March 30, 2009- This post may come close to an editorial. The community at large is beginning to question what we all love dearly and that is our trails. Henderson has been a leader and still is in trail development. Through SNPLMA funds they have been able to design and build trail like no other community in Southern Nevada. But at what price? With a down economy and all entities looking to cut expenses, trails and parks will and are coming under attack.
How can you budget to maintain all these parks and trails??Alot of the programs ran in the parks are self-funded to degree, or so I have been told. Trail maintenance does cost money…weekly patrols, sign repairs, picking up trash, annual striping and surface maintenance adds up over the year. RTC funds are part of the answer! A portion of our gasoline tax goes to RTC trail system annual maintenance costs. If the city trails are on the RTC map you can apply for trail maintenace funds. It comes out to something like $9,000/mile per year. This certainly helps toward the annual costs. But trail pavement needing seal coating will eat up an entire years budget real quick.
This is where you and I come into the picture… JOIN HENDERSON’S “TRAIL WATCH” program and become part of the solution. True they preach “eyes & ears” on the trail, but no reason why we can not pick up trash when patrolling the trails; kick few rocks off the trail now and then; and we can certainly volunteer for special work project events which help reduce trail maintenance. We certainly do not want our trails closed because of maintenance or unsafe conditions, so we need to do our part. Ask a friend, a business associate or someone you meet on the trail to join “Trail Watch”. If we do not ‘Watch out” we could see fewer trails to enjoy.
