PATH April 2023 Newsletter

Connecting Communities Across Georgia with 314 Miles of Trails

Eastside Trolley Trail at Arkwright Place

PATH Foundation

A Non-Profit Organization Dedicated to Planning and Building Greenway Trails

Greene County Firefly Trail

Trail enthusiasts rejoice! Another great rail-trail is in the making. PATH is partnering with Greene County and other local trail proponents to build the Firefly Trail in east-central Georgia. Greene County has teamed with PATH and Lewallen Construction to complete the segment from Woodville to Union Point. When completed, the Firefly will connect Athens to Union Point, a distance of 39 miles. The majority of the Firefly is being constructed on the abandoned Norfolk Southern rail corridor.

Byron Lombard, Greene County manager, says people are already using sections of the trail that are completed. “People in rural areas need places to recreate and exercise too,” he explained. “Greene County citizens will be just as appreciative of their trail as people in the city.”

Lewallen Construction is building the first phase of the Firefly and will be using the same slip-form paving machine they used to build the Silver Comet Trail. They are under contract with Greene County who successfully competed for a Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Program (GOSP) grant. This section will be six miles long when complete.

The Firefly is being built to many of the same design standards used to build the Silver Comet. Soon, trail enthusiasts will have another great trail to ride in Georgia. “I’ve been the Greene County manager since 1997,” Byron

said. “When I retire, I think I will be very proud to have worked on the Firefly.”

Future segments of the Firefly will include the support of Oglethorpe, and Clarke counties as well as the cities of Woodville, Stephens, Crawford, Arnoldsville, and Winterville. Union Point previously completed a mile within their city limits and Clarke County has completed another small phase near Athens.

The Firefly will also serve as part of the Georgia Hi-Lo Trail, an initiative to connect Athens to Savannah (See article on page 4). l

Proposed Emory Trail Extensions

Emory and PATH are proposing to expand the trail system on and near the campus by building a trail along South Peachtree Creek that connects to existing trails built by the partnership in 2018.

PATH will take advantage of DeKalb County’s plan to repair the existing sewer that parallels the creek. The proposed trail could be built largely on previously disturbed land including existing trails. This will also allow access for maintenance and monitoring the sewer.

To participate in the planning process contact Eric Ganther (eric@pathfoundation.org) for meeting information.

Georgia Hi-Lo Trail

The effort to connect Athens and Savannah with a trail is being promoted by Mary Charles Howard, a landscape architect living in Sandersville. The Hi-Lo Trail would utilize the Firefly Trail from Athens to Union Point then make its way through rural eastern Georgia to Savannah, creating over 200 miles in total. PATH is helping Mary master plan the best route to pursue for the segment from Union Point to Savannah.

Chamblee Rail Trail

PATH planners and trail designers are working with the staff and citizens of Chamblee to develop a plan to retrofit Chamblee with a trail system. The process began July of 2022 and is scheduled to be completed in April 2023. There have been three public meetings where PATH staff introduced preliminary plans, proposed branding ideas and design specifications. The final plan is scheduled to be presented to the city for adoption later this month. The city previously developed a trail on the abandoned CSX track right-of-way that crosses under Peachtree Boulevard east of Clairmont. The model project will be built along Nancy Creek in north Chamblee. The PATH plan will also include extending the existing trail to Keswick Park and building trails to the growing apartment and condominium complexes on the southside.

Dunwoody Trailways

The City of Dunwoody and the PATH planning team began working on a trail master plan for the citizens of Dunwoody in September of 2022. The first public meeting was held in December where significant concerns were heard about some of the proposals introduced. After the public meeting, the PATH team met with city staff and changes were made to the plan. These revisions were shared with the public in February. The revised plan is scheduled to be adopted by the City Council in May.

Any trail system planned for Dunwoody will include connections to the PATH400 trail, currently being built alongside Georgia 400. l

Eastside Trolley Trail

Pete Pellegrini, PATH project manager, says the Eastside Trolley Trail phase under construction between Coan Park and Flat Shoals Avenue will be complete early this summer. It will be an extension of the trail segment built by PATH prior to the Olympics in 1996 which started in Kirkwood and ended on the western side of Coan Park. The trail closely follows the right-of-way established over a hundred years ago for the Atlanta-Decatur Trolley line.

Sandy SpringsMorgan Falls

PATH completed a trail master plan for the city of Sandy Springs in 2019 which was adopted in October of 2019. On December 6, 2022, the City held a ceremony at the ground breaking of the first trail segment identified in the plan.

