The Northern Virginia Daily

Article date: March 26, 2008

Supervisors apply for grant to fund trails along river

By: Robert King

Warren County is pursuing grant funding to construct trails next to the Shenandoah River.

The Board of Supervisors applied for a grant from the Virginia Department of Recreation that would reimburse part of a trails project for the Eastham property along Luray Avenue near the river.

The 15-acre site would also include a dog park and multipurpose athletic field.

Front Royal is working with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland fisheries to improve a boat landing there. The county has dedicated funds to construct a parking lot for the landing.

The town is also working to create a bike/walking trail leading from the police station on Main Street to the boat landing.

The county hopes to create its own trail that would link up with the towns.  The proposed trail would also tie into a future trail at the Avtex site.

The Avtex plant off Kendrick lane produced rayon and other synthetics from 1940 to 1989.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared the plant a Superfund site in 1986.

A massive cleanup continues at the site of the former plant, which is now called Royal Phoenix.  The county and town hope to house an industrial park and wildlife conservancy area there.

The county’s proposed trail would hook up with a trail in the wildlife conservancy area, and would also wind along the South Fork of the Shenandoah River, according to the grant application.

“Amenities will be included such as bike racks,” said County Administrator Douglas P. Stanley.

There will also be four benches for resting places along the trail, which once completed would stretch for 1,883 feet.

“The proposed trail would be eight feet wide and have a firm and stable surface,” the application reads.

The county aims to start construction six months after the grant is awarded.  If the county gets the grant, it would begin construction between April and June of 2009, the grant application reads.

If the county received the grant, it wouldn’t get the money up front.  The state would reimburse it for roughly 80 percent of the project’s cost, estimated to be $130,809, Stanley said.

The county would pay $26,274 of the project, and the state would contribute $104,534, according to the grant application.

“We would know before starting the project whether or not we would get [the grant],” said Susan Musante, a county grants and special projects coordinator.

The county funding will come from a special projects fund, Stanley said.  “We have some money set aside,” he said.