With the successful near-completion of the Wildwood-McMillan Connector Trail, The Marshfield Area Friends of the Trails will make a $15,000 donation to the City of Marshfield at the October 9 Common Council meeting.
“We had indicated a long time ago that we would be willing to provide financial support to help with additional items,” said Jack Farris, president. The amount is intended to defer the cost of the trail, which was a decade in the making. Funding for the $1.8 million project was covered through state and federal grants, and the City.
MAFOTT assists the City by promoting trail development, organizing trail cleanup each spring and continually throughout the year, removing invasive species in the fall, and providing financial support. In June, the organization donated a bicycle repair station now installed at Steve J. Miller Recreation Area, which acts as a central location for the connector trail.
Community surveys conducted by MAFOTT revealed that citizen’s biggest wish is for the trail system to be interconnected. “That’s a big goal of ours, is to take all the trails and eventually make them so they can connect to each other as much as possible,” said Farris. “That’s what we’re focusing on – how we can assist the City in getting multimodal, pedestrian-driven, multi-purpose trails that are interconnected in the city of Marshfield.”
Farris envisions that when more trails are connected, the end result will look something like a wagon wheel, with Steve J. Miller as the center. The “Hub City” trail system could see the Wildwood-McMillan trail extend to the McMillan Marsh and connect more trails on the west side of the city.
MAFOTT meets the first Wednesday of every month at the library at 7 p.m. Anyone with thoughts or skills to contribute are welcome to attend.
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