By Carson Lambert

clambert@civitasmedia.com

Senn
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/web1_Foster-Senn-2-.jpgSenn

NEWBERRY — Newberry City Council met this week in an attempt to come to a consensus regarding the proposed trails project. Their goal was stated at the outset by City Manager Al Harvey.

“We would like direction from you (the council), but in terms of going to bids or going to something like that, no, we’re a long ways from that,” he said.

A presentation from Blake Sanders of Alta Planning and Design was followed by a general discussion.

Sanders’ presentation featured the designs (complete with cost estimates) for two biking/walking trails which would connect certain residential areas to downtown Newberry,.

“We want to develop a greenway that enhances the city’s identity, provides a route for recreation and transportation, and becomes the new means by which people experience Newberry,” Sanders said.

The proposed trails would be located in the West End and the vicinity of Marion Davis Park respectively. The designs were sectioned off and each piece came complete with its own price tag.

The cost would depend on each section’s particular needs as well as type of materials. These include grass, concrete, pavement and boardwalk.

A common thoroughfare offered by Alta is a “shared-use path,” which is built 10 ft. wide to facilitate two-way traffic.

“That 10 ft. allows what we call the eight to 80 range. If you’re eight years old or 80 years old you can use that and you can use it in both directions,” Sanders said.

This city had budgeted $300,000 for the project and hope for an additional $100,000 from a Recreational Trails Program grant. The cost of the complete design was just over $2,000,000.

“We did not have any idea what this would cost, no idea,” said Mayor Foster Senn. “I appreciate Blake (Sanders) coming, it’s a beautiful plan, but it is eye opening on how much it costs and that was something we were not prepared for.”

Councilman David DuBose echoed Foster’s sentiment.

“If this was a perfect world I’d go for every bit of it. All this totals up to$2 million, I just don’t see how we can do all that,” he said.

However, Assistant City Manager Matt Dewitt emphasized that the trails do not need to purchased in their entirety, but could be sold piecemeal.

If certain sections were considered essential and therefore not eligible to exempt, there are certain cost-saving measures which could be considered.

“You could do, in the intermediate, a grass walkway with signage,” Dewitt said.

The plan being to later develop these sections as funding became available.

Another cost-saving measure could be to mark certain areas as “bike boulevards.”

“It’s an area where you have very very low traffic and can implement simple signage and pavement markings to let people know that this road is used (by) less than 500 cars a day and it’s OK to walk down the shoulder here, it’s OK to push your stroller on the edge of the roadway, it’s OK to ride your bike down the center of the lane,” Sanders said.

Harvey reiterated that the original $300,000 was never intended to finance the entire trail system, but merely intended as a jumping off point to begin development.

It was the disposition of council that Sanders should return at a later time with a new proposal tailored down to fit the city’s budget.

Reach Carson Lambert at 803-276-0625, ext. 1868, or on Twitter @TheNBOnews.