John Wayne Pioneer Trail Reconnection Route

Home Browse Search

Once the John Wayne/ Ellensburg Greenway Trail is built, the operation and maintenance of the trail could be shared amongst the City, theUniversiv, and the State Parks Department. 'Me City of Ellensburg would be the primary beneficiary of the trail system, and the trail would be an urban linear park much like the Centennial trail in Spokane, theYakima River Greenway; and the Burke Gilman Trail in Seattle. The local Parks, Police and Public 'Mocks Departments have operations and maintenance crews that could be funded to handle trail cle•ir, r g, snow removal, security and enformcement. Presently these resources are overcommit- ted so additional fiends and personnel would be required to sufficiently handle increased workloads of taking care of a new 6 mile Luban greenway. Kitdtas County is supportive of the John Wayne Trail Connection, but they do not want to have to spend scarce resources on any development, construction or maintenance costs. The County's share would be in acquiring the Bowers Road land and preserving the right -of way and then seeing bow best to use that land part for road, part for utilities and a trail as an easement on top of the uLdity corridor. Rasmussen Road is also an essential part of the trail which could be provided by the County with sufficient RfW acquisition. Washington State Parks now maintains the JWT from Thorp through Ellensburg and east to the Columbia River, but only is staffed with one maintenance person. While their continued stewardship of the rural trail is critical, the local agencies would need to take on increased urban recreational trail maintenance. Central Washington University's grounds crews may be able to allocate time for trail maintenance, noxious weed control, litter pickup, mowiR , and landscape maintenance if suffi- cient funds are made available. j"ohn Wcgne Pioneer Trail Reconnection Study Final Report September 2001 59