Riverwalk funding progressing

The extension of the Riverwalk from Moccasin Bend to St. Elmo is steadily moving through the funding process. Officials just received word that two requests for a total $2.8 million in grant money were approved.

To date, the multi-million dollar project will only cost the city and county $350,000 each.

"These grants [the county] has been getting is making it all possible," said Chattanooga Parks and Recreation Administrator Larry Zehnder.

Louis Prosterman, the Hamilton County development supervisor who has overseen the Riverwalk project since its inception in 1985, has been successful in helping secure millions of dollars worth of grants bolstered by local private money.

"We're shooting for the best possible route and trail we can, so we're trying to engage as many sources of funding as we possibly can," he said. "We will be applying for additional grants, and we're trying to get some additional foundation funding and any other sources that might occur."

He listed mini parks, picnic areas and trailheads where people can change clothes, get directions and use the restroom as amenities being considered.

"We're going to build it to the same standard [as the existing Riverwalk]," he said. "We'd like to have all the amenities along the way."

He said $8 million to $9 million has been secured for the extension so far, but that's short of the $15 million goal in outside money.

Final designs are still in the works, so exact costs are not yet known, but Prosterman said what's already in hand could likely complete one of the options being considered, which has the trail ending at the former Southern Saddlery Building on Broad Street.

The other - preferred - option would bring the trail all the way into St. Elmo, likely ending at the South Chattanooga Recreation Center on 40th Street.

"The Riverwalk, anywhere it's gone it's really reopened the riverfront to the public," said Prosterman. "In a way [the extension] will open up a whole segment of riverfront that's really not been open before; it's been dominated by heavy industrial usage and properties."

Exactly what the trail looks like and where it goes will depend on funding as well as property easements, which are still being secured from landowners. Construction is scheduled to start in April or May; the total amount of funding at that time will determine the final design and how far the trail goes.

"If a certain property owner didn't give us an easement, we would have to put the trail around his property and would probably have to spend more money, which means we would have less to spend on another part of the trail," Prosterman said. "Hopefully we'll be able to take on the whole project and complete it all in one fell swoop rather than have to phase it and have the trail ending in the middle of nowhere."

Whether or not a nearly $3 million grant request into the state will be received will be announced next summer.

A recent honor bestowed by the state could lead to additional funding, and Congress' pending decision on whether to return Land and Water Conservation Fund dollars to their former use could also help the project, Prosterman said.

"We were picked as one of two projects in the state of Tennessee that best exemplifies the goals of the American Outdoors Initiative," he said. "Although that honor doesn't come with any particular dollars attached to it ... to be singled out as one of two projects in the state ... I think it's a very good sign that if some funding should come through from the Outdoor Initiative we'd be in a good position to get some funding there."

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