Section of Moses Lake trail to be named after Joe Rogers

MOSES LAKE — Joe Rogers loved Moses Lake and was a key player in the development in many of the city’s most popular trails. The city will now be paying tribute to Rogers, who passed away in 2015, and his dedication to trails in Moses Lake and Grant County by dedicating a section of an existing trail to him and his endearing memory.

During Tuesday night’s council meeting council members heard a recommendation from the parks and recreation commission about naming a section of an existing trail “The Joe Rogers Trail.”

“The Joe Rogers Trail that is proposed would extend from the Big Bend Community College loop trail, down Patton Boulevard to Randolph Road, down the trail to Highway 17 (state Route 17), along Grape Drive to (the) Lauzier Athletic Complex, down Central Drive and then it would terminate then at Valley Road, where it would connect with the Joseph K. Gavinski Trail,” Park and Recreation Director Spencer Grigg explained to the council. “So it doesn’t overlap an existing named trail. It simply terminates when it arrives at that point.”

The council unanimously accepted the commission’s recommendation, which paved the way for a Sept. 16 dedication of the trail in the Wallenstein Theater at BBCC from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. The dedication ceremony will be held at an institution where Rogers dedicated decades of his life to teaching sociology, anthropology and photography until his retirement in 2005.

The trail itself is the culmination of years of planning by the Moses Lake Trails Planning Team (TPT) and coordination between several different entities to see it come to fruition, as the trails connects the city, county and college.

“Joe was a really, really hard worker. A guy that involved himself in the community in a whole bunch of different ways. And his passing away a couple of years ago made us in the trails committee think Joe’s efforts need to be rewarded,” TPP co-chair Richard Teals told the council Tuesday night. “We think that this would be just a great way to show appreciation for a person that worked so hard for our whole community.”

Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.