Volunteers are key to success of trail

By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.comStaff Writer

Generous portions of time, patience and commitment from a group of loyal volunteers were necessary ingredients in transforming an abandoned railroad bed into the Susquehanna Warrior Trail.

Susquehanna Warrior Trail Council President Julie McMonagle, of Jackson Township, has been involved with the trail from the beginning in 1995, but in a different role from her current volunteer status.

Now vice president in charge of the Northeast Regional Office of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, McMonagle was the person assigned to drum up support and seek funding for the project as a junior staffer with the council 14 years ago.

She did her job well, getting members of the community interested in the project and then securing state and county grants totaling about $50,000 for a feasibility study and master plan for the trail, which largely follows utility rights-of-way as it meanders along the path of the river.

Her primary reason for sticking with the project on a volunteer basis, she admits, is selfish.

“I’ve got kids and I want my kids to stay here and get good jobs,” McMonagle said, noting that an area’s recreational amenities are an important factor corporations consider when searching for a new location.

“And I’m a walking enthusiast myself,” McMonagle said.

In addition to her familial, health and recreational motivations, McMonagle said there was another important factor.

“It was my first project (with the PEC) and it’s a good group. They’re really hard working people, and there really is a sense of community. And they really care about their community and their homes and their kids too,” McMonagle said.

Some of those hard-working trail enthusiasts include Dan Shane and Lance Kittelson, the trail council’s treasurer and secretary, respectively.

Both from Shickshinny, the men and their wives also have been involved in the project from its infancy.

During a recent walk along the trail, the men spoke about the work the group has done over the years – securing easements and permissions from various landowners, acquiring about $1.2 million in state, county and private grants for trail development, raising money for insurance and trail maintenance and trying to educate and drum up support from the community.

“Construction drawings cost almost $200,000. You wouldn’t think that for just a gravel road not designed for vehicle travel, but the utility companies held us to very strict guidelines,” Shane said.

Trail network is goal

The Susquehanna Warrior Trail is planned to be 18 miles long, extending from Salem Township up through the West Side of the Wyoming Valley.

Shane said the council is waiting for the state budget to be adopted before applying for more grants to finish the project.

The Pennsylvania Environmental Council is working on a plan to eventually connect the Susquehanna Warrior Trail and trails through Wilkes-Barre and Kingston, the Luzerne County National Trail, the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, the West Side Trail, the Back Mountain Trail and the Levee Trail system.

Another council initiative is connecting the Susquehanna Warrior Trail, Moon Lake Park, Francis Slocum Park, Back Mountain Recreation Park, the Lackawanna Forest parcel and the Lands at Hillside Farms.

Such systems, in addition to providing adults and children safe places to walk, hike and bicycle, are economically important to the community because they attract tourists, McMonagle said.

“In communities like ours where we’re losing industry, eco-tourism could be a very important part of the picture,” she said.

Michele Schasberger, project manager for the Wyoming Valley Wellness Trails Partnership, said evidence shows trail use becoming more popular and widespread, based on data obtained in the Hazleton area.

The partnership installed trail counters at the trailhead of the Greater Hazleton Civic Partnership’s 4-mile trail in Greater Hazleton. There were more than 38,000 visits to that trail in a 21-month period through June, and trail usage increased 50 percent between 2008 and 2009, she said.

“It’s nice to see that in Hazleton. I’d be willing to bet that if we had a counter in Shickshinny, the results would be similar,” Schasberger said.