Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

City receives $35,000 walking trail grant

Mayor Clayton Franklin received notification Thursday morning that Gurdon has been approved for a $35,000 walking trail grant from Arkansas Parks and Tourism.

Franklin said work to get a grant to improve a quarter of a mile path behind the primary school, near 10th and Pine Streets here, began this past summer.

"We are very pleased to have been selected to get this," Franklin said. "With the land that the school has agreed to give the city, once we established funds for the trail, our matching requirement will more than be met and we can proceed with this project."

The letter of notification was from the desk of Gov. Mike Huckabee. It said the City of Gurdon has received a grant in the amount of $35,000 to assist in the construction of a standard health and fitness trail.

Franklin said his first step toward the project will be to form a committee to work out the details. A legal description and survey will be done. The mayor said the existing path has been used for more than 20 years.

"I will ask people like Becky Jester, who has been instrumental in us getting the grant, to be on the committee. We want to get input from people already using this path, as to how they want the quarter of a mile trail to be laid out. Our plans are pretty well set. Most of the money will be used for resurfacing the trail with asphalt and extending it to the required quarter of a mile."

The mayor said GPS Principal Rita Roe has been working with him on plans for the trail. She wrote a letter in October stressing her support.

She wrote, "The Gurdon School District is excited by the opportunity to participate and benefit from the planning and development of the walking path in the property immediately behind and accessible to the primary school.

"Our children will directly benefit from the access to the walking trail. A Hometown Hikers program can be implemented to coincide with the Tobacco Prevention curriculum, as well as after-school and summer programs and initiatives already under way in the primary, middle and high schools.

"We believe the awarding of the grant will be of vast usefulness to our school children, employees and parents in our community."

Franklin said the state's reaction to the original grant proposal was to ask for a 10-minute oral presentation before representatives of Arkansas Parks and Tourism in February. That took place in the Jacksonville Community Building.

"They had 10-minute presentations for similar grants all day," Franklin said. "The competition is fierce. I was tickled we got this opportunity and the grant has been approved. They only do grants in that program twice a year."

School Board minutes from August indicate Board members voted to approve the walking trail project "as long as the City of Gurdon pays for any necessary deed changes."

Tambra Childres, city recorder/treasurer, said this past fall, "I believe there are plans to put a partial fence around the trail area for more privacy, but using the trail will be free to the public."

Franklin said the trail is to be strictly used for walking, with no bicycles or other vehicles allowed. The planned improvements are to cover it over with track-type, spongy asphalt made to state specifications, pave the parking lot used by walkers and update the landscape.

Franklin said the city will work with Dawson Co-op in Arkadelphia to do Hometown Hikers behind the school "and our senior citizens will also get to use the walking trail after its finished."