20011215 Terry Burk/Wakefield Valley Trail - New bridge to safety

New bridge to safety

Carroll County Times

By: Megen Wessel, Times Staff Writer

December 15, 2001

Span over stream all but completes middle portion of pedestrian trail

Through the early Friday morning rain, workers dressed in bright yellow raincoats and boots the color of mud installed two 55-foot sections of a steel walking bridge over the floodplain of a small stream along Tahoma Farm Road in Westminster.

The bridge is in the middle of the city's portion of the Wakefield Community Trail and nearly completes the first section of the city's first walking and biking trail.

The trail, when finished, will span about three miles from Wakefield Valley to West Main Street, allowing residents to walk or bike safely along Md. 31 and into downtown.

"They obviously can't do that now," said Thomas B. Beyard, director of planning and public works for the city.

The city began planning the trail in 1994, but money and land restraints kept the project from beginning.

The proposed trail was to extend northeast from Old New Windsor Road to Uniontown Road, but the first section of the trail, between Old New Windsor Road and Long Valley Drive, was to be located on property owned by the Avondale Run Homeowner's Association.

Approval to build the trail on the property would have required consent from a majority of the property owners in the association, said Chris Batten, a local land planning and design consultant hired to develop the initial plans for the trail.

So the city decided instead to develop plans for another section of the trail between Long Valley Road and Windsor Drive.

In July, the City Council awarded a $348,000 contract to Thomas Bennett & Hunter Inc. of Westminster for the construction of the 0.8-mile segment of blacktop pathway from Long Valley Road to Tahoma Farm Road.

This phase of the project, which includes widening of a sidewalk on Tahoma Farm Road near the newly installed bridge should be complete by April, Beyard said.

The city is using two federal grants, totaling about $193,000, and city money for the project, Beyard said.

Design work on the remaining portion of the trail, between Tahoma Farm Road and Windsor Drive, will begin this winter and construction is scheduled to begin in the summer.

The trail will be dedicated in memory of Terrence "Terry" Burk, 48, owner of the Treat Shop, his family candy business located in the TownMall of Westminster. Burk was killed while jogging in 1995.

Burk was running with two friends on Route 97 at Kalten Road when a car struck him and fellow jogger David W. Herlocker. Police said the 19-year-old man who was driving the car apparently fell asleep while coming home from work.

Burk's family established a memorial fund in Burk's name to help build the trail.

The Community Foundation of Carroll County sponsored the fund-raising effort, which eventually raised more than $6,000.

Another portion of the trail, from Windsor Drive to Uniontown Road, is already complete and usuable. Developers privately paid for the section, Beyard said.

"This will probably be one of the city's highest priorities behind the Carroll Theater project in the upcoming year," Beyard said.

©Carroll County Online 2001

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=2792495&BRD=1289&PAG=461&dept_id=156627&rfi=6

Westminster Sidewalks and Trails, Westminster Road Runners Club, Terry Burk, Dave Herlocker

NBH