| Friend of the Little Miami State Park
As you will will read below, 2012 was a very successful year in many respects. We made great strides in the pursuit of our Mission statement:
"Ensuring a safe, well-maintained multi-use trail as an integral part of the Little Miami recreational corridor while protecting/conserving natural resources and the environment"
However, our ability to continue this success in 2013 and beyond, depends on:
- Volunteer Time. Adopt-a-Trail Segment Adopter, Adopt-a-Trail volunteer, committee member, board member, etc.
- Volunteer Expertise. Fundraising, grant-writing, landscaping, graphic design, social media, events, etc.
- In-kind Donations. Hand-tools, power tools, landscape rakes, etc.
- Capital. Our business is capital intensive, i.e. we have a 50-mile long "asphalt driveway" used by over 500,000 people annually whose surface has not been maintained (i.e. crack-filled, seal-coated) for over 29 years. Capital resources from the State of Ohio continue to dwindle leaving us our own devices --- creative fundraising with the help of our members, volunteers, businesses, and other stakeholders who have a vested interest in the trail.
We can accomplish a lot with our corps of volunteers --- in 2012 so far, we have been the beneficiary of over 2,600 volunteer hours. However, we also have plans that require capital. We were fortunate in 2012 to secure $52,500 in grants. At this point, we have no grant applications in the pipeline and no prospects on the horizon. This is a serious concern.
Looking Back At 2012
Much was accomplished this year. Below are the highlights:
Sources of Funds
- Grant from Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati. $37,500 for crack-filling, i.e. $12,500 in years 2012, 2013, and 2014.
- Grant from Loveland's Amazing Race. $10,000 for a debris blower for the trail and other tools for Adopt-a-Trail volunteers.
- Grant from REI. $5,000 for tools for Adopt-a-Trail volunteers.
- Donations. $6,282.
- Memberships. $4,110.
- Pipe Safes. $788.
Volunteers
- Adopt-a-Trail Volunteers. 183.
- Segments Adopted. The trail has been divided into 24 road-to-road segments. Currently 20 out of 24 segments have been adopted..
- Volunteer Hours. 2,651 year to date.
Trail Surface
- Root Encroachment. Don Hahn's team have ground down (i.e. scarified) root encroachment bumps from mile marker 20 (Oregonia) to the southern end of the trail. They are grinding the bumps down to 3/8" or less.
- Root Cutting. Wherever this is a root encroachment bump, there's an offending root. Jay Hanson's team is cutting the offending roots at trail's edge.
- Crack-filling. The oldest section of the trail is from Loveland to Morrow --- 1983. This trail has never been crack-filled. We have engaged Asphalt Systems of Sydney Ohio to crack-fill the 16.5 miles from mile marker 37.0 to mile marker 53.5. Work will begin in mid November.
Safety
- Pavement Mile Markers. Don Mills and Bruce Cortright repainted all 100 of them.
- Pavement Stop Signs. Don Mills and Bruce Cortright repainted all 92 of them.
- Standard Stop Signs. There are plans to install standard stop signs at several trail entrances that do not currently have a stop sign.
Community Support
- Work Days. We had several work days on the trail this year. On May 19 we have 70 or so volunteers from Crossroads Church and a dozen from Anderson Hill United Methodist Church. We've also had work groups from P&G, Madeira High School, and LexisNexis.
- Trail Counters. We estimate trail usage to be 500,000 annually --- but this is just an estimate. For the purpose of showing the depth of community support when applying for grants, it's important to do better than an "estimate". Towards that end we now have 5 trail counters that we will put in place next spring in order to get a more accurate reading of trail usage.
Other Trail Improvements and News
- Debris Blower. We now have a pull-behind Toro 44539 debris blower to extend the safe use of the trail into the fall and winter months. This high capacity blower is able to blow leaves, twigs, and walnuts off the trail.
- Tool Caches. We now have 3 tool caches to support our 50 miles of trail. This reduces the amount of time volunteers spend fetching and returning tools. We constantly monitoring whether 3 is the right number for our volunteers.
- Restrooms. The Village of Morrow is upgrading their restroom at Phegley Park to be 4-season. Again this year we will have port-o-lets at Corwin and Fosters.
Recognition
- Derecho. If you'll remember, there was a 1,000 mile thunderstorm that rolled through here on Friday June 29. Forty trees were down on our 50-mile trail. By Sunday night, our Adopt-a-Trail adopters and volunteers cut through those 40 trees and made the entire trail passable.
Looking Forward To 2013
Capital Projects
- Restrooms. We continue to look for funding to upgrade the existing restrooms in Corwin and Fosters to 4-season. We expect to learn a lot from Morrow's current initiative to upgrade their restroom at Phegley Park to 4-season.
- Trail Surface. As noted earlier, we have ongoing, multi-year initiatives for root encroachment, root cutting, and crack-filling. However, thinking longer term, we're currently in the process of inventorying our entire 50-mile trail to determine which sections would benefit from seal-coating and which sections need repaving. The distinction is an important one, i.e. seal-coating is $4,000 per mile ($200,000) and repaving is $50,000 per mile ($2,500,000).
2013 Little Miami Relay Race
- The Facts.The Little Miami Trail is well used, but is aging. With declining state resources for parks, FLMSP seeks to raise awareness and support for the paved trail. The proposed relay race could help raise both.
- The Race. Sometime in September/October 2013, the race would begin in Xenia (mile marker 0) and end in Loveland (mile marker 42). In Loveland's Nesbit Park, there would be food, drinks, and prizes. We have the volunteers. We're currently planning with the help of Bob Roncker. We think this can be our annual signature fundraising event.
Ohio State Parks/ODNR
The following capital projects would be done in partnership with Park Manager Alan Ferguson and Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR). We may be asked from some limited capital contributions:
- Serious streambank erosion at Ft Ancient trail head.
- Sink hole south of Morrow.
- Serious trail slumping/slippage south of Morrow on the west side.
- Trail slippage about half mile south of Old 3C Highway where we have a considerable stretch of slumped pavement on the west side.
- Repaving the entire trail. At $40,000 per mile, this is a $2.0 million item --- we have no choice but to maintain what we have.
Conclusion
So for 2013, we need YOU. We need your time as a volunteer. We need your expertise. We need your financial support.
- Volunteer Time. Adopt-a-Trail Segment Adopter, Adopt-a-Trail volunteer, committee member, board member, etc.
- Volunteer Expertise. Fundraising, grant-writing, landscaping, graphic design, social media, events, etc.
- In-kind Donations. Hand-tools, power tools, landscape rakes, etc.
- Capital. Our business is capital intensive, i.e. we have a 50-mile long "asphalt driveway" used by over 500,000 people annually whose surface has not been maintained (i.e. crack-filled, seal-coated) for over 29 years. Capital resources from the State of Ohio continue to dwindle leaving us our own devices --- creative fundraising with the help of our members, volunteers, businesses, and other stakeholders who have a vested interest in the trail.
We can accomplish a lot with our corps of volunteers --- in 2012 so far, we have been the beneficiary of over 2,600 volunteer hours. However, we also have plans that require capital. We were fortunate in 2012 to secure $52,500 in grants. At this point, we have no grant applications in the pipeline and no prospects on the horizon. This is a serious concern.
Out of the 500,000 people who use our trail each year, less than 150 are members of our organization. We can and will do better. We believe we can get the volunteer hours over 5,000 next year. And we'd like to double our memberships and donations to $20,000.
So, I ask you, as you do your year-end financial planning and gifting, keep the Friends of the Little Miami State Park and the future of our trail in mind.
As we look forward to 2013, thank you for your encouragement and support.
Happy holidays to you and yours.
Steve Murphy President Friends of the Little Miami State Park |
