Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
DAVE SAIPPA, with Angelo Luppino Inc., uses a steam roller to pave a 500-foot section of trail in Hurley Monday. The paving extends Michigan's non-motorized Iron Belle Trail into Wisconsin and will be near Hurley's trailhead.
By RICHARD JENKINS
Hurley — With Monday’s paving extending Michigan’s non-motorized Iron Belle Trail into Hurley, the focus now turns toward the construction of a trailhead on the 500 feet of land between the Montreal River and Second Avenue.
With that end in mind, the recently combined Iron County Outdoor Recreational Enthusiasts and Iron County Regional Trail group are hosting a fundraiser to raise money for the project.
The event will run from 2 to 5:30 p.m. Nov. 5 at Sharon’s Coffee Company. The event will feature a meal and bike raffle.
Raising funds for the project was one reason the regional trail group decided to merge with ICORE.
“ICORE is organized as non-profit corporation with 501c3 designation from the IRS, making contributions tax deductible. ICORE also already includes members from both southern and northern Iron County as well as Gogebic County,” one of the fundraiser organizers, Mike Fauerbach, said in an announcement for the event. “Members from ICORE and the former Iron County Regional Trail group are very excited about the union and feel that the joinder of these two similar groups will further silent sports projects and move forward the Hurley bike trail that is planned to go eventually to Montreal and beyond.”
The trailhead will be located between the recently paved non-motorized trail and the all-terrain vehicle/snowmobile trail that runs parallel to it. The plans discussed at previous meetings call for a small parking lot.
The parking lot is expected to cost roughly $42,000, according to Paul Anderson with Coleman Engineering. The company was hired by Iron County to obtain the necessary permits from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation for the project.
Along with the cost of paving the parking lot; there is expected to be $52,000 in additional work on sidewalk and curb work, as well as the necessary work to create trail crossings at U.S. 51.
Other planned trailhead amenities, including a potential pavilion, would cost additional money.
The planning and permitting work is funded through a $25,000 Wisconsin Coastal Management grant for trailhead design and researching the ownership of the rail grade that is the planned route to extend the trail through Hurley and into Montreal, Wis.
The grant was just one of the funding sources utilized for the property so far, with the city of Hurley using a Gogebic Range Health Foundation grant to purchase the land from the Wisconsin Central Railroad and the remaining $10,000 from the previous “Bridge the Gap” fundraising campaign used to pave the non-motorized trail portion of the property.
