Editor's Note: For maps of city trails, see 1C in today's edition.
By DONNA FARLEY
Staff Writer
Clark Allen imagines a linear park that winds its way through the many neighborhoods that make up Poplar Bluff when he maps out routes for joggers, walkers and bicyclists.
The park department director and his advisory board see Poplar Bluff Greenways as more than just a trail system.
It provides a safe space for exercise, and a safe way for people to travel throughout their community without the aid of a vehicle.
The park department's plan utilizes sidewalks, as well as trails.
This has provided the 1.22-mile path from Gray Street to Maud Street, passing through Hendrickson and Bacon parks.
More recently, it has also opened up a nearly 3.5-mile route between McLane Park and Kanell Boulevard.
City officials plan to extend this trail to Highway 53 with the second phase of Shelby Road construction.
"This has been in progress for a long time," said Allen of the Greenways project. "What we're trying to do is link up the areas of our community.
"We're trying to create a safer environment for people to exercise, a safer environment for them to get from one place to another."
New construction and reconstruction provide opportunities to more easily create these routes, said Allen, who has worked with the Missouri Department of Transportation and city to obtain grant funding for many of the recent extensions along new and improved roads.
A pedestrian bridge for Kanell Boulevard, for instance, received an 80 percent federal grant for the $422,000 project.
The park department has also applied for a state grant to fund an extension of the Kanell Boulevard trail between Sunset and Lurlyn.
Allen would one day like to see the McLane/Shelby trail connect to Bacon Park through public spaces.
These plans are a continuation of the dreams of a group of mothers, who in 1951 were looking for safe outdoor spaces for their children and helped create the Poplar Bluff Park Department, Allen said.
As the department has grown, it has tried to meet the more diverse needs of the community, he explained.
The city currently has about eight miles of mapped trails across four parks.