Jun. 19—Plans for the Lake Metroparks bike- and pedestrian-friendly Lakefront Path kicked into high gear as the park system took steps to accept donated property access for the trail. Also, Gov. Mike DeWine signed a state capital budget that awarded $400,000 for the project.

At their June 15 meeting, the Lake Metroparks Board of Park Commissioners authorized Executive Director Paul Palagyi to accept the donation of a perpetual trail easement from Kurtz Brothers, an Independence-based company which owns the property directly west of Painesville Township Park. The easement will permanently guarantee Lake Metroparks access to build and maintain a publicly accessible trail along the lake even though it does not own the property, which will become the site of a new dredging facility.

Palagyi and Lake Metroparks Deputy Director Vince Urbanski said that the dredging facility and the trail will not interfere with one another.

"We are very thankful to Kurtz Brothers, Inc. for donating this permanent easement for the trail," said John Redmond, president of the park board. "This important donation ... will allow us to continue enhancing connectivity among our parks and will provide park visitors with amazing access to our greatest natural resource — Lake Erie."

Jason Ziss, who works in business development for Kurtz Brothers, said, "It was just an absolute pleasure to work with the Lake County Metroparks to, essentially, work together on a program that ties in a trail with the beneficial reuse of Grand River sediment that serves as a water quality protection for Lake Erie."

Palagyi explained that Kurtz Brothers will remove soil that the Grand River deposits near Lake Erie and sell it back onto the market, returning it to the local communities where it originated.

Palagyi also noted that the Lake Development Authority helped facilitate the easement donation, including David Anderson, the executive director and a former mayor of Willoughby, and Patrick Mohoric, director of public finance and chief financial officer.

"The Metroparks has really been the lead around this, so I certainly appreciate Paul Palagyi's efforts and the board's efforts there, and I can tell you this has been a real priority for our board also, so I think everybody is really happy to see this moving forward," Anderson said.

Urbanski said that the path will start at the circular turnaround on the Painesville Township Park pier access ramp and head west along the shoreline. It will be 10 feet wide and made of asphalt, open to bicyclists and pedestrians and constructed to Ohio Department of Transportation standards. Benches with shade canopies will be available at the side of the trail, and a fence will be built to protect bicyclists from falling onto the rocky erosion barrier.

The park system has tentative plans to begin construction on the first phase in spring 2023, with Urbanski providing an anticipated completion date of fall 2023. He expects the first phase to cost somewhere between $750,000 and $1 million, though he noted that was just a "best guess" as bidding for the project has not begun. The park system is working with Akron-based Environmental Design Group for engineering work.

According to Urbanski, this phase will be paid for by federal funds that were secured in the 2000s by former Rep. Steve LaTourette and saved for use on the Greenway Corridor and other Lake Metroparks trails.

Additionally, earlier this month, the state legislature passed a capital budget that awarded Lake Metroparks $400,000 for the project's second phase. Palagyi noted the roles that state Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, state Reps. Jamie Callender, R-Concord Township, and Dan Troy, D-Willowick, and DeWine all played in securing this funding.

"We are very excited about the opportunity to start working on a public trail along Lake Erie and this funding...(will) help move that project along and create a great amenity for Lake County residents," Palagyi said. "We sincerely appreciate the support the project received from Senator Cirino as well as Representatives Callender and Troy and Governor DeWine."

The second phase will cover the remainder of the Kurtz property and is currently in the concept stage. This phase is expected to be more expensive than the first, as it will require a 700- to 800-foot erosion wall that Urbanski estimated could cost between $3 million to $3.5 million. The trail and grading will require an estimated $1.5 million to $2 million. Construction will not start on this phase until 2024 at the earliest, and Urbanski noted that the specific pricing and timing will depend upon what type of barrier the park system needs to construct.

Beyond that, Lake Metroparks envisions eventually extending the Lakefront Path in two more phases to become a 2.5-mile trail that will link Painesville Township Park to Fairport Harbor. This portion of the trail will cross over the former Diamond Shamrock property. According to Palagyi, much of the trail is already a flat roadway, which will not be too difficult to fashion into a paved trail.

Palagyi explained that the trail will provide opportunities for activities such as walking, jogging, biking, birdwatching, fishing, watching storms and viewing sunsets. Based on his research, Palagyi believes a paved trail this long and this close to the lake, with an unobstructed view of the lake, will be rare, if not unique, on the Great Lakes.

"The opportunities there from a trail would be pretty impressive," Palagyi said.