Rogers names trails for new signs

ROGERS -- The City Council approved naming 29 trails as part of a wayfinding system during its meeting Tuesday.

Nathan Becknell, city project manager, said a grant from the Walton Family Foundation allows the city to purchase 20 wayfinding signs for $46,000.

The signs will direct users to trails in the city, Becknell said.

Mayor Greg Hines said developing a system making trails user-friendly is a new task for the city.

"If you don't make the trails easy to use, you are going to lose commerce," Hines said. "Folks are traveling from around the country to use these trails. It's hard to understand sometimes what these trails really mean for our economy."

The city doesn't have a process in place for naming trails, Chris Griffin, staff attorney said.

Griffin said neither city nor state law define how a trail should be named. The Parks Commission met to decide on the names, he said. It then recommended the names and a trail map to the council.

A majority of the names picked by the committee are simple and easy to use, Becknell said. He said there are a few that are creative.

Becknell said Trails of Two Cities is one name the committee decided to use. He said the trail connects between Rogers and Bentonville. Other names include Blossom Way Trail, Frisco Springs Connector and Osage Creek Trail.

Trail names will likely be added to the city's street plan in the future, Griffin said. He said it makes sense to have modes of transportation in one place.

A letter sent to the city by Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission states the signs are being purchased by money donated by the Walton Family Foundation for the Northwest Arkansas Razorback Greenway project. It states the money is surplus from construction of the trail system.

Overall about $248,000 is being donated to six cities in Northwest Arkansas for 141 signs. The cities include Fayetteville, Johnson, Springdale and Lowell.

Hines said regional officials are also planning a phone app to help connect users to trails throughout the region.

NW News on 05/11/2016

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