Township has designs on pathway to park

February 21, 2003|by RICHARD BELISLE

GREENCASTLE, Pa. - Residents who live in existing and not-yet-built housing developments in the southwest parts of Antrim Township will be able to walk to the township's new community park on a new $500,000 pathway scheduled to be built next year.

The 1.2-mile walkway will start in the borough of Greencastle on Shanks Church Road, head south along Williamsport Pike, cross through private housing developments and end at the 136-acre Antrim Township Community Park on Grant Shook Road, Township Administrator Ben Thomas said this week.

The township will pay for the pathway with a $378,000 federal grant it just received and money from its own reserve fund, Thomas said.

It's all part of a 20-year master plan that proposes paved pathways that would one day surround the township, he said. They would serve pedestrians, joggers and bicyclists.

Plans also call for separating the pathways from the roads they parallel with grass buffers.

Children in developments such as Melrose Manor and Shadow Creek, along with new developments already zoned, will be able to safely walk to the community park, Thomas said.

The southwest section is the fastest-growing in Antrim Township, he said. Money for the pathway was applied for in 1999.

Thomas said most of the rights of way for the walkway are already available along existing township roads and through developments that have been set aside in subdivision regulations.

The project has not yet entered the design stage.

Thomas said it's too soon to predict if any private property will have to be taken by eminent domain.

"It's always a final option, but I can't address that at this time," he said.

"We can't talk to property owners until it's designed," he said. "At that point we'll be knocking on doors. We'll try to design it for existing rights of way."

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