Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — State and local officials will gather at the Stockbridge Multi-Modal Center today to celebrate the newest extension of the Yampa River Core Trail and the anniversary of an organization that helped make it happen.

Great Outdoors Colorado, an organization that gave the city grants for funding the core trail extension, is stopping in Steamboat today on its tour to celebrate its 10th Anniversary. The group will also dedicate the western extension of the core trial that runs from the Art Depot on 13th Street to Shield Drive.

The 4,900 foot-extension is the latest improvement to the trail that travels along the Yampa River from the U.S. 40 and Walton Creek Road intersection through downtown and to the James Brown Soul Center of the Universe Bridge.

The city completed the hard trail portion of the extension from the Depot to the Stockbridge center three days ago.

The trail from the Stockbridge center to the James Brown Bridge is a mixture of soft and hard trails and by 2003 the entire section should be turned into a hard trail.

A playground is also scheduled to go in near the Stockbridge center in 2003.

Chris Wilson, director of Parks, Recreation and Open Space, said the extension, which runs for almost a mile, cost the city about $500,000.

The cost was shared with the city by a number of different sources, including Great Outdoors Colorado, an organization that was formed in 1992 to spend 50 percent of the proceeds from the Colorado Lottery on projects to preserve, protect and enhance the state's wildlife, parks, rivers, trails and open space.

"(Great Outdoors Colorado) and Steamboat Springs have partnered together on a number of extremely successful projects," said Linda Kakela, director of the city's intergovernmental services

The celebration, which kicks off at 1:30 p.m. today, will bring together Tom Mauser, the director of the Modal Unit for Colorado Department of Transportation, Colorado Transportation Commissioner Bill Haight, Executive Director of Great Outdoors Colorado John Hereford, State Representative Al White, State Senator Jack Taylor, City Council President Kathy Connell and County Commissioner Doug Monger.