Chris Sussmann

This is an update to my previous post about Enid updating it’s city trail system. On Tuesday, April 19, the City unanimously approved the funding for Phase I & II.

Phase I is to continue west from Parkway Street to Oakwood Street with a spur going south to Hays Elementary School. Phase II will extend Phase I from Oakwood Street to Garland and continue the southern spur past Hays Elementary to Rupe Avenue. Some bonus construction will be added. A trail head restroom and parking lot on Cleveland Street will be built where the Rail Road Pass Trail will intersect.

I attended the City Council meeting to get more details of cost and construction but mostly to see which members were for and which were against. The City’s initial cost estimate for Phase I only was $1.5 million. And to include Phase II they were projecting over $2 million. The City wants to complete Phase I and II at the same time. But, alas, the Oklahoma DOT wants them done separately. Still the City found a way to fund Phase I and II with some added trail features for around $1.7 million. One of the savings, $30,000, was choosing concrete over asphalt for the trail surface.

Contracts where awarded and debt was paid for engineering services . Construction should start in less than 60 days. Commissioner Don Rose, member of the city park board, seems to be the ‘Commissioner in Charge’ for this project. But there was no real opposition to this trail system. This has been in the works and on everyone’s to-do list for a very long time. The discussion was really uneventful; no fireworks at all.

For more information, search the local newspaper, Enid News and Eagle.