Local, federal funds being used to pay for $5 million hike/bike trail
(Seguin) — The city of Seguin officially broke ground this week on a $5 million project that will expand the city’s Walnut Springs Hike/Bike Trail.
The city on Tuesday held a groundbreaking ceremony along the existing trail, just south of the Seguin Public Library. Parks Director Jack Jones says that this project makes several parts of Seguin more accessible and it will connect the community in some new ways, including providing a new pedestrian friendly access point to Max Starcke Park.
“You can go from the river, walk all the way north past Tyson to Hwy 78 New Braunfels Street. It’s about four miles one way. So, pretty cool and in my opinion, this trail is going to unlock for me the prettiest part of Seguin along Walnut Creek,” said Jones.
Seguin Mayor Don Keil says the springs along Walnut Creek have been an essential part of Seguin’s history and this part of the world for millennia. He says the city’s rich history with Walnut Creek goes back to the original walking trail project, which was designed by the same person, architect Robert Hugman, who designed San Antonio’s famous River Walk. Keil says it was beautiful setting with a number of water features, that have since been destroyed. He says because of the polio scare, city leaders blew up many of those water features, because they believed that mosquitoes carried the disease. The rest of the walkway would later fall into a state of disrepair. Mayor Keil says fortunately the city made an investment in a new trail system, that now stretches about 2.5 miles. The project will be completed with this additional work.
“For many decades, this place, it laid dormant. The floods came and washed away a lot of what Hugman put in and so many of the beautiful features that happened are gone. You can see remnants of them now over here across the creek and all the way up and down the creek as we speak but it’s time that this great wonderful asset was brought back to its former glory and this is going to be one of the must do things when people come to Seguin. They’ll know that when they come to Seguin or when you live here, this is the one thing you’ve got to see. This is the one thing that we will be known for. I think it’s our signature place. It is where people will come from all around to make sure that they get to walk in this beautiful walk and see the beautiful nature that we have here in Seguin,” said Keil.
Mayor Keil says this is the kind of project that will not only be good for local residents, but it will also attract visitors to the community as well. He says it’s a major quality of life project that can be enjoyed by all.
“This whole thing is just an amazing thing. It’s only going to get better and it’s going to make this a a more livable city, more people will want to come see us and I think the quality of life here is going to do nothing but improve because people need to get out and walk and see each other and I think a linear park such as this is just something that is going to be an amazing asset as we go along,” said Keil.
City Manager Steve Parker says he may be relatively new to the community, but he knows how important this project is to Seguin. He says these kinds of things help to make Seguin a more special place.
“When I applied in July 2 of last year, it had been awhile. I used to drive through to Seguin all the time going to college, I hadn’t stopped here in a long time and I started putting in a lot of time and effort into figuring out what exactly was Seguin, what made it special and it didn’t take me and the wife long to fall in love with this. When you drive over to that library and you walk down this trail, it just means a lot to feel the sense of family. You can see the homeowners that live on this deal that take care of their property each and every day because they are so proud of where that is and you are going to see that trend go up and down this trail path. I see so many people use it,” said Parker.
It’s an expensive project, but Parker says it’s well worth the city’s investment, especially when you consider there are federal funds being used to pay for a significant part of this project.
“This is a $5 million project but $2.3 million of that is coming from the MPO which is the Metropolitan Planning Organization which is federal funds that get funneled through TxDOT that is coming to help fund this project so you are leveraging tax dollars with local government and the city council has been able to keep the tax rate the same for the last five year and still do a project like this,” said Parker.
The project will include retaining walls, hand and guard rails, an elevated trail section, and Seguin’s first below-grade crossing under the South Austin Street bridge connecting to the Pecan Bottom Trail Loop in Max Starcke Park East. Trail enhancements will also include the creation of a switchback on the trail near Goodrich Street, which is a feature that is expected to make use of the trail in that area safer.
Once the trail extension is complete, the project will create a continuous trail that will extend from New Braunfels Street (FM 78) south to Max Starcke Park East that is approximately 4 miles in length one way. The Walnut Springs Trail will provide pedestrian access to a number of locations, including Park West, Walnut Springs Park, the Seguin Public Library, Texas Lutheran University and Max Starcke Park including the Guadalupe River. The trail expansion project is expected to take two years to complete.
