Greene County Receives Grants to Extend Greene River Trail Near
Rices Landing
Washington PA Observer-Reporter
25 October 2016
By Bob Niedbala
RICES LANDING – Greene County Commissioner Blair Zimmerman was
jogging on Greene River Trail Monday afternoon when, he said, he
received a call informing him the county received a $200,000 state
grant to extend the trail another 2.2 miles.
“It was pretty exciting,” he said about the news he received in
that call from state Rep. Pam Snyder. “I thought it was very
fitting that she should call to tell me that at the same time I
was out on the trail for a run.”
The grant from the Commonwealth Financing Authority will enable
the county to complete the first extension of the trail since the
last extension was done in 2007.
The trail now runs about 5.1 miles along the banks of the
Monongahela River from Greene Cove Yacht Club in Millsboro to the
old Crucible Ferry near Crucible. The extension will bring the
trail to an area near Jacobs Ferry Road and Stringtown Road.
The commissioners had been attempting to obtain the property to
extend the trail for about eight years and accomplished the
acquisition in June at a cost of $32,000. The engineering design
of the extension already is completed and the grant money will be
used for construction, county recreation director Jake Blaker
said.
“We are going to start clearing and grubbing this fall,” Blaker
said. “The timeline is to finish in the spring, if everything goes
as planned.”
The new section of trail borders the river.
“It’s a beautiful area,” Zimmerman said. “It’s going to be nice
for people who bike, and for people who run, who like the extra
length.”
With the completion of the extension, the trail will stretch more
than 7 miles. Zimmerman thanked Snyder, D-Jefferson, and state
Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Carroll Township, for their assistance
in obtaining the grant.
Two other grants from the Commonwealth Finance Authority also were
announced Monday.
Rices Landing Borough will receive a $50,000 grant to dredge the
area of the Pumpkin Run Boat launch. The borough has been unable
to install its public docks because of significant silting in
Pumpkin Run.
Washington Township received a $15,180 grant under the sewage
facilities program to complete an Act 537 Sewage Facilities Plan
to address malfunctioning on-lot septic systems in the area around
the Interstate 79 interchange at Ruff Creek.
The Commonwealth Financing Authority is an independent agency
created to administer a variety of the state’s funding programs
designed to help grow the economy, create jobs and improve
cultural and recreational resources. Funding for the projects
comes from Act 13 Marcellus Shale impact fees.