Missing Trail Link Completed in Town of Yorktown
A project that was conceived more than 20 years ago became a reality Saturday morning when the completion of the Mohansic Trailway in Yorktown was celebrated.
“This is a wonderful day,” said Susan Siegel, president of the Yorktown Trail Town Committee. “This is the culmination of a 20-year dream of (former supervisor) Linda Cooper.”
Siegel explained that Cooper saw the 0.4-mile Mohansic Trailway on a town-owned right-of-way as the missing link between the North County Trail and FDR State Park. The trail continues from FDR to Strang Boulevard, and along Strang Boulevard to trails in Woodlands Legacy Fields, the Yorktown Trailway, Granite Knolls Park, and Sylvan Glen Park Preserve.
The Trailway is designed for pedestrians and mountain bikers and will be maintained at no cost to the town by volunteers from the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference.
Jane Daniels, project manager, said with almost 60 miles of trails Yorktown has the most trails of any municipality in Westchester County.
“I can’t thank the volunteers enough,” Daniels said. “It’s really neat that the town came together and said yes we want to do this.”
More than 90 volunteers, ranging in age from 11 to 80, put in more than 1,300 hours to haul 55,000 pounds of lumber (discounted by Lakeland Lumber), construct three bridges over streams and build a lengthy boardwalk through a wetland at the Baldwin Road end of the Trailway. Part of the boardwalk was constructed by Austin Fritz as part of his Boy Scout Eagle commitment. The Yorktown Highway Department also assisted in different phases.
“This was an incredible joint opportunity and a joint effort by so many people,” said Yorktown Supervisor Ilan Gilbert. “Welcome to another beautiful asset we have in the Town of Yorktown.”
The Trailway was funded by 50/50 matching grants from the Hudson River Valley Greenway to Yorktown ($7,500) and the Yorktown Trail Town Committee ($12,500). Cash donations were also made by four anonymous individuals, The Marvin and Susan Raskin Charitable Trust and The New York-New Jersey Trail Conference.
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/