[Durham INC] Our Trail, Our Town - Op-Ed from Thomas Bonfield, Durham City Manager

[Blalock, Amy]

Op-Ed from Thomas Bonfield, Durham City Manager

 

Our Trail, Our Town

 

It's something we all agree on:  The American Tobacco Trail is one of
Durham's most treasured community assets. Hundreds of people use it
every day for walking, biking, or even encouraging their rambunctious
children to burn off extra energy before bedtime. You may not realize
that it's also a transportation corridor that helps with some other
vital needs including getting to and from work and grocery shopping.

 

The trail is about seven miles that winds through lushly wooded areas,
through neighborhoods and busy urban areas that make it unique and the
envy of other cities throughout the state and nation. We, as residents
and users of the trail, owe it to ourselves to protect it, to maintain
it and keep it safe for users.

 

As with crimes in other areas, the City, including the police
department, takes each incident that has occurred on the trail very
seriously...there have been 12 this year. I commend the Police
Department for making arrests in many of these cases.

 

I also commend the community for taking ownership of this historic
greenway. As one person was recently quoted in the newspaper, "We make a
big difference by just being present on trail." In past weeks,
residents, including Council member Steve Schewel, have organized
citizens' walks, rides and volunteer bicycle patrols. These events have
and will continue to make a difference.  

 

In addition, your actions work in tandem with what the City is doing to
improve safety on the trail. You may already heard about police utility
terrain vehicles, providing better accessibility along the trail, bike
patrols, and hundreds of directed police patrols, specifically targeting
areas of the Trail where crime has occurred. However, you may not know
that the City is taking a lot of other measures to improve safety.
Durham Parks and Recreation and General Services staff recently joined
with members of the Durham Open Space and Trails Commission and
Recreation Advisory Committee to walk the trail to determine how it
could be made safer. As a result, overgrown vegetation is being pruned
and trimmed in many areas, vertical mile markers are being installed to
more readily help users identify their location on the trail, and signs
with safety tips have been installed, advising users to carry their cell
phones, to walk with a partner and to stay alert.  Many other
maintenance activities are scheduled to make the Trail safer as well as
visually appealing. And other actions that aren't so visible are also
happening to help respond to emergencies on the American Tobacco Trail
as well as other trails in Durham, including cross-matching of trail
locations with nearby streets, and GIS mapping so that 911 calls can be
immediately pinpointed.

 

Some have suggested more costly solutions ranging from call boxes,
cameras and additional lighting. Rest assured that the City is reviewing
those measures as well, as part of a comprehensive plan to deter and
solve crimes along the Trail.

 

Although any incidence of violence or crime is bad, the misbehavior of a
few has prompted Durham again to show its esprit de corps - that Durham
is our city, and that the American Tobacco Trail is our trail. I invite
you to participate in the City's first Trail Watch training on
Wednesday, October 10 at 7 p.m. at City Hall to learn how to be safe, as
well as help keep others safe our trails. We all must work together to
preserve the American Tobacco Trail an asset that we can continue to be
proud of.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://rtpnet.org/pipermail/inc-list/attachments/20121008/a9b3b59d/attachment.html>