Officials dedicate first phase of Lakefront Trail, announce additional funding

May 2—Lake Metroparks and its partners gathered on April 30 to celebrate the recent opening of the first phase of the Lakefront Trail, and one agency announced plans to offer additional funding as officials look to extend the trail.

Lake Erie and blue skies provided a backdrop for the crowd gathered at Painesville Township Park, and the event came after what officials described as years of planning for the trail. Lake Metroparks Executive Director Paul Palagyi said that the park district intends to extend the nearly half-mile trail to eventually reach Fairport Harbor.

"We are really excited to take advantage of this and think it's going to be a great amenity for the people of Lake County, for residents of this area, and we also think it's going to be a great economic development opportunity," Palagyi said.

Lake Metroparks Park Board President Frank Polivka described the park's sunsets as "absolutely amazing" and said that the plans for the lakefront will affect current and future generations.

"When I was a little kid, the Diamond Shamrock was here, and you couldn't see that part of Lake Erie," Polivka said. "Now, this vista's going to be open to all those generations that are about to come."

He added that the park district has also received support from its staff and from Lake County residents who have funded it.

County Probate Judge Mark Bartolotta added that the project also required funding and cooperation from multiple jurisdictions.

"It takes a whole county and then some to make projects like this happen," said Bartolotta, who as probate judge appoints the three commissioners to the park board.

Palagyi also recognized the project's many partners.

One of those partners was Kurtz Brothers, which owns the property that the trail is on and donated access for the trail in 2022. It operates a dredging facility on the property.

"We donated this property essentially because we believe in the leadership of the park system, the locals here who support the project and really the overall vision of connecting Lake Erie's waterfront," said Kurtz business development worker Jason Ziss.

Ziss said that the company also supports providing access to industrial properties that residents could not previously use, like the property that the trail now sits on.

"We are big supporters of really touting and cherishing our greatest natural resource, which is Lake Erie," he said. "We support and welcome visitors from all over the world to come here and bask in the glory that is Ohio."

Palagyi also thanked state Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, saying that the senator supported the park district's efforts to receive state capital funding.

"We're very blessed in Lake County to have the breadth of the lake on our entire northern border, and I don't think we use it enough, we don't capitalize on that asset enough, and this project is one of the ways that we can," Cirino said.

Palagyi also thanked the Lake County commissioners for offering grant funding and approving a grant from the Lake Development Authority. Commissioner Rich Regovich described the trail as a "big symbol" of the commissioners' efforts to make Lake County the "best place to live, work and recreate."

As guests celebrated the trail and discussed plans for the future, Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency CEO and Executive Director Grace Gallucci announced plans to offer about $1.8 million in federal funding for the trail's second and third phases.

Gallucci said that the funding will come as part of the carbon reduction program of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The act was approved by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden in November 2021.

Gallucci said that the program is designed to support transportation projects that will reduce the carbon footprint. She said that trails connect different locations without the need for a motor vehicle.

A project plan review for the grant will start in May, she added.

"That process is open to the public and to public officials to provide us input on the project, do they support the project, both from a technical engineering perspective as well as a funding perspective," Gallucci said.

She expects that the project will be approved, and it will likely be brought before the NOACA board in September.

The park district says that the first phase of the new trail is 10 feet wide and 2,300 feet long. It extends along the Lake Erie shoreline west from the ramp leading down to the Painesville Township Park pier.

Palagyi added that most of the funding came from a federal earmark that was introduced by former U.S. Rep. Steve LaTourette and supported by U.S. Rep. David Joyce, R-Bainbridge Township.

Park officials plan for the trail to eventually extend for two and a half miles to Fairport Harbor.

Palagyi said that Lake Metroparks will go out to bid to build an armor wall for the project's second phase before building that phase's trail, which will also be located on Kurtz Brothers property.

A Lake Metroparks project sheet stated that the second phase will extend for 900 feet. Trail construction is expected to start in spring 2025.

After phase two, the proposed trail would extend farther west on property that is part of the former Diamond Shamrock site. Palagyi said earlier in April that he was "cautiously optimistic" that the park district would be able to extend the trail on that site next year.

Palagyi added that park officials are in discussions to eventually connect the planned east-west trail to a north-south trail that would run to Painesville city.