FAYETTEVILLE — A $2 million grant from the Walton Family Foundation would help the city build a 2.7-mile trail connecting neighborhoods in the south part of town to Kessler Mountain and the regional park expected to open this fall, city officials said this week.
The Cato Springs Trail would run from the Town Branch Trail near 15th Street to the park in the city’s southwest corner, including tunnels under Razorback Road and Interstate 49 and a bridge over the Fulbright Expressway.
Fayetteville City Council
When: 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 5
Where: Room 219, City Hall, 113 W. Mountain St.
On the agenda: Besides the trail grants, the council will also discuss a $2.5 million contract for a Rupple Road widening project and an extension of the Chamber of Commerce’s contract for economic development services for the city.
Source: Staff report
The City Council is set to decide Tuesday whether to accept the grant and begin the project, along with a smaller state grant for a Lake Fayetteville boardwalk.
“It’s going to make a really safe, nice trail,” city trails coordinator Matt Mihalevich said, adding the grant gave the city the ability to go the full distance to the park area. “It has some involved features, so we’re very fortunate to have assistance from the Walton Family Foundation on this.”
Construction by city and contractor crews could begin on the Cato Springs path within a week or two and wrap up about a year from now if all goes smoothly, Mihalevich said. The city would match the grant with $2 million from its capital improvement program for trail work, financial director Paul Becker told the council.
Once built, the trail would begin at the southernmost end of the 37-mile Razorback Greenway, extending the shared-use trail two years after it officially opened. The Walton foundation contributed about $15 million in that $37 million project and has long supported other public projects in the region.
City officials previously said they plan to open the first phase of Fayetteville’s regional park in August or September with six full-sized soccer fields and four baseball fields. Several city youth sports programs will begin shifting to the park then, and the city hopes to attract tournaments using all of its fields.
The council on Tuesday will also vote on a $56,000 grant from the Arkansas Recreational Trails Program, part of the state Highway and Transportation Department, for a boardwalk along parts of Lake Fayetteville’s eastern shore near the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks. The city would match the grant with $14,000 of its own, according to city documents.
The project stems from a 2014 revision to the garden’s lease agreement with the city that led to relocating part of the trail around the lake, park maintenance superintendent Byron Humphry said Friday. At the time of the agreement, Humphry said a boardwalk would protect a wetland in the area while keeping the trail open to the public.
Dan Holtmeyer can be reached at dholtmeyer@nwadg.com and on Twitter @NWADanH.