By james art 
The photo between the mountains by Taylor McKinney. A woman and her dog enjoy the newly paved walking path at Glendale Park in Elkins.
ELKINS — The Elkins Parks and Recreation Commission (EPRC) has completed paving the walking trails at Glendale and River Bend Parks, a move that has won community praise.
EPRC Director Tom Tesar said asphalt paving for the walking trails in both parks was done the week of Oct. 7. The paving was done by Fairmont’s Naternicola’s Masonry with Smith Backhoe & Dozer Service installing the walkway drainage culverts.
Tesar added that Naternicola’s Masonry will return one more time to clean up some of the asphalt debris and fill in the ruts made by the dump truck.
“The purpose of the pavement was to make the surface more durable, easier to maintain and wheelchair accessible,” Tesar told The Inter-Mountain. “Also, an asphalt surface will allow us to easily clear snow from the road if needed.”
He said the boardwalk is one of the park’s most popular features, with many people using it “Year round, rain or shine.” The trails were starting to show signs of age wear. At first, Tesar said, the plan was simply to freshen up the trails.
“We originally pursued a WVDOH Recreational Trails Program grant to freshen up the trail by adding more crushed limestone to the surface,” Tessar said. “After we received the grant and the stonework was done by Custom Paving and Sealing, we had a significant balance, close to $50,000. So then we started thinking how much more would it cost to possibly upgrade to asphalt?
“We successfully modified the scope of the grant to be able to include pavement, put it out to bid this past summer, and decided the trail improvement was worth the cost.”
The pavement is well deserved “extremely positive” response from the community, Tesar said, adding that it seems most park users have “welcomes the change and sees it as an upgrade.”
Praise was also given by those in city government.
“Just wanted to express how excited I am about the Glendale Park pavement,” Fourth Ward Councilwoman Nancy Bross-Fregonara said during the Oct. 10 Elkins City Council meeting. “I think it’s really important that now people with objects on wheels can have a nice smooth surface. I think it’s going to be really transformative for anyone in a wheelchair.
Tesar told The Inter-Mountain that after the final cleanup, there may be a few more additions to discourage visitors from driving motorized vehicles on the newly paved trails. He said while they’ve always had signs to keep vehicles off the road, officials are considering adding one more “obvious or substantial”, especially where the trail access service road branches off from the main road through Glendale Park to the rear parking lot.
During the October 16th EPRC meeting, Commission member Sam Severino suggested they look into adding some type of barrier to the trail so people aren’t tempted to drive vehicles on the asphalt.
“I don’t think it should be in the middle, like the Rail Trail,” Severino said. “We can put it on the side. That’s 7 feet. I think we can just hug the trail, maybe, in certain places.
At the time, Tesar said he hadn’t thought of that, adding that especially in Glendale, it would be tempting for people to try to take vehicles on level, unobstructed crosswalks.
Tesar noted that EPRC currently has no other active asphalting plans.
“We’d love to pave every gravel parking lot we have, but paving is expensive,” Tessar said. “Like most organizations, we must carefully prioritize costs, making decisions to maximize benefits within financial constraints. And parking lots are generally not eligible for WVDOH Recreational Trails Program grant funding.”