Accessible trail still in the works at Moraine State Park
A new trail is being carved through the McDanels Boat Launch area of Moraine State Park and it’s meant to be accessible to people of all abilities.
Members of Moraine Preservation Fund, the organization heading up the trail’s creation, just need to raise some money to pay for its surfacing and grading so it can be a certified ADA-compliant trail.
Dustin Drew, manager of Moraine State Park, said leaders of Moraine Preservation Fund have taken the lead on the project — performing the financial work as well as the physical labor.
“The trail has been rough cut and cleared for the most part, so the next step would be providing the appropriate grading and surfacing materials to make sure it is ADA compliant,” Drew said.
David Murray, president of Moraine Preservation Fund, said Wednesday, Aug. 5, the early work on the project has been done by volunteers. However, the actual creation of the trail’s surface will be done by professionals.
Moraine Preservation Fund is a volunteer organization with only one paid employee. Murray said the contractor the organization is working with is cooperating on the cost for the project.
“We have pricing to purchase aggregates for the trail surface and I have a heavily discounted price to install the aggregate from a large earth works contractor,” Murray said. “We will be using a contractor for the construction of the trail due to the relative large scope of handling and placing over 850-tons of gravel.”
Volunteers with Moraine Preservation Fund teamed up with members of the Butler Outdoor Club in November to begin clearing a path through the woods where the trail is planned for placement. It will cover about one mile and be 10 feet wide throughout — a requirement for it to be considered handicap-accessible.
That was the initial work. Murray said the path will likely have to get some attention at least one more time before surfacing begins. He said the preservation fund will “be using a brush-hog to get rid of the weeds to reopen the path very soon,” but no real work will occur until the fall.
According to Murray, Moraine Preservation Fund will host some volunteer events in the fall to prepare for the contractor’s work.
“The contractor will be grading and compacting the gravel to provide an all-weather surface,” Murray said.
Once the contractor completes work on the trail’s surface, volunteers will be invited to help once again to “put finishing touches on” the trail, Murray said.
Love Where We Wander, a fundraising event for the trail, will take place Oct. 3 at the McDanels launch area of Moraine. The event will feature live music, campfires under the stars, prizes, dancing and food, according to Moraine Preservation Fund’s website. All proceeds from the event will be put toward completing the accessible trail.
Cassandra Dixon, vice president of the fund, said she has always wanted to have an event like this at the park. With the annual Winterfest becoming so established it practically organizes itself, Dixon said she and the other Moraine Preservation Fund leaders want to introduce other events at the park.
An Evening at Moraine is going to be different from Winterfest, she said. The planning organization is even seeking an alcohol permit for the one-day, ticketed activity.
“It's a way really to get to enjoy the space in a totally unique, nontraditional way,” Dixon said. “We're going to have multiple live music folks, we're going to have a fancy s'mores bar and the park. We've been working with the state to be able to have a permit for alcohol because of the nature of our organization and event, so they're going to make an exception for this.”
The tickets to the evening event will be $100 per person. Dixon said she is also seeking sponsorships to add to the fundraising total of the event. Dixon estimated the cost to install the accessible trail will exceed $95,000, so she and event planners are coming up with additional amenities for people willing to pay more.
These amenities include a VIP area that would have its own bar, as long as the liquor license is approved for the evening, as well as a lounge and complimentary “swag bag.”
Dixon is also securing raffle baskets for the night. A live painter will create a piece on-site to be auctioned or raffled off before the end of the event.
The creation of the trail and the planning of an event fundraiser for it are ways for Moraine Preservation Fund to get even more involved in the state park than it already is, according to Dixon. She added the organization has been active for many years, helping with initiatives like the osprey reintroduction program, which brought the bird of prey back to the region, and the development of the McDanels launch area.
Dixon said she hopes to get the preservation fund engaged in the park even more, especially now that the organization has an employee taking care of regular operations.
“We've really been trying to steer it back to doing bigger things at the park,” Dixon said. “It's a big undertaking for such a small organization.”
For more information on An Evening for Moraine: Love Where We Wander, or to buy admission to the event, visit the Moraine Preservation Fund’s website at morainepreservationfund.org.
