Greenway property acquired by city

The city has acquired or is set to acquire some of the final tracts for the next phase of the Hot Springs Creek Greenway Trail.

The Hot Springs Board of Directors accepted a donation last week from the Friends of the Park nonprofit for 1.02 acres near the trail’s current terminus, about 800 feet south of the Golf Links Road bridge near the Winans Avenue intersection.

“This was one of the last pieces we needed,” Parks and Trails Director Anthony Whittington told the board, noting the property, located west of Heritage of Hot Springs Health

and Rehabilitation on Golf Links, is valued at about $8,000.

The board will consider an ordinance at its business meeting Tuesday authorizing the purchase of 1.72 acres near the end of the next phase. It is situated east of Forest View Subdivision, between two city-owned parcels to the north and south.

Whittington told the board the owner has agreed to sell the parcel for $12,000. He said the price was negotiated down from the initial $33,000 asking price.

Whittington told the board the cityowned parcel to the south will be the site of the Jean Wallace Wetlands Trailhead Park. Honoring the former parks and trails director who retired last year, the park will be near the mouth of Hot Springs Creek.

The city said in November that it had been awarded a $500,000 federal Transportation Alternative Program grant for partial funding of the park, which will feature an 80-foot pedestrian bridge connecting TV Hill Road to Tatum Street.

The board adopted an ordinance earlier this month modifying the description of Tatum Street and extending the city’s maintenance responsibility west of the street’s existing paving. The modification extends the city’s right of way to the park location.

The next phase of the Greenway is expected to be completed next year, the city said. Traversing the most undeveloped areas of the multiuse corridor, it will connect the current terminus to the wetlands park. The city was awarded a $500,000 TAP grant to build the connection, with a $131,250 match from the city and Friends of the Park paying the balance of the project cost.

The 4.2-mile corridor will connect downtown to Lake Hamilton when it’s completed.