A northbound view of the Cultural Corridor Trail Pedestrian Bridge over Las Vegas Boulevard North between Bonanza Road and Washington Avenue, June 5, 2011.
Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2011 | 2:44 p.m.
Summerlin residents Barb and Stu Keeley, who frequently walk on the trails in Summerlin, walk together on a December morning.
A view of Bruce Trent Park on Vegas Drive.
The Las Vegas City Council took a big step today to help enhance the city’s trail system — it unanimously approved an agreement that will set up an “adopt-a-trail” program.
And the agreement should also begin to make it easier for the public to locate all of the city’s more than 60 miles of walking, biking and equestrian trails.
The city entered an agreement for $55,000 with the Outside Las Vegas Foundation, which will assist the city in developing a volunteer effort to create the “adopt-a-trail” program.
In that program the foundation will help the city secure partnerships and sponsors for between $500 and $2,500 per sponsor to help sustain the trails system.
The funding will help to pay for a community outreach coordinator and a volunteer coordinator, said Mauricia Baca, executive director of the Outside Las Vegas Foundation.
"This is about reaching out to the communities, the local businesses and bringing them on as sponsors to adopt the trails, reaching out to the citizens of those communities and bringing them on as volunteers," Baca said.
The program is designed to enhance the city’s more than 50 miles of trails that can be used for walking, running, biking or nonmotorized activities. The trails feature landscaping, rest areas, benches, lighting, trash cans and pet waste stations.
The foundation is currently working on a creating a trail locator on its website in a few weeks that will help people plan an outdoor experience, she said.
They also plan to sponsor a public event to promote the program sometime in September, she told the city council.
Outside Las Vegas Foundation, a nonprofit organization, was formed in August 2000 to enhance the connections between people and public lands in Southern Nevada.
Baca said the foundation was part of an effort to bring communities in the Las Vegas Valley together for the Open Space and Trails Summit in 2007.
All of those entities committed to increasing the trails and open spaces in the valley, Baca said.
"There's been phenomenal success," she told the council. "We have tremendous additions to these wonderful amenities that are literally and figuratively linking our communities together."
The effort now is to bring people together to care for the trails and open spaces, she said.
The $55,000 for the agreement comes from the city’s Green Building Special Revenue Fund, which is made up of federal grants, rebates and bonds from other “green” initiatives. Also, the Regional Transportation Commission will reimburse the city for $28,000 of the total cost.
"Our long-term goal is to make this program an entirely self-sustaining program," Baca said. "This will provide the seed money. But then we will go out to the communities, work with our local businesses and bring them on as sponsors for this program."
She said they would work with the city staff to develop the program for the first two to three months.
She said they would create a volunteer handbook that would lay out the objectives of the program. For example, volunteers will go out and help assess the condition of the trails and will do some very basic trail maintenance.
She said they won't try to do every trail in the beginning, but will select some "pilot" trails to help assess the effectiveness of the program.
Eventually the program could expand to an area larger than the city of Las Vegas, she said.
Volunteers who are interested in the "adopt-a-trail" program can contact Baca by e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at 702-715-0226.
Join the Discussion:
Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.
Full comments policy