Midway City is seeking input from residents when it comes to their trails and park amenities
For many years’ developers in Midway were required to build trails within their new developments. Midway Mayor Celeste Johnson says that now the city is working to connect the trails.
“So, what we’ve ended up with is rather a maze of unfinished trails that take you nowhere,” Johnson explained. “Now, 10 to 15 years later we have to maintain those odd little pieces of trails. So, we're incurring maintenance costs on trails that don't go anywhere in a community where citizens want trails. So, on a volunteer level we have an enormous amount of talent in Midway and a citizen has come forward. She has successfully written grants for the city. I think we’re up to about $275,000 that we will match. So we are taking that money, we're matching it, and we're focusing completely on just connecting trail segments.”
Mayor Johnson says that they’ve identified two main areas that need to be connected. She says the survey is meant to help identify what else citizens would like from the trails.
“What do the citizens want,” Johnson asked. “What would they value? Are they wanting to be able to get from their home to the mountains? Are they wanting to be able to get from their home to Main Street? I think at last count we had over 450 respondents to our survey. Midway is a very involved community and all you have to do is ask.”
Mayor Johnson expects they’ll run the survey for a few more weeks.
“We do have a lot of our second homeowners that come up to Midway during the summer,” Johnson said. “We’re anxious to get their input. They come to Midway, they've invested in Midway, and we want to make sure that they are voices being heard as well.”
Mayor Johnson says they are also gathering input on August 10th about how to improve the dog park located on the north end of town in the Valais park.
“We simply want to speak to the people who are actually using it. What else do you need here,” Johnson continued. “Basically, we fenced off a section of a park that has—pot rock is the indigenous mineral of Midway right—and so it's very high pot rock level. So, we can't grow grass, we can't grow trees. This is a section of park that's just been sort of neglected. We want citizen input this is from the people who actually will use this facility. We have budgeted about just over $30,000 this year towards the dog park, so some things will be happening.”
Those interested in providing input on the dog park should plan to meet at Valais Park on August 10th at 9:00 am. The city asks that you leave your dogs at home for the meeting.
Those interested in providing feedback on Midway City trails can take the survey on Midways City website or here.
