LEXINGTON – Cyclists and pedestrians on the B&O Bike Trail will soon have a place to stop for a rest in the shade.
The Richland County Parks District is constructing a 30-by-20-foot picnic shelter along the trail. The picnic shelter, as well as an adjoining maintenance building, will be located just off the path by the City of Mansfield’s Water Treatment Plant in Lexington.
Director Jason Larson said the project should be complete sometime in June, weather permitting.
The shelter will have picnic tables, while the maintenance facility will provide a permanent home for equipment used to maintain the trail.
According to Larson, the Richland County Parks District has operated the B&O Bike Trail without a permanent maintenance facility for nearly 25 years. Gators, tractors, chainsaws and weed-whackers were routinely stored in borrowed shed space, storage units erected on borrowed property or inside the facility at Gorman Nature Center.
The picnic shelter and maintenance building project was largely funded by former park district board member Ray Piar and his wife Rani. The Piars set up a donor-designated fund through the Richland County Foundation to support the parks system.
“Being a board member before and being a volunteer on the trail, he saw it was something we needed,” Larson said.
The maintenance building will be 40-by-30 feet.
Larson said about 90 percent of trail maintenance work is done by volunteers. Volunteers trim and mow along the 18-mile trail, cut up fallen trees, perform general maintenance on bridges and clear the trail of leaves, nuts, sticks and other debris.
