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Important! Don't cut trails funding

Posted Wed, 04/22/2009 - 07:56

A bike sharrow.
When will Fayetteville get more bike lanes to connect the existing trails?
Right now, the city budget includes $1.3M for building trails. It's not the only source of funding; when voters passed the bond issue a few years ago, they devoted $2.4M in bond money to trails, to be paid out in three payments every three years. Our next payment is $800,000, and it happens in 2010.

The last time the trails program received a bond payment, the Council cut funding by the same amount. That was a mistake. There are many large-ish projects required to connect our trails system, and those projects require a bit of extra money. Voters intended that the bond payments supplement the trails program to complete those projects.

One such project is a pedestrian bridge over College Ave, placed between Sycamore and Township. It would provide the necessary East-West linkup to make our trails system that much more usable, and the bond payment alone will almost pay for it. We could have that bridge at the end of 2010, if we use the bond payment as a supplement.

Kyle Cook, my fellow Ward 2 Alderman, has stated he wants the bond payment used as a supplement this time, but I'm not sure of the other Council members. If you live in another Ward, call or email your Alderman and tell them you don't want the trails funding cut next year, and you want a pedestrian bridge over College to link the neighborhoods together.

Image from freefoto.com