Watt Loop Trail Project Input Opportunity
Earlier this year, local citizens participated in a survey and community meeting to develop a “vision plan” for the former depot and industrial area near downtown.
One suggested idea from the work developed by Atlas Community Studios Coordinator Jamie Greene and Crystal Lorimor, director of the Community Improvement Corporation of Belmont County, was an extension of the current trail from downtown, through the tunnel and past the depot up through the former Watt Car property and on to Barnesville Memorial Park. Read more on that initiative as covered by Barnesville Area News here.
At the September 8 council meeting, Mayor Jake Hershberger shared that through an Ohio Mayors Association, he secured the gratis service of a planning and design firm from Columbus, Designing Local LTD, to move the proposed trail forward to the design step.
First, on the agenda, however, is obtaining citizen and user input to help guide that design.
Last month, Matt Leasure, design director for Designing Local, and Joe Johnson, landscape architect, visited Barnesville to inspect the site and stopped in at both the Barnesville Depot and Watt Center.
Representatives of the firm will be in town next Saturday, September 26, to collect thoughts and ideas on developing the plan. They’ll start out that morning at the Watt Center for the launch of the Pumpkin Festival 5K Run. After the race, they’ll either move the collection table to the depot or downtown near the office of Joe’s Tire.
Below is the handout Hershberger distributed at the council meeting.
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