Jackson Free Press

It's probably not every day that a state transportation commissioner double-high-fives a sitting mayor. Dick Hall, central district transportation commissioner, and Gary Rhoads, Flowood's mayor, were in a celebratory mood this week because $1.1 million in federal funds were finally secured for the Museum to Market Bike Trail project.

The result of an effort between bicyclists, the city of Jackson and the Greater Jackson Chamber Partnership, the trail will run from the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum on Lakeland Drive, alongside Riverside Drive in front of the Mississippi Children's Museum to the Farmers Market and Mississippi State Fairgrounds on High Street. The trail is a former railroad line.

"I wish we had done this 20 or 30 years ago when I was young enough to really enjoy these facilities that are going to be built," Hall said at the check presentation ceremony at the chamber's downtown offices on Tuesday.

Eventually, the Jackson metro's museum-to-market trail will link Jackson to Flowood and Ridgeland.

"It's going to be a great thing when I can take my bike and ride down into the capital city," Ridgeland Mayor Gene McGee said.

Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. noted that the city has been talking for a long time about a building such a system to connect the existing bike paths in the metropolitan area. He said that the project will help promote recreation and create jobs.

"We look to start churning dirt, then putting people to work, then bicycling," Johnson said Tuesday.

Presented to Mayor Johnson by Commissioner Hall in the form of an over-sized check, the $1.1 million allocation comes from transportation enhancement funds that Congress sets aside for infrastructure improvements that Hall stresses "are not buildings, roads or bridges."

The enhancement funding takes care of 80 percent of the total funding; the local public agencies to which the money is allotted must make up the remaining 20 percent.

Dr. Clay Hays, the former chairman of the Greater Jackson Chamber Partnership, said that the project came about partly as a way to address the state's obesity problem.

"There are not many places that are safe to go walking," Hayes said. The trail, which can also be used as a walking trail, is a good step toward promoting active lifestyles, Hayes said, and others agreed.

In preparation for construction, local volunteers have held several clean-up days. Another one is scheduled for this Saturday, Nov. 5, from 8 a.m. to noon. Participants can meet at the corner of Greymont and Moody streets, and are asked to bring tools and gloves. Call 601-212-6162 for more information.