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Proposed Morehead trail seeking funding

Scott Davidson, The TrailBlazer

A newly proposed Morehead trail would offer students the ability to walk from campus all the way to Buffalo Wild Wings.

The trail will lead from the Memorial Tree Walk in City Park and travel alongside Triplett Creek until its end at the shopping plaza that contains the Morehead Cinema and Buffalo Wild Wings. A total of only 1.1 miles if a student began walking at ADUC, the trail would offer a 12-15 minute walk from campus to the shopping plaza.

“Only about 40 percent of registered MSU students have parking passes on campus,” explained Scott Davison, a philosophy professor at MSU and the president of Rails to Trails. “Students could walk there and back in about 12-15 minutes without driving.”

This trail, dubbed Triplett Valley Trail, will run along an abandoned railway, and various groups in Morehead have been trying for nearly 25 years to have a trail along it. However, it is not set in stone quite yet. With the assistance of the Gateway Area Development District staff, Rails to Trails, a local nonprofit, has applied for a Recreational Trails Program Grant with the City of Morehead. They will not know if the grant is awarded until October of this year, but if it is, they will receive $250k to make the trail proposal into a reality.

“Until then, we are trying to raise funds to meet the match for the grant, raise awareness of the benefits of the project, and encourage MSU students to join us in planning and fundraising,” said Davison.

Other than a walkway to different dining options, the trail will offer another means of exercise and recreation for members of the community. According to Davison, a recent Morehead community survey indicated a preference for outdoor trails and bike trails.

“The trail will also provide a route for alternative transportation that contributes to business development, increase the livability index, and provides access to the creek,” explained Davison. “It will make the new downtown hotel more attractive for conferences, open a new venue for events, and complement the new splash pad.”

If Triplett Valley Trail receives enough funding to be made into reality, it will only be the first phase of a much longer trail that would connect the Rodburn side of Morehead to the Clearfield side.

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