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Grant would grease wheels for 4.5-mile bike path project

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By Josh Sweigart, Staff Writer 9:45 PM Thursday, January 21, 2010

HAMILTON — Butler County officials hope to soon secure another piece in the puzzle of paving a bicycle path all the way from Fairfield to Piqua.

On Thursday, Jan. 21, commissioners agreed to apply for a $500,000 grant from the state for a slice of path through Fairfield Twp.

The Hamilton Community Foundation’s pledge to foot the rest of the project’s $1.5 million bill “puts us really at the top of the list (for state funds),” said county senior planner Joseph Schmidt.

The planned path would stretch roughly 2 miles from Allison Avenue near Hamilton’s edge to the Rentschler Forest Preserve, mostly along Canal Road. The path would use the right-of-way that still exists from the tow path of the old Miami-Erie Canal, Schmidt said.

It coincides with another path planned to start at Allison Avenue and stretch another roughly 2.5 miles to the foot of the High-Main Bridge — linking it with an existing path that extends all the way to Waterworks Park in Fairfield.

Hamilton Community Foundation President John Guidugli said his agency has offered up to $2.8 million for the project. He hopes both sections could be built together, possibly by spring 2011, if the grant comes through.

This is a stalled promise from 2001, when the Hamilton Community Foundation gave the bike path as a gift to the city as part of the non-profit’s 50th anniversary. There have since been legal and logistical hurdles.

“It’s a major commitment of funds...but we think it’s important to the quality of life in the community,” Guidugli said.

Another project partner is Butler County MetroParks, which is donating land from Rentschler forest so that some day, “You should be able to go from High Street all the way to Rentschler forest on one continuous ribbon of asphalt,” said MetroParks Director Jon Granville.

The ultimate goal is to someday extend the path all the way to Middletown, then connect with a network of trails through southwest Ohio all the way through Dayton to Piqua.

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