Trail Activities and Issues |
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Home » Luzerne County » Departments/Agencies » Parks and Recreation » Trails » Trail Activities and Issues |
Activities
- Increasing Trail Connectivity in residential areas: PEC is beginning the process of preparing Trail/Greenway Master plans for City of Wilkes-Barre and the Greater Kingston Area. The purpose of these plans is to connect residential areas and recreational amenities to existing and planned trails and greenways. The Trail/Greenway Master plans will propose a set of both short and longer off-street trails and road and sidewalk improvements to improve the mobility of area residents as well as tourists and provide additional recreational opportunities to walk and bike.
- User Counts: The Greater Hazleton Rail-Trail, PEC and the Wyoming Valley Wellness Trails Partnership will be instituting a program of counting trail users via portable infrared trail counters. These trail user counts will establish a baseline of trail usage which will assist in future trail planning and grant applications. The Greater Hazleton Rail-Trail has piloted this project, and developed expertise in installing and using the counters, and will assist in helping the Back Mountain Trail and Susquehanna Warrior Trail install the counters as well.
- Annual Maintenance: Open trails require annual maintenance, such as leaf raking, grass cutting, debris removal and signage repair. The Back Mountain Trail, Greater Hazleton Rails to Trails, and Susquehanna Warrior Trail, and Luzerne County National Recreation Trail use volunteers to help perform this maintenance. Contact the trail councils to volunteer.
Issues
- Occasional larger maintenance concerns of the open trails include repairing damage from flooding and vandalism. These types of damage are not part of a trail organization’s budget, and can cause a trail to close for a number of months. Damage from floods in June of 2006 caused a bridge washout on the Back Mountain Trail, and trail washout on the Penobscot Ridge Mountain Bike Trail, as well as other damage throughout Luzerne County trails.
- A number of trail organizations need to raise money to meet annual insurance costs. The combined yearly insurance cost for local trail organizations is over $20,000 dollars. These costs are hard for small community based organizations to address, especially as they need to be paid before a facility is built, sometimes for many years.
- Luzerne County will be completing a Recreation Feasibility Study. This study will identify options that Luzerne County government can use to become to help support trail as well as park maintenance and management activities. The findings of this study may impact the local trail organizations and their activities for the upcoming year.
- It is challenging to maintain interest and momentum in trail projects during the many years between the project idea and its construction. This challenge can also continue during project construction, as it can be many years between Phase 1 and Phase 2 construction.
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Last Updated: Thu Feb 14 14:32:25 EST 2008
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