Thursday, January 07, 2010
Metro columnist Dan Casey: Path less traveled has become well traveled
Dan Casey is The Roanoke Times' metro columnist.
dan.casey
@roanoke.com
981-3423
Dan Casey
Recent columns
- There's a slip twixt cup, lip for Roanoke coffee shop owner
- 82 years of food fit for the King
- At work, on floor, in life: Rick Schmitt had all the right moves
Read Dan's blog
In the chilling cold on Tuesday, a small and hardy band gathered near Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital to cut a ribbon on the shortest "new" stretch of linear park in the Roanoke Valley Greenway system.
A mere 600 feet long, it ducks under three overpasses and crosses over a large storm water gulley that gushes into the Roanoke River.
But the tiny segment serves as a huge symbol of how far things have progressed for Roanoke Valley greenways in the past 15 years.
What was once zero miles of linear parks in Roanoke has grown into 15 miles of paved greenways, seven miles of cinder paths and many more miles of natural-surface trails spread through Roanoke, Roanoke County, Vinton and Salem
It seems hard to believe, if you recall the whimper the movement began with back in October 1994. I do.
Proponents called a meeting at the Virginia Museum of Transportation to announce their advocacy. It was greeted with eye-rolling by many local officials.
They were no doubt well aware of eight previous but fizzled attempts, dating to 1908, to develop a system of linear parks in Roanoke.
Those plans accomplished little more than collecting dust on shelves already crammed with other studies and unrealized schemes.
"At that point, nobody knew what a greenway was," said Lucy Ellett, a past president for Valley Beautiful. She was one of the folks who helped spearhead the push for greenways.
Ellett got involved after she received a letter from Bob Fetzer, a local builder and greenways advocate. At the time, "I didn't even know him," she said.
Progress came in bits and starts. That year, the city council directed the city administration to budget future funding for greenways.
But the promise seemed to fall apart less than six months later when the council dropped greenways funding during 1995 budget deliberations because of a familiar reason: Roanoke County and Salem had failed to authorize any greenways funding.
Instead, the three governments, along with Vinton, formed a greenways commission. It seemed like yet another boring committee that would produce little but hot air.
But in the summer of 1996, after prodding by activists, the commission made its smartest move ever: For the paltry salary of $27,500, it hired forester Liz Belcher as the valley's greenways coordinator.
That's when greenways in the Roanoke Valley really took off. Progress hasn't stopped since.
Belcher, now 57, soon learned what a sticky web she'd walked into. After all, valley governments' record of cooperation was more akin to the Hatfields and McCoys than anything else.
As she quietly networked elected and appointed local, state and federal officials, Belcher also worked hard at building grass-roots support throughout the valley.
She persuaded businesses, such as Novazymes, to commit funding. Lanford Bros. paving, Adams Construction, Branch Highways and others volunteered labor and equipment.
She built Pathfinders for Greenways, an organization of residents who in recent years have volunteered 3,000 to 5,000 hours annually in grant-writing and trail planning, building and clearing.
That success has caused others to climb on the greenways bandwagon.
In the past three years, Valley Forward has raised $95,000 through an annual 5K race, Gallop for the Greenways.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke County, worked with the Army Corps of Engineer to assure that the Roanoke River Greenway would be included in its river flood reduction work.
The other grass-roots aspect happened more organically: People began using the trails and discovering the quality of life they add to this valley. Thousands of people use them now.
Where things go from here is not really up in the air, at least in the short term.
By this time next year, three new pedestrian bridges will cross the Roanoke River as that greenway proceeds west toward a linkup with a riverside path being now paved by Salem.
To the east, the greenway will be extended a mile to connect with the Tinker Creek Greenway in Southeast Roanoke.
Belcher, who now earns $52,000 annually, says there's a real possibility that by 2012 there will be 19 miles of unbroken paved greenway from Green Hill Park in West Roanoke County to Southeast Roanoke.
It's a huge improvement -- and something to cheer for.
