Event marking the future addition of pocket park in Wallowa set

DICK MASON, The Observer, La Grande, Ore.
·2 min read

WALLOWA — A new pocket park, part of a proposed 63-mile trail-with-rail between Elgin and Joseph, is on Wallowa’s horizon.

Residents will have a chance to learn about the park at a community gathering in Wallowa from 4:30-6 p.m. Monday, May 6. The event will be hosted by the Joseph Branch Trail Consortium, which hopes to establish the 63-mile trail-with-rail between Elgin and Joseph.

Attendees will be able to tour the downtown site where the project’s second pocket park trailhead will be constructed at South Storie Street and East Fourth St on a lot owned by the Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland.

Those attending will have a chance to walk or ride a rail bike — along the publicly owned railroad corridor where the one-mile trail section of the 63-mile trail-with-rail will be located in the city of Wallowa. People interested in attending the walking tour should RSVP via email to info@josephbranchtrail.org.

An engineering consultant team will be on hand during the walking tour to solicit input and ideas from local residents on the Wallowa section of the trail-with-rail project.

Earlier in the day, the engineering team will meet with high school and middle school students to hear their ideas.

“Young people always have such creative ideas, so we’re really looking forward to connecting with them and the teachers at the schools,” said Gregg Kleiner, project coordinator of the Joseph Branch Trail Consortium in a press release.

Kleiner said the pocket park will be similar to the one being completed in Elgin for the trail.

The Wallowa pocket park’s trailhead will include a covered gazebo, an Americans with Disabilities-compliant parking space, ADA-compliant picnic tables and benches, interpretive signs with information about the area’s earliest inhabitants and more recent history and a bicycle maintenance stand.

Work on the pocket park will start this summer, Kleiner said.

Grants from Travel Oregon, Oregon Community Foundation, the Roundhouse Foundation, the Schwemm Family Foundation, Cycle Oregon and Oregon Department of Transportation are helping support development of the Wallowa pocket park trailhead, Kleiner said.

The future availability of the pocket park, Kleiner said, will not only help people in the community but also give those driving through Wallowa on the way to Wallowa Lake, another reason to stop in town.

“We want to get people who are flying through Wallowa to Wallowa Lake to stop and visit. This would help the local economy," he said.