For those not Running with Ed on Saturday, May 20, Summit County invites you to the second annual Trails, Trash and Tunes event at the Wanship trailhead of the Historic Union Pacific Rail Trail.
One of the organizers, Summit County Planner Madlyn McDonough, said the event is from noon to 4 p.m.
“We will have a trail clean up, some live music, a beer garden, a food truck," McDonough said. "Learn about the different Summit County programs including learning about stormwater, planning, sustainability, and weed mitigation.”
The band Honky Blue Tonky will play from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. The first 75 people to show up will get a free sandwich from Lush’s BBQ.
Stormwater Manager Kelsey Christensen said they’re also looking for volunteers to help pick up trash along the rail trail and state Route 32, making them eligible for one of many prizes.
“When you pick up trash along the rail trail, you'll get a ticket to get into an opportunity drawing,” Christensen said. “And we have a lot of great prizes from our local vendors; Auntie Em’s donated a pie, Lush’s BBQ, High West Distillery, Deer Valley Resort, Utah Olympic Park, the Oakley rodeo and more.”
The event is also an opportunity for the community to learn about stormwater and why it’s important to protect.
“Trash is a pollutant into our waterways,” she said. “And what really bothers me is anything that can get through our stormwater grates, cigarette butts, because that just goes directly into our waters. But we'll also be talking about salt usage and fertilizer usage, water usage, even though we do have a lot of water this year, we don't, won't always. And vehicle maintenance, just anything that's on the ground when it rains is going to go into the waterways.”
There will also be a kids’ corner where the Summit County library staff will provide Earth and trails-themed story time. Kids can also participate in a scavenger hunt for prizes.
Food and drinks will be available for purchase. Also, visitors may want to bring lawn chairs because seating is limited.
Organizers ask attendees to register ahead of time so they can plan enough food.
Meanwhile, McDonough said work is progressing on the Rail Trail Corridor project.
"The most updated version of the plan is available on our website currently, and it's being presented to county council on May 24 at about 2 p.m.," McDonough said. "So, if people are interested in hearing that presentation, they can join via zoom or in person at Ledges Event Center. And we're hoping for formal acceptance of the plan by the county council on that on that date."
The plan covers about 24 miles of the rail trail from the crossing at 248 to the end at Echo reservoir. Whether any work is done this year, she said, depends on the budget, but the next step is to look at the conditions of the bridges and trail surface to see what work needs to be done sooner than later.
At this point, she said there is no plan to pave the entire trail.