The segment now under construction will connect the Morgan Falls Recreation Area to Roswell Road. Perhaps the most dramatic feature of this phase will be the boardwalk across Orkin Lake at the Edgewater apartment complex.

Future phases of the project will terminate in downtown Decatur, after passing through the Oakhurst commercial district and Agnes Scott College. Future extensions to the west will cross Moreland Avenue at Arkwright Place and terminate at the Atlanta BeltLine at Mauldin Street.

The phase completed before the Olympics was funded by the Transportation Enhancement Program supplemented by your donations to PATH. The current phase is being funded by the City of Atlanta TSPLOST allocation and donor contributions to PATH.

Funding for the Morgan Falls to Roswell Road segment is being provided by the city and a grant from the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Program (GOSP). Your contributions to PATH provide project management services.

SCAN TO SEE THE PROGRESS!

SCAN TO FLYOVER!

CONSTRUCTION UPDATE

PATH400

Construction activity abounds on the PATH400 trail. GDOT is in the final stages of completing the section of PATH400 that weaves through the new Georgia 400/Interstate 285 interchange. Meanwhile the City of Atlanta has begun construction on the Wieuca Road to Loridans Drive segment.

The connection through the new GA 400/I-285 interchange will be important to commuters traveling from the northern suburbs of Atlanta to the growing employment center near the Perimeter MARTA station.

Livable Buckhead, PATH, the cities of Atlanta and Sandy Springs, and GDOT have been working together for over ten years to build a trail parallel to Georgia 400. Your donations to PATH have been the catalyst to making this happen. l

What’s Coming Next:

Northwest BeltLine

Silver Comet Connector

Journey to the Top

“If you see a decent gas station pull in. Sorry but I need to use the restroom again.” Greta was trying some hydrating diet to get skinny so we were having to stop about every 50 miles in order for her to use the facility. We were on one of our many trips to the low country to share our trail planning skills. This is perhaps the craziest memory I have of the twenty-five plus years Greta and I traveled through the southeast planning, designing, and retrofitting trails in cities where previous transportation planning had all been car centric. (I did ask Greta to leave her gallon jug of water at home on future trips.)

A couple of years earlier, Greta had come to me with the idea of forming her own planning and design firm to serve PATH’s needs. I encouraged her to proceed with her plans and KAIZEN Collaborative was born.

We learned a lot from each other on these trips. Greta absorbed everything I knew about building trails

and I learned a lot about planning and design. We tagteamed our presentations; Greta dazzled the crowds with her planning and design skills, and I would tell about my successful journey at PATH. We were an awesome team, which brings me to the subject of this musing: Greta was the only choice for my successor when I retired.

When a director of 30 years steps down, more often than not, organizations like PATH hire a search firm at a considerable cost, to scour the country for a suitable replacement. The person selected may be good at interviewing, have a great personality, and have the necessary skillset for the job, but lack the passion that was present when the organization was founded. Greta not only has the needed skillset, she developed a passion for doing the job long before it was offered to her.

Our other choice was to promote somebody from within to lead PATH. As many of you know PATH had exactly three full

time employees, including me. Fellow-founder Pete Pellegrini certainly knows how to build trails and has the necessary passion, but promoting him to director would have left his position open, creating a huge void in the organization’s ability to deliver trails. Two out of three people would have been new to their jobs.

There are so many reasons our board chose Greta to replace me when I retired. For over twenty years, everyone had witnessed firsthand, her skills and passion for trails. She also had all the ‘pedigrees’ in city planning and landscape architecture that I never had. And then there’s the fact that she was my first choice of candidates to succeed me. She’s persistent: more than once I had to kick her under the table in meeting with municipal officials for not taking no for an answer.

I’m proud of the decision we made to bring Greta on board as long as she leaves the water jug behind.

PATH Foundation

1601 West Peachtree Street

Atlanta, GA 30309

PATH Foundation Board of Directors

Charlie Shufeldt, Chairman

Alexander C. Taylor, Vice Chairman

Jennifer Dorian, Secretary

Harry L. Anderson, Treasurer

William C. Fowler

B. Harvey Hill, Jr.

Jaime Hockin

Ciannat Howett

James C. Kennedy

Sarah K. Kennedy

Scott Kitchens

E. Cody Laird, Jr.

Stephen Lanier

Tree McGlown

Lyle Ross

John W. Somerhalder II

C. Austin Stephens

Richard Tyler

Lauren Wilson

Sam Friedman, Emeritus Chairman

W. Douglas Ellis, Jr., Emeritus

Carol Muldawer, Emeritus

Greta deMayo, Executive Director

Ed McBrayer, Executive Advisor

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