Next phase of bike trail to start as 3rd phase goes through court

Phase II of the Mill Creek MetroParks East Park Hike and Bike Trail is getting started.

Beginning Nov. 1, a staging area will be set up in the overflow parking lot near Lanterman’s Mill, but the lot will remain open for public use.

Phase II of the plan is a continuation of a project to increase safety for cyclists and pedestrians as they travel through the East Park Corridor. It includes an 8-foot wide paved asphalt trail that extends from US-224 in Boardman Township to Old Furnace Road in Youngstown. The work should take about 60 days.

Phase III of the project, which will extend the trail into Green Township, is making its way through the court system. The Ohio Supreme Court is hearing an appeal by the Board of Commissioners of the Mill Creek Metropolitan Park District after a lower court ruled that it can not claim eminent domain in using property owned by Diane Less for the trail.

Less is one of 13 landowners whose property is needed for the trail.

The appeal was filed May 5 and was accepted by the Ohio Supreme Court Sept. 14. No further court dates have been set.

 

Read the original article at WKBN.