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Oldsmar to link neighborhoods, parks
By MEGAN SCOTT OLDSMAR -- Imagine being able to walk or ride your bike from Forest Lakes to Canal Park without worrying about having to share the road with cars and trucks. That's what city officials hope will happen with construction of the Oldsmar Trail, a proposed bicycling and pedestrian path that would connect the city's neighborhoods to its parks. Plans call for the trail to run along the southern end of the city and connect R.E. Olds Park, Sheffield Park, Harbor Palms Nature Park and Canal Park. Eventually, the trail could reach East Lake Road and the Pinellas-Hillsborough line. "The goal is to connect Oldsmar parks together without ending up going across the major highways that split Oldsmar," said Lynn Rives, director of parks and recreation. "What eventually we hope will happen is we'll have a trail from the Brooker Creek Preserve down to the Mobbly Bayou Preserve and it will connect to all parks in the city." Consultants have until Jan. 31 to submit their proposals for providing design and planning services to develop the Oldsmar Trail master plan. The top three firms will then make presentations on Feb. 11 to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. A design contract is expected to be issued by the council on March 25. Developing the trail is expected to take six years and to cost a total of $950,000, according to the city's capital improvement plan for 2002-2008. An initial funding of $50,000 was included in this year's capital budget. After that, the city plans to spend $100,000 a year on the trail until the 2007-08 fiscal year, when $500,000 is budgeted. The city anticipates using current revenues, as well as state and federal aid to pay for the trail. "It's spread out over several years in the capital budget," said Rives. "We're going to hopefully move forward with various stages on an annual basis. We're going to do several segments of it each year. A lot depends on grants and what we have available." Parts of the Oldsmar Trail are already in place, said Rives, noting that Harbor Palms Nature Park and the Eastlake Oaks subdivision have their own small trails. Two years ago, the city constructed a pedestrian bridge over Moccasin Creek, connecting two small trails that officials envision will be part of the Oldsmar Trail. "The Oldsmar Trail is actually there," said council member Brian Michaels. "You can visit it anywhere in the city of Oldsmar because it's right outside your door. You just need to mark it. The pavement's there in some places. In other places, it's grass."
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From the Times |
