mile National Scenic Trail through the middle of the Adirondack Park.
The national trail cross the northern tier of the United States between Crown Point State Historic Site on Lake Champlain and Lake Sakakawea State Park on the Missouri River in North Dakota. About 2,700 miles of the trail have been completed so far.
The Adirondack segment of the trail is expected to traverse about 158 miles beween Forestport in Oneida County and Crown Point. It will use about 81 miles of existing trails, and another 39 miles will be built.
There will be about 27 miles of road walking between trailheads.