City, health district seek input for trail improvements

MOSES LAKE — The City of Moses Lake and the Grant County Health District are asking city residents for help as the two agencies prepare to update the city’s trails master plan.

“The main goal is to look at current trails and identify areas of need and improvement,” said Reece Leavitt, a health educator with the Grant County Health District who sits on the Trails Planning Team. “The goal is to get the trails the community wants to see.”

The city has a number of dedicated walking, running and bicycling trails, including a path connecting Big Bend Community College to downtown, recreation trails along both sides of the peninsula, dedicated bike lanes on Broadway Avenue and Division Street and a number of road shoulders widened for walking.

Currently, according to a map published on the Trails Planning Team’s website, the city also has some plans to connect trails near downtown, along Stratford Road, and north of Blue Heron Park.

However, the city has not updated its current trails plan since 2005. Leavitt said the city and the health district have created an online survey to gather input from city residents regarding how they use the city’s recreation trails and how often as it seeks to update the plan, which should be ready by late spring or early summer.

Anyone interested can participate online at forms.office.com/r/ZZMpHWdLU9.

Levi Bisnett, a project surveyor who oversees the Trails Planning Team for the city of Moses Lake, said the main goal of updating the plan is to look at new locations for activity trails, especially since the original planners were largely successful in getting much of what they wanted built.

“The goal is to connect people places in and around Moses Lake,” Bisnett said.

Bisnett said the city has applied for grant funding from the state to help create an activity trail from Patton Drive to Grape Drive, build a more permanent path along Nelson Drive for children walking to and from Groff Elementary School, and bring the sidewalks on the Stratford Road bridge over SR 17 into compliance and make them safer in winter.

The city won’t know the status of the funding, however, until sometime during the upcoming legislative session, Bisnett explained.

“There’s a lot of moving parts,” he said. “I’m excited, though, about creating a more connected and walkable city.”

Leavitt said the goal is to create a community that is easier to walk and cycle around, which should help people get more exercise and feel better.

“A big focus of the health district is to prevent disease and accidents,” Leavitt said. “Americans don’t move as much, and when it’s not easy to walk or bike, that reduces opportunities for exercise.”

That lack of exercise leads to more obesity and diabetes, Leavitt noted, adding that creating a community with more opportunities for walking will help avoid those issues. Both the city and health district are also working with the Moses Lake School District to make it easier and safer to walk to school, Leavitt added.

“It’s important to get the community on board,” he said. “If you don’t have that, you won’t be successful.”

Charles H. Featherstone may be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.