By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
The Slippery Elm Trail is on track to get a facelift in the year it celebrates its 30th birthday.
An Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) grant will provide $1,092,804 to resurface the 13-mile asphalt Slippery Elm Trail that runs from Bowling Green to North Baltimore, Wood County Park District Executive Director Christopher Smalley said Tuesday at the Board of Commissioners June meeting.
Gov. Mike DeWine and ODOT Director Pamela Boratyn recently announced the park district’s Slippery Elm Trail is one of the 44 projects in 33 Ohio counties to receive the Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) grants totaling nearly $52 million. The grant targeted projects that support safer, more connected spaces for walking and biking.
“This program helps improve quality of life, enhance public safety, and build sustainable transportation networks that make our cities and towns stronger and more vibrant,” DeWine said about the TAP grants.
“ODOT District 2 (Northwest Ohio) did a fantastic job of bringing home projects, which shows the district has a lot of activity and growth, and the state recognizes that,” Smalley said.
Under the leadership of Andrew Kalmar, WCPD assistant director, the park district submitted a request for the amount to repave 80% of the projected costs to pave the full length of the trail with about an inch and a half of overlay.
“Our hope was that by asking for a percentage, and not the full amount, that we’d make our application more attractive,” Smalley said. “We were competing across the state, not just northwest Ohio.”
To help cover the total cost, the park district has invested $155,000 of its budget and the Friends of the Parks have committed $25,000 for the project.
“And it gets even better because Wood County Engineer John Musteric has agreed that his office can serve as the engineer for the project, which will save the park district and the taxpayers even more money,” Smalley said.
He believes the project was approved, in part, because the district didn’t ask for the entire cost. Also, the trail has been well utilized since it opened in September 1995.
“Everybody’s been on it,” he said. “It touches a lot of municipalities (in the county) and it serves a lot of our citizens, which is ideal.”
Additionally, the park district is waiting to hear about an Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ NatureWorks grant that would help pay for traffic control signage at the trail’s road intersections. The state grant provides up to 75% reimbursement assistance for acquisition, development and rehabilitation of recreational areas.
The county engineer’s office also would provide assistance for the traffic control signage since it already has equipment and expertise for roadwork and signage.
The trail project is “a nice, straight shot and very similar to a roadway,” Smalley said. The engineer’s crew are the professionals.
“We don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” he said. “We are very blessed because Wood County is known for working together to make things better.”
The grants are expected to be announced by November.
With the official Slippery Elm Trail 30th anniversary celebration in September, Smalley said, “If we get the NatureWorks grant, it will be close to a new trail. That would be fantastic.”
The asphalt work to pave the trails is slated for Fiscal Year 2026 and would likely be done sometime next spring or summer, he estimated.
2026 budget process begins
With the Slippery Elm Trail project slated for next year, the district’s proposed budget will include a boost in capital improvement spending. As the district begins its budget process for 2026, Smalley projects an increase in capital improvements of about $200,000 over this year’s $290,000 capital improvement budget. The overall budget this year totaled about $4.3million.
The capital improvement’s increase is tied directly to the trail project’s commitment of $155,000 for the district’s share plus $10,000-$12,000 if the NatureWorks grant is approved since it is a reimbursement grant.
“I’m still a stickler for trail work, so I’ll work with the operation guys to make sure we’re re-stoning sections of the trails out in other parks in the district,” he said. “Trail usage is a high priority for our users, so it’s a high priority for me.”
The final budget will be voted on at the December meeting.
Arrowwood Archery Range update
The park district’s Arrowwood Archery Range, 11126 Linwood Road, Bowling Green, is open to the public throughout the year from 8 a.m. to 30 minutes after sunset.
Senior Naturalist Bill Hoefflin and Program Naturalist Craig Spicer told the board, the district offers various archery programs to teach people archery.
Approximately 100 people each year take the classes that are offered, Hoefflin said. There is no equipment on site to estimate the number of people who stop out to practice on their own. However, he said they have to replace the targets every six to 10 months because the visitors use them fairly quickly and it takes a lot of arrows before the targets need to be replaced.
This summer will be the fifth summer for a summer archery league at the range. The league runs 6 to 8:30 p.m. on Tuesdays from June 24 through July 29. Prizes provided by Bass Pro Shops will be awarded at the final session in four age categories: 8- to 12-year-olds; 13- to 17-year-olds; adult men; and adult women.
The Wood County Board of Developmental Disabilities provided funds for the park district to purchase adaptive equipment for archery and kayaking.
The bow they purchased “is great for somebody who has physical disabilities and can’t hold the bow upright or handle all the pressure of the push and pull of the bow,” Spicer said. The bow can also be used by a person in a wheelchair.
“It is just a really great piece of equipment to equalize everything and get other people involved in another recreational pursuit that we have here,” Spicer added
In other business, the board:
- Authorized Smalley to enter into an agreement with InTech IT Solutions to migrate the outdated server to the cloud at a cost of $11,763.84, plus additional fees as needed.
- Approved a list of surplus items that are no longer needed by the district that can be disposed of, sold or recycled.
- Welcomed several interns and new park personnel.
- Authorized Wood County Park District Police Chief Troy Bateson to submit a grant proposal for an Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant. The request was for $69,104 to provide funds for police patrol equipment.
- Heard about Paddle on the Pond events at W.W. Knight Nature Preserve on the second and fourth Mondays through August, and an outdoor campout at William Henry Harrison Park in Pemberville on June 28.
- Agreed to enter into an agreement with Albanese Painting to paint the farmhouse at the Carter Historic Farm at a cost of $12,700.
- Approved moving forward on a contract with Ohio Plan Risk Management, Inc. to fulfill the district’s need for liability, vehicle and property insurance coverage at a cost of $61,873.
