Begins at old railroad tracks and ends by Hayes Cooper
By Faith Strong
The Bolivar Bullet
Merigold is getting a new walking trail. Mayor Ken McGarrh said the city applied for a walking trail grant with about six different entities trying to get funding over the last seven or eight years. Unfortunately, the city was declined by all of those initial groups but they continued the process, never giving up.
“Finally we found a grant through the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT),” said McGarrh. “So we got the ball rolling and started working on it. Of course, we thought it was going well but then COVID hit and supplies became so expensive that the price we started out with originally became a lot more. It was almost double. So we went back to MDOT and told them the price had gone up and they were gracious enough to help us and we got it to work.”
McGarrh said it was a multitude of people who helped put this into place, from the City Council to Eley McPherson Engineering.
“Eley McPherson Engineering in Cleveland really worked on this,” he added. “And, a big shout out to Clinton Carlisle from Eley for all his hard work.”
The mayor said the walking trail is progressing very well and should be ready in about a month if things go right.
“The location begins at the old railroad tracks, starting across from Hey Joe’s in Merigold, and goes all the way down toward Hayes Cooper,” he said. “It’s a half a mile track. When you’re walking it, down and back is one mile. And we’re going to add some lighting and park benches to the trail, along with garbage receptacles. We hope to make it very beautiful and easy to use.”