Riverfront Trail To Get Much-Needed Love
They say money can’t buy you love. But on The Dalles Riverfront Trail, it can sure buy a lot of asphalt and crack sealers. And locals will be loving that as they roll, bike, run, walk and relax.
The Riverfront Trail Committee has amassed some $238,000 to do major repairs and seal the trail during the next six months to a year- weather dependent, of course.
That’s welcome news to volunteer David Nietling who has been making repairs to the trail by hand for the past 12 years. “I started when I was 71 and now I’m 83,” he said. “It’s not as easy as it used to be.”
On Wednesday he pressed a glob of brown patching paste into the crack of the asphalt on Riverfront Trail. “Somebody had to do it,” he said, noting the late Mark Nelson put him on to the idea more than a decade ago when cracks in the asphalt were showing. Nelson passed from cancer shortly after that, but Nietlling has been carrying a pail of rubberized asphalt ever since. He goes through 100 to 150 gallons of the material a year.
In the past few weeks, Russ Brown, Don Budd and David Rogers of Seal Kote Plus Inc. have been building up the trail shoulders with gravel and then patching them with $1,800 of donated asphalt from Munsen Paving.
“We’re trying to get the trail fixed up,” Rogers said. “This is a safety issue - it’s dangerous for bicycle riders and older folks on the trail.”
Bruce Lumper who sits on the nonprofit Riverfront Trail Committee said the money for repairs was raised through $38,000 in donations. The City of the Dalles contributed $100,000, Northern Wasco County PUD chipped in $50,000 and the Port of The Dalles, $50,000. In addition, the Bonneville Power Administration has agreed to pay for trail repairs for damage done while replacing power poles near the railway underpass tunnel near the Discovery Center.
Riverfront Trail Committee Chair Dan Durrow and Treasurer Katy Young worked tirelessly to put the finances together, Lumper said. He also noted Russ Brown’s tenacity and push to get the work complete.
In-kind donations are also stretching the money. Tenneson Engineering is donating 50 percent; Crestline Construction, 25 percent; Seal Kote, 33 percent; Munson Paving, 100 percent.
The entire trail will be chip sealed - where asphalt is heated and then applied to the surface of existing asphalt. Small rock or aggregate is then applied, providing a new surface for the trail. The process only takes a day or two, limiting closure time.
Six major trail repairs must also occur on the west end of the trail between the Discovery Center and Chenoweth Creek.
Lumper said some temporary closures will occur during the trail repairs.
“This was a fantastic effort of Julie Krueger city manager, and people really pulled together,” said Scott Baker, executive director of Northern Wasco County Parks and Recreation. “People are really appreciating it. We’re getting a lot of support. It may be harder on folks during the closure but if we do this work now it preserves the trail for the long term.”
Baker’s team also maintains the trail along with volunteers. His department spends $8,000 to $12,000 per year picking litter, cutting brush and making repairs. Parks is also responsible for maintaining bathroom facilities.
Back on the trail, volunteer Dave Nietling finished his crack repair and was putting away tools in his car when Andrea Booren teased him. “I see him on the trail all the time,” she said.
Nietling, a former marathon runner, smiled. He knew his work was helping people make healthy choices, be happy.
“Keeping up the trail and people using it. It’s very satisfying,” he said. “It’s been pretty active. It’s a social thing. I get to know a lot of the riders. It does please me.”
