Legacy Trail Progress

First, I posted the photos  because we could all use a little smile every now and then. I love the kitty's bangs, they remind me of someone :)

Next, I have a bit of news from the Legacy Trail folks. The Legacy Trail is a pedestrian and bicycle-friendly path that is being built to connect downtown Lexington with the Kentucky Horse Park. I've blogged about it here before, so hopefully everyone is aware of it. I was just wondering about its progress when I received the information below.

According to the Legacy Center at Blue Grass Community Foundation, the year 2010 is off to a good start. Work is progressing to get the Legacy Trail started.  The Foundation announced yesterday, "the City, led by engineer Keith Lovan has done a great job getting the plans for phases 1 and 2 (from the NorthSide YMCA to the Horsepark – about 7 miles off road) complete, all approvals but the last one have been received, we have all the money and easements we need, and the City is getting ready to offer the project out to bid. Groundbreaking could be in as soon 7 weeks.  Stay tuned."

Planning for phase 3, from the NorthSide YMCA to the Isaac Murphy Memorial Art Garden on East 3rd will begin later this month.

Here is more of the announcement from the Foundation's Steve Austin:

The Legacy Center is coordinating two Trail related committees.  One is a group whose purpose is to create the narrative, or “story” that will be told along the Trail.  This story will encompass  history, environment and celebrate Lexington's unique place in the world, told with signs, telecommunications (cell phone interface) as well as digitally on a website. 

The other group is working on an Art Master Plan for art along the Trail.  The community has said all along that they wanted the Legacy Trail to be more than just asphalt on the ground.  This Art Plan will help us see this place through public art, both visual as well as literary.  We will not only evoke our past and present through Art, but our aspirations for the future as well.

To that end, we are kicking off the process with a “meet and greet” with the Art Planners on Tuesday, January 12 at 10:30am at the Black Box Theatre at the Downtown Arts Center.  Please feel free to come by.  Parking is available across the street in the Lexington Public Library Parking Garage.

We will get to know the planners, learn about their process, and be able to offer ideas. 

These planners will then take what they learn about the community home with them and create preliminary art planning recommendations which they will share with us at a large community meeting in late February.  The entire project will be complete by mid-April so that we may take the initial steps to getting art on our Trail. 

We also continue to work with the Isaac Murphy Memorial Art Garden folks.  A call for public artists has gone out nationally and we are excited to gather responses within a few days.  The design is undergoing a revision to get it in just the right shape so that we as a community can begin building it later this summer.  In the past, parks have been “given” to Lexington: this is one park that we will give to ourselves! And we want you to be a part of it – contact us to volunteer or to donate. 

We continue to work in helping with the renaissance occurring in the East End.  For example, at a press conference before Christmas, we donated street signs with the East End logo affixed to them.  There will be over 500 of these placed on every street sign in the East End – another visible reminder of the great things occurring there.

The East End Renaissance Fund is raising money to be used for other improvements in the neighborhood.    Watch for more announcements later in the winter.

We’ve got a lot more going on too – we will be managing the public engagement component of the new Broadband initiative that was announced today which will bring free internet access to the East End and Cardinal Valley, two areas that have been drastically under-served.  Access to information is a vital necessity and the East End is going to benefit greatly from this. So as you can see, since you’ve made it all the way through this, there is a lot going on to make Lexington an even great place."