It’s Just a Setback!
June 13, 2019
We’re disappointed to announce a setback with our New Park New Trails project to build a new trail park at the end of Vichy Springs Road. We just learned we will not be able to build the trails until after the landfill has been capped.
To be clear, no one is saying we can’t open a new trail park at the end of Vichy Springs Road. But it can’t happen until after the landfill is capped. The best estimate we have is it will be a year and a half until the landfill is capped.
The City of Ukiah has been a great partner on this project; it’s State agencies that are causing the delay. City staff pushed hard to make the case for moving forward building trails before the capping. However, it’s critically important for regulatory and environmental reasons that the landfill be capped, and it was decided that we just can’t risk inadvertently derailing the landfill capping as we work to build new trail.
We’re confident we can move quickly forward with this project as soon as the capping is complete and want to thank you all for your patience. We share your frustration as we see yet another reminder of how it’s harder to get permission to build trails, then it is to build trails. We have one part time employee (8hrs/week) trying to make all this happen. Without a few hours of paid time none of this would happen and we wouldn’t even be this close.
Thanks to your support, we are making progress on other projects. We’ve started a reroute of Manzanita Trail between the dam and the spillway at Lake Mendocino and expect to have it finished before the end of the next rainy season. The reroute will be hundreds of feet long and, require us to build a bridge. It will be worth the work though, because it will ensure the trail is above the highwater line and will take out some of the steepest sections out of the trail. The trail doesn’t get too much use right now, and we believe it will be more appealing and popular once it’s not so steep.
We’ve also started to seriously investigate the possibility of building another loop of trail above the popular City View Trail. Our recent user survey informed us that over fifty people a day hike City View Trail. The hillside above City View has even more to offer!
We want to say again how much we appreciate your support and we hope all of you who have donated will show faith and continue to donate despite things taking longer than we wish. Please consider becoming a sustaining donor and make a small once a month donation. Our donate page and www.mendotrails.org links directly to an easy to use, secure monthly donation app through Network for Good. Your support keeps us in the battle. Progress isn’t always as fast as we would hope, but we’re getting there!
Great Trails. Close to Home.
Thanks for your support,
Neil Davis
Director, UVTG
New Park. New Trails.
Great Trails. Close to Home.
11/20/2018
Hey Trail Fans, You have all been so patient. Yes, it was two years ago that you all voted all day every day to convince State Farm Insurance they should give us twenty five grand to build new trail. It was an incredible effort from our small community; it worked because so many of you pitched in.
So for the last two years our team has been working to layout the trails and work on the environmental review documents (CEQA) that will allow us to build the trail. It’s been a lot of work and the City of Ukiah has been a great partner in helping us get it all done. As I write this, the CEQA document is out for public review. We’re confident it’s a quality document that will withstand any level of scrutiny, and confirm the project as a net gain to the health of our environment and community.
We hope to have approval from the City in January to start work. Our new trail park will give us about four miles of new trail.
This project is going to cost about $76,000. We have $25,000 from State Farm, and we’ve already matched that, but we’re still about $25,000 short.
You get one of these letters from us every year, and with your neighbors you typically donate a total of $7,000 to $10,000. This year we need to raise $25,000.
We need those of you who already donate to donate more this year, and we need to attract new donors as well. There are two ways you can make these trails happen; first, donate, and if you can, double of even triple your usual donation. And second, tell your friends about this project and tell them you’re donating. Tell them you gave extra this year because it’s so important. You can make this dream of Great Trails. Close to Home. a reality.
Thanks, Neil Davis, Director UVTG