Town awarded grant to construct nature trail
The commonwealth grant must have matching funds of at least 20 percent, which will amount to $12,500 each contributed by both Montgomery County and the Town of Blacksburg, said Dean Crane, director of Blacksburg Parks and Recreation.
The conceptual plan and subsequent execution is a joint venture between the town and county. Both will share the trail's planning and development costs.
Ellett Valley Park currently contains a self-guided nature trail that local farmers used in the early 20th century.
Over the decades the land has vigorously thrived, with the park's simple trails cutting through a 109-acre hardwood forest.
Most of the rest of the proposed trail cuts across private property, and officials said they expect gaining permissions and rights of way for future sections will be more complicated.
"The land goes through 99 different properties," Crane said.
In order to ease the process of building the trail, the project was broken up into sections.
The initial construction phase will result in a 2,260-foot section of the trail passing through the Blacksburg Industrial Park from Commerce Street to Jennelle Road. This part of the trail, called Section 4, is a small start on a proposed six-mile greenway that would loop around from the Blacksburg Industrial Park through the Ellett Valley Park and back.
The current construction will begin on section four of the proposed trail.
"Section four involves one landowner and they are very supportive of the project," Crane said.
The new trail will be a key component in the town's overall plan for a system of greenway trails and would comprise a section of what is referred to as the "outer loop," a trail tracing the perimeter of Blacksburg.
The area for the route is bounded by the Cedar Run watershed basin along State Route 603, Norfolk Southern Railroad adjacent to the Ellett Valley Park, VDOT Smart Road, and South Main Street in Blacksburg.
The idea for the loop trail came from Blacksburg resident Andrew Schenker, who suggested it as a way to save the Ellett Valley Park adjacent to his family's Jennelle Road farm.
An early draft of a long-term plan for the town's parks and recreation department under consideration in 2003 suggested selling the park's land and using the money to fund in-town programs and facilities.
That version of the plan was eventually tabled. A new 20-year plan scheduled for public comment later this week stops short of suggesting the property's sale.
Rather, the plan points out that "resource allocation is minimal for this out-of-town property which poses a threat to its long-term viability."
The proposed plan places the Ellett Valley Loop Trail high on the greenway systems priority list hoped to be completed in the next two decades.
According to Crane, the idea of the Ellett Valley Loop Trail came when the town was looking to sell the land the trail will be on.
"A citizen came and said that if you connect them (the greenways) together, you can make a loop between Blacksburg and the county," Crane said.
When construction will begin on this first section of the trail is uncertain, but the grant money must be used within three years.
The trail, when built, will be a ten-foot-wide asphalt path.
The project comes during a time of tense relations between the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors and the town council, which have recently been in dispute over the future of the old Blacksburg Middle School and a proposed affordable housing project off Harding Avenue.
As written, the plan identifies 10 priorities for the town's recreation program, including construction of an outdoor pool, a new community recreation center, an 18-hole golf course and a nature study center to be built at Heritage Community Park and Natural Area.
Residents may weigh in on the new 20-year plan when officials hold comment sessions scheduled from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on July 24 and July 28 at the Blacksburg Community Center.
