A federal grant awarded to the city earlier this month promises to complete the trail leading from the Transportation Plaza and Depot to the mouth of Hot Springs Creek, a project 21 years in the making.
The $500,000 Transportation Alternatives Program grant will extend the Hot Springs Creek Greenway Trail from the area near the creek's intersection with Golf Links Road to Television Hill Road, where the creek traverses an emerging wetland before emptying into Lake Hamilton.
The money is part of the $668,000 in TAP grants awarded to the city during the federal government's 2016 fiscal year. The city was also awarded a $120,000 grant to extend sidewalks into the neighborhoods near Hot Springs Middle School, and a $48,000 grant to build a 2.5-mile trail in the Northwoods area near the Lakeside Water Treatment Plant.
Parks and Trails Director Jean Wallace said Visit Hot Springs and the Hot Springs Board of Directors were instrumental in securing the grants. The trail projects they'll support are contingent on receiving affordable construction bids, she said.
The city has a $121,000 share of the 80-20 reimbursement grant for the Hot Springs Creek project, with the Friends of the Park nonprofit committing $10,000 to help with the city's obligation.
Wallace said the Parks and Trails Department has been authorized to advertise construction bids for the trail segment a fiscal year 2015 TAP grant will fund. It will take the trail about two-thirds of a mile from Seneca Street to 800 feet past the Golf Links Road bridge that spans the creek.
The area's topography requires an elevated trail segment featuring a concrete boardwalk made to look like wood that will thread through the tree canopy. A road crossing will give pedestrians and bicyclists access from Golf Links.
The grant awarded earlier this month will complete the final three-fourths of a mile of the 4-mile trail. The 12-foot shared-use asphalt trail will accommodate bicycling, walking, hiking, running and feature two pedestrian bridges. It will end at an emerging wetland that gives onto a Lake Hamilton bay Wallace said is a spawning ground for fish.
Wallace said the area has been identified as an "emergent wetland" but could be a revitalized one that's re-emerging from the adverse effects of nearby development. She said an elevated boardwalk is envisioned for the wetland area, with interpretive signs that explain its ecology.
"It could be re-emerging," she said. "It's boggy and has wetland plants and grasses. Through the years with the siltation from the creek and the development of the property adjacent to Lake Hamilton, a lot of wetlands have been destroyed or filled in."
The wetland identification qualifies the area for grants previously unavailable to the Parks and Trails Department, Wallace said. A lack of grant money in the 1990s, coupled with the rigorous documentation inherent to grant administration, contributed to the Hot Springs Creek project extending across two decades, she said.
"In the '90s, there was no trail grant money," she said. "There was a drought of fund availability."
Northwoods
A $48,000 grant will help build a 2.5-mile trail in the Northwoods, which the city identified in 2001 as a trail destination. The Student Conservation Association built a trail through the old growth forest in 2014, and bids have been let for another trail funded by the city.
Wallace said there are plans to build a family friendly, handicap-accessible trail along the old fire road that forms the majority of Snakehead Trail.
"Everybody's intent is that it stays as natural and wild as possible," she said, explaining that motorized vehicles and kayaking and sailing in the Northwood's three city-owned lakes will be prohibited.
Public access to the area is prohibited, but a feasibility study funded by a $15,000 Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism grant matched by Visit Hot Springs is assessing the potential of an urban forest park.
Visit Hot Springs has contracted with the International Mountain Biking Association to develop bike trails in the Northwoods. The group has designated the city as a bronze-level Ride Center for the diversity of biking trails its topography supports. Wallace said the Northwoods could include an area for mountain bikers to camp.
Wallace said a trail could eventually link the Northwoods with the Lake Ouachita Vista Trail by way of nearby Cedar Glades Park. The first half could trace the city's easement for the 24-inch raw waterline connecting the Lake Ricks Reservoir to the Lakeside Treatment Plant.
Local on 09/25/2016