Rogers received $1 million pledge for trail system

The key map shows the corridors of the five trails that make up the Rogers Greenway in Rogers, Ark., which will be designed by landscape architect Jo Carole Haxen.

ROGERS, Ark.—A $1 million pledge from the Walton Family Foundation will help to build a master planned greenways and trails for Rogers. On June 14 at the city council meeting of this northwest Arkansas town, it was announced the city will match $2 for every $1 raised for the project.

“The concept goes back to 1998 when a University of Arkansas landscape architecture student, Rebecca Ohman, approached me about working on her senior project,” said Rogers environmental services coordinator Luanne Diffin. “I showed her some potential sites and her concept was to take drainage areas, flood plains and utility right of way easements and link them together as a greenway.”

Diffin said water quality, landscape architecture and greenways go hand-in-hand. Part of the grant money was used for the city’s decision makers to go to Longmont, Ft. Collins and Denver, Colo., to see how other locations tie greenways into water quality and other departments of the city government. Rogers needed a master plan and hired Jo Carole Haxel, a landscape architect to create details and specifications for three sections of the trail.

“The trail can be divided into 45 sections with many phases having more than one section,” said Haxel. “My best estimate is that 15 to 20 miles of the trail will be built by 2008. It will go throughout Benton County.”

Haxel said this part of the state has had tremendous growth recently, so a trail linking other communities would be ideal. Once the builders get the momentum going, they can build several miles of trails per year. In eight years the hope is to connect the parks, schools, downtown, employment center and commercial center. The trail will be shaped like a big giant double loop with several tributaries.

“We identified the need for benches, trash receptacles, bollards and signage,” said Haxel. “Public restrooms will be connected every one to 1.5 miles in parks or commercial centers. The multi-use trails can be used by bikes, skateboards, wheelchairs and walkers. There’s a couple of areas that may be possible for horse trails.”

Rogers Greenway will have five different trails, three which correlate with drainage basins. Turtle Creek Trail and Blossom Way Creek loop around the city and join together, finally meeting up with Osage Creek Trail.

A detailed section of Turtle Creek Trail, which will eventually link up with other trails for the 50-mile Rogers Greenway.