Montour Trail-Letter

Volume 10, Issue 6

November/December, 1999

Montour Trail only has a mile of trail East of the Peters Township, but that is about to change. We are using volunteers and municipal workers to build trail between Large and Clairton. The Turnpike Authority is building our trail between Snowden Road and Gill Hall Road alongside the new Peters Creek Road Extension, and Montour Trail Council will soon be hiring an engineering consulting company to design everything else East of Peters Township.

As part of this process, Montour Trail Council needs to raise awareness, organize volunteers and boost its membership in this area. Community days represent a fine opportunity towards achieving these objectives, and we staffed booths at the Clairton Community Day on August 14, the Jefferson Borough Community Day on August 28, and the South Park Township Community Day on September 25. These events are customized to the sponsoring community. Clairton's was sponsored by the fire department and featured firemen competitions and carnival rides, and fireworks. Jefferson's was sponsored by the Borough and featured all-day musical entertainment, fundraising booths run by non-profit and charitable organizations, and fireworks. South Park Township's was held in and around the fairground facilities in Allegheny County's South Park, and featured a parade, lots of athletic events for young kids, and tons of booths of all kinds within three buildings.

Manning the MTC booth at South Park Township Community Days are Earl & Mary Irvine, Keith Jensen, and MTC President, Dick Quasey.

This being an election year, there were plenty of opportunities to meet politicians. Interestingly enough, trails have become an issue that has strong bipartisan support among most area politicians. In Jefferson, we were invited to share a booth with Borough Council. At one point our trail volunteers were all busy talking to passerby when it was noticed that a Jefferson Councilperson was VERY KNOWLEDGEABLY answering a question about our trail.

Although trail awareness has come a long way, we need to continue to spread the word. If you know of an event close to our trail that represents an opportunity to reach out to a large number of people in this way, let us know. We also need volunteers to represent the trail at these events.