Tuscarawas County, Ohio (WJER) - The Ohio and Erie Canalway coalition is continuing a partnership with the Kimble company and Tuscarawas County to add four more miles to the Towpath Trail. 

Coalition President Dan Rice says last week, the three entities agreed to extend a licensing agreement another 10 years to use Kimble-owned land off state Route 800 as an extension of the trail. He says this allows them to build that portion of the trail in one large piece, rather than working out agreements with many homeowners. 

“You can actually see portions of the canal and the Towpath right along 800, but there’s also about 25 different private property owners, so what the generosity of the Kimble family enables us to do is we get to negotiate with one private property owner rather than 25,” he explains.

Previously, the parties had settled on a two-year licensing agreement, but Rice says this will give the coalition more time to secure funding for construction.

“The two-year agreement expired in January, and so we knew we had to address this in some capacity,” he says. “They asked what would we need to do in order to develop the section of the trail, and we said we could really use a 10-year license agreement, and again, they were very amenable and willing to work with us.”

Rice says he is now working on getting an Ohio Department of Transportation grant that could cover up to 95 percent of the estimated $600,000 project. 

WJER RADIO